iPhone 3G: What we didn't get
June 10th, 2008 by Nicole Lee
The long-awaited 3G model, available July 11.
Australia gets the iPhone 3G on July 11 and it does indeed have quite a few improvements over the current iteration — but notable omissions have disappointed some fans.
3G is huge, of course, GPS is a welcome addition, and third-party applications are nothing to be sneezed at. Not to mention it's thinner at 115.5 millimetres by 62.1 millimetres by 12.3 millimetres, has a flush headphone jack, and just got a huge price cut. (In the US the 8GB will retail for US$199 while the 16GB will retail for US$299. Australian prices will be confirmed in the next few weeks.)
But we were expecting a lot more than what Jobs announced. Here's a short list of what we wanted from the second-gen iPhone, but just didn't get.
- Multimedia messaging — Almost every other cell phone in the market has the ability to send images to other cell phones via multimedia messaging, or MMS. Yes you can still e-mail those photos, but MMS is such a basic feature that it should've been in the iPhone from the start.
- Copy and paste — Again, this is such a basic feature. Having copy and paste makes it easier to type out text messages and e-mails.
- Video recording — In the world of mobile video, Qik, and YouTube, it's a shame the iPhone doesn't have video-recording capabilities. Yes the quality wouldn't be that great, but it should be an option anyway.
- Voice command — For a touch-screen phone, we think voice command and voice dialing would've been a great feature add-on for the iPhone. Perhaps this will be added via a third-party app, but we would really prefer this to be a native setting.
- Bluetooth flexibility — Right now, all you can use Bluetooth on the iPhone for are headset voice calls, and that's it. This is sufficient for most people, sure, but we would like for Apple and AT&T to open up the Bluetooth profiles for the iPhone. This means we would like stereo Bluetooth and A2DP for streaming music wirelessly, Bluetooth tethering so we can use the iPhone as a modem, and finally we would like to have Bluetooth file-transfer protocol so we can transfer files to and from the iPhone.
These are just a few omissions we could think of. Did the iPhone 3G meet your expectations, or would you rather it have a few more features? Let us know in the comments!
★人生得意须尽欢，莫使金樽空对月！★
david johnston
June 11th, 2008 at 3:14pm
Thanks for the info. I'm surprised that the iphone isnt a portable modem. Aren't lots of mobile phones these days a portable modem or is that just in the Jason Bourne movies !??
Pat M
June 12th, 2008 at 7:19am
Lots of phones over the past few years have been portable modems It's not a new thing by any stretch of the imagination. It would be an expected feature to have. As would BlueTooth file transfer (E.g. for backing up contacts). In short, *everything* in the Bourne movies is true. :)
Pat M
June 12th, 2008 at 7:20am
Lots of phones over the past few years have been portable modems It's not a new thing by any stretch of the imagination. It would be an expected feature to have. As would BlueTooth file transfer (E.g. for backing up contacts). In short, *everything* in the Bourne movies is true. :)
Chris
June 15th, 2008 at 9:48pm
Absolutely pathetic that you cannot use the phone as a wireless modem!!! What's the point then??? I won't be getting one.
Venkatesh Govindaiah
July 4th, 2008 at 5:58pm
iPhone also does not support VoIP which recent microsoft windows 6.0 supports. iPhone does not support using it as modem with cables attached to laptop. It is not really integrating the internet on mobile to maximum extent.
Peter Leslie
July 13th, 2008 at 1:43pm
what's really interesting is that when you do Setting/General/About ... the very last line say 'Modem Firmware' --- i wonder what that is for???
Eldin D
July 15th, 2008 at 10:18am
Really am disappointed that the bluetooth limitations on this 3g iphone are so vast. I was really excited about the 3g iphone going to be my next handset and even pushing to this phone out within our organisation. Once I read of the limitations and one not being able to utilise the iphone 3g as a bluetooth modem, it stopped me in my tracks. Completely losing interest on the iphone and that is with no exaggeration. If apple do tend to allow tethering (aka DUN), then I will be looking into this as a fully featured enterprise class device. The restrictions of bluetooth on this device has turned this great looking - so called “fully rich featured” device into a limiting home user class device. Why support enterprise technology if the technology behind the device lacks enterprise featured hardware capabilities?! It should at least support “basic” modem functionality. Sure beats me…
sina shokouhi
July 21st, 2008 at 8:06pm
Im really dissappointed too........and im agree with all u people that have commented on this ARTICLE but THAT IS HOW THEY DO BUSSINESS, and MAKE MONEY, first it was just an iphone then they upgraded it to IPHONE 3g with A NEW UPDATE that is 2.0, which included: "Calculater improvments- abillity to save pics from internet- and more new features.... NOW THIS IS what's GONNA HAPPEN IN 1 OR 2 YEARS just as a guess: LOL 1. IPHONE 3G with VIDEO RECORDER. 2. INCLUDED: FLASH PLAYER- JAVA TIME- MICROSOFT WORD, and GPS WITH VOICE. 3. NEW FEATURES FOR CAMERA: ZOOM- SELF TIMER- EDITOR . 4. ABILLITY TO SAVE PDF, XLS AND OTHER MICROSOFT OFFICE FORMATS RIGHT TO UR IPHONE. AND THIS KEEPS HAPPENING 'TILL SOMETHING NEW LIKE "IPHONE NEXT GENERATION" COMES OUT AND THEN THEY MAKE MONEY AGAIN AND AGAIN AND SAME STORY.
mike
September 8th, 2008 at 12:24am
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