I know I said later tonight, but then again I didn’t expect to wake up so late after the… well, ‘nap’. It’s all planned though, all planned.
So for today I have this really cool story about how bing is closing in on google in the web search business and how the future of mankind may change when Microsoft brings out a major robotic apocalypse and…
BUT WHO CARES!
The world could be burning up in this very moment and I wouldn’t care. Why? Because it’s iPhone OS 3.0 day, baby!
Okay, so the download was a pain: first of all, it wasn’t released on midnight and a whole bunch of people (myself included) were clicking the little “Check for Update” button in iTunes every five minutes expecting the god damned OS to come out. Well, it did. At 10 AM PST. That means it was 1 PM in Chile/EST. I know Apple never gave any specific time as to when the OS would be made available, but it was pretty much a safe bet that a whole bunch of people would stay up until midnight. Well, the OS never came and some of us went to bed with little time left to sleep (I for one slept only 3 hours. Not that you care or anything.)
Anyway, on a side note, some douchebag linked Apple’s Singapore website in Twitter, and every single twitterer went NUTS over that. Why? Because it listed the iPhone update being available on the EIGHTEENTH. Well, at least that’s what gave us a clue as to when the OS would be released.
Now onto what really matters! iPhone OS 3.0! Yay! Some hardcore cut, copy and paste action! Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “This is what iPhone OS 1.0 should’ve been, it’s not an upgrade, it’s just letting the phone do what it’s supposed to” and blah, blah, blah. And you know what? Yeah, it’s true, this is what iPhone OS 1.0 should’ve been, but Apple delivered so greatly that it doesn’t really matter.
The cut, copy and paste interface is nice and intuitive and pretty precise to be honest, and the new precision search for the iPod app (if you leave your finger on the screen, the dot will move slower allowing for better precision in searching that precise instant in a song or video you were looking for) is pretty hot. MMS (which I get to try because Claro delivered, unlike a certain Ma Bell… and I get unlimited MMS to boot) is pretty… well, straightforward. Once you access the new “messages” app (ex-SMS app), you get a snapshot icon right next to the text input bubble, and once you tap it you get to either take a photo or attach one from your photo album. I would add some screenshots, but I can’t take any right now so I’ll probably do that later.
Another wide expected feature was the spotlight search: phone-wide searching. Swipe your finger to the left or press the Home button on the first page of the Home screen and you’re taken to the spotlight interface. It’s pretty good and works pretty seamlessly, and searches in mail, contacts, iPod, notes… well, pretty much everywhere.
The voice memo app is pretty straight forward and the quality is pretty good. It also integrates directly with the Messages App, letting you MMS your voice note, and with the Mail app too.
Another thing that caught my attention was that photos taken with the camera look better. It’s quite amusing how much software upgrades can do so much. Not only the camera, but the whole device seems a lot faster and more responsive.
There’re also a whole bunch of minor fixes (some of them might be extremely important, but they’re still minor) that make the whole OS work pretty much GREAT, like sending up to five photos from the photo album via e-mail, better Safari browser (I know this isn’t exactly MINOR, but I’m running out of time here, so please bear with me…) that now can autocomplete and doesn’t crash every two minutes, stereo bluetooth support, landscape keyboard in mail and notes. Pretty much everything the iPhone OS needed changing.
So there you have it, my take on the iPhone OS 3.0. Does it make the iPhone the best phone in the market? Hardly. Does it make it better? Not really a better PHONE but a better device. The iPhone still has the same problems that it has always had with 3G reception and network coverage, but if you can get past that, it does work great. The thing is, it just lets the iPhone do what every single other smartphone in the planet can do.
Now, I won’t be back until next week since I’m going out of town for a few days, but I know you’ll live without me. All three of you that follow my blog. Just don’t miss me that much.
Until then!
