iPhone 3GS Observations

I thought I'd post a little follow up now that I've used the phone a bit more.

- Voice control works great when using it with the phone functions, such as calling. It's useless for iPod control however, as it hasn't gotten a single command right yet.

- Apple needs to change the placement of the sleep button on the top of the phone. They put it right above the lens for the camera, so it's pretty easy to grub up the lens covering when trying to put it to sleep. Plus I'm used to the sleep button being on the left side of the top from my iPod Touch. That's been the hardest thing to get used to.

- I'm also not a fan of the headphone plug being on the top of the iPhone. There isn't anywhere else to put it, since the speakers and sim card are on the bottom, which is where the Touch has it's plug. I just like putting it in my pocket top down, but afraid to do that now for fear of putting force on the headphone cable.

- I'm really pleased with the results I've gotten from the camera, both in still and video modes. You can see what I've taken with my iPhone over on my MobileMe gallery page (I'll add a link to it in the sidebar on the left in the Where to Find Me section). It is definitely not a low light camera. It does okay in the shade, but there's no way you're going to use it at night. It gets grainy very quickly. In video mode, fast moving objects through the screen can get stretched weirdly, due to the rolling shutter, and I've seen a few instances where the auto focus tries to change, but overall it does a really good job for the most common types of video one would take with a phone.

- Uploading the videos to MobileMe and YouTube is a crap shoot, at best. Photos seem to upload fine to MobileMe, but I've had lots of failures trying to get videos to upload. There's no way to create a new album when uploading either, you have to upload it to an existing album. I wouldn't think that would be hard to implement though.

- I've only bought two accessories for it so far - Apple's iPhone specific dock and Shure's Music Phone Adapter. The dock works just like the universal dock, except it makes it possible to do a speakerphone call while docked. I haven't used it for that yet though. The Shure cable is for the headphones I already had, and replaces the bottom half of the cable. It adds a microphone and answer call button to the headphone cable, Most of the time when I'm in the car, I'm by myself listening to a podcast. When a call comes in now, the iPhone will pause the podcast, and I can answer the call by hitting the button on the headphone cable. I don't have to scramble for the phone and unlock it and I don't have to remove the earbuds to talk. Very convenient.

So that's it for now. If there is anything specific you'd like to ask me about my experiences with the iPhone 3GS, just leave me a comment.

My New iPhone 3GS

So I got my new iPhone 3GS today. I was surprised that there was a line at the Apple Store, although thankfully it was only 5 deep. After 30 minutes or so of waiting I was in. I considered getting a white one, but after looking at them, the contrast between the front and back was too much for me. So a 32GB black one it was. The purchase process was smooth, except I forgot to grab my Verizon account number. It took about 15 minutes to get that on one of the store's iMacs. My theory is Verizon is trying to block, or at least slow down, access to their servers from Apple Stores.

I grabbed an iPhone specific dock and some dock adapters for my clock/radio, and I was off. Only problem I've entailed so far is that Verizon hasn't got my number ported over yet. I can make calls on the iPhone, but all incoming calls are still going to my old phone. The salesman at the Apple said it may take up to 6 hours, but they've obviously blown past that. I plan on calling AT&T in the morning if it still isn't working to make sure things are cool.

As for using the phone itself, it's been good. The only thing I was really worried about was the cell signal at our house. It's not great, and it seems to have gotten worse the past few months, as Laura has had problems recently. I'm holding out judgement until I've used it some around the house for actually placing and taking phone calls.

The coating on the screen to repel oil from your fingers works great. I haven't wiped mine off yet, and it looks like it hasn't been used. I wish they would coat the whole phone in it. I've taken a couple pictures with it, and the camera does seem to be better from my experience with Laura's iPhone. I haven't shot any video yet, but plan to tomorrow. Some of the other things I've been surprised with deal more with the 3.0 software. The additional podcast controls are great and the ability to update all apps at once with 1 login is a huge timesaver.

I'm sure I'll have more to talk about over the coming days as I use it more and it becomes my day to day phone. I'll be starting galleries, photo and video, over on my MobileMe gallery pages in the coming days too. 

On With the Show

OK, so enough about Squarespace, time to move on to regular posts.

A few random thoughts....

Anxious to see Nikon's D300 replacement, whenever it comes out (hopefully sooner rather than later). Hoping for 13-15MP, no more, at least ISO6400, or higher, 1920x1080 video recording with mini-stereo (or mini-XLR input) and on-board stereo mic, focus assist for video, and auto/manual exposure available while shooting. Built in GPS. For $1500 please?

I hear a lot of people talking about the new iPhone 3.0 OS, but not about the right aspects. Yeah, copy and paste is nice and needed, but the real exciting (and somewhat scary) development is that Apple is making the dock port available to developers. If you think there are a lot of accessories for iPods now, just wait a few years. This has the potential to be HUGE.

The more I wait on my G5 to do work, such as encoding or compressing video, the more I keep going to Apple's website to price the new Mac Pros.

If you're into 3D modeling, you need to check out the soon-to-be-released version of modo 401. It's got me excited about doing some 3D work again. I've got a couple projects in mind to delve back in once they release 401 and I upgrade.

Please Jerry Angelo, offer Denver whatever they want for Jay Cutler. It would be nice to have a real quarterback one time in my adult life leading the Bears.