Today, it seems we share a greater volume of information via email, texting, Facebook, Twitter and other social media services but that volume gets lost in the cloud and is rarely looked upon again.  We live in the “now” with very little time for the then.

After hearing those letters I decided I wanted to closer document my life so that I could someday show my kids and their kids what my life was like as well as be able to read it myself as I forget.  My first thought was to keep a physical journal and I still want to do that.  But for now I have found a great option in Momento.

Momento is an iPhone app that lets you record brief thoughts about your days, attach photos to them, and tag people and events for greater searchability later on.  I don’t feel pressured to write profound words.  Just a few words about the day so that I can remember it later.  It helps me document my life in a private way.  And it is always with me because it is on my phone.

Momento can also pull in your Tweets from a day or Facebook status updates (or info from many other services) to give you a greater degree of documentation.  So each day in the app can be made up of a combination of short notes you have written along side tweets, photos, and other things from your day.  This provides a good snapshot of what you experienced to look back on someday.  And it might just make you a little more intentional with your time.

I am really enjoying Momento and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of moments in a digital age all wrapped up in a beautiful and simple interface.

Inking

I had really hoped I could find a good use for this in a business setting.  Mainly I wanted to use it as a notepad that I could scribble notes on.  It does not work well for this.  This is mostly because it was not designed for it.  There are some work arounds; there are apps that work ok and some styluses.  But it just doesn’t work well.  Not for me.  That isn’t to say it can’t be useful in a business environment. I have read that it can be very well integrated into the business environment. It just didn’t work the way I wanted to.

Productivity

Again, this is something that the device wasn’t necessarily designed for.  But it isn’t a total loss either.  It works pretty well for some light productivity (writing is small amounts) and I am getting pretty good with the on screen keyboard.  I expected this to some degree but I wish it had worked better for content creation.  With a Bluetooth keyboard this could very well change.  I’ll find out.

Those are the only items that fell short for me.  On to the things that met or exceeded my expectations.

Content Consumption

The iPad is the best device I have used to consume content whether that is books, news, email, video, or web browsing.  Hands down.  This feature alone makes the iPad worth buying to me.  I have read multiple books on the iPad with no problems.  I use apps like Flipboard and Pulse to read news.  Email was great but is now even better with iOS 4.2.  The iPad is the best personal video device. I can put movies on it through iTunes or watch via Netflix.  Web browsing is also great on the iPad.  I would much rather pick up the iPad than open up a laptop to browse the web.  If you are looking for a content consuming device the iPad is it.

Games

One of the things I greatly anticipated for the iPad was the games that would come to it.  Angry Birds is great, but more specifically I have been looking forward to the board games that would come to it.  Many have and many more are planned.

Photos

Digital photos are here to stay.  And the iPad is a great way to look at them and share them with others.  Getting a laptop out to show off some pictures can be a real pain but with the iPad it is as easy as picking it up.  Viewing digital photos on the iPad is the best way to enjoy them.

iOS 4.2….Finally

I have already covered most of what comes in iOS4 in my iPhone 4 review.  Multitasking, folders, unified inbox, and many other functionality upgrades are all there.  Finally.  The iPad feels so much more usable with multitasking and fast app switching.  4.2 brings a few new things to the iPad.

AirPrint:  I haven’t used this much yet but you can now print to an AirPrint enabled printer.  I am sure this will be very useful in the future as long as you have a printer that supports it.

AirPlay:  This is another feature I haven’t tried out yet but am excited to do so.  You can put movies, music, and photos that you are viewing on the iPad on your TV.  This will be very useful with the Apple TV.

iOS 4.2 also puts many new tools into the hands of iPad developers.  This may not seem like a big deal but it will mean better apps in the future.  And that is a good thing.

To 3G or not to 3G

A question you will have to answer when buying an iPad is do you get the 3G version or not.  The answer (like so many other answers in life) is: “it depends”.  For me, the answer was no.  Here is why.

1. Cost:  $120 bucks up front is a little steep not to mention the monthly cost if I wanted to use it.  It is true that the monthly charge is “month-to-month (you can turn it on one month and turn it off the next) but I didn’t want the temptation to spend more money.
2. WiFi Availability:  Pretty much any place I want to use the iPad, I have access to WiFi.  I’m not going to pull it out in my car.  I just wouldn’t use it that way.
3. iPhone:  I own an iPhone so I already pay for a data plan.  If I really need access to the web away from the different places I have access to WiFi I will use my phone.

If you think you will be using the iPad a lot in areas not covered by WiFi and you want to spend the extra money, by all means, get the 3G version.  It is just not for me.

Conclusion

I don’t use my laptop anymore.  That should say a lot about the iPad.  All the things I would do on the laptop are easier and better on the iPad.  Email, web browsing, online shopping, reading, games, video.  All of these things shine on the iPad.  I am sure there are people out there that need more than the iPad can offer.  But it is just about perfect for me.  It is my gadget of the year. I am excited to see what the tablet form factor will become.

I remember the days (weeks really) leading up to the iPad announcement.  There were enough rumors buzzing around the techsphere that, if you lived there, you might think you were in a bee hive.  What would it be called?  What features would it have?  How much would it cost?  You name it and there was a rumor floating around about it.  As the info-junkie that I am I was up on all the news and excited to see what would be announced.  I watched the announcement via Engadget’s live blog.  And I was a little underwhelmed.

Then all of the commentary started hitting.  “It’s just a big iPod Touch,” was the one that seemed to be repeated most often.  And I agreed.  That is what it looked like.  My original conclusion was, “What can this thing do that I can’t do between my iPhone and laptop?  Nothing.  I’ll wait and see.”  And then the iPad started selling – a lot.

I think that is what got my attention again.  Not just that it had one month of incredible sales – that is to be expected.  But each month after that saw the same trend.  Then a friend of mine bought it and loved it.  Then something called iBooks came to the iPhone which changed my opinion about reading eBooks.  Then I got several opportunities to use my friend’s iPad.  I was hooked and I wanted one.  But I let it lie – until I could save up the money for it.  So I saved.  And then I bought it.  And let me tell you – it is a big iPod Touch.

A Big iPod Touch

Now let me tell you why that is a good thing – even the thing that makes it a wonderful (probably not exactly magical as Apple describes it) device. Take an iPod Touch, blow it up (not literally please), and what do you have?  A large, accessible, touch screen device with a great operating system and a huge battery.  The combination of those things makes the iPad a great device.

The screen real estate on the iPad makes it capable of so much.  Way more than on a phone.  Reading books on it is a great experience.  Typing on it is a breeze (for me, your mileage may vary).  The screen makes reading lots of content a joy, not to mention some of the apps that have come along that are so innovative (more on those in a minute).  The screen size on this thing matters – a whole lot.

The iPad is accessible.  You can see what I mean by that by walking through the process of using a laptop.  For me it was: get it out of the backpack, find a place to sit, open it up, turn it on.  Using a laptop is a commitment.  Once I have it out I am committed to sitting with the screen at an arm’s length while it makes my legs uncomfortably warm (read: sweaty).  When my wife comes over to talk to me I have to disengage from the laptop and set it aside so she knows I am listening.

Not so with the iPad.  Pick it up and it is ready to go, using just my fingers to do the work.  And it doesn’t matter where you are.  Sitting, standing, or laying.  If my wife wants to talk I don’t feel nearly as committed to it as I do a laptop.  It is easier to put down.  This may sound funny if you have never used it but I promise it is true.

The iPad is built on the same operating system as the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Granted, I miss the multitasking that I have on the iPhone now but I am sure that is coming.  Aside from that you have the same ease of use on a larger screen.  And you have the same great ecosystem of apps and developers to draw from.

This brings me to the battery.  It just goes on and on which is key in a mobile device.  Apple says that you can get nine hours out of it – that is a big deal.  And there are reports out there of people doing better than that with their battery.

What I use it for

The best way to describe the way I used my laptop was causal.  I browsed the web, and checked email.  The iPad does these things and more in a smaller package.  I read books on it, consume news and information, take handwritten notes with it, listen to a little music, and play some casual games.  I browse the web, check email, and do some word processing.  I could do most of these things on my laptop, sure.  But normally I didn’t want to get it out so I would do these things on my iPhone.  So now I have the accessibility of the iPhone but with a larger screen and I can do quite a bit more.  I am sure the longer I have it the more useful it will become.

Apps

Here are a few of the apps I use that shine on the iPad:

• ESV Bible +:  The ESV Study Bible.  It includes the study notes and cross referencing of the print version with some additional articles.  You can also take notes in it.  I can see myself using the iPad in church.
• Notarize:  An app that allows you to take handwritten notes using a stylus.  They stylus works pretty well.  You can import PDFs or other documents and mark them up.  This will be a great tool at work.
• Flipboard:  News reader that is just plain awesomeness.  It takes news feeds from Twitter and puts them in a magazine type format for you to flip through.  This is one of the apps that sold me on the iPad.
• Pulse News: Another News reading app.  You can subscribe to twenty-five different websites news feeds and they are delivered to you in nice little presentation.
• Carcassonne:  This is a board game put to the iPad.  I look forward to seeing many other board games come to this form factor.  It plays great.  Oh and this is an iPhone app and it looks great.

It Ain’t All Roses

Like everything else in life it can’t all be great.  Here are the problems I see.

• I am sure the lack of a physical keyboard will turn some people off but you can purchase a physical Bluetooth keyboard but that costs some money.
• I would have liked to see a front facing camera for video chat especially now that Apple has introduced Facetime.  I am sure this will be added soon.
• To get the 3G enabled iPad you have to shell out quite a bit of money and I wasn’t willing to do that.  Many apps lose their functionality without WiFi but I haven’t been in many of those situations yet.
• There is a lack of printing functionality.
• Apple is in control of the app store.  This isn’t a huge issue for me but for some this is huge.
• I would like to see some type of file system put in place so I can take files I have saved in Pages and move them to my Dropbox.
• The iPad cannot stand on its own, meaning that it has to be synced to a computer through iTunes.  We will see how this plays out but I’m not too happy about it.

Conclusion

No device is perfect.  We can all point to things that need to be changed.  But does the iPad deliver usable and innovative features that set it apart?  Most certainly.  I don’t see myself using my laptop very much anymore.  If I want to do some real productivity work (like Excel) I will go back to the laptop or desktop.  Otherwise you will see me with my iPad for all my casual needs.

Another question hangs out there as well.  Will the iPad help usher in the time of the tablet?  I think so.  I am excited to see what other companies can bring to the consumer market but they had better hurry.  Because the tablet for the masses is here in the iPad and it looks like an oversized iPod Touch.  And I think that is a good thing.

It is about that time again: time for another iPhone hardware and software refresh.  Amazingly enough I am still with this phone after almost three years.  This is all thanks to Apple’s steady hardware updates and frequent software updates which include new features that keep me interested in the phone and the platform.

First I want to talk about the reasons I use the iPhone over the other options out there.

• The iPhone and its accompanying software are both extremely elegant.  There are very few rough edges anywhere to be seen and I really appreciate that.  Sure, there may be some features that other phones have or had first but in terms of polish I doubt there is anything that comes close.  I am sure that the other options out there are catching up.  That is what happens in a market.  Bring it on.
• Apple is committed to ongoing support of this platform. Before the iPhone it was extremely rare if not impossible to find a phone maker that supported both hardware and software in an ongoing and unified way.  There are several options out there now that do this but I think Apple has done the best job of it.  There has been a major OS update each year alongside a hardware update.
• It does the things I want my phone to do well. Multimedia is well integrated.  My experience with AT&T has been very good.  I don’t have the dropped call or data connectivity issues that others have experienced.  The web browsing experience is great.  I can read a book on the go.  If there is something you want the phone to do that isn’t baked in, there will be an application that will cover your need.  I also really enjoy the multitude and variety of quality games on the iPhone platform.  It is a true multimedia device, not just a phone.

As of right now those are my reasons.  If another platform comes along that fits my needs better then I will switch.

On to the iPhone 4 itself.

First let’s talk about the physical design.  This may sound weird, but the iPhone 4 is the most attractive gadget I have held in my hand.  Everything from the materials it is made from (glass and metal) to the way the buttons work is simply amazing.  The front and back of the phone are made from a hardened glass material that is supposed to be fairly scratch resistant, not scratch proof.  Care and a case will still be needed to keep it from getting beat up.  The edges are a stainless steel material that looks great and doubles as an antenna.  Form and function in one.  Very nice.  The iPhone 4 is noticeably thinner than its predecessors yet it has nice heft to it which makes it feel sturdy.

The internal hardware has received a large upgrade as well.  Apple doubled the memory from the 3GS and iPad up from 256MB to 512MB in the iPhone 4.  This means more things going on at the same time and aids in the HD video capture (more on that in a bit).  The processor has received an upgrade as well to the same processor running the iPad.  In normal OS use I didn’t see a huge increase in speed but it seemed a bit faster.  The new processor really helps out when loading large apps like games.  Apps that might take 5 seconds to load on the 3GS now load almost instantly.  Other tasks like loading up an ebook was noticeably faster as well.  A welcome update.

The most important hardware piece from a user standpoint on a touch screen phone is, without a doubt, the screen.  This is what you will be interacting with for the life of the phone so it had better be good.  The screen on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of amazing.  It continues to wow me with its crisp text and clarity.  Why is it so good?  The resolution of the phone is 960×480 which means that there are enough pixels per inch that you can’t see them.  I don’t think I can stress how big a difference this feature makes in usability.  I have been reading a book via the new iBooks app and have had no trouble reading for an extended time period.  Not only does it look good it is very touch responsive just as all previous iPhone have been.  The screen on the iPhone 4 is incredible.

Another big upgrade to the iPhone 4 is the camera.  It is sporting a 5 mega pixel camera (up from the 3 mega pixel on the 3GS) and it captures great images and not just for a phone.  They are great images period.  Coupled with a flash and a low light sensor the iPhone can now take very competent shots in dimmer areas.  It also has a 5x digital zoom that increases the camera’s flexibility. Along with a better camera comes the ability to shoot smooth HD video (720p).  I got to use this feature quite a bit this last weekend when my 6 month old nephew came into town.  It captures great videos which will turn into great memories.  The camera and video capture both work as advertised with no hiccups.

This brings me to the larger battery in the iPhone 4 which, I have to say, I am quite impressed with.  Under normal use (for me that means internet browsing, book reading, listening to music and podcasts, playing a few games, checking email, and texting) the battery lasted over 33 hours without seeing a charger.  That is a great result considering that my 3GS would have been shot after less than 20.  Very impressive.  To top it off it recharged in less than three and a half hours.

One of the big things that Apple is touting about the iPhone 4 is Facetime, a way to do video calling using the new front facing camera.  Apple has been talking about this feature (video calling) like it is something new.  My response is yes and no.  No, video calling is not something new.  It has been around for a while but hasn’t really caught on.  Yes, in terms of Facetime’s implementation, with a caveat.  There is no signing in to a service.  When you are on a call and want to switch to a video call you click the Facetime button and there you are.  It is smooth and works great.  The caveat is twofold: as of now you must be on WiFi and you must own an iPhone 4 in order to use Facetime, two very limiting factors.  Since Facetime is an open standard other platforms can make use of it and I hope they do.  And I am sure that Facetime won’t always be tied to WiFi.  But for now it is.

There are quite a few new hardware features on the iPhone 4 but those are the biggies for me for now.  The new gyroscope may be well used at a later date but as of now it is pretty useless to me.  I have also noted that the speaker quality is much higher on the iPhone 4 than with previous versions.

Let’s talk about some issues with the phones that have come up recently.

Many people have noted a signal/antenna issue.  If you hold the phone a certain way your bars seem to disappear.  I have been able to replicate this issue but I have also found that call clarity is not affected.  Despite what the signal strength indicator shows I have not had signal problems.  But still, how did this slip through?

There have been quite a few reports popping up about the fragility of the phone.  There have been pictures all over the tech blogs showing broken glass on the front and back of the iPhone 4.  Apple is good at delivering quality products but that doesn’t mean they are unbreakable.  As with any device you should be careful with it or it will break.

Alright, let’s talk about the features in iOS4 that matter to me.

• Folders – Organization of apps on the iPhone has been clunky in the past.  It wasn’t too bad at first but as the App Store grew I ended up with more and more apps.  I think at one point I had eight pages of apps.  That is a pain.  I pared it down to around five or six pages before Folders came along.  Now, with folders, I only have two pages.  I really like this addition.
• Fast App Switching – Switching between apps before wasn’t too bad.  But it was a little clunky.  Now, with a double tap of the home button, you can switch to recently used apps very quickly and easily.  On top of that, as long as the app supports it, the apps are saved when you exit them so that when you switch back to them they come back just the way they were when you left.  I am sure the more I get used to it the more useful it will become.
• Multitasking – Before iOS4 if you were listening to Pandora and wanted to check out something on the internet your music would stop playing because you had to exit the application.  No so anymore.  Most situations when you want to exit an app but have it continue doing something in the background will work.  All this while maintaining battery life.  A great solution tailored to a mobile device.
• Faster Camera – This is a little biggie.  Cameras on phones are notoriously slow.  When you are trying to take a picture of, say, a baby and you are waiting for that perfect moment it will usually pass you by because the camera takes its time.  Not so anymore.  It is very much an instant thing.  I am very happy with this little-big improvement.
• Background Images – To me this is a small thing.  But it is a thing nonetheless.  It is nice to have a picture in the background instead of a black nothing.  That is all.
• Editable iTunes Playlists – This is simply more functionality in an already very functional iPod application.  You can now create new playlists (besides just the “On-the-Go” lists) and edit ones currently resident on your phone.  More options are better in this case.
• Unified Inbox/threaded messages – Email has always been usable on the iPhone but just so.  Now they are adding more functionality in the way of unified inboxes and threaded messages.  You can now have all your mail from multiple email accounts show up in a unified inbox.  Very handy.  Emails that are response to others show up in threads which makes following a conversation through email very easy.  Both very welcome additions.
• Orientation Lock – I check on the news before I go to sleep that means I am laying in bed.  If I happened to roll over on my side the screen would rotate when I didn’t want it to.  Rotation lock fixes that.  It is located on the far left of the fast app switching dock (just a double tap of the home button away).  This has turned out to be very handy and the rotation lock is on most of the time.

These are the main things that will have a great impact on the way I use the phone.  Are there more things they could have added?  Sure thing.  Am I happy with what they did add?  Sure thing.

I have one more thing to talk about.  iBooks.  I am a book reader.  I love the feel of a physical book so knew that transitioning to another medium would be hard for me but it is something that I at least wanted to try.  I have almost completed reading a book on the iPhone 4 and I am impressed.  I do not want to switch completely away from a physical book but I can see the appeal of reading on a device like this.  It is nice to be able to look up a word instantly or to make a note about a particular passage.  Do I want to read on a device like this all the time?  No.  Can I read on it sometimes?  Absolutely.  And I think it will continue to grow on me.

I want to quickly address some of the previous issues I had with the iPhone and its software and let you know if any of these have been fixed.

• Battery life – As mentioned above this has been taken care of in a big way.  Solved
• Multitasking – Again, taken care of.  I think the way the iPhone balances battery life with multitasking is a great way to handle it on a mobile platform.  Solved.
• Adobe Flash – Still non-existent.  I wish the option was there although there have been fewer and fewer times that its omission was felt.  With HTML5 on the rise this will become even less of an issue.  But I still wish the option was there.
• Ability to use the phone as a USB drive – Again, non-existent but I don’t really care if they add this functionality or not now.  I have found a better solution.  Dropbox.  There’s an app for that.  If you don’t know what Dropbox is you really should check it out.  Solved.

Here are some areas that I think still need improving.

• Notifications – This is an area that many people are asking for improvement in.  I don’t have a huge problem with the pop up notifications that exist now, but I do know that it could be better so the system could use a facelift.
• Facetime – I can really see this service being very useful but because of its limitations (iPhone 4 and WIFi only) it just isn’t yet.  Remedy those two things and it could be great.
• Widgets – I would like to be able to look at my phone for quick information like weather.  Right now there is no good way to do this without loading up the app.  Also, the lock screen seems like some seriously wasted real estate.  Widgets on the lock screen would be nice.  Throughout the OS would be nicer still.
• Settings shortcuts – This could go along with widgets.  It would be nice to have quick access to some settings that are buried in menus right now.  How about a screen you can drag some setting widgets to.
• Home Screen options – This has been alleviated somewhat by the new Folders features.  But it would be nice to set whichever screen you want to be your home screen.  For example, if you had 5 pages of apps it would be handy to set the third one as the home screen so that when you clicked the home button it would take you to the middle screen instead of the far left.  Spotlight could also be changed to a swipe up or down from any screen providing much quicker access to searching.
• Data plan caps and additional fees – This involves AT&T more than Apple but since they are in an exclusive relationship this relates.  AT&T has moved to cap data usage.  This will not be a huge issue for most people and will, in fact, save money for most users.  Fortunately I still have my unlimited data plan since I had it before they changed to the capped plans.  But, if I ever want to use the tethering feature (which has an additional fee associated with it) I would have to change to the capped plan.  I don’t like the implications of this.

So there you have it.  My take of iOS4 and iPhone 4.  What do you think?  What do you like about it?  What would you change?

It has been a year and a half since I purchased my iPhone 2G so when the new 3GS was announced I was thinking it was time for an upgrade.  Coupled with the release of the new phone hardware was the new 3.0 software.  This review will be of the 3.0 software on the 3GS handset.  Keep in mind that not all the features discussed here will work on previous versions of the phone.

What convinced me to buy the new phone, you ask?  There were many features that that the new phone would support that I thought made it worth it.

S stands for speed – If you have read other reviews of this phone then you have heard this statement before.  They aren’t kidding.  Compared to the iPhone 2G I had before this thing is quick.  If you use your phone to play games this is a big deal.  The other area that I have noticed a big speed bump is in web browsing.  This is really the reason I wanted the speed upgrade.  Web pages load much quicker and render faster which means less wait.

GPS and Compass – The 2G iPhone did not have GPS so this was a big factor for me.  I am looking forward to the turn by turn GPS app that will be coming from Tom Tom.  On the surface the compass seems like a “huh?” addition.  Why would they add a compass to a phone?  The compass app on it’s own is pretty plain but cool all the same.  But where it really shines is when you couple it with the maps application.  It will orient the map to the direction you are facing making it very easy to tell if an upcoming turn is left or right.  Great addition.

Voice control – This is a very nice feature and it is implemented well.  My wife has always wondered what the purpose of having a Blue Tooth ear piece was since I still had to mess with the phone when I called someone.  So now when I drive all I have to do is hold down the home button and tell the phone who I want to call.  Or what song I want it to play.  I think this will really prove it’s worth as time goes on.

Camera/Video Recording – The previous iPhones had a 2 megapixel camera that worked fairly well but it could have used some improvement.  The 3GS now has a 3 megapixel camera that allows you to change the focal point of the picture.  This results in clearer pictures and a more usable camera.  The camera can now shoot video as well.  The video is clear and smooth and is editable right there on the phone.  A great new feature.

MMS – Since I owned the 2G iPhone previously I would not be able to use the MMS functions that the 3.0 software would support.  I have really been annoyed with the way MMS was handled before.  It was very cumbersome so I am really looking forward to this.  It is not available as I write this but AT&T promises to support it by the end of summer.

Stereo Blue Tooth support – wired headphones are ok, but wouldn’t you rather have wireless ones?  I would.  When I can find an affordable pair I will be getting some to take running with me.  This support also allows you to connect it to your car stereo wirelessly, provided that your car stereo supports this.

Most of the items above are only supported by the 3GS model of the phone but all of them were things that I could not do on the 2G version I had.  Now I want to mention a few features of the 3.0 software update that any iPhone user will have access to.  If you own an iPhone and haven’t upgraded yet, you should.

Cut, Copy, and Paste – I know, this sounds like a goofy feature to be excited about but I am.  It is something that people have been asking for since the first iPhone was released.  Apple seems to know what they are doing when it comes to implementing new features that work well.  So I trust that it hasn’t come until now because it wasn’t ready until now.  The implementation is great.  Tap and hold on a word and it will bring up options to resize your selection and then copy it.  Go to another app, tap the cursor and an option comes up to paste it.  Simple and effective.  I have found many uses for it already.

Voice Memos – I am not sure how much I will use this but if I did I am sure I would be happy with it.  I have just played with it some but it seems to work well.  I stood about 10 feet away from the phone facing the opposite way and it still picked up my voice well (this was on my 2G phone so I would expect the 3GS to do an even better job since it has a better mic).

Push Notification –   One of the big complaints about the iPhone in general (especially now that the Palm Pre has released) is that it does not multitask.  You can’t run multiple applications at the same time.  Push notification allows apps that aren’t running to give you notifications when something changes.  For example, you can sign into instant messenger, then close the app but if someone messages you their message will pop up on the screen.  So, this isn’t quite as good as multitasking because to answer the IM you would still have to close the app you were in and open your instant messaging app to respond.  One big help with this on the 3GS is it’s speed.   You can quickly switch between apps.  Push notification is a welcome addition but the quicker Apple can make the iPhone multitask the better.

Spotlight Search – If you were searching for something on your iPhone before the 3.0 software it might be tedious and take a while.  This is solved with Spotlight Search.  To search flick to the left of your home screen and begin typing.  The phone immediately begins returning results as you type.  It groups them by what they are (ie contacts, email, iPod).  The searching extends beyond just this screen.  You can search the email that is on your iPhone as well as extend the search to mail that is on the server.  This is a big deal.  It makes finding things easy.

There are many other features added such as an improved calendar, landscape keyboard throughout the phone, notes syncing, and more but the above are the big ones.

So, now that I have told you about all the features let me give you my opinion about the whole.  For me, upgrading to this phone was well worth it.  It brings features that I have been waiting for as well as a hardware update.  I think that it was implemented well and have had no major problems with the way things work on the phone.

For those of you worried about smudges on the screen, Apple has put a layer of “smudge repellant” on the screen.  It doesn’t keep smudges off but it does help considerably.

The battery life on the new phone seems to be a little shorter.  This could be because I am using it more trying out all the new features.  It also could be because the phone can now show you the actual percentage of battery left next to the battery icon.  Maybe I am just not used to seeing it this way.

There are still some things I would like to see added in future software updates.  Flash support is still non-existent although I have heard that Adobe is working on a mobile version for the iPhone but there is no news as to whether Apple will use it.  Since many websites use Flash I don’t think the web browser on the phone can be considered “complete” until Flash support is added.

Another feature I am looking for is the ability to use it like a USB drive.  I want to plug it into my computer and be able to transfer files to it to take with me.  Going along with this, I would also like to see support for editing documents.  There is an app out there that allows this but I want it as a built in feature.

The only other downfall of this device is the money it costs, and I don’t mean up front.  The phone I got was 199.99 which is actually a good price considering that the 16GB iPod Touch runs 299.99.  It is the monthly data package fee that AT&T requires if you have an iPhone.  $30 per month is a little steep in my opinion, but it does allow me to do lots of things I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.

Despite the few items above, the iPhone 3GS is wonderful.  It is easy and intuitive to use and does so many things that make life easier.  I can’t tell you how many times I have referenced it when traveling.  Eventually devices like this will make owning a computer or laptop less of a necessity.  Having an iPhone in your pocket is like having an easy to use computer with you all the time.  I look forward to what Apple will do with it next.  My experience with the iPhone has been such that I would consider buying a Mac as my next laptop.  And if you know me, that is about the best recommendation I can give.

Brian

iPhone Review

Brian