 Apple iPhone 3G
General Apple iPhone 3G Basic Features.
Height 115.5mm, Width 62.1mm Depth 12.3mm weight 133 Grams. 3.5" Widescreen Multi-Touch Display, 480 x 320 pixels at 163 ppi. Multiple language support and display. 30 pin dock connector, built in iSight Camera, mic and speaker. SIM Card Tray and 2.5mm headphone jack. Ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer.
Cellular and Wireless Capability.
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Assisted GPS.
Video
Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
Power and battery
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G, Up to 10 hours on 2G
Standby time: Up to 300 hours
Internet use:
Up to 5 hours on 3G, Up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi, Video playback: Up to 7 hours, Audio playback: Up to 24 hours
Apple iPhone 3G Reviews
Updated - 23th August.
All generally okay, but pretty disappointed with battery life. If you use your phone in your car using Bluetooth and you have Fetch email collecting for you, you're pretty much not going to get more than 24 hours from your iPhone... Not great and very easy to get caught out... I expect message bank retrievals will probably make the carriers a lot of extra cash thanks to the iPhone's limited battery life! Still, if you have chargers and docking stations around the place as I do, just get used to plugging it in all the time -also not a bad idea to get a USB charger for the Car.
Okay, almost 1 month with the iPhone now and this is where we're at.
Cellular Network Data Sent : 1.9Mb
Cellular Network Data Received : 22.3Mb
So how am I going to to use my 1Gb / month? No idea... in fact, I think it could well be impossible! Which is good. I think I'll be very happy with a 100Mb plan or something like that. My iPhone has been collecting data from 4 external POP and IMAP accounts, plus of course the Mobile Me push service for my me.com (formerly mac.com) account.. I've also been playing lots on the internet and on the office VPN... still just cant seem to use much data. So there's your real-world update. Just for the record, by no means are we saying that you will not be able to use 1Gb per month as of course you will be able to - just download a 1Gb file via your web browser or use the iTunes music store all the time, or listen to streaming Radio stations - a lot! Usage will vary person to person, but really, I think that our test shows what little data you will actually use in the real world.
Problems discovered. Apart from the occasional complete crash and for some unknown reason, strange behaviour when in an Extreme Mac ToughWrap, there aren't too many issues. I am annoyed that things like the AOL client doesnt allow you to stay logged in without keeping the actual App open on your screen (this has now been updated and works properly), and am also annoyed that there isnt a neat Skype client for the iPhone (I understand why this would annoy the whole telecoms world) - but come on, the technology is there and telecoms companies cannot surely expect to be able to milk us for all we've got for too much longer. I am paying for my 1Gb per month so let me use it for voice, data, video - whatever 'I' choose.. I am sure there is a legal case here somewhere.
Reception issues. It seems to be fairly well documented that the iPhone seems to suffer from RF issues - that is interference / drop outs etc. In all honesty, that doesnt surprise me. You have a multitude of transmitting and receiving devices in that little iPhone. I have found that Cell network reception is an issue. Even in full 3G areas with a usual full signal, my iphone shows no signal, sometimes full, but generally all over the place. It also has a habit of dropping out completely mid call in even metro areas. I expect, or at least hope, this will be fixed by Apple with the next firmware update. (Update - After the new firmware update, the iPhone seems to be a little better in terms of reception - or at least thats what the singal strenght bar says! - Perhaps Apple simply update that signal bar to be a little more 'generous' with its representation of signal! Total droputs still the same though...)
Previously...
It's here and we've been playing with ours intensely since the morning of the 11th (Just). It took a mere 3 hours to actually get out of the store due to the fact that the entire Vodafone credit check system had crashed. Followed by the MobileMe service not working either for most of the weekend. All that aside, I turned on my iPhone, stuck the SIM in there and started playing. - (In case, like me, you're not a real fan of instructions, the SIM slot is a tiny slide-out tray in the very top of your iPhone and needs the included tiny pin tool included and attached to the inside of your iPhone box)
First things first. My current mobile was with Telstra. I would have preferred to stay with them, but as they were so late getting on board with Apple, my interest and deposit had already been registered with Vodafone. I did in fact check to see if Telstra had stock, and nowhere did, so I had little choice but to port my number from Telstra - which took about 8 hours but worked fine. Being an Apple dealer as we are, we had to get an iPhone, so the deal was done.
Initial considerations. I was very concerned about Data usage. How much data will the iPhone use? What about when I travel overseas? On that basis, I took Vodafone's top plan of $149 / month (plus an additional $89 one-off for the 16Gb iPhone instead of the 8Gb which is free on that plan) - this gives you $1200 of free calls to anyone in Australia and 1Gb Data. I was surprised that a 5Gb plan is not offered as per Vodafone's $39 / Month mobile broadband, but hey, what can you do ( and turns out, as discussed below, you'll struggle to use 1Gb let alone 5!). iPhone uses a number of services that require on-line data use. The iPhone, however, will always use a Wi-Fi (802.11b or g) Networks if one is available. If not, you are able to ensure your iPhone does not use the Cell network for ceratin types of Data. The key offender here will no doubt be other email accounts that are not managed by the 'Push' services of MobileMe. (And this is where Blackberry still has the upper hand. For your $50 / month Blackberry Plan, you can set up as many email adresses as you like and have no limit on Data usage at all..)...Set up your own eMail accounts to 'Fetch' your eMail and you'll cop Packet Data charges. Browse the internet or play on-line and you'll cop the same. Go over your allowance and be prepared for some serious bills. The non-existent amount of information available to you by the Telco's who Apple have chosen to sell iPhone is just crazy. Had the iPhone have been available through Authorised Apple Resellers, we could give you the real info you need. Try asking one of the Telco's about this.. all of them we asked have absolutely no idea both technically and real-world...
After setting it up to Sync with my Mac (and .Mac - or MobileMe as its now called), sorting out basics, we started to discover a few notable things that you'll find very helpful. The iPod Touch for example, will sync very happily with your iTunes and charge at the same time. So why doesnt the iPhone charge? Really annoying as its draining a lot of battery all the time and needs its own wall charger to charge properly. We have discovered 1 device so far that does charge it other than an Apple wall charger, and that's a Yamaha AV Receiver docking station! If you have an AV Receiver or home theatre, yours may well charge it also.
Next up, we found that the iPhone has a tendency to 'crash'. In our case the screen would not light up thus rendering the phone totally useless - unless a dock connecter was attached then it would flash a few times and come to life. Hit the screen power button (top right of your iPhone) and it will not wake from 'screen sleep'. So, the handy tip to fix this, and any other weird problems is a reboot - hold the Screen Saver button (top of your iPhone on the Right) and the 'Home' button (bottom middle hard button with little square on it) for 8 seconds and the iPhone will fix itself using the Force.
Power Usage and Battery Life
I am a little confused as to where the real-world usage and life stats come from. I am a normal iPhone user... I dont use it that much during a day at all and always have it in screen-off mode. On the first day (after an overnight charge) I basically tuend on everything I could - Wireless Networking, had the phone in normal operating mode and had Bluetooth on.. used the iPod function a little and played with it on and off for 1 day. The battery was almost dead after about 14 hours. Next day, I turned Bluetooth off, and it coped with a full day. Bascially, it'll need a charge most days for a little to keep it going if you use it to its full extent.
Fun Stuff
iPhone has a direct tap into the App Store - there you can find a whole heap of cool Applications that are Free - or others you can pay for. All seemlessly integrates into your iTunes account also, so buying music is a breeze (although a little dangerous for your Credit Card!). Some really cool Apps you'll need are the Apple Remote aplication and perhaps Carling's iBeer App! - Your iPhone has motion sensors built in (accelerometers) so this does open up a lot of fun possibilities as you'll find in the App store.
And Finally (for the time being) Real-World Data usage on day 5 of my iPhone.
Yes, this is the real bit that will give you a good idea if you extrapolate it out. Playing with my iPhone, hooked into MobileMe and 1 other POP account using Fetch... downloading 2 songs from the Apple Store and playing GPS whilst driving (very good indeed by the way) and other gerenal on-line stuff with the Bureau of Meteorology and other websites some magical stuff is happening... I have used :
Cellular Network Data Sent : 213kb
Cellular Network Data Received : 1.2Mb
Granted, I cannot get my head around this as I would expect it to be upwards of 20Mb received by now. So the fact that I have 1000Mb per month to play with seems, well, amazing. There's clearly some amazing compression going on here in the modem or when you download information with MobileMe or iTunes, it is NOT being dowloaded to your phone and therefore you do not pay. I am sure there are I.T. Geeks out here who know all of these answers so this will become very clear soon, but in the meantime, if you're staying in mainland Australia, do not fear about usig your iPhone for all sorts fo stuff!
Stay tuned for more info as I discover new things you may find useful.
Darren Froggatt - Owner, ZeroThree. |
