72 hours On iPhone OS 2.0

Posted on 14 July 2008 by


Okay.  We pretty much survived the hoopla of last Friday and now we start into that period where people really kick the tires on the 3G iPhone and the new OS. 

Most people have been commenting heavily, one way or another, on the new 3G iPhone.  But what about those of us who simply upgraded our existing first generation devices?  That’s what I did (and thousands of others too, I suspect!).  On top of that, I went out and got some apps from the new apps store, and I’d like to share a few semi-random observations about my limited 2.0 experience.

To start, I didn’t have any of the activation/reactivation problems that plagued so many.  It’s probably just luck of timing, but my upgrade when pretty much flawlessly, but it did take longer than I expected – about 45 minutes from start to finish.

I like the new OS features, which have been described and itemized over and over on many web sites, but I’m especially fond of the multiple message delete option that is now in the Mail application.

I bought and downloaded a few apps:  Super Monkey Ball, AIM, Weather Bug, iGotchi, Platinum Solitaire, Scrabble, Remote, Sudoku, eBay, and eReader.  Overall – the apps visually give the appearance of high quality, polished apps – even the free apps look this way.  Under the hood, however I do see some “.0″ release type problems.

Scrabble, eReader, and AIM regularly crash on me.  Granted, it’s a lot cleaner crashes than I used to see on my Windows Mobile devices (no freeze-ups, no artifacts), but they are still crashes.  

This leads me to a thought quesiton – So let’s say the developers release an update – how do we get notified?  Via iTunes?  I haven’t heard anyone mention what the mechanism is for handling updates yet.  Anyone know?  10 million apps sold this past weekend, so I have to assume others are going to be asking these questions as well.

Some people have reported stability problems with Safari.  I haven’t had any of those, but I have seen a phenomenon (that others have reported as well) where flipping from portrait to landscape isn’t nearly as smooth as it used to be.  It stutters a bit while in the transition and the process seems a little slower.  It’s not bad, but if you had a version 1 phone, you will likely notice the difference.  Problem is, what should have changed to cause that?

In general, when 3rd party app support was announced, I commented to anyone who’d listen that I though it was a positive move, but I was concerned that the introduction of 3rd party apps would lead to a decrease in stability – because you couldn’t 100% control/manage what an app would do on the device.  So far that seems about right, but it hasn’t been unacceptably slow or unstable – the Apple apps still seem plenty stable –  but still, I’d hoped for a little smoother user experience overall.  To be fair, it’s still a “.0″ release.  Let’s see what happens as the bug fixes come out.

Syncing now takes longer, too.  I know it’s due to the addition of the 3rd party apps, but it still seems to take a lot longer than I expected. 

Now about specific applications:  Super Monkey Ball is a riot.  I’m not very good at it but the accelerometer is put to good use in this game.  But be prepared – this game absultely sucks down battery power as well as your time!

Remote is neat, but I’d hoped to be able to access the whole AppleTV menus.  I can’t.  I can only choose things as I would from playlists – just like on my iPhone/iPod.  So did I miss something?

Scrabble is a nice rendition of the board game – in some ways better than the Windows Mobile version, but it does crash more than any of the other apps I’ve tried.

AIM is a reasonable release of the AOL IM client, but it doesn’t support most of the higher-end features of their desktop app, and it too, isn’t as stable as I’d like.  It also doesn’t reestablish your state if you lose connectivity.  It’s okay for a 1.0 release, but, I’m hoping for better going forward.

What I’d still like to see?  For the OS – cut, copy, and paste – clipboard support is number one on my hitlist.  MMS is there too but much further down the list.  Flash support – I couldn’t care less about, but I know it’s important to a lot of folks, but I have yet to see a decent version of it on ANY mobile device.  Lastly, for the sake of my being able to use this device on the network at work, I’d like to see a true 2-phase (factor) authentication mechanism.

3rd party apps I’d like to see include versions of MobiPocket, and Adobe PDF reader.  I’m looking forward to the planned release of Pocket Informant, one of my favorite Windows Mobile apps.

One last thought occurs – since Apple stores still use Windows Mobile devices (Symbol) as their remote terminals, now that 3rd party apps are possible, how long before they have a iPhone/iTouch-based sled (for credit card reading) and software to replace those WM devices in the Apple Store?

What have been your experiences with the new OS and apps?  Were you sucessful or did you’re device become a brick?  Do you like the new OS and apps or is everything too flaky?  Are you happier than ever with your iPhone are are you running, screaming, back to your Windows Mobile, Palm, or Blackberry device?

This post was written by:

- who has written 127 posts on Gear Diary.

Chris has been a COBOL programmer, a desktop support technician, network engineer, telecommunications manager, and even a professional musician. Currently, he is focused on deploying Voice over IP technologies in a large, corporate setting. He started working full-time at the tender age of 14, even before there were PCs, and will probably be working and trying to finish “just one more project” as he’s lowered into the grave.

Contact the author


  • kperkins57

    In Itunes under Applications, at the bottom of the screen is an Update button. If there are updates, then you have the ability to download them individually, or download them all.

  • http://www.s-consult.com/index.php Wayne Schulz

    I love AOL Radio — it is darn close to what you can get from Satellite – except it’s totally free.

    One of the applications I’m trying is OmniFocus which works with the whole GTD cultlike approach to getting yourself organized. I really am hoping (and so far the results are positive) that I’ll be able to rely on this app to juggle the umpteen odds and ends that become To-Do items. You really cannot just download OmniFocus without also getting the software program that runs on your Mac. The sync wirelessly via MobileMe.

    Evernote is absolutely the best. There’s a full iPhone client that you use to access ALL of your notes. You can also add iPhone pictures or voice recordings to notes.

    I also agree with you Chris that the Apps show a little 1.0 roughness (for example AOL radio crashes every time I try to locate and then play a CBS radio station near me).

    Overall I’m impressed with the version 2.0 OS — and I haven’t even upgraded yet to the 3G iPhone.

  • http://geardiary.com Christopher Spera

    Color me spoiled, but there are some things that either I’m just not getting, or I can’t find, or don’t exist on the iPhone that I am really going to have issues with if I have to live without them.

    1. Group by Category in Contacts. I don’t necessarily want to see everything, but I might remember that someone I need to call/e-mail worked for . I’d like to be able to sort/display by category (and would it be too much to ask for collapsible sections like WinMo, or am I stuck in a paradigm??)

    2. Alarms/Reminders. how the heck do I snooze an alarm? I don’t see a snooze button. VERY annoying!

    3. Mail. Tap the button, and you’re taken to the last screen you used. If you have more than 1 inbox on the device, you have to go back to the accounts screen, tap the account, tap the inbox and then look at mail. If you want to change accounts, you have to back out all the way to the Accounts page, tap the account you want to see, tap inbox, etc. Oy! that’s a lot just to check mail…

    4. Calendar. Categories… Again, Outlook has me thinking categories; and if I can only sync 1 calendar, then Categories become a huge deal.

    5. Soft Keyboard. This is probably the WORST area in the device. I do e-mail A LOT from my mobile device, and I seem to fat finger/thumb things a lot with my iPhone…And if the damn thing replaces one more frickin’ word on me I’m gonna chuck it out the damm window!

    I know what I want to type, fer cryin’ out loud! The damn device doesn’t know better than me! At least with WinMo, I had a choice of how many words it would display when trying to anticipate text (but then, I had a hardware d-pad so I could pick the one I want, too). with the iPhone, I get the once choice, and then I have no choice but to take the suggestion, as the device won’t recognize me tapping the little “X” in the text suggestion baloon. This is probaly the most frustrating part of this transition…

  • http://geardiary.com Christopher Spera

    Number 1 above: 1. Group by Category in Contacts. I don’t necessarily want to see everything, but I might remember that someone I need to call/e-mail worked for [insert company name here].

  • BillChapman

    I have an iPod Touch, which I upgraded to 2.0 late Friday night and into early Saturday morning (by the time I was finally able to access the update servers it was 11pm; then after three partial downloads, I succeeded in finishing the download and completing the installation about 1am).

    Overall, I am pleased with the new system software, and the ability to access 3rd party apps. Regarding Acrobat reader, are you looking for the ability to sync and view PDF files on the iPhone? If not, I’ve found the PDF reading capabilities of the Safari browser to meet my needs, which are usually just accessing PDFs via the web.

  • Christopher Gavula

    kperkins57 – Thank for for the application update tip. Now that I’m looking I see the “Check for Updates” in the lower right area of the application window. Nice.

    Wayne – I’m going to have to check out AOL Radio.

    Chris – As far as I know, Contact and Calendars do not have grouping support. There are, however 2 calendars – home and work. As I mentioned I believe PI is coming to iPhone, I’ll be curious as to how many of the original features will be supported.

    There is a snooze feature on alarms. Did you remember to turn the snooze feature on for the alarm you were creating? Each alarm can snooze or not independently of each other so you set it on/off when you create the alarm.

    There is no “collective” inbox for mail. Each box stays separate. It’s really only a couple of taps to move from one to another, but I’m still trying to decide if I like the separation or not.

    I don’t have any problems with the soft keyboard. I have found that it learns your patterns as time goes on and makes better assumptions, but I do see your point. At least a way to turn off the assist would be good, but for me the help does more good than bad.

    As far as PDF support – I want full Adobe DRM compatability so that’s going to require Reader.

  • Christopher Gavula

    I wanted to add that I spoke with Chris Spera this morning and what he was looking for was a “snooze” function on calendar reminders, not alarms. Although it’s not a function I would use, I can understand his desire to have such a feature and I’m surprised it isn’t there. Add another desire to the list!

  • runningman

    On the calendar issue I had 4 calendars show up when I synced the 3G to my PowerBook the first; forgot I had them set up. Could not delete the old/unused calendars via the iPhone, had to delete on the G4 then resync. A little annoying. Battery life may be an issue. My wife’s 3G is pretty good, mine, not so much. We’ll see if it gets better as I manually manage power (push email, wi-fi, Bluetooth – all of which I use). Will be interesting. It’s fun, regardless.

    Bill

  • Christopher Gavula

    As a follow up to Chris Spera’s concern about grouping and finding somebody by the name of the company he/she worked for – the iPhone search seems to search across all the fields in a contact, not just the name. For example, on my contact for Chris I entered a company name of ProblemsRUs as his Company Name. Then I did a search of my contacts and typed p-r-o-b and sure enough, only his name appeared.

    This doesn’t group the items, but it still addressed the scenario he mentioned in item #1. It’s a lot more functional a search than I originally thought as well.