iPhone OS 3.0 The Day After
Posted on 18 June 2009, at 3:34 pm, by Dan Cohen
Well, OS 3.0 landed yesterday, and we’ve been like kids in a candy shop. The were lots of upgrades taking place around the GD community and some of the stream of “Wow, take a look at this!” can be found in our 3.0 Tidbits Post. Now that the smoke has cleared (ha, get it, smoke cleared, Larry’s a firefighter…ha!) it is time to begin assessing whether or not the excitement was justified.
Some overall impressions and useful links follow…
Updating Process…
Over all the process went well. There were a few server issues and one temporarily bricked phone and assorted other annoyances. Within short order, however, everyone was tooling around the new OS.
General Impressions…
Travis- I am amazed at how my old 1st gen iPhone has felt like it got a nice tune up. If feels like my phone runs quicker and smoother. The search function is amazing. Being able to search for songs, apps, contacts, etc. from one place is very intuitive. I can see this preventing many page swipes or searching through iTunes.
Really the first gen iPhone isn’t terribly exciting, but at least they are still providing some support.
Chris G- I agree. the only real quirk I’m noticing is that apps seem to hesitate slightly before closing.
Michael- The 1st gen iPod Touch gets the least of all updates, but feels pretty nice in terms of performance improvements and usability improvements. Well worth another $10!
Larry- For a brief moment, after I’d updated to 3.0 and had played around with my phone for a bit, I regretted purchasing the new iPhone 3G S.  The 3G just feels and performs so much better running 3.0 that I’d probably be happy sticking with it.              I did say brief.”  ;)
I honestly don’t think I’ve come across a newly added feature in the 3.0 upgrade that I’ve looked at and said, big deal, I’ll never use that. Â From being able to add the camera app. to the double click home button option, to cut/copy/paste, every single enhancement seems worth while. Â I don’t remember every saying that about a previous software update.
Dan- All the little refinements like the email search that immediately narrows to sent, received etc show one thing- this is far from a first gen OS now. (DUH, since it isn’t). It feels quite polished and the functionality is excellent on many many levels. Overall the biggest impact for me thus far is on general usability of the device. Two examples-
I was out and about and suddenly had to visit someone in my community. In that past it would have taken numerous taps to find the address and then map directions. The new Spotlight functionality meant that i merely had to swipe my finger across the screen to the right and type in the first few letters of their name. From there it was as simple as clicking the address and then “Go To There”. It is a small change in usability but it felt like to totally different, and easier, experience.
At the same time I was able to try out my Jabra SP700 speaker’s full functionality for the first time. Since it not only serves as a speakerphone but can grab music from any Stereo Bluetooth enabled device and then feed it to a stereo over an FM transmitter the new Bluetooth functionality in OS 3.0 makes it more useful than ever. After pairing the iPhone and speaker I started music on the iPhone and hit a button on the SP700. Within seconds the device told me the frequency it was transmitting on. I tuned to that station and the iPhone’s music began playing over the stereo. The entire time I was in the car there was no a single moment of static or weakened signal. Best of all, reconnecting after the initial pairing was even easier than before.
In summary- loved my iPhone before. Love it even more now. Can’t wait for tomorrow.
And here are some useful 3.0 links
Rob Griffiths has a great walkthrough of using the Spotlight Search
Ars Technica has a roundup of OS 3.0 features
TechCrunch offers 20 Things to do with OS 3.0
Cult of Mac calls OS 3.0 a “Must-Have Upgrade”
Now onto the iPhone 3G S deliveries… Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, you’re always a day away….
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