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Review: Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Software Upgrade (5)

Likewise, I think the browser was faster too; I tried it on one of my most frequently used slowest-to-load Web pages, the Internet Movie Database, and that page seemed to take less time to load. (Note to the folks at IMDB.com: You’re overdue to come up with an iPhone-optimized version. It’s been two years already, get a move on!)

The browser supports autofill and remembers passwords, which will be very useful.

The YouTube application now lets you log in to the service, so you can access your subscriptions, playlists and other customization.

I was unable to test multimedia messaging and tethering; AT&T, iPhone’s US carrier, doesn’t offer those services yet; they say they’ll be available at the end of the summer.

Installation

I found installation to be imperfect but acceptable. I tried to download the software as soon as I learned it had become available, at 10 AM Pacific time on Wednesday, but was unable to get to the iPhone configuration screen of iTunes — iTunes could see my iPhone, and synch with it, but I was unable to get to the screen that showed the “Check For Upgrades” button. I was able to access that screen after 20 minutes, and downloaded the new firmware and completed installation quickly, in about 30 minutes. That resulted in my iPhone being upgraded to Version 3.0, with all its existing data, apps, and customization intact.

After playing with the newly updated iPhone for a few minutes, I reconnected and the iPhone required nearly a full hour to synch. It seemed to be taking a new backup of all my data during most of that time

After that, several additional synchs took only a few minutes.

Later in the day, about 1 PM Pacific time, I began to see messages on Twitter saying that Apple’s servers were overwhelmed and people were unable to download the new software. Also, some users reported that their iPhones were bricked by the upgrade — some of this is inevitable, but it’ll be important to watch to see if this is a problem for a significant number of users.

The low price Apple is charging — free to iPhone users and $10 to iPod Touch users — is pretty amazing. Version 3.0 is a meaty upgrade, and no reasonable person would have complained or even blinked if Apple had charged users more, or limited the firmware to new hardware. Instead, Apple is giving the software to millions of existing users for nothing (in the case of the iPhone) or nearly nothing (for iPod Touch users).

So what should you do? Should you upgrade right away?

Well, if you’re willing to take a little risk, go for it. You might run into some rough edges and incompatibilities, but I don’t expect you to see any serious problems.

On the other hand, if you absolutely need rock-solid stability, you should wait for the inevitable patch. I expect we’ll see that in days or weeks. Speaking of patches, the 3.0 firmware has a boatload of patches onboard. It fixes 46 security flaws.

Overall, the iPhone Version 3.0 software is a big step forward. It takes a device that was already excellent, and makes it even better.

[Thanks: http://www.informationweek.com]

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