iPhone News Updated

Review: Apple’s Speedy iPhone 3GS

Its blazing speed and new features make the 3GS Apple’s best iPhone yet, but its App Store, and easy-to-use OS are what set it apart from the Palm Pre and Nokia N97.

Advance reviews of the iPhone 3GS hit the Web just before the device launched on June 19. Most labeled the new smartphone from Apple “evolutionary, not revolutionary.” While I am inclined to agree with that basic sentiment, there’s actually a lot more going on here that deserves comment.

My colleague, Mitch Wagner, did a fine job reviewing all the new features of the iPhone operating system 3.0 (including cut-and-paste, Spotlight Search, voice memos, and remote wipe), so this review will focus instead on those refinements that are particular only to the iPhone 3GS hardware itself. First up, all the new goodies.

Camera And Video Capture

The most significant improvement of the iPhone 3GS over previous models is the camera. Apple has updated the 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera to a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus. The new camera takes better pictures all around. They are sharper, show more details, have less grain (noise), and are better exposed.

Pictures still are not perfect, but the iPhone 3GS does a great job for a phone. It will replace that point-and-shoot camera you may carry on vacation, but won’t replace a dSLR used for serious photography. It still lacks a number of features, such as white balance control and exposure control, and doesn’t offer advanced features such as bracketing and panoramic shooting.

The new touch-to-focus function is fun to use. If you want the iPhone to focus on a specific object in the viewfinder, simply touch that part of the screen and that’s where it will focus. It works quickly, shoots pictures fast, and returns to the image-capture screen in an instant. The result is sharper images. Apple says it improved the low-light performance of the iPhone’s camera as well. Based on images I captured in low-light situations, they are indeed improved. Apple did this without the use of a flash and instead by improving the camera module’s sensitivity.
Read the rest of this entry »

C’mon. Admit it. You really want an iPhone

iPhone users are happier. Their phones are smarter. And BlackBerry users have a serious case of iPhone envy.

Research firm Crowd Science learned, in a survey conducted over the past month that iPhone have a satisfaction score of 73% with their devices, compared wtih Blackberry owners (52%) and other smartphone users (41%). Even more iPhone owners say they’re loyal to the brand (82%).

And four out of 10 Blackberry and other smartphone users say they would switch to the Apple iPhone in a trice. According to Gartner, Apple more than doubled its share of the worldwide smartphone market in Q1 of this year to 10.8%.And that’s not counting last Friday’s launch of the iPhone 3G S, which Apple says sold over a million units this past weekend. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster notes that 12% of buyers are now switching from a BlackBerry, compared with 6% last year. Munster commented this, “may indicate the company is making headway among business users slowly adopting the iPhone platform for corporate use.”
Read the rest of this entry »