Update: There were a lot of features missing in the iPhone OS 2.0 which originally shipped with the phone. I installed the iPhone OS 3.0 Beta on my phone which introduced pretty much everything that was missing earlier including:
Copy/Paste
MMS
Internet Tethering
Voice Recorder
Push Notifications
Updated Stocks App
Spotlight(search functionality)
Composing Emails in Landscape mode.
Shake to shuffle music in the iPod app.
But there are some issues too:
Should you still purchase the iPhone?
My recommendation is to wait and see what the next generation of iPhone has to offer. It is rumored to have a faster processor, more memory, more storage and a magnetometer. And it is rumored to be cheaper too.
If you already have an iPhone 3G(the current generation), then 3.0 should definitely spruce up the features.
Here is my original review(edited) of iPhone 3G with iPhone OS 2.0:
I bought the new iPhone 3G and have been using it for about a month now and here is my review:The Build:Almost anyone who wants to buy an iPhone know how it looks like. But most people haven’t really held it. So I will focus on that.The iPhone 3G is thinner than it predecessor at only 0.48 inches. It measures 4.5 in x 2.4 in(h x w) and weighs less than 150 gms.The display is 3.5" across making it a good video player. The screen is very sharp has a resolution of 480 x 320. Looks like the screen is made out of scratch proof glass. I have been using it without a cover and it still looks very clean.It has a plastic back which is a big departure from the metallic back in the earlier iPhone. There were some reports mentioning that the back was changed to reduce interference to the 3G and the GPS chip. The plastic black doesn’t look too bad but I am worried about it getting scratched. Although there are no reports of scratched back yet, it is something to wait and see.The iPhone has a standard 3.5mm headphone mini jack making it very convenient to use 3rd party headsets without using an adapter.The iPhone has 4 buttons on the body. The’Home’ button, the’Sleep/Wake’ button, the’Volume’ button and the’Ring/Silent’ button.The’Ring/Silent’ button is pretty delicate. A couple of days back I noticed it was not working. After googling for it, I found several cases where the button just popped out of the phone. After reading through several complaints, I just tried to push the button back into the casing which worked and fixed my issue. But this is something to look out for.The iPhone comes with a 2MP camera. The camera could have been better. Although the pics look OK when taken in bright light, the camera is too slow for indoor pictures. Overall, the build is OK. But I will have to get a plastic casing just to protect the phone from getting scratched and prevent it from getting damaged accidentally.The Connectivity:There is no 3G in India, so talking about 3G is just a moot point. Voice Calls:I had several issues with the voice calls. The signal was pretty weak in areas where other phones worked well. GPS:The GPS feature is a touch and go. It definitely does not work when I am inside buildings. That is mostly OK because the phone is not able to lock on to the GPS signal. But acquiring a GPS signal is slow outside too. Sometimes it takes 30 seconds and sometimes it takes more than 5 minutes. But once acquired, the GPS is pretty accurate. Applications:The iPhone 3G comes pre-installed with some standard apps and you will have to install the other apps through the AppStore. Here are some of the apps and what they do:SMS:The SMS app is very basic. The SMS messages are displayed as a thread which is convenient. There is no way to forward SMS messages. There is no MMS(another problem for some folks but doesn’t bother me).Calendar:Calendar works well if you have Outlook installed on Windows. But I don’t have MS Office and there is no way to update the Calendar over WiFi.YouTube:This is my favorite app. If you have the bandwidth, you can watch YouTube videos without interruption. But only slower networks this can be frustrating. Mail:I like the Mail feature. It works well with POP and IMAP. You can setup for the mail to download(or pushed) every 15 minutes or so. This push feature on iPhone works similar to the one on Blackberry. The mail app can be configured for use with Gmail, MS Exchange, mobileme, AOL and other servers(for which you will have to enter the details manually).Safari:Probably the best mobile browser. The touch screen makes browsing on Safari a great experience. On WiFi, the pages load up pretty fast and if the website you are browsing has iPhone specific pages(e.g. gmail, news, reader, zinio etc), then you will see the iPhone version. Else you will see the standard web page which will work well too. Safari, however, does not support Flash. If you go to youtube.com and try browsing videos, they open up in the YouTube app. There is currently no Java support also.iPod:A great media player. Supports the standard iPod formats(mp3, aac, h.264 etc). Visually, the iPod app is pretty appealing. Try out the cover flow feature if you want to know what I mean. The sound clarity is very good and this makes the iPhone a great music player. The clarity of the video is good too but you will have to watch out for the battery life.AppStore:This is the alternate way to install Apps on iphone(the other being through iTunes).The AppStore for India is different than the one in US. There are a lot of Apps in the US store than in the Indian store. AppStore definitely is a useful app.The Touch Screen Experience:This, of course, is the coolest iPhone feature. If you want to impress folks, just bring out your iPhone and flick your fingers across the screen to get this baby going. I will not rave about this too much as I am sure you guy already know about this The Keypad: The touch keypad is pretty decent. It takes a while to get used to it after that it is a breeze to use it. I haven’t seen or used the keypad with characters in Hindi or any other Indian languages. But I am guessing we can see that soon. Battery Life:Another very touch subject with me. Once fully charged, the battery lasts for the whole day but just about. But if you watch too many videos, the battery life drops pretty fast. There are claims that 2.1 version of the firmware did improve the battery life, but I don’t see it.Conlusion:I love my iPhone, don’t get me wrong but there is a long way to go before the iPhone 3G becomes fully functional here in India. Currently:* Airtel/Vodafone have no 3G support in India.* There is no MMS* No support for running apps in the background.* Only 2MP camera.* No FM tuner.* Battery life is somewhat limited.Given all these and Apple’s control over the apps being released on iPhone and the cost of the handsets, I feel I should have waited a year or so before I bought the iPhone.