Apple iPhone 3GS-First Impressions

by Amy Stevens AdamscloseAuthor: Amy Stevens Adams Name: Amy Stevens Adams
Email: amy@capecodbranding.com
Site: http://capecodbranding.com
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Today the new Apple iPhone 3GS was released, and John & I headed to our closest Apple store first thing. The store in Hingham, MA was only mildly packed. We had expected the line to run right out the door (an expectation formed because of what we both went through last summer to get our iPhones), but it wasn’t nearly as bad as we had planned for. All in all, we waited about an hour and the purchase and set-up was seamless. As always, Apple is a pleasure to do business with.

On the way home I played around with my new 32GB white iP, and have a few initial impressions to report. In this article I’ll touch on;

1. Speed

2. Compass

3. Video

4. Syncing for the first time with my Mac

5. Using dual iPhones on one iTunes account

First, I am impressed by the speed of the internet. I was clicking through webpages almost as fast as I do on my home internet connection. It seems to be about twice as fast as the previous generation. I had also noticed the same thing when I switched from my 1st gen iPhone to the 3G last summer. However, it appears to be spotty. When we were in Hingham (and close to Boston) it was very fast. Now that we’re home on Cape Cod it seems to be moving a bit slower. I’m not sure if it’s the location or just that the cache is starting to fill up on the new iPhone. However, it is still noticeably faster.

The Compass feature is very, very cool. It allows you to set for either ‘magnetic north’, or ‘true north’ and shows exact degrees, in addition to your current latitude and longitude. It was only a month ago that I looked all through the compass apps available for the iPhone hoping to find a good one. However, none worked well (per the reviews) because the iP didn’t have magnetic capabilities. I came very close to purchasing a $30 compass at LL Bean… so glad I didn’t! It is much better to have one device that does everything I need, rather than littering a junk drawer in the kitchen with seldom-used gadgets. This is why Apple is the best, they anticipate what you’re likely to need and build it in to the iPhone. If you’re wondering why I care so much about a compass, it is because of the Feng Shui I have been implementing in our new house. In the next month or so I intend to write an article on some of my new-found Feng Shui tips, so check back if that topic interests you.

The video capability rocks. In the camera app you can switch between camera and video mode. I immediately started recording to try it out. Here’s the scoop, once you’ve recorded a video you can replay it and slide between frames. At the top of the replay is an image slider with still frames. You can slide to the part where you want to start watching, or move the beginning and end edges of the frames to ‘trim’ the video and edit it to only include the parts you want. Plus, right from the iPhone you can email the video or upload it to YouTube.  I recorded 5 minutes of video and it takes up 135 MB of space.

Syncing for the first time is a breeze. If you are a first-time iPhone owner, just follow the prompts in iTunes. It will ask you to enter your phone number, nickname your phone, and log in to your iTunes account (or create an iTunes account if you don’t already have one). If you are replacing an existing iPhone it will ask you the first time you connect it to your mac or pc if you want to use the backup of your old iPhone. In my case, it asked if I wanted to register a new phone number, or if I wanted to use the backup of “Amy’s iPhone”. If you are replacing an old iPhone, then choose to use the backup. This will import all of your data and settings to the new phone. Once complete there literally shouldn’t be any other changes you’ll need to make, it is THAT smart.

For me, I was adding a second iPhone to my account. This new iPhone will be used for business only and will I still retain my previous iPhone 3G for personal use. So I selected to register a new phone number. It walked me through the steps just as if it was a new account. I named this phone “asa | boston iPhone”, and entered my phone number.  I then chose the info I wanted to import onto this particular phone, which for me was my contact book, some music, my downloaded (third party) apps, and only my business email account and work calender. Now I have an iPhone that syncs with just selected, work-related info.

Once I was done, I disconnected it and plugged in my old iPhone. iTunes recognized it as “Amy’s iPhone” and still retained all of my sync options for that phone (ALL of my music, photos, personal email accounts, Apps, contacts, bookmarks, etc). Now I can switch between the two iPhones on my iTunes and it will recognize which phone is connected and what options I want for syncing info.

All the new features, paired with the new capabilities from the OS 3.0 update that came out yesterday and this phone is indispensable. To read more about the free OS updates and get our opinions, read John’s article “If You Can’t Get A New iPhone 3GS…”. In it he discusses the coolest of the many cool new features.

In the end, it was more than worth it to get the new iPhone 3GS this morning!

-Amy Stevens Adams of Cape Cod Branding

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