Adam Turner18 June 2009, 2:34 PM
Third time's a charm as Apple releases the long-awaited iPhone 3.0 software update, yet some telcos want to charge extra for tethering.
The software update, for the iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G, comes ahead of
the release of the third generation iPhone 3G S - due to hit Australian
shelves on June 26 (June 19 in some countries). Thankfully many of the
improvements found in the new iPhone are also available to existing
iPhone users via the free software update. One condition is that you
must upgrade to iTunes 8.2 on your computer before you can install the
update on your phone.
Upgrading an iPhone 3G from 2.2.1 to 3.0
takes just over 20 minutes, allowing 12 minutes for the 230MB software
download. After the phone restarts, the most obvious change is that you
can now flick left from the home screen to access a global search page
indexing all the content on your iPhone. A single press of the button,
whilst on the home page, also calls up the global search option.
Similar
to Spotlight on the Mac, search results are almost instantaneous,
rummaging through your contacts, applications, songs, podcasts, notes,
inbox and calendar appointments. Most of these applications now also
have dedicated search boxes in them at the top of the screen, with the
ability to search your inbox for keywords according to From, To,
Subject or All. You can even search through previous emails stored on the server, if your email provider supports this feature (it works using Fastmail and IMAP). Noticeably absent from the global search results are
text messages and Safari bookmarks.
Even though the iPhone 3.0
software update is designed for the new iPhone 3G S, which sports a
faster processor, applications seem to launch just as quickly on the 3G
under 3.0 as they did under 2.2.1. This is a welcome relief for those
upgrading, considering the initial sluggish performance of iPhone 2.x
software on the first generation iPhone 2G - of which there are many in
Australia even though it never officially went on sale in this country.
The
next most obvious change with the 3.0 software upgrade is that a Voice
Memos icon appears on the home screen, letting you record audio in the
.M4A format and then export it from the phone via email or MMS -
although apparently MMS is not available to iPhone 2G users who upgrade
to 3.0.
If your iPhone 3G is with Telstra Mobile, about now
you'll receive an MMS from Telstra letting know that you can now send
and receive MMS messages - basically text messages with the addition of
pictures and audio. There's no mention as to how much this costs and if
you click on the URL to get more information, you find a highly
informative Telstra "404 File not found" page. A call to the Telstra
iPhone support team confirmed that MMS messages are charged at 50
cents, as with other phones, as this cost is treated the same as an SMS
in terms of billing and caps.
The "SMS" icon on the home screen is now a "Messages" icon,
combining your SMS and MMS messages in the threaded inbox. The interface
for creating a new SMS now has a camera icon on it which lets you
attach a photograph. The Messages inbox also has a new Edit button which lets you delete or forward messages.
Before you can use MMS, you need to dip onto the "Phone" settings in the General settings and enter your mobile
phone number. There's also a new "Messages" settings page, which offers
the options of disabling the automatic preview, disabling the repeat
alert (which flashes up the preview again after a few minutes if you
don't check the phone) and disabling MMS messaging. Unfortunately there
still doesn't seem to be an automatic preview for incoming emails, even
push emails sent to the phone via Apple's MobileMe service.
The
other feature worth mentioning in this First Impressions look at the
iPhone 3.0 software update is the long-awaited inclusion of cut and
paste. When you're using an application with text entry, such as email
or notes, double-tapping the screen pops up a "Select | Select All |
Paste" menu. Pressing Select pops up a "Cut | Copy | Paste" menu, with
blue pins at either end of the selected text. You can drag these pins
around until you've selected all the text you want, with the assistance
of the magnification tool, and then select Cut, Copy or Paste. Now you
just move the cursor to where you want to paste the text, double-tap
the screen and then select Paste. Pasting into the middle of a sentence
inserts the text rather than overwriting the rest of the sentence. If
you make a mistake, you can shake the phone to call up an Undo/Redo
menu. All up it's a typically Apple-esque smooth and intuitive
experience.
Lastly there's the controversial issue of tethering,
which is using your iPhone as a wireless broadband modem to connect
your notebook to the internet while you're on the road. Telstra iPhone
3G users upgrading to iPhone 3.0 have discovered that tethering is
disabled on their phones, with the option removed from the menus, although there are already
details of a workaround. Your Mileage May
Vary so try it at your own risk.
Telstra's line is
that it doesn't support tethering as they "haven't worked out some of the
billing side of it yet", according to the help line. This could indicate that the telco intends to
charge extra for the privilege of using tethering. A word of warning
if you're attempting to unlock tethering yourself; if you change a Telstra
iPhone's APN setting from telstra.iph to telstra.internet you could end
up paying Telstra's $2 per MB pay as you go rate - although we've heard
conflict reports from different Telstra reps. The standard
telstra.iph or telstra.datapack settings are probably safer options than
telstra.internet. Once again, you try it at your own risk.
Meanwhile
Optus has announced that as of Monday (June 22) it will charge iPhone users $9.99
per month to unlock tethering, using an 'iPhone as Modem Access' or
'Bus iPhone as Modem Access' pack. The $9.99 doesn't actually buy you
any extra data, just the ability to use the tethering feature. Meanwhile the tethering option is visible in the menus on an Optus iPhone upgraded to 3.0, but clicking it prompts you to call customer care. Full
details will be available on the Optus website as of Monday. Details of
a workaround for Optus tethering are also
already available, but once again you try
it at your own risk.