iPhone 3GS – Does it worth an upgrade from your iPhone?
Apple revealed their fastest and most powerful iPhone yet last week at WWDC. iPhone 3GS release didn’t made a big buzz up to expectation compared to iPhone OS3 announcement. But still, twitter and some techblogs tried their best to make people aware of it. But as an existing user of iPhone 2G or 3G, does it make sense to buy iPhone 3GS?. Here I’m listing some highlighted features of iPhone 3GS and trying to make it work on your existing iPhone without spending $$$ again.
iPhone 3gs india
Phone
First thing I love on iPhone is Voice dialing. Now you can make call to your contacts or dial a number without touching the iPhone. But this feature can be added to your existing iPhone by installing Voice Dial (opens in iTunes) from app store for $1.99 or Fonix iSpeak.
iPod
I couldn’t find any changes in iPod application. Wish they boost the sound.
Safari
As iPhone gets faster twice, browsing will be a new experience. But that is not a reason to have upgrade.
Wide screen keyboard is my favorite addition in new iPhone.Wide email from app store for $0.99 does the same job. In addition, using this app, you can set short words for long text commonly used.
Video recording
One of so called missing feature in iPhone released till date. But if you have jail broken iPhone, get Cycoder from Cydia. You will get 6-15 fps video and record videos till your phone memory is filled while 3GS can record 30fps video up to 30 minutes at a time. But Cycoder video is good enough to upload on Youtube if you are looking for.
Photos
If you are a easily motivated Photographer, then you should buy iPhone 3GS. That 3 Megapixel auto focus camera will rock surely. Now you can sync photos with iTunes. More over, there is no separate app for Camera and photos anymore and you can Email, MMS, send to Mobile Me, assign to a contact and use the image as wallpaper from photos application.
Another good feature is, touch an object in the screen to focus on it!. Wow amazing isn’t it? But the click button is still a small icon. I would prefer Snapture from Cydia to take photos easily. Also, you still cant arrange your photos in folders. This is horrible when you are having ~2K photos in your iPhone. Most common PC will get hang when you open it to copy. I am using PicVault, which allows me to organize photos in folders and password protect them.
Voice Control
I’ve already discussed Voice Control for Phone above. Another feature is, you can control iPod too using voice over. That could be amazing feature when you sing a part of the song and Phone detects it and play it for you. But do you really want to spend $$$ for fun?
Messages
MMS is coming with iPhone OS3, which you can have on any iPhone soon. I am using iRealSMS which is having advanced options to forward and wide screen texting. And I really don’t rely on SMS Just make a call. That’s it!
Maps + Compass
3GS finds your location quickly and accurately via GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular towers. I love these features and this will be the second reason for buying an iPhone 3GS for me. For the first time on a mobile phone, Apple added an electronic magnet which will work as a compass to know which way you are facing to. Seeing traffic and street view are features of Google maps and they will be available on all phones. More over, far way to see them in India.
Keyboard
I enjoy typing on iPhone than laptop keyboard. You really don’t have to type every letters. iPhone guess and auto-fills the words for you. 3DS comes with cut, copy and paste. Wait for some days, iPhone OS3 have all these features. If you cant wait for it, get CopierciN from Cydia.
Spotlight Search
A missing feature in iPhones today. It is with iPhone OS3. No need of 3GS again.
Voice Memos
Nice feature. But there are at least five apps in app stores to record. I am using HT recorder, which is pretty with nice UI. You can email, edit and bookmark your recordings. 3GS can send MMS also. Hope that will come with OS3.
Accessibility
iPhone 3GS have improved Accessibility features. Like voice over (speaks out what is there on screen), Zoom ( double tap with three fingers any time to zoom the screen area up to five times that normal screen. This will work for all apps. If you are having only one ear working, you can switch to sterio mix, where you will get left and right channel mixed on both buds.
Tethering
Share your iPhone’s 3G internet with PC or MAC. This feature will not be available in US and some other countries ( 😛 ). I prefer PDAnet for this. There is no limitation.
iPhone 3GS app list
Overall
For me, there are only two reasons to buy iPhone 3GS in India. The 3 megapixel camera and GPS map with compass. All other features are there or came be added to my iPhone itself. So guess what? I’m not buying iPhone 3GS. Would you like to buy?.. Hey Apple fan, tell me what you think via comments.
To know the textual content messaging capability of your iPhone, start by adding friends and family to your contact list. This manner, sending and receiving text messages is easier.
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“iPhone 3GS – Does it worth an upgrade from your iPhone?”
proofread!
Barring the Video Recording, the Voice Control and the Compass feature, everything else will be available in OS 3.0 which you can use with your existing iPhone. IMHO, it is not worth upgrading the phone just for the video recording and the compass. Typically, in such cameras, the videos, when shot indoors, look very grainy and choppy.
Tethering and MMS work great on 3G. Here is my post on how to get it to work with Vodafone and Airtel (http://www.ajeya.net/2009/03/enabling-iphone-3g-tethering.html)
Differeence between 3G and 3GS is speed. Do you think iPhone developers are not aware of these application and they just cameup with some new application and call it as next version of iPhone? Apple iPhone 3GS mainly focusing on the Speed. The hardware is different for 3G and 3GS.
The main hardware changes are:
Manufacturing process is 65nm where as 90nm for 3G.
Clock speed can be upto 600MHZ for 3GS where as 412MHz for 3G.
For 3GS L1 cache is 32KB I-Cache + 32KB D-Cache and for 3G it is 16KB I-Cache + 16KB D-Cach.
3GS Graphics capability is OpenGL ES 2.0 and for 3G it is OpenGL ES 1.1.
There are many other changes like battery backup, Water- and oil-resistant finish, Integrated magnetic compass, Camera.
No application can provide these features. So buy 3GS, if you want these features 🙂