The Great iPhone Report
by Magnamentis

General

What makes the iPhone such an amazing success are a few facts like it's design, it's always being connected, it's business support, it's huge number of 3rd party applications and last but not least the fact that it's from Apple. Whoever possesses one of those incredible devices would never want to miss it again. Meanwhile the iPhone has sold over 20 Million times.The iPhone has the very potential to become an all in one computer, as soon as there will be an easy "Wireless Docking" for keyboards, monitors and all the other devices which cannot yet be used with the iPhone due lack of interfaces and after all still mostly have to be wired even to desktop and laptop computers and/or are yet built into the same.

Just let's think a bit ahead in time and imagine that all printers, cameras, backup drives, monitors and any other imaginable device would connect wirelessly via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Then let's add a bit of more than the current level of speech recognition, say free speech recognition instead of preset commands, and there we are. There is a saying that whatever can be thought can be made. Every Star Trek fan would underwrite that and thus, besides millions of others, love his iPhone as it is and anticipate more. Already now, as we all know, the iPhone has an almost fully featured web browser, mail, calendar, address book and cross platform wireless syncing via Mobile Me. Should you feel like that something is missing in the report which you are about going to read now, feel free to send your opinion and/or suggestions to:

iphone@mobile-communications.net.magnamentis.com

There Is Still The iPod Touch

Even though this Report is about the iPhone, we have to consider the existence of the "iPod Touch" a device that does the greater part of what the iPhone does, except for example making phone calls of course. If you are an iPhone owner, you are probably thinking that there is no way to change from an iPhone to an iPod touch. Well, we are not trying to tell you otherwise, nevertheless we are going to tell you about a few circumstances under which you could find yourself in a position to consider exactly that, meaning to have an ordinary phone for some purposes and an iPod touch for other purposes. Please understand that we are trying to give you information as objective as possible, because only then can you make the most of your purchased devices and only then can you set yourself free from the mainstream. Since we strongly believe that users of an iPhone and/or of Apple Computers have a tendency to set themselves apart from the mainstream. Perhaps you remember the headline wish was: "Think different!" We felt that this is a fact that has to be considered while writing this report. If you believe that this statement applies to you, just have a look at:

http://philosophy.net.magnamentis.com

and find out more about "Thinking different" but this time not in relation to the iPhone or Apple Inc. As we are fully aware that you are most probably reading this report because you are also most probably an iPhone owner or at least interested in buying one, we shall first pay full attention to the iPhone, before we are going to explain a few things about the various possible reasons why to buy which phone for what purposes. Anyway that would only apply for someone who wants or has to get the most for the least of expenses.

Unlocking & Jailbreaking

As we are certainly fully aware, that Apple is trying hard to make jail broken iPhones useless or at least to reduce their usefulness. This makes perfectly sense since one huge part of the deal which Apple has with most of the providers who are selling their iPhones, is that the customers are forced to stick with the one and only provider in their country, as well while roaming abroad, what makes things even worse. For a user of an iPhone in the US this sounds perhaps like a minor issue, while a European customer, who comes across a country border and thus a network border every few hundred kilometers, will strongly disagree with this assessment. This is why for customers who roam frequently, unlocking their iPhone is almost a must. We know that many fans of the iPhone are Jailbreaking it for the benefit to be one step ahead of the present capabilities of their iPhone and that many of them are unlocking it for the only purpose to feel free of restrictions put down on them by others. Albeit these users are often an important part of the iPhone family who help to make things happen by making them happen if Apple does not come up with things fast enough, this report is directed mostly to the iPhone users who really need it, who really use it and who really would have to pay a lot of money unnecessarily if Apple and the service providers would have things entirely and undisturbed their way. Apples attempts to undo the efforts of the jailbreaking community differ quite a bit.

There are, let's call it two main levels of attempts.

One level is to make small updates, sometimes without real benefit to the user but just to render the functionality of jailbroken iPhones less useful. The second level is to change the "base band" which is the generic name given to the internal components of the iPhone. We are talking about those components that handle calls, Internet access etc. If that level of update was used, most often the current version of a jailbreaking tool is not doing the job anymore, which means that the user has to wait with until a new version of jailbreaking tool is released. Now that could mean that someone who is used to certain functions and even worse, is updating his iPhone while abroad, could remain stranded with device that does not fulfill this particular users needs for the moment. Again we recommend reading the various comparisons and arguments pro and against the purchase of which device under which circumstances.That means for you: Never update your iPhone under less than perfect conditions, meaning full access to the internet through means other than the iPhone, also meaning help within reach and also meaning that your main computer with all the appropriate backups, B'marks, manuals etc. is at the ready .

Flash Keeps Coming

Support for Adobe’s Flash is one of the most requested features by iPhone users since its launch. Therefore it has not been surprising to have heard tons of rumors and speculations about Flash coming to the iPhone However, so far it has been a case of wishful thinking. But that might change based on Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen’s comments made on television from the "World Economic For...." in Davos / Switzerland, that Apple and Adobe are collaborating to bring Flash to the iPhone. Narayen did not make any comment on when we can expect Flash coming to the iPhone, but nevertheless it is confirmed that we indeed can expect just that.

Be Aware Of The Full Costs

If you are thinking about getting any cell phone, the costs of the plans are important to be aware of anyway. But if you are thinking of getting a smart phone, such as the iPhone, knowing the costs involved can be even more crucial, since amounts involved easily reach the thousands. Just so you get an idea of what you are getting into, various Web sites offer costs and comparisons of the iPhone and other smart phones on the market. BillShrink.com would be one of them. It did a comprehensive comparison of the new generation smart phones, and examined the iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre and the Android G1. In addition to looking at the services the phones provide, storage capacity and other factors, the site also noted overall costs. By their deduction, the iPhone 3G is listed as costing an average of $3,840 for a year, and that is much more than the other two. Another site looking into this is was PC-World. They had an article that said the iPhone will cost an average of $160 per month or as much as a car. But the site noted that, after two years, the plans generally even themselves out. However we think that they were quite a bit pessimistic and that not all providers apply the same charges. Sprint should cost no more than $2,600 all flat. But which smart phone, thus leading edge user, keeps his main phone for more than two years. Considering this and that the now new phone will then be replaced with a new plan for i.e. two years, the costs appear relatively permanent and are thus worth to be looked at closely and dealt with towards efficiency. We found that, among the most popular smart phones on the market, there isn’t a big difference in the total cost of ownership, device, service contract, and so on over two years. But that bears repeating, no matter whether you pay $2,600 or $3,800 and course using fewer of the services can make it cost less but at any rate, just know that the iPhone, although cool and handy, does come at high costs. If it fits into your budget, that’s great. But if it doesn't’t fit in perfectly and if your employer doesn't pay for it, it is better to know the costs before you sign on a contract. Next to other reasons we again want to bring to your attention that part of this report, which is dealing with exactly, this matters, meaning cost efficiency, which you shall find further down reading.

iPhone 3GS

Is it a major improvement or a minor upgrade? Even though the iPhone 3GS looks indeed exactly the same like it's predecessor, you will certainly and easily recognize a few essential differences the moment you start using it, and we are not talking about the 1mm, which it gained in thickness. First of all every application is running considerably faster tan before. The average improvement which can be measured without equipment, but simply by comparison with an iPhone 3G, is something between 25% and 35%. The greater part of this improvement in speed is probably due to the 256MB of RAM which is exactly twice as much like for the iPhone 3G. The next improvement immediately recognized is, that really the screen has received a special treatment that makes it more resistant to the grease of the fingers. That alone makes a huge difference in terms of visibility of for example small letters, as well as for the execution of certain commands while using the iPhone for games, as an iTunes remote control or similar tasks. Albeit the new iPhone 3GS sports a better camera with three megapixels, white balance and auto focus there is still no flash available and you can still not make pictures of a quality which is worth to work them over, make something nice like posters or decent photos for your grand children. This means is still not near to replacing a compact camera or to achieve the picture quality of some Sony Ericsson and/or LG camera phones. We strongly believe that it the be the better way to only build in such features that are of at least good quality in their field. Better than space and weight to be consumed for features that have to be "outsourced" to another device anyway. Just imagine how much battery power, memory or interfaces could be put into the place of this camera, which has only one thing in common with a real camera, it makes pictures. By the way, this does not apply to the iPhone only, but to all these average mobile phones that are missing sometimes important features, but have a built in camera for one single reason, it's "IN". However since there is a camera, whether we like it or not, we are welcoming the fact that this camera now is at least capable of taking video footage at a resolution of 640x480 pixels and at 30 frames per second, that can be edited with an included tool and further shared via built in multimedia applications like MMS, email or by using external storage like "Mobile Me". No matter how important or less important certain hardware upgrades might count on a users wish list, what really makes the difference here is definitely not the latest hardware edition of the iPhone, but its new operating system 3.0. It delivers three most important features as there are:

- Device Wide Search Function

- Copy - Paste - Select All - Do - Undo functionality

- Keyboard In Landscape Mode For Most Key Applications

The following applications are now running with the virtual keyboard in landscape mode:

Mail Newly Available

Music Previously Available
Apple should call this iTunes and add air tunes to its features. Also the app store should be one app with the iTunes music store like on laptop & desk- tops. For a many years Mac user, to make this difference is unnecessarily confusing. Further the Music lists are still not available in landscape mode, for songs with long names.

Safari Previously Available

Photos Previously Available
Apple should choose one name for all platforms, for example iPhoto Landscape mode should work throughout the whole app to avoid rotating back and forth.

Notes Newly Available
Apple should not make a difference between Mail-Notes and Notes-Notes. Only one kind of notes that that syncs properly with Mobile Me would not only do, but just be it !

Contacts Newly Available
Apple should choose one name for this application either Contacts or Address Book.

The following applications are still not running with a wide screen virtual keyboard but should:

iCal Not Yet Available
Entries can contain notes & can have a length that would be met by that mode

Maps Not Yet Available
There can be a lot to type in Maps, thus the mode should be available too.

Settings Not Yet Available
There can be a lot to type in "Settings", thus the mode should be available

App Store Not Yet Available
If the App Store would store the login details like on laptops and desktops and would not ask for the password every time, it would not be necessary

A major request of many iPhone users for long has finally been met. Albeit still not a phone that you should use for several days without charging, you can now use it throughout a day without getting a low battery alert. Considering the faster and otherwise improved hardware, we believe that this is a great achievement. After all it remains the question, whether existing iPhone 3G owners should upgrade to the 3GS? As usual there is not one answer but it depends on how much you need the above mentioned hardware improvements. So we can only state our own opinion, which is: No, the new software does most of the important improvements and better is often not good enough to make the real difference. Four those who can afford it it's always good to have a better newer phone and for those who are permanently seeking the top of the line, the same applies. For those who seek best value for their money the software upgrade will do until they find a better reason and/or an opportunity about what to do with their old model, before going for a new one. On the other hand, if you are not an iPhone owner yet, there is absolutely no question, that the 3GS should be the iPhone of you choice.

What You Get By Now !
Next To Much More

- It's Very Thin

- Simulated GPS

- Lots of eye candy

- QuickTime Support

- Decent Web Browser

- 3 Megapixel Camera

- Excellent Voice Quality

- Excellent Battery Life

- Rapid Multi-touch Interface

- IPod With Video Functionality

- Large Scratch Resistant Screen

- Wireless Syncing Via Mobile Me

- Volume Control and Mute Switch

- Free Live Traffic Via Google Maps

- Conference call with up to 5 people

- Push Email Via Yahoo & Mobile Me

- Free Software Upgrades Keep Coming

- Microsoft Exchange Support is possible

- Call & Music Control From Headphones

- Ability To Use Other Applications While Talking

- View Word, Excel & PDF Documents is possible

- Screen That Works Under Bright Light Condition

- Built-in Speakers If The Use Of Headphones Is Not Welcome

- Visual Voicemail With Support For Rewinding As Well As Fast Forwarding

- Syncing Via Outlook Calendar And Contacts through iTunes works on Vista

What Many Would Like
And Hopefully Soon Will Get

- Satellite GPS

- Voice Recognition

- Full Flash Support

- BlackBerry Support

- Expandable Storage

- Windows Media Support

- Support For All iPod Accessories

- iTunes Music Store Access

- Choose MP3 / iTunes Music Ring tones

- Air Tunes Instead Of Remote

- Flash & Zoom For A Hopefully Better Camera

- Support For All Car Adapters For Music Playback

- Full Bluetooth Capability Like File Transfer & Syncing

Quite a few things we left out from this list on purpose, because they would do no real good to the iPhone when thought to an end. Example #1 is a removable battery pack. Someone who is familiar to how much space is used for the compartments, which allows the battery to become removable, knows very well, that this is about trading battery life for removability and who really wants that? Especially since nowadays the batteries are capable to more than 1000 re-charging cycles and have an extraordinary endurance. Even losses of battery health of let’s say 20% after a two or three years might not affect the usefulness of the iPhone to an extent worth to mention. Another example might be a hard keyboard. That would certainly make the iPhone bulkier and then there are Bluetooth solutions. Further with more and more apps working in landscape mode, the keyboard allows very well an easy "two-thumbs" typing which is already faster than typing on a hard phone-keyboard, except perhaps some of the larger "BlackBerry" keyboards and the "Nokia Communicator" keyboards. Again, feel free to submit suggestions and other or complementary opinions :

iphone@mobile-communications.net.magnamentis.com

Known Problems

Problems With Email When Port 25 Is Blocked

Interference While Playing Music Through an iPod Dock

Takes More Steps To Reach It's Basic Interfaces Than Other Phones

Camera Is No Good Without Ample Light And With Moving Objects. Frankly Speaking, We believe That The Camera Is Last Century Crap Really! But This Is What Most Mobile Phone Cameras Are, Welcome To The Club

iPhone User Guide
Valid together with iPhone OS 3.0 Software

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPhone_User_Guide.pdf

View The User Guide On The iPhone

- The iPhone User Guide, optimized for viewing on iPhone, is available at : help.apple.com/iphone

- View the guide on iPhone: In Safari, tap, and then tap the iPhone User Guide B'marks.

- Add an icon for the guide to the Home screen: When viewing the guide, tap, and then tap “Add to Home Screen"

- View the guide in a different language: Tap “Change Language” at the bottom make your choice

What You Need For The iPhone

- A wireless service plan with a carrier that provides iPhone service in your area

- A Mac or a PC with a USB 2.0 port and one of the following operating systems:

- Mac OS X Version 10.4.11 or later, Version 10.5.7 or later is required to sync Notes & for using iPhone as a modem

- Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later

- Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition

- Display resolution on your computer set to 1024 x 768 or higher

- iTunes 8.2 or later, available at www.itunes.com/download

- QuickTime 7.6.2 or later To play videos recorded by iPhone 3GS on your computer

Make The Right Choice For You !

As promised we are going to provide you with information and a few arguments about how to make a good choice for purchasing your mobile equipment, in one of our next newsletters which you shall receive by email should you have signed up. As mentioned earlier, this information will be helpful mainly for people who want, or have to keep a budget, but still want to get the most for their money. This "most" is rarely a single, so called "best" device, as you will see. It can be two or more devices which will serve their part perfectly as well. While no device, including the iPhone would serve all your needs neither perfectly nor at the same time. We want to state that we are not going to change the devices, used as examples to make a point, certainly not every other week as they come. If we name one device as an example, it will most often not be the only possible choice and rarely the latest, newest possible choice. We simply use those examples to explain and thus to relay the crucial information to you. Further if, for example, you almost never or on very rare occasions are traveling abroad and thus will fall under the conditions of roaming, we can say that up front without going further, the iPhone would have to be the device of your choice. What we are going to tell you next concerns only those who travel abroad a lot and need a reliable backup internet connection on the go, should for example your hotel not keep up with it's promises, and more than that, at reasonable costs, meaning local prepaid SIM-Cards with a flat rate used to get online. An appropriate link where you can find and inform yourself about a solution that will do exactly that for you, you are going to find at the end of this report.

Possible Alternatives !

As we already know, the iPhone does in most cases not allow you to use SIM-Cards of other providers than the one you have a signed up with. Now one could say that you could switch of the always-on functions of your iPhone and use it in airline mode while abroad. But then will anybody tell me, why would someone who is traveling abroad several times per year, use a device that costs him a fortune during his travels or that is stripped of most of it's essential capabilities to avoid the often exorbitant costs? Not many with a budget who have to pay their bill alone. If we have to do much time every year without using the 3G and the always-on functions that come with the iPhone, an iPod touch would certainly do. Let's assume that we give you the knowledge about how you can access the internet in most countries with any mobile phone that is capable to serve as a Bluetooth modem at speeds, often higher than your home or office broadband connection at local tariffs via data flat-rates? And let's further assume that you can connect your Wifi-Router, your Skype Phone and/or your iPod to the Internet, using your computers 3G Mobile Internet connection, established with such a device. All this is very easy to achieve if you know what to look for and if we provide you with a list of providers in different countries with prepaid offers, so you can achieve the kind of mobility described above, what would you say? We don't know, but we say that's the solution that covers all our needs hassle free, almost anywhere and at very low costs compared to using your SIM-Locked device of whatever kind. You guess right if you assume that we are going to do exactly that. We shall provide you with detailed information of the kind we just described, that allows you to roam freely and hassle free at much lower costs.But before we are going to explain this to you in one of our next newsletters, we first want to call on the possibility to use your iPhone for those purposes and what would be to consider. Unfortunately iPhones come in most cases SIM-Locked and there are certain conditions which have to be met, before we are going to unlock and/or jailbreak our phone. The most important condition is an easy to use solution which you can repeat after every one of Apples OS-Upgrades and with only small delays between new OS-Releases and Unlock-Tool-Releases.

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The Great iPhone Report by Magnamentis