iPhone 3G Temperature Warning

It looks like that curvy space-saving glossy back on the new iPhone 3G doesn't help much with heat dissipation or air circulation after all.

I just got home after the ride home from work. The iPhone 3G felt a bit hot so I turned it off and on again in case some odd process hadn't terminated, plugged it in and two minutes later the above presented itself to me.

iPhone 3G Comparison Review

My iPhone 3G arrived in the post on the morning of the worldwide release, Friday 11th July. It's registered in the UK on the o2 network running the (release) 2.0 firmware.

I've been using mobile phones for many moons and have had my fair share of crap and really good ones. Before buying my 'old' iPhone I was using a Nokia e61 & Nokia n95 so I may compare the iPhone 3G to the 'old' iPhone and the n95.

This review isn't an in-depth review of the iPhone 3G, it's more a comparison with the old iPhone. If you want a comprehensive review old the old iPhone then they're available if you have a hunt around Google.

Hardware

Not Black?

The iPhone 3G is sold as black. It's not black, or at least mine isn't. The front is black, just like the previous model, but the black is a actually a dark blue if you take it out into real world light. Flip it over and look at the black front vs the 'black' back if you don't believe me.

I would take photos as proof of my claim, but it's difficult to get a shot of any clarity with my equipment (Olympus c5000Z) due to there being nothing to focus on. The front is black glass, the back is dark and glossy – everything is just a blur. Hunting around Flickr for photos to use doesn't help either, perhaps the anti-photo design is what's making anything but official marketing shots elusive.

Dimensions

In comparison with the old iPhone the 3G is slightly more curved at the back meaning it doesn't fit into old iPhone cases without rattling around and no bugger seems to have a decent plastic case for it to fit in yet, not even o2 UK stores or the Apple Store.

The back is dark and glossy but instead of making it look nice and sophisticated it fails and, in my opinion, it looks cheap. Current owners of the old model or the iPod Touch will know that the screen gets covered in paw prints (so much so that Apple include their own iPhone branded screen cleaning cloth in the box) and now the back also suffers in the same way. It's time to give up on the regular cleaning routine, I think.

The slight curvature of the back means that typing on the screen when it's laying on a desk causes the phone to wobble around and without the aid of a case it's just going to scratch the plastic quickly unless one lays it on the cleaning cloth as it's own cleaning cloth throne.

Screen Abnormalities

The front and screen design is the same as the old model, but it's difficult to improve upon perfection so we'll let them off there.

The screen on my 3G appears darker when sat side by side with the old iPhone. It's as if there's a slight brown 'sunglasses' tint. Turning the brightness up full and sitting it side by side with the old one rubs it in even more. Putting the brightness on a reasonable level with both models and playing Coldplay's X & Y album (which has dark blue album art) shows it up. The new iPhone 3G presents the dark blue background as black whereas the old iPhone gives a truer image. There was a quality issue with some of the old iPod Touches where the mask on the inside of the screen was applied incorrectly which caused contrast issues, I'm wondering if this is the case here too. When I find someone else with an iPhone 3G I will ask for a polite comparison.

Sockets and Buttons

The iPhone 3G has everything in the same place as the old model but instead of the buttons being black (and the phone silver) the phone is black and the buttons are silver. Doesn't look too bad, but I hope the metal shoulder buttons are really metal and not cream plastic with a silver coloured paint on them which rubs off after a few months and looks terrible.

The phone speaker (the one that you put to your ear) is the same but instead of black it's got a thin wire coloured mesh which matches the microphone and loud-speaker.

The microphone & loud-speaker are smaller on this model than the old model. Despite Steve Jobs' claim that the audio was significantly improved by the new speaker I really can't hear it. It wobbles and cuts in the same way as the previous model, which annoyed me greatly. The n95's stereo speakers were superb.

Various Holes, Earphone Jack, Dock and Camera

One of the problems with the iPhone is the enormous (by the standards of today) connector. Apple have stuck by their Universal Dock system since forever which means the cable for the 1st Gen iPod you bought 400 years ago is still going to fit into the iPod Classic you bought last year and the iPhone 3G you bought yesterday, and just about every accessory, car charging kit and hi-fi output kit is still going to work just as it used to.

Nokia have switched their smart phones to mini-USB connectors but the Apple universal dock connector on the iPhone 3G takes up half the bottom of the phone leaving little space for a speaker and microphone, let alone stereo speakers. Would it be dangerous to suggest that in the next model Apple step away from the universal dock connector (gasp!) and use something smaller and provide a converter in the box?

The earphone jack on the iPhone 3G isn't recessed (wahay!) which means you can use normal earphones with it without having to start shaving the plug away. Thankfully my Bose Triport-IE earphones fit in the original iPhone socket so it wasn't much of an issue for me but at least now you can stick whatever you want in the hole as it's flush with the case, like on the iPod Touch.

The camera appears to be the same as the original iPhone in terms of quality, reasonable cheap snappy camera, no zoom. It's curved to match in with the back. It gives out 1200x1600 or 1600x1200 pictures, depending on the way you look at 'em. Nothing exceptional to write home about.

Software

General OS

The iPhone & iPhone 3G run on a version of the Leopard operating system. The old iPhone was on version 1.1.4 which was pretty stable and had most of the bugs ironed out but the iPhone 3G (and the old iPhone when upgraded through iTunes 7.7) run the new 2.0 software which gives a few more features and support for new stuff like the AppStore but it's a bit buggy for my liking.

GPS & Google Maps

As with the old software, the Google Maps app runs pretty smoothly. Along with the cell location data which gives a reasonable guess of whereabouts you are within a few miles the iPhone 3G is equipped with GPS meaning it can pinpoint your location outside (and inside if in view of a lucky window) to within just a few metres.

Like the Nokia n95 (with latest firmware) and n95 8Gb the iPhone 3G is equipped with “aGPS”, which is assisted GPS. This uses current data relating to the geostationary satellites and the location data from the cellular network on the ground to get a general idea of where you are on the planet which speeds up the location finding dramatically.

It works well. But plot a journey by road from your current location to a contact, like home for example and you see that work is needed. One needs to work out if Google Maps is a pretty map application or a sat nav app which is what adding GPS to it would imply.

It's not a good sat nav device. I was on the 15 mile journey home from work on Friday so loaded up Google Maps, asked it to plot a course from my current location to home which it did. I then set off and after 1 minute the phone went to sleep. I stopped and had to manually set the phone to never go to sleep and carried on. I manually zoomed in the map so I could see the suggested streets and set off.

No turn by turn directions.
No auto-zooming depending on speed.
No pre-loading of map data.
No stats (no current journey, no saved track, no speed, etc.)
Screen doesn't reorient itself with driving direction, north is always up.
Screen turns off if you don't manually fiddle with phone settings.

On a 3G signal the map tiles almost load quickly enough on a motorway (70mph limit in the UK) and are reasonable about town. On EDGE it was okay around town but couldn't quite match up with my (useful) static zoom level on a motorway.

Sat nav devices seem to have roads stored in a different way, probably as coordinates, but Google Maps loads the tiles as graphics which means it's quite data heavy. Obviously O2 have the iPhone as standard on an unlimited data plan, but as the tiles for the journey are not pre-loaded one often finds that the map runs out before it's managed to load the new tile leaving you travelling over a graph paper landscape. The graphical map tile format used by Google Maps doesn't lend itself to use in a sat nav device, it's far too data heavy.

If the iPhone 3G's built in GPS is to be of any use as sat nav someone needs to throw a proper sat nav application at it, with the ability to pre-load maps before travel or on the fly before it needs them. Nokia shipped Nokia Maps with the n95 which was free to use, but one paid a small daily, monthly or annual fee to use turn-by-turn directions. Someone needs to do something on the iPhone. It's a shame Apple didn't seem to feel the need to include it. I see little use in including a GPS chipset in a portable device if it's not going to be used as a sat nav device.

GPS & Camera

The Camera app works in the same way as the old one, but adds location data to the EXIF of the JPEG file so you know where the photo was taken. The later n95 firmware also did this and include altitude data, but the iPhone 3G doesn't include altitude.

It's also worth noting that once the location data has been added the iPhone 3G doesn't seem to be able to do anything else with it. One can't dump the photo on the Google Maps application but if the file is copied to your computer (not emailed as it strips out the EXIF data) then you'll be able to see it and places like Flickr will make use of it if you have this feature turned on in your profile. However, Flickr was misinterpreting the location data at the time this review was written but the location data is correct if interpreted correctly (or manually).

Calculator App

The calculator has been changed somewhat since the old v1 software and in v2 it has a few more features on the portrait screen. Holding the iPhone in landscape mode flips the app into Scientific Calculator mode which I'm sure comes in handy if you happen to have thumbed through Hard Sums Volume 300 or want to make calculator porn.

Weather App

The same Yahoo! Weather app is included with the 2.0 firmware. It is apparently completely unchanged. Apple didn't bother using the location based functionality on the old iPhone or the GPS data on the iPhone 3G to give weather reports around the current location.

On the iPhone 3G the Weather app icon on the Home screen is a bit screwy. On the v1 firmware the icon used to show as 23 degrees all the time, after all, it's just an icon. But on the v2 firmware this changes to 73 all the time. I believe it used to show 23 for Celsius or 73 for Fahrenheit but depending on the mood of the OS it'll flit between the two icons depending on what mood its in, even though I'm set to Celsius. A bit of an annoying bug.

Contacts App

The contacts app looks mostly the same on iPhone 3G. The only change I can see is it doesn't seem to know its own phone number. On the old iPhone if one flicked to the top of the list your number would be there, but now it's replaced with a Search box.

In addition to this the Contacts list seems to take several seconds to show contacts when you select the name, this never happened with the v1 firmware. Because of this delay sending group text messages to several people is painfully slow as one is always waiting for the iPhone to catch up. This might have something to do with Exchange & MobileMe support, neither of which I use so I don't see why I should be punished for them. Annoying bug.

YouTube App

The YouTube App is unchanged from the original firmware. When out and about away from your WiFi clouds on EDGE or 3G signals YouTube sends out a lower quality video. I could understand this for the limited bandwidth EDGE provides, but the app not streaming the full quality video over a 3G connection is (sloppy) a bit of a missed opportunity, or perhaps a bandwidth saving measure for the mobile networks.

Phone App

When typing a phone number into the iPhone 3G it assumes you're dialling a US-format phone number even though you're dialling within the UK.

Tapping in 0123456789 shows the number as (012) 345-6789 and doesn't show without brackets and the hyphen until the full number is put in. Apple, I'm not American and I don't live in the US.


As proof of this dialling internationally in the US format, putting in 01123456789 translates on screen to 011 23456789 with a space in it. Another bug.

Safari & Email

The only obvious difference in Safari with the 2.0 firmware is pressing and holding a picture brings up a menu asking if you want to save the image. The same happens with pictures in the email app.

No Flash or Flash Light support which is slightly disappointing. It would be nice if there was a non-YouTube flash video player so one could see videos on other sites, like Google Video or suchlike. It's worth noting, however, that the internet without loads of huge flashing adverts is quite a nice experience so it's not all bad.

iTunes WiFi Music Store & AppStore

In addition to the iTunes WiFi Music Store the AppStore is another place you can spend your well earned pennies. Evidently Apple hand-picked the developers and apps available to download and purchase (a selection of apps are free to download and use) which one would believe would mean the apps would be high quality. There's some utter, utter trash on there with some good stuff mixed in.

Many applications previously featured in the Installer App for jailbroken old iPhones and iPod Touches are there but with a different name. There are some decent applications available, like the dedicated (free) Facebook app and a few good 3D games like Sega's Super Monkey Ball (£5.99) or Cro-Mag Rally (£5.99) by Pangia Software. Both use the 3D chipset very well and the whole iPhone (or iPod Touch) becomes the controller using the accelerometer to work out, very sensitively, exactly how you're holding the device. Very nice.

If the application you're downloading is 10Mb or less then you can download it over the mobile network, if it's larger you have to download it over WiFi.

This brings me to criticism of the iTunes WiFi Music Store. Even if you're downloading a 3Mb track you HAVE to do it via WiFi – the store doesn't function over EDGE or 3G.

Does Apple give the mobile network a cut of the profits from AppStore purchases but doesn't want to cut its bottom line when it comes to music tracks? No idea. But with 3G available it's a shame you can't purchase music tracks in the same way as Apps.

Summary and Final Thoughts

Although I've bitched about the iPhone 3G it's still a fantastic product. The interface is as close to perfect as I want it to be.

It's not really that much different from the iPhone which is my main complaint. I'm glad Apple didn't call it the iPhone 2, it's not a huge upgrade on the original iPhone (What's different? GPS, 3G and a different colour curvy back) which means it's a bit of a let down.

If you haven't bought an iPhone already then buy the iPhone 3G – it's an old iPhone with a bit more and it's lovely. If you've already bought an old iPhone then the upgrade might just be worth it if you're coming up to month 12 of your contract as you get an early upgrade in the UK. If your old iPhone isn't jailbroken then you'll get many benefits by just upgrading the 1.1.4 software to 2.0.

It's still a bit buggy as I've described above, so I'm looking forward to 2.1 to fix some of those problems.

Enjoy.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Rerolling your World of Warcraft Character

Six weeks ago, after a long and hard think, I decided to give World of Warcraft a rest. It it was getting repetitive. Once you've got to level 70, the highest level currently available, it seemed to turn into Groundhog Day for me. I found myself doing the same daily quests all the time, getting rich and having nothing to spend the money on. I spent a lot of time walking through the large expansive land looking at all of the wasted area and pretty scenery knowing that nobody else was around.

I told Blizzard not to renew my WoW subscription and instead went out and bought Age of Conan to see what it was like.

Age of Conan is stunning and beautiful but, and it's a big but, the game is just too buggy for me to take seriously at the moment. I found myself having to sign out and sign back in (which does indeed take a while as it ends up generating some huge checksum for a 26Gb install) four or five times in a two hour gaming session in hope of a quest finally working, and then the game client would crash, or the servers would go down. Not my idea of fun.

What finally did AoC in for me was the fact that FunCom, who manage to ruin any game they touch (they put the 'Anarchy' in Anarchy Online) with their piss-poor infrastructure, started giving away a free days play as a cheap shot at trying to make people stay. I've kept the box and the DVDs and the manuals for now and I'm sure that I'll give it another go in a few months to see if they've managed to make their servers able to support the lush and beautiful living world they're marketing, as well as the people who have bought the game.

I navigated to the World of Warcraft European website, excitedly prodded in my username and password and restarted my subscription, opened the WoW client, logged into the Aerie Peak server and started to have a look around right away.

I found myself in Shattrath City, a neutral capital city with excellent connections and then it struck me, I had nothing to do apart from the same "dailies" - quests which offer reasonable rewards for repetitve work - and this wasn't going to do. I needed to do something else, something fresh and new so I decided to roll (create) a new character and start from the beginning which meant temporarily retiring Hayn. Hayn is my main character, a Level 70 Night Elf Hunter, pictured below overlooking a lake in Zangarmarsh, Outland.

We've had some huge adventures, good times and some bad times. He's snuffed it more times than I can count but has been a terribly robust toon for me to play with and I've nurtured him from level 1 up to the highest 70 becoming more powerful with each passing level. He's two years old, I've matured in the game world with him, helped out new starters, raided huge unending dungeons and, more importantly, had fun.

I rolled a Druid, a Night Elf Druid. I've never played a druid before. He plays on the same Aerie Peak server where Hayn now sleeps (his early life is going to be subsidised by him) and his name is Noobcakes.

I stayed with the same faction and race as before - I like the Night Elf. They've got good dance moves and jump in an amusing way plus they have one of the best looking mounts out there, the Nightsaber.

Of course, I've also got an Elekk too, but that's a different story of dedication to a new faction which is a bit complicated to go into.

Anyway, why a druid? Apart from the positive unfamiliarity with the character (something new!) I thought he'd be an interesting proposition. I found that the Hunter class, while being rock solid, was available in excess at end-level instances so one always felt that all the time one had invested in the creation of such a character left one with nothing but something which was very much surplus to requirements. A druid can be a healer, and there's always space for a healer. But he's a healer who can stand up on his own and stand out in a group.

Noobcakes, pictured above, lacks all the groovy stuff Hayn models. He hasn't earned it yet, after a few hours of playing he's just a level 9 character, one of the countless level 9's pleading for help in the general chat channels who one generally ignores unless bored. Having to group up with those who are essentially UTTER NOOBS is slightly grating at times ("Where is it? "It's at 46,32" "Wha?" "Those are the coordinates. "What is coordinates?" "You need an addon." "Wha?") but I guess we all had to start somewhere.

It's going to be difficult and new, I'm not sure how he works exactly or how I should be playing him or which direction to guide him in but it should be fun finding out.

Wish me luck.

Oh No - Yet Another One

Yes, another blog - hopefully the feeling will pass and normality will be restored.