I know, I know. I should be overjoyed for the new iPhone 3G. I should be super excited, like during Macworld 2007, when the Burger and I were texting/phoning during the whole keynote, refreshing our browsers on Macrumors‘ live coverage (even though we weren’t supposed to) trying to get news tidbits before the other could, then proclaiming simultaneously “I’m buying one” and then later “fuck, June? Seriously?”
And we did buy one. We each dropped $599 when June 29th rolled around, and have never been happier. Then the price dropped, we got our refund, still happy. After all, we had our phones for months before anyone else – that’s the price you pay for being an early adopter.
And now, the release of the next-gen iPhone. And for $199! Hooray!
Except, it’s kind of a big WGAS? It’s 3G, and downloads 2.4x faster than Edge. Ok. I get that. It’s got GPS, and can track. Ok, well a year too late, since I already bought my GPS for my car anyway. (And there’s always the GPS for the PSP! Um… wait a sec…) Besides, I can get a general location from cell towers, anyway, with my current iPhone, so I have no “location” issues. Oh, but it’s more tapered at the edges – great, so it will wobble when I put it flat on my desk? Awesome! Other than that, I can count on less talk time in 3G. Fantastic!
The ONLY improvement that matters at ALL is the non-recessed headphone plug. This should’ve been there from the beginning, but since I already bought my headphone accessories for the current plug, what do I care?
So, basically, there’s nothing “amazing” about this iPhone. I just wish that journalists and other Mac fanboys would realize it.
The story here is iPhone v2.0 SOFTWARE which, I hate to point out to everyone, iPhone 1.0 owners get FOR FREE. All the new improvements are built-in with the software update, and only the features for which we don’t have hardware… oh, so GPS… only the FEATURE for which we don’t have hardware will not work.
So, Apple still makes the best Smartphone around. But they made that a year ago, and other companies are getting the hint. So I’m not dropping more money on the same tech (just cheaper) from a year+ ago. I’ll wait another year for iPhone 3.0… unless it just adds a cupholder or some other similar underwhelming feature.
For now, I’m still ecstatic with my original.