Digital Trends

Apple iPhone 3G 16GB September 22nd, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin

Third-Party Applications

The App Store is definitely a standout feature, offering about 1000 apps at the time of this writing. Although we wound up spending about $50 on apps just in the first day alone, about 200 of the apps in the store are free. The sheer number of developers combined with Apple's screening process lots of customer reviews make this the platform to write for.

Our favorite apps so far include Apple's own free Remote, which lets you control iTunes (and AirTunes) on your computer wirelessly, Pandora (an Internet radio service), Air Hockey, and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, a maddeningly addictive driving game that uses the iPhone's accelerometer. And they're easy to manage, showing up in iTunes as its own icon in the left pane, as well as in the new Applications tab when your iPhone is connected. We did, however, run into a few apps that wouldn't install, wouldn't load, or crashed the phone.

We're looking forward to seeing developers integrate the iPhone into multiroom audio systems, home theater systems, DVRs, game consoles, and other networked gear.

A-GPS

The Assisted-GPS feature uses data from satellites, WiFi networks, and cellular towers to locate you with very good accuracy. In our testing, the iPhone located us far more precisely when we had a clear view to the sky (and thus the satellites) than when we were indoors and it relied on cell and network data.

We found Google Maps and features like live traffic reliable in New Orleans and New York City, but accuracy may vary depending on where you are. You can also visit the App Store and pick up a third-party app like Where, which is a location-based social networking tool, or G-Spot -- a GPS-based utility to help you remember where you parked.

Multimedia Playback and Bluetooth

The iPhone 3G is a killer iPod, with excellent browsing and playback capabilities. Audio format support includes WAV, Apple Lossless, MP3, AAC (protected and DRM-free), and Audible, while video is still limited to MP4, M4V, and MOV (all using either the H.264 or MPEG-4 codec).

Apple hasn’t added much to this part of the interface since the original iPhone. The only significant enhancement is Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, which is important since the original iPhone lacked this feature unlike just about every other smartphone. We used several Bluetooth headsets with the iPhone 3G, and all worked fine, with no lag in the audio/video sync, and music pauses when a call comes in.

Battery Life

Unfortunately, 3G guzzles power, cutting battery life for talk time in half when you're talking or browsing -- 10 hours of 2G versus 5 for 3G. Most iPhones will last around 12 hours with moderate use features like browsing, GPS, texting, and talking. If you're using a Bluetooth headset, WiFi, 3G voice, push email on your Exchange account, and the camera, you'll burn through the battery in about half a day.

The iPhone's battery is frustratingly not user-removable; you have to send it in to Apple for a total of about $85. If you're planning on using all of the phone's features heavily, consider an external battery pack -- they should start hitting the market by August.

Who Will Dig it and Who Won’t

We're hard pressed to find someone who doesn't want the iPhone 3G -- a situation that has led to global shortages that are likely to continue for a few more months. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on one, it'll be well worth it for personal use given its versatility and extensibility. Just make sure you can live without video recording.

Business users should to check with their IT department about deployment, but the infrastructure appears to be solidly in place for the iPhone to start stealing market share from RIM's BlackBerry. Business users are also far more likely to run down the battery in less than a day, so keep that charger handy

Pros:

• Very good call quality
• Faster Web browsing
• Excellent 3rd-party app support
• Improved email support
• Broad feature set

Cons:

• Still no video recording or native MMS
• 3G drains battery quickly
• No expandable memory
• Battery isn't user-replaceable