First Impressions: iPhone 2.0 Firmware & App's Store

Friday, July 11, 2008

Ever since Apple formally announced the iPhone 3G I've been contemplating whether or not to replace my purchased-in-May-God-damnit 1st generation iPhone or simply wait it out for a model with 32gb or more of storage. Since the 2.0 firmware was going to be released - for free - for first gen iPhone owners, I decided to keep the first gen and "live without" GPS and 3G voice and data.

Thursday, around lunchtime, I went home and put the (leaked, thanks Gizmodo!) 2.0 firmware on my first gen iPhone and, after what seemed like a scary 35 minute firmware update (thought it had locked up on me!), started downloading Apps from the all-new App Store. The first thing I noticed with the 2.0 firmware is that Apple finally added a link on the home screen to the Contacts application, so that you didn't have to access the phone app every time you wanted to look up a contacts name or address. Very convenient!

The second and third things I noticed happened when I was adding a new e-mail account. First, the new push-based e-mail system is wonderfully fast and in my opinion will give RIM a run for its money (rumor is that Apple is working on an Enterprise version of the iPhone for businesses, so, nyah RIM!). The other great thing I discovered about the 2.0 firmware is that you can now see the characters you're typing in for passwords, instead of just seeing black dots. Used to be frustrating as hell to try and get a complex alpha-numeric-special character password in properly without being able to see whether or not the key you hit was right. Well done on that one, Apple.

Now, on to the App Store and the applications within! This is why I didn't jailbreak my iPhone. The App Store is well done, and the fact that over 500 quality applications were already available yesterday is spectacular. I downloaded a ton of free applications yesterday including: AIM (works great!), Remote (great iTunes remote control!), Google (eh), Mobile Flickr (yay!), Facebook, Myspace, WeatherBug (needs some work), Shazam (I've missed this one so much since I abandoned my Nokia N95), VoiceNotes, BoxOffice, and Twitterific. I also bought BattleAtSea (neat battleship game), and Band - which is a truly unique and innovative application for anyone who loves making music. I'm sure my bass teacher is going to love it when he sees it this weekend.

Overally, I don't really feel like I'm missing anything by upgrading my old iPhone to the new firmware. 3G data costs $10 more a month and doesn't really make a big difference to me, and since I've already got a GPS navigator for my car, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on that either - especially since the A-GPS built into the first gen iPhone works so well anyway.

Kudos to Apple on a wonderful upgrade to what I believe is the best gadget on the market today.

Technorati Tags: Gizmodo, Apple, iPhone, App Store, Jesus Phone, RIM.

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