We’ve been inundated with 3G iPhone rumors for months now, and there have been a lot of features speculated. A great many were confirmed today–plus some things that no one seems to have seen coming–but what did Apple miss?
The biggest disappointment for me is that we’re not getting a storage upgrade; we’re still stuck with the 8 & 16GB choices, while the iPod Touch users get a full 32GB to play with. Given that, so far, around 4,000 devs have been accepted into the Developer’s program, if there’s an average of only one app per accepted developer at the July 11th launch, we’ll have 4,000 apps to choose from and not a single byte more space to hold them.
Likewise, the camera has neither gotten a resolution boost nor a front-mounted partner to allow for video chatting. We’re still stuck with the single, largely inadequate 2.0MP camera with no flash.
There’s also no Wi-Fi boost. Even though 802.11n has been integrated into the $99 Airport Express, the iPhone/iPod Touch remains the only Apple product outside of the Mac Mini to still be running Wireless-G. For me, this means I’ll have to continue bridging my old Wireless-G Linksys with my Airport Extreme so that the iPhones in the house don’t slow everything else on the network down to G speeds.
On the software side, there have also been a tremendous amount of improvements. But still a few missing features.
First, the 2.0 software still does not have Cut & Paste. This is going to be a big issue for those Enterprise users who have been assured by Apple that their every request has been granted. How they overlooked this one is beyond me, as I’ve heard the complaint made since around the time John Mayer took the stage at MacWorld 07.
No video. What? Really? It’s true. Despite the fact that there are unofficial, non-SDK 3rd Party iPhone apps that enable this feature on the existing iPhone, Apple’s in-house team still seems to have missed the fact that people would like to shoot videos on their digital camera Phone. Worse still, the SDK may even be too restrictive to allow for a 3rd party to officially pick up the slack on this one. Jailbreak, anyone?
Another feature that’s been greatly wanted in the iPhone since it was first announces is MMS. I still have my old Sprint A-900 in a drawer. It has about 1% of the features of the iPhone, but one of those features is MMS. This is a feature so common that people simply cannot believe me when I tell them that I didn’t get the picture they sent because the iPhone doesn’t do that. It really undermines the Wow Factor when people realize that a move to the iPhone would mean they’d be giving up features available on the phone they got for free with their 2 year contract.
Honorable mention: Apple has not added a mobile iChat in the 2.0 release. In fact, 2.0 doesn’t include any new apps save for the AppStore. Perhaps they feel that the AppStore means they never have to write another iPhone app again. And maybe they don’t. Because Scott Forestall made reference to a nebulous IM client in the Keynote, which would be possible come September, I give this one honorable mention because it is at least a feature we know will be coming from someone. I think a lot of Mac-users would love to have a mobile version of iChat, but failing that we can at least hope the Adium crew is hard at work on an iPhone port.
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June 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Does the new iPhone support flash?
Will the next update have flash support?
June 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Ah, fine point. No, there was no mention whatsoever of flash support, though it will bear watching to see if there ends up being a 3rd party solution to that particular problem. Adobe was rumored to have been working on it some time ago. If they’ve come up with a solution, I would expect we’d learn about it right around July 11th.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I don’t understand Apple’s justificatin for not giving us MMS yet. I’m sure it will come eventually, but it is a very common feature of all phones these days. All the other stuff is just extra spoilings: copy/paste would be nice, but not necessary. Flash support is a little more desired. Better resolution on the camera?! This is the best mobile camera on the market right now, although low light pictures aren’t that great. I suppose we’ll get more software updates throughout the rest of 2008.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:11 am
you also missed proper Bluetooth support- with a 5 dollar application (Softick Audio Gateway), I can make my ancient Palm Treo support A2DP audio streaming over Bluetooth, easy as you please… And then there are common features like mobile tethering, wireless syncing, simple file tranfer, and others.
Apple’s website does not list which Bluetooth profiles are supported by either iPhone versions, but it seems very unlikely to me that they will allow developers to upgrade this feature. OS X got A2DP with Leopard, but who knows how long it willt ake with the iphone, if ever?
June 10th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I brought up the MMS issue in the forums when I first got my phone and realized that I would no longer be getting MMS meesages from family and friends. The overwhelming response I got was that I was an idiot because I could get emails with attachments. Never mind the fact that I can’t choose how people send me messages. From that point forward, I gave up all hope of ever getting MMS on my iphone. It is the one complaint I have with the iphone.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Thank U!!! I thought I was the only one in th WORLD that wants Multi Media Messaging on the IPhone!! It is damn embarrasing when u have to tell your friends that u can’t get pics and animated jokes or video clips!! And don’t even get me started with that e-mail with attatchment crap—U CAN’T OPEN IT WITH IPHONE!!! EVEN QUICKTIME FILES!!! Think I’ll pass on the new 3G… Maybe MMS and Video Recording apps will be available on the new App Store so I can pay ITunes $40 for somthing other people still get for free..
July 10th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
The only thing keeping me from buying the IPhone was MMS (receiving/sending pictures) last year! Now After one year they improved so much but can’t seem to find time to get a aplication that some FREE phone (with contract) and GO-phones have.
I Also find it embarrasing to tell my friends, “Sorry my 299$ IPhone, that zooms in and out by pinching the TOUCH screen, doesn’t receive images..” As for the FLash and copy/paste, neither are really all that important to me.
So basically I will be waiting for the third maybe forth generation Iphone…
-Alex
July 25th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I love my 3G iPhone. But 1)no MMS, 2)No video, 3)no proper bluetooth, 4) no cut, copy and paste. 5) No wi-fi syncing, 6) no front camera, 7)no flash support, 8)no java games. 9)no Hard Drive USB emulation mode,10)no IRDA 11)no where to attach a lanyard 12)no replacment battery. 13) No memory card slot.
If it wasn’t pretty, didn’t have a good screen and a great user interface, it just would not sell. OLED Screens, Touch interfaces and good design on other phones are gonna finish off the iPhone in a year or so if features are not added in a hurry.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I just hope that everyone will contiue to complain about all the NO’s that apple dont have. I hate the fact that i too have to tell my friends that I cant get MMS. what a waste of money. for that i hate the phone for everything else its great.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:17 am
here here!