This has been a big iPhone week for me personally. The iPhone 3GS that I ordered last week arrived on Tuesday, and I have really loved the upgrade from my iPhone 3G. The increased speed is wonderful; it makes the device feel so much more responsive. I'll post a full review after I have a chance to use it more. There was also a huge spike in traffic to this website on Wednesday as lots of people came here to read about the new em dash feature in 3.0 and the missing en dash. It's interesting how many of us can get so interested in the little details, but perhaps not surprising when it comes to the iPhone; Apple is so good at producing polished products that we expect perfection even in the tiny details. If you read the post when it first went up Wednesday morning, click here to read it again to see the update that I added later in the day about the cool Glyphboard web app and to read the very interesting comments.
Anyhoo, here are some of the interesting iPhone-related items that I ran across this week.
- Which company has the best 3G service? PC World conducted an extensive test of 3G speeds in various cities around the country, even down here in the Big Easy. In short, PC World found that Verizon's 3G service was the fastest and most reliable with an average download speed of 951 kbps across 13 cities, Sprint did well at maintaining a connection and had an average download speed of 808 kbps, and our beloved AT&T had an average download speed of 812 kbps, with individual tests in different cities ranging from 477 kbps in New York to 1259 kbps in Boston. When you read the article, you may also want to check out this table showing different averages in different cities.
- I would have never thought of the iPhone as being something that you could service yourself, but Jeff Carlson writes in TidBITS about how he replaced the cracked screen on an iPhone for about $80 in parts and about 4 hours in time. Even if you have zero desire to service your own iPhone, the pictures in Jeff's articles that chronicle his iPhone dissection are interesting. Jim Dalrymple also notes that Apple's retail stores can now fix a broken screen in-house if your iPhone is still under warranty. (Both links via Daring Fireball.)
Speaking of the fine folks at TidBITS, all of the titles in their excellent Take Control series of e-books are 50% off through July 7. Click this coupon-loaded link to view the catalog. Topics covered include the iPhone, Macs, iLife, AirPort networking, and more.- MacNN reports that the iPhone 3GS is #1 in the Consumer Reports smartphone ratings.
- Ars Technica reports that Apple has updated its MobileMe service. Among other new features, you can now publish video taken with an iPhone 3GS directly to MobileMe.
- Macworld reports that Apple is already preparing iPhone Software 3.1 with new features such as (1) the ability to trim a video on the iPhone 3GS but save the original, longer version, (2) the ability to use Voice Control with Bluetooh earpieces, (3) fraud protection in Safari, (4) performance improvements and (5) a new AT&T profile that might mean that MMS is coming soon from AT&T. As I noted earlier this year, iPhone Software 2.0 was released in July of 2008, followed by two minor bug fix updates the following month in August, the
major 2.1 update in September, the major 2.2 update two months later in
November, and then the 2.2.1 minor bug fix update in January of 2009. If history is to serve as any guide, then we may see iPhone Software 3.1 released within the next few weeks.
I reported earlier this week
that Quickoffice was selling its Quickword app at a discount, $4.99
instead of the normal $12.99. Quickoffice was so happy with that sale
that it discounted the rest of its apps. You can now get the
Quickoffice Suite for $12.99 instead of $19.99 (for the first 10,000
buyers), Quicksheet, like Quickword, is also discounted to $4.99 (for
the first 1,000 buyers), and Quickoffice Files is now just $o.99 (for
the first 1,000 buyers). By the way, a Quickoffice representative
tells me that the next upgrade to Quickoffice will add the ability to
open e-mail attachments (a feature that Documents to Go already has for
Exchange), full support for iPhone 3.0 cut, copy and paste, and improved
undo/redo. If you want both Word and Excel features on your iPhone, I
recommend that you click here to get Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite
($12.99): 
I wasn't the only one to get an iPhone 3GS, and a whole bunch of you got it before I did. AppleInsider reports on a leaked memo from AT&T that showed up first on MacDailyNews which reveals that Friday, June 19—the day that the iPhone 3GS launched—was the best ever sales day in AT&T's retail store history and the largest order day in att.com's history. Considering the blockbuster sales of the iPhone 3G when it launched (not to mention its successful year since then), I'm amazed to see that even more people bought the 3GS at launch.
And finally, David Dobin, an attorney in Massachusetts who is working as a judicial law clerk, has been teaching himself how to program iPhone apps. He has a few apps on iTunes right now, but one that looks particularly useful is iDoClipboard. When you launch the app, it automatically takes whatever you last copied and adds it to the app's running clipboard. You cap tap any item previously saved to the clipboard to view it or create an e-mail with that content. The app is free, so if this sounds interesting to you, check it out. Click here to get iDoClipboard (free):
If I have quickword, is adding quicksheet and files get me the same thing as quickoffice suite?
[Jeff responds: I think that all of the features of Quickoffice Files are incorporated into both Quickword and Quicksheet. If you already have Quickword, buying Quicksheet would get you the extra spreadsheet features. I would just pay a little more for the Quickoffice Suite because then you have a single app to manage all of your files, whatever the format. But if you don't mind having your spreadsheet files in a separate app, then you could just get Quicksheet and have both it and Quickword on your iPhone.]
Posted by: Jim Davis | July 06, 2009 at 10:31 PM
That's awesome that you can fix your iPhone screen yourself. I agree--never would've thought of iPhone repairs as a DIY project. That said, I, personally would be too lazy (and inept) to do it myself, so I was excited to find out that there's a company in New Orleans (well, on the North Shore) that does iPhone repairs super fast and inexpensively. I could be wrong, but I think they can actually replace a screen for less than $80, while also saving 4 hours of your time.
Please forgive the shameless plug of this company, but they saved my iPhone after it went for a swim, and I thought you might be interested because you're clearly into iPhone stuff. :) The company is called Chapel Wireless (http://chapelwireless.com), and I highly recommend them for any iPhone repairs/service. (They do other devices--WinMobile, iTouch, BlackBerry phones--as well.)
Also, if you're ever interested, I'm sure Jeff would be happy to sit down and explore the inner workings of your iPhone with you. He is by far the most knowledgeable person I've met when it comes to the inner workings of an iPhone. You can contact him via http://chapelwireless.com/contact.html.
Nice work on your blog. I look forward to reading more posts! :)
Posted by: Jessica Rohloff | August 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM