In the news

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.)
• MacNN reports that the iPhone 3GS is #1 in the Consumer Reports smartphone ratings.
• 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.
• 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):