Tuesday, June 10, 2008

iPhone 3G, still missing features

Well, the iPhone 3G has been released.

The two new features over the previous generation iPhone are realtime GPS and 3G data speeds.

The sad part is really what it doesn't have:
  1. Stereo Bluetooth headset support (A2DP)
  2. Copy and Paste
  3. Video recording
  4. Global search (they let you search contacts now, but not notes or calendars, Palm OS has had this for years!)
  5. DUN tethering (so I can use the phone as a 3G modem on my laptop either over Bluetooth, or preferably, USB)
  6. Notes syncing with Outlook (on Windows) or Mail (on Mac OS X)
  7. A ToDo app with syncing with Outlook (on Windows) or iCal (on Mac OS X)
  8. MMS (picture messaging, so far they still only support text messaging)
  9. Chat/IM support for popular chat apps (MSN Live Messenger, AIM, GTalk, etc.)
  10. Voice activated dialing
  11. Syncing music/video/podcasts and calendar data over Bluetooth or WiFi. Why should I have to connect a USB cable just to sync?
  12. Forward camera and video chat support
  13. Undo in most apps (something PalmOS apps have had for over a decade.
  14. Turn by turn GPS
  15. Bluetooth support for keyboards and standard devices other then headsets and headphones.
Oh there is also a $99 a year fee for Mobile Me to get some of the live syncing features.

AT&T is also raising the unlimited data rate from $20 a month to $30 a month. Their cheapest family share plan is still $59.99 (plus the iPhone data of $30 a month per iPhone) although it is now 550 minutes a month instead of 450. Assuming you wanted two iPhones (the situation I'd be in with my wife) you'd be looking at $59.99 + $30 + $30 = $119.99. Just prior to the announcement it would've only been $99.99.

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