It’s been a busy week here at TiPb, what with iPhone 3.0 launching last Wednesday and Apple barely giving us time to catch out breath before iPhone 3G S dropped on Friday. As always, we tried to bring you as much info as fast as we could, so in case you missed anything in the mad rush to the third iPhone generation, here’s a roundup:
Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.
So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!
Throwing any last remnants of fragile self-consciousness to the four winds, I break out my subpar French and very rusty Italian and Mandarin Chinese (Aiya!) and see if, even under the onslaught of terrible accents, Apple’s new iPhone 3G S Voice Control can still do as it’s told.
Note: the accent appears to be key. If you say a command in French, you can’t pronounce the following name English-style and expect good results (though Chinese seemed much more English name tolerant). However, I tried some (poorly rendered) regional accents at the very end and that didn’t seem to be a problem.
If you’re multilingual, or have a colorful twang to your speech, give it a try and let us know how Voice Control works for you!
iPhone 3G S comes with typical shiny white Apple headset buds, but for the first time these earbuds sport the new “remote”, which includes volume controls and more.
Apple previously introduced iin-ear headsets with remote and mic for the second generation iPod touch (and aluminum MacBooks) in September 2008, but clearly labeled them as not-compatible with the iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G because the “remote” part was useless.
What a different a generation makes.
Now the full control scheme introduced with the 4th gen iPod shuffle is available to iPhone 3G S owners with one notable difference — holding down the center button activates Voice Control.
We’re going to kick off the Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3G S excitement with a simple browser smackdown. The short version: the iPhone 3G S is faster in our video above, but the Pre is close and actually is edging out the iPhone after the just-applied 1.03 webOS update. The part you actually should pay attention to is "time to content," i.e. how long it takes to load up the stuff you actually want to read as opposed to the javascripty-bits. Bottom line: speed-wise there’s a hair’s-breadth between the two browsers, it’s so close that you really ought not be making your purchase decision based on it — or bragging about it either way.
Feature-wise, we give the edge to the iPhone 3G S — they are on version 3.0 while the Pre is just getting started at 1.02 / 1.03. The ability to pop up a link in a new browser window is quite nice — not to mention Autofill. I myself prefer the Pre’s Card metaphor to the in-app tabs of Safari, but that ’s a matter of taste.
Stay tuned for more as we pit these devices against each other!
Update: As noted in the comments and in a raft of emails, you can open links in a new card on the Pre with Opt + Space + Tap. It works, but Palm, really, Opt + Tap isn’t really doing anything here. Just saying. Thanks everybody!
The case of the missing battery percentage meter has been solved! Developers found it in the iPhone 3.0 beta, but when iPhone 3.0 release hit, it was nowhere to be found… until now!
Looks like it’s appearing exclusively on the new iPhone 3G S. Why, we have no idea — and can’t fathom a reason for, but check out Jeremy’s screenshot above. There it be!
TiPb’s giving away a 32GB iPhone 3G S (technically Apple gift certificate for $399). You had three chances to enter: on Twitter, by watching iPhone Live! and on our forums. And you entered in droves!
Best. Community. Ever.
Unfortunately, there can be only one winner, and for this contest, this time, the winner is…
Congratulations! Enjoy, and when you get your iPhone 3G S, send us a picture!
This is the second iPhone we’ve given out this year (along with tons of other stuff — so if you didn’t win, don’t fret, it could be your turn next time!)
OH… BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET!
The response on Twitter was so fantastic we’re giving away a special runner-up prize, courtesy of the TiPb iPhone Store, just for the sheer fantasticalness of all our followers and friends:
Okay, enough with the unboxings. Fair point. But we iPhone people only get one device a year, so this is our Super Bowl and dagnabit we plan to enjoy it!
Today iPhone 3G S was finally released and the madness is simply beginning. So what a better way to learn more about your new device by visiting TiPb’s very own forums? The past two weeks our forums have exploded, and we thank you for that!
So one of the new features Apple added to the iPhone is some nice updates to the camera. If you want to see the quality of pictures this new device takes or want to show off some pictures you have taken stop by the thread! Post photos taken with your iPhone 3G S here!
Next up we have a thread that Duvi beat me to the punch to, if you got your hands on a 3G S what are your initial thoughts regarding your purchase? Are you happy? Not happy? All I can say is Palm Pre what? This thing screams…
Last for today, Shawnluke wants to know, is anyone having issues with the iPhone OS 3.0 software? This is a great thread to share any bugs you may have found while using the latest software.
To be able to post in our forums be sure to register first, and welcome to our growing community!
*** If for some reason you need any help with your new device be sure to stop in the iPhone Help forum.
I’m going to go play with new my device now, see you on the forums!
I’m at the Apple Flagship Store, waiting in line for the latest, greatest iPhone 3G S. 10 or so people right now, but apparently some tour buses are on the way. We’ll update this thread with more from TiPb and our readers, so if you’re in line, head over to the TiPb iPhone Forums and post your pics, stories, and videos. Dieter will move some of the funnest over here.
