iPhone OS 3.0
Over 1,000 new APIs. Over 100 new features. Hmmmm… I’m sure developers are loving it. But for the normal user (like myself), I see no big deal besides the push function and copy and paste. Even they are not things to rave over: copy and paste – does it really take 2 years after the iPhone launch to implement?? Push – weren’t we supposed to get this last September?? Hmmmmm… nothing new/groundbreaking here. Apple is just putting the missing things back in. That’s the way I see it…
… but still, I want to see it in action. Since my US venture also develops for iPhone, I might just install iPhone 3.0 beta for a test run.
Anyway, for those who need to know what is coming in summer:
- Search your iPhone
- Cut, copy, and paste
- Send photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS
- Read and compose email and text messages in landscape
- In App Purchase
- Apple Push Notification service
- Wireless Bluetooth accessories
- Peer to Peer Connectivity
More about the iPhone 3.0 software
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Just my two cents as a UI designer:
In the absence of a physical keyboard and mouse, gesture-based UIs take a lot of user testing to get right. From what I gather, the cut/paste UI on the Blackberry Storm is very finicky and bordering on unusable, and I’m told the cut/paste UI on the iPhone still needs a bit fine-tuning prior to official release.
It’s often better to deploy a good solution late than to rush out a lousy implementation, and changing the gesture behavior for the latter could even create more user confusion. Customers tend to forgive you more quickly for the former than the latter. A year from now, most users will have forgiven or forgotten that iPhone didn’t ship without cut/paste, but I don’t think that the Blackberry Storm’s cut/paste implementation did much to help its sales on launch.
I agree with you to a certain point.
Take the time to get it right, yes.
But if it really took all this time (1.5 yrs), then the UI designer has serious issues.
I’m sure it was a decision based on priority than anything else (and whoever got his priorities wrong).
Never used a BB before so can’t comment.
The way I see it is that Apple has gone from being innovative and refreshing to the same level as M$. They just milk people for some lousy updates, come on…bluetooth functionality, MMS, those things even a basic 100$ Nokia or Samsung phone can do. And a 600$ phone can’t??? They even hardly updated the new iMacs and mac mini’s. It’s outrageous…Big thumb down for Apple. >:(
Eddie: definitely agree on the priority part. After all, iPhones sold reasonably well even with cut/paste absent.
David: I assume you are an iPod Touch customer? Whatever justification is being used to charge for updates to the iPod Touch (Sarbanes-Oxley), I honestly believe that an OS fundamental such as cut/paste should be free.
I have an iPhone, so I don’t get dinged by the upgrade fees, but I think that particular accounting law is being applied too strictly in this case.
Nah, still have a 5th gen Ipod mini
If the next iPhone would have all the necessairy things I require, I might consider to buy it. But at the moment I can’t afford. I was going to buy an iMac this year when a new job would come along, but after I saw a few weeks ago that Apple didn’t even put an i7 core in their new macs I decided I’ll stick to a new pc. Linux works fine for me too, and maybe even windows 7 might become something good. It’s just that imho Apple is losing his innovative side, and wants to make a good revenue, by milking out the brand. Small updates etc.
It was suggested/theorized elsewhere that when it came to the iPhone, Apple deliberately prioritized the differentiators first (e.g. decent mobile web browser, iPod functionality) and consciously decided to play catchup on the “basics” later (e.g. search, cut/paste). I think a lot of iPhone users (casual and techies alike) now take Mobile Safari and iPod functionality for granted (myself included), and are demanding the missing basics.
I completely agree that adding “basics” doesn’t sound much like innovation at all. But it’s easy to forget the impact iPhone made when it came out with the first widely-deployed “pleasure-to-use” (IMO) web browser on a mobile device.
I do agree that some advancements on the hardware front would be nice, though.