Original iPhone vs. 3G iPhone - a compairision chart
Suspected bugs and feature requests!
General mobile phone shopping questions
Questions needing answers
Q: Why does pulling out the USB to iPhone sync/charge crash
the explorer shell (and kill Windows Explorer) Even when I eject the phone first
it does this.
A:
Questions on IMAP.
Question: Why is the iPhone OS's IMAP so un-reliable? Sometimes messages
don't send and totally dissapear! Only like 30% of the outgoing emails actually
then show up in Sent. Sucks!
Answer:
Followup Question: When you sent "always BCC: myself" to on, does
this then make it so outgoing mail does not get queued in the Sent Mail folder?
Answer: Seems to...
Question: HOW DO YOU PICK UP ON A PREVIOUSLY STARTED DRAFT? Messages in draft
on other clients (specifically OL 2000, OL 2007, and Squirl webmail) can be
continued and sent - but not the iPhone...
Answer: If you configure the drafts on the iPhone IMAP client to be "local"
then you get the behavior described in the question above. One needs to specify
use of the server-side drafts folder to then obtain the desired behavor. (Note
that there might be SMTP port blocked stuff that limits or interferes with this
too.)
Question: How do you attach two pixs to the same email?
Answer: As of iPhone OS 2.2 you can't natively. Might be some add on apps that
do it. Obviously you can send them to yourself and then recombine them and send
it all off again. I don't think you can queue them as drafts and them cut/paste
them into one though.
Question: How to consistantly get the iPhone iTunes Remote
to actually start working? At work iPhone on wifi and laptop (with iTunes) on
LAN (same network and can ping etc.) the iPhone does not show on the iTunes
devices list. At work when both iPhone and iTunes laptop are on wifi it works!
At home when the very same iPhone and laptop are on the same wifi (different
from the work one) the iPhone does not show up in the iTunes devices list; here
the laptop Windows firewall is on, but iTunes is set up as an allowed exception
- removing all existing remotes does nothing.
Answers:
Question: You can't send to only BCC:s?
Answer:
Question: How 'bout performance, how can you tell what's using
CPU and RAM? Should you close all the browser tabs? Is the GPS sucking up battery
and bandwidth even though the map is not active in the forfront? Is mail still
checking? Why do the web page tabs show images of the pages you were last on,
but then need to reload from scratch again? Sometimes it seems to slow down
a lot and "crash", that is exit yout app back to the desktop (on its
own), but then be able to return to where it was in the app. The contacts piece
hangs too.(Running 2.0.2)
Answer:
Question: Can you play .flac or .ogg or other non-DRM less lossy or
loss-less or FOSS audio codecs on the iPhone iTunes?
Answer:
Question: How can you tell how much battery / talk / standby / wifi
/ cellnetwork / iTunes time is left? I know the big green battery when charging
and the little icon in the upper right, but I want to see battery % without
actually charging or guessing from the tiny icon...
Answer:
Question: How do you code an iPhone specific mobile page?
Like the Google maps and calendar ones?
Answer:
Question: Can I RDP or ICA or VNC or SSH from the iPhone?
Answer: There are a number of VNC clients, so far the free non-non-DRM'ed (that
is don't require jailbreak) ones I've tried are feature limited and s l o w.
Question: What version of iTunes (on PC) is the minimum required for
support of an iPhone with the 2.x OS?
Answer: UNKNOWN
Answer: Here
says, iTunes 7.4 or later is required for iPhone 1.1.2.
Answer: Here says,
using iTunes 7.7 or later, you can update your iPhone with the latest software.
Answer: Here says iTunes 7.3
or later to active an original iPhone, and though Last Modified: July 10, 2008,
this is prob relevent to the 1.x OS
Answer: iPhone_users_guide.pdf says iTunes 7.7 is required...
Answer: iTunes 7.7 is required for Remote (free iPhone app from Apple) to connect
from an iPhone (for which 2.x is required)
Answer: Just use hte current latest and greatest and stop asking questions!
Question: How do you copy and paste text on the iPhone?
Answer: You can't?...
Answer: THIS IS LAME.
Question: Is there anyway to use the iPhone to to via bluetooth put
a laptop onto the interweb?
Answer: Looks like this obvious PDA goes without saying feature requires de-DRM-ing...
Answer: PDAnet (requires
de-cripling iPhone)
Answer: AT&T-sanctioned
3G tethering on the way for iPhone (posted Nov 2008)
Question: How do you recover if you lose the unlock code?
Answer:
Question : Can you just put in a working SIM card from another network
into an iPhone and then have voice? No data, SMS, visual voicemail, just voice
and wifi?
Answer:
Question: Can you SSH into the phone - or is this one of the many things
which should be standard but require "breaking" it to do?
Answer:
Question: The Google Calendar page for iPhone talks about how you need SSH
and cookies on for it to work, but how do you configure any
of this?
Answer: Cookies is easy, Settings | Safari.
Answer for SSH?
Question: MacMe and Exchange are positioned as push email systems,
I guess vs. POP and webmail as pull. What is IMAP on the iPhone?
Answer: Seems to default to manual fetch - can set to timed fetch.
iPhone OS version history on Wikipedia there's nothing on apple.com, so this is the closest we'll get...
Some limited stuff here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
Original
- First Generation - 2G |
Second Generation - 3G |
Notes: |
- |
3G edge twice as fast! |
- |
better battery life |
- |
iPhone 3G offers up to 5 hours of talk time on 3G, 10 hours of talk time on 2G, 5 hours of Internet use on 3G, 6 hours of Internet use on Wi-Fi, 7 hours of video playback, or 24 hours of audio playback on a full charge at original capacity. In addition, iPhone features up to 300 hours of standby time. |
minimum monthly cost ~$60 |
minimum monthly cost ~$80 |
- |
location by mobile tower triangulation - seems to
work fine |
True GPS |
- |
8GB (and 4GB?) |
16GB and 8GB (32GB coming soon?) |
- |
Can't do Internet data and voice simaltaniously over
only connection to the cellular network, (i.e., no concurrent wifi connection)
incoming calls go directly to voicemail! |
Can do both at once (manual doesn't
say if only in 3G mode though) |
- |
- |
- |
No "teathering" - this is a AT&T limitation (imposed globally through only mandated in the USA?) and not a technical one. This is an iPhone thing, whereas "true" PDAs allow this and based on the monthly costs it is a reasonable expectation. |
| Headphone jack resessed so that some jacks won't fit... | Headphone jack slightly less resessed so less jacks won't fit... | - |
Suspected bugs and feature requests
Feature Request: Allow securely stored password fill-in into websites so you don't have to re-type them. Some passwords that are easy on a keyboard are a really pain on the iPhone - with mixed case and symbols.
Feature Request: Seperate volume control for ring volume from everything else. Seems like it you lower the volume of your music or whatever then the ringer is lower too. This I do not like. No mater what vol I have for an app I still want to be able to hear the phone ring from inside a bag or from another room.
Feature Request: Be able to go back to Now Playing more easily. On the very top right ofthe screen you see the play triangle - but touching it doesn't doanything. FOUND OUT THIS IS ALREADY A FEATURE - IF PLAYING IPOD A DOUBLE-HOME CLICK BRINGS YOU TO THE IPDOD INSTEAD OF FAVORITES!
Feature Request: App store update all. Updates are always coming out and it's annoying to have to go into each one and then if you wait too long you have to re-enter your password and if your too fast the whole device slows down...INCLUDED IN THE 2.2 OS!
How to do iPhone Ringtones in iTunes (obviously without the inconceivably asinine
prospect of paying for a ringtone)
Steps (Full
directions here):
Question: How to take a screenshot of the iPhone?
Answer: Press the home button and the lock button at the same time.
MINI OVERVIEW OF THE IPHONE BACKUP VIA ITUNES
Includes:
* iPhone settings
* downloaded applications
* contacts
* calendars
* notes
* images in the Camera Roll
NOT included in the backup:
* audio
* video
* photo content
(from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414)
To manually recover data:
* Vista path: C:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\<key
id of the backup iPhone>
* XP path: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Apple
Computer\MobileSync\Backup\<key id of the backup iPhone>
* Folder is full of plist files, convert these to xml format plists, pull the
content from the data keys, and then convert from Base64 to a binary files,
voila!
(from http://hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25317)
Question: Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone, right?
Answer: Waiting on Apple to release drivers or something... This vaporware is
the closest thing: http://www.avalive.com/MacAlly/BTKeyMini/43579/productDetail.php($92
pre-ordering MacAlly BTKeyMini Apple iphone keyboard Blue Tooth)
Answer: iPhone supports ONLY mono phone headsets
Question: WTF? "One of the recipient addresses was invalid"
almost all the time when sending email from the iPhone. It sucks. Why do I get
bad recipient for some eddresses that work from everywhere else from my iPhone?
Answer: Seems one needs to configure SMTP host and credentials accuately...
Question: How do you get your own wallpapers up?
Answer: For wallpaper you can use a picture you take, or sync pictures
over USB and use these.
Question: Can you do streaming (iTunes) music over the iPhone data
plan!?!
Answer: Don't think so...
Answer: Pandora! This is awesome!
Question: How do you customize your desktops - I saw it in the 3G Apple movie,
but can't yet do it?...
Answer: To customize your desktops, hold down an
icon, they all start wiggling, then you can drag and drop btwn and on desktops
to arrange.
Question: Can it does IMAP and SMTP over SSH?
Answer: yes…
Question: What's the cheapest plan I can get? Just voice basically…
Answer: ~$80 to $90 per month! $40 voice, $30 G3, $5 text,
plus taxes and fees
Answer: ~$60+/mo with the G2 phone's most basic AT&T plan
allowed
Question: Can you configure wifi security and multiple APs?
Answer: Yes
General mobile phone shopping questions
This I copy pasted from somewhere now unknown to me on the web, "Nivla (515687): I work for AT&T. Maybe you are just asking the wrong questions. Every time I activate a new customer I give them a print out of exactly how their first months bill and normal monthly bills will break down. This print out is avalible through any AT&T vendor and is called a CSS (Customer Service Summary) This print out breaks down everything on you bill including rate plan, data, messaging, extra services ( insurance, roadside assistants ...) taxes and fees broken down by which entity is charging which fees and taxes. Any good sales person will present you with this at the time of the sale. If you not getting one maybe you should consider going to a different AT&T store. Just like everyone else that franchises their business you are going to have good agents and bad agents"
These are some more fine questions: (Warning - they might bug the sales person; they are prob all answered in the fine print.)