Commentary on the most interesting tech, photography, design and media links of the day
John Gruber comments on Adam Lisagor's experience on snapping photos with the 3GS, and notes:
… a few times where I thought I’d missed the shot based on my experience with the original iPhone and 3G, I’ve gotten the shot with the 3GS. But after reading Adam’s piece and testing it out side-by-side with my old 3G, there’s no maybe about it. As Adam says, something smart is happening here.
iPhone 3GS vs Nokia N97: Entering text – Watch in HD on YouTube.
At 4:44, text input accuracy is demonstrated.
The N97 has a physical, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but because the phone does not have an auto-correct function, there were several errors in the text entry.
No mistakes were present in the final text entry on the iPhone, which only has a touchscreen keyboard, but has the added advantage of a built-in auto-correct feature.
Nokia N97 vs iPhone 3GS – dreyfus2:
Seriously, I have been testing the N97 for almost three weeks for a German paper. I edited the review twice to remove appropriate strong language before submitting it, and even after my self-censorship the responsible editor was giving me a strange look ("that bad?"). Nothing about this device feels anywhere as fast as the 3GS, actually a lot of things feel slower than the 3G. The build quality is OK, not as good as the iPhone (far from it), but light-years ahead of the Pre and the keyboard is quite good. The real disaster no. 1 is the OS and their App Store copy is disaster no. 2. If this is all the world's leading cell phone maker can do, they should go out of business. The OS is unresponsive and downright illogical, once you depart the home screen, it is one unholy mess. And the Ovi Store, well, it's even messier. A wild mix of apps, wallpapers, sound files and media content with no structure or style. Disgusting would be an understatement. Honestly, I think we will see a decent Android smartphone by Motorola long before Nokia finally decides to drop this Symbian crap (or at least use it for dumbphones only). Symbian is hopeless.
One of the best uses of the magnetometer / compass plus camera plus accelerometer plus GPS functions on the iPhone 3GS I've ever seen.
(via Daring Fireball)
Apple devices may give Flip some competition – "Even Simon Fleming-Wood, head of marketing for Flip, concedes that the iPhone 3GS offers the best video capture of any mobile phone he's tried. And he believes it will be good for the entire camcorder market, bringing new attention to video capture."
Short feedback on the magnetometer (compass) and video features of the iPhone 3GS – teckstud:
I was showing it off to a friend who has the prior 3G iPhone. We were walking down a street in the East village and the way it was tracking our steps was wild. When the compass went to street level and showed us the building that we were standing in front of- he flipped! I think he's going to shell out the money earlier to upgrade than he was hoping too. He also could not believe all the videos I shot of the fireworks over the Hudson on the 4th. They are pretty amazing- both in their detail and color saturation.
teckstud's opinions on his new iPhone 3GS – Briefly …
I've had a few issues with connections but nothing major. It took about 3 hours to be fully up and running. The 3G Safari is sometimes slow but as my friend who's had the iPhone 2years told me – Verizon owns NY.
I love this phone- the camera and video paired with the OS is a dream. I had checked out other Verizon phones ( I was up for a new one) and while they had cameras and video – it was the simplicity in the use that Apple brings that tipped me. I knew I had to have this device eventually and coupled with my b'day I got it Friday. As it was July 3rd most people had fled NY and only 3 people were in the line- it maintainted a 10 deep level for the 45 mins I was there.
I also am diggin the MMS texting on this phone more than any other phone I've ever had. The iChat like display for texting is great.
I just discovered yesterday the button for the vibrate is really not a button (I kept pushing it ) but a slide latch.
I also found an amazing case the next day at a new AT&T store in my hood. It's called a ifrogz and it too is amazing. It's both ergonomic and non slippery.
So to summarize, I reconcile all my prior posts by the fact that the new device itself with that great OS ( I was primed on the Touch) and App store overrides the AT&T issues here in NY. So far, I love it!
CNET TV takes the phones through three speed tests – A 6:10 video clip shows the Palm Pre to have an extremely slow start-up time relative to the two iPhones, but is faster at surfing web pages with its web browser, and faster at taking a picture AND sending the photo via email.
The "prizefight" tests the speed of the smartphones together with that of the carrier (Sprint for the Palm Pre, AT&T for the iPhones).