New iPhone 3G announced today

A little more than a year ago, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the MacWorld 07 Conference. If you're a follower of this blog, then you would know that I have been using the Apple iPhone for the past year. Although I was not completely happy with the first generation iPhone in my initial review, I wanted the new 3G iPhone to improve on the first generation and I've been anticipating today's keynote address by Steve Jobs.

The new 3G iPhone was announced today at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This is a much anticipated and rumored announcement. For months, there are forums speculating the new iPhone of its features, design and cost of the phone. It's now only $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB version. It sports a 3G data connection. Basically, Apple finally addressed most of my gripes (and other iPhone owners as well) with the debut of this new iPhone. I'm happy to say, job well done. Watch the keynote below.

This is the commercial for the new 3G iPhone.

As you already know, this new iPhone has 3G data connection from AT&T which is not available to the iPhone until now. 3G was only available to the Blackjack, Treos, and Q. The old EDGE data connection was so slow that it wasn't feasible to use the iPhone for Web access unless you have a WiFi access near by.

The other new feature that I was anticipating is the Enterprise email connection to Microsoft Exchange Server. iPhone users can receive their company's corporate emails, data, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, with their iPhone. They improved on their PDA portion of the iPhone

The new 3G iPhone has built-in GPS. It's not a big deal to me since I already have a portable GPS (Navigon 2100) and my Blackberry Curve has TeleNav. Nonetheless, it's one of the big selling point of the new iPhone 3G.

Finally, you will be able to download Apps right from the iPhone such as games, and other utilities.

My iPhone Ran Out of Space

Crap! My 8GB iPhone ran out of space today. I was trying to sync up my latest podcast download of Photoshop User TV, when I discovered none of my videos were able to sync nor download due to storage capacity exceeded. I couldn't believe it because my capacity had always been near but never exceeded maximum capacity. It must have been a recent email I received with a large attachment which pushed it over the limit.

The problem with iPhone email is that it's not search-able by size. It's near impossible to find the culprit that rendered my iPhone useless. So, I tried to delete all emails on my iPhone since I have all emails downloaded to my Entourage. But there's no quick way of doing it. I can only delete one email at a time by the tedious procedure outlined in the Apple website. I searched most iPhone user forums and no one seems to know how to do it swiftly and quickly. I even went to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, they don't have a brief way to delete emails either. I'm really stuck because not only emails in my inbox is taking up space, my sent items are equally just as guilty in killing my iPhone.

So, what I did finally was reset my iPhone to factory settings, and then download my music, videos, and movies again. It cleaned out my trash, sent items, and drafts. I also deleted all instant messages and its conversations. This was a relatively brief procedure (15 minutes) as compare to deleting each email one at a time.

Finally, a headphone jack adapter for the iPhone

Ever since I got my iPhone, I've been looking for an adapter to the headphone jack so that I can use my Bose in ear headphone rather than the headphone that came with the iPhone. Frankly, that headphone really sucks and not very good high fidelity. Also, I've misplaced those headphones for the n!th time.

Initially, Belkin came out with an adapter for the price of $10, but it's so big, long, and rigid that it looks horrible with the iPhone. Not to mention, it doesn't have a mic, or on/off switch to use with the iPhone to make and receive calls.

Vodaphone also had a headphone which significantly better than the Apple headphones but it cost $100.

Finally, today while I was waiting patiently for a Mac Genius to fix my iPhone, I discovered on the shelf Monster had developed a iSoniTalk for the iPhone which cost $20. You can use your favorite headphones to listen to music and take calls on your iPhone. It has an easy one button operation to play/pause music, or asnwer/end a call. The intriguing design of this product is that the cable is equiped with clips to attach to the headphone wire so that it can act as a single unit. I really like this product and I found it to be a great substitution to the Apple headphones.

Replacing the iPhone

I dropped my iPhone for the n!th factorial time last week, and now the on/off switch is jammed into the phone. My iPhone was enclosed in a InCase leather case and only 10% exposed and for some reason, invariably, that's the part the phone is dropped! It's now affecting the battery. It's going dead really fast. Once it's gone past half way point, I have perhaps, another 5-10 minutes of usage time before it's completely dead. BUMMER!

So, I scheduled a Mac Genius reservation at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store at the Grove. I waited patiently as my reservation had came and went, and now it's way pass my scheduled time. I'm beginning to be very annoyed, but I tried to stay calm as I need one of these Geniuses to assist me with the repair of my beloved iPhone.

When they finally called my name, which seems to be eternity, I popped onto one of the highchairs (barstool) and begin to tell my sob story to one of the Geniuses. He listened intently and feign a occasional concern to what I have to say... with "I understand", and "I see". So, I thought I can have it repair and perhaps have a functional iPhone once again. To my dismay, all he said was because it was dropped for the n! factorial time, and beyond the 30 days warranty, my only option is to purchase a new iPhone in exchange of my damage phone... for a nominal fee of $249 plus tax! Aargh! I don't want to drop another $250+ for a new iPhone when I already purchased it at $600+ and then within 2 months, the price dropped $200.

So, I went back to my office, and I used a very very tiny screwdriver and pry loosed the on/off switch. It's a little marred-up, but at least it's now functioning. Let's hope I don't drop it again. :-(

iPhone Review II

Now that I had an opportunity to work with my iPhone for the past 2 months, I have a revised review of the PDA/iPod phone.

1. The AT&T Edge is still slow and virtually no improvement during the past 2 months. I'm really hoping that Apple and AT&T will work harder to resolve this issue. Even though it's not a real problem for me because I have WiFi hotspot at home, my girlfriend's house, at SAG's office and conference rooms, I still find it a nusaince to have to connect via Edge such as when I'm driving and I want to check on LA Sig Alert for traffic condition.


2. The virtual keyboard initially was pretty cool and then I really hate it. However, after using it for the past 2 months, I'm, beginning to be very proficient at using it. My accuracy have tripled since the last post of the review of the iPhone. In fact, when I have the sound turned on, I can hear myself typing as fast as using a regular keyboard because it just clicks at a high rate incessantly. It also started to learn my most common words and words/names that are in my calendar, contacts, and emails and figures out what I'm trying to type. However, some words such as "bit" and "but" will never be fixed. There are other words, but it's not as annoying as when I first got the iPhone. I still wish they would learn a couple of lessons from RIM Blackberry on keyboard shortcuts such as holding the key for 2 seconds for capitalization and pressing the space bar twice for period. It would speed up my typing some more.


3. No To Do or Task List – Can you believe it? However, I discovered Tada List and it's free. It's the web base version of ToDo lists. It's compatible with iPhone's Safari web browser. However, it's web base, and it's slow when I'm not on a WiFi hotspot.


4. I inititially had a rough time synching my iPhone with Entourage, but after hacking at it for 3 days, it finally worked and it's now working flawlessly. I wish it would sync faster like my Palm Treo. Synching currently takes 10 minutes or so depending on the number of items I have.


5. Recently iTunes 7.4.2 update allows mp3 files ringtones converstion but you'll have to pay $0.99 for the song, and another $0.99 for converting it to a ringtone. Kinda sucks that you have to pay double, but at least you can do it. You can even edit, loop, and cut the song to fit your ringtone preference.


6. I still charge the phone nightly. However, I carry a charger in my computer bad whenever I travel just so that I don't have to worry about battery usage. The USB charging off of my Macbook Pro charges very slowly. It would take more than 4 hours to have a decent charge.


7. The headphone that comes with the phone is not so good. Because of the phone jack, it’s so narrow that any third party headphones such as the Bose headphones are not compatible with the iPhone phone jack. Belkin makes an adapter for $9.95 but it sucks because it's so big and long and cumbersome. Wasn't the whole purpose of getting the iPhone is for the sleek, beauty, and coolness factor of having the phone?


8. What sucks is that Apple just lowered the price of iPhone by $200 ($399 for 8GB) and stop production of the 4 GB due to no one is buying it. What's great is that Steve Jobs is rebating $100 for all current 8GB owners.

Photoshop for the iPhone

Announced today by Adobe Sr. VP Johnny L. It's a funny spoof on the iPhone video at the Apple Computer website. This video was debut at the opening ceremony of Photoshop World '07 in Las Vegas today.

Self-Portrait with my iPhone

Here's a self-portrait with my iPhone while I was driving home from work. LA traffic is so bad that I have time to whip out my iPhone and
do a little creative work. What do you think?

I dropped my iPhone today

I dropped my iPhone today. The scratches are on 3 of 4 corners of the phone... see below.

Not only did I dropped it, I let it bounce and tumbled several times before resting face down the concrete floor. It never fails, whenever I drop my mobile phone, it's always when I'm on the run. You see, when I'm running, it creates additional momentum when the phone lands on the ground. So, the damage is more severe.

When I was using my Blackberry 8700C I used for SAG, I was running to the elevators from the garage, and it literally drop with a thud and slid across the floor 35-40 ft at approximately 10 mph. During it's journey across the floor, it picked up debris, dirt and crud which left permanent scratches on the phone. I later had to replace it with a newer BB 8800. Yep, you guessed it... within 2 weeks, I dropped it while chasing a subway car when I was in NYC in April for my 25th High School Reunion.

So, again, within 3 weeks, I dropped my iPhone. Aargh!! The darn Griffin holster broke on me. Do not make the same purchase becuase wen the clip broke off, it launched my iPhone in flight. Save your $$.

Blogging via the iPhone!

This is so cool. We can now update our blog from any place and anywhere.
Sent from my iPhone

I thought of returning my iPhone today!

Well, I was think about returning my iPhone today because today is not only Friday the 13^th, it’s also the last day you can return your iPhone if you bought it on the first day (6/29) of the launch. Mmm… now that I think about it… do you think Apple purposely launch the iPhone purposely 2 weeks before Friday the 13^th?

Well, initially I was ecstatic when I got the iPhone. (Read my previous posts regarding getting iPhone on 7/3). It was so cool having it in my hand and the GUI (Graphical User Interface) was so cool and never before seen in another PDA phone. I was really digging it so much that I was willing to overlook the “turtle-speed” AT&T Edge mobile service. However, the cool factor wore off pretty quickly as I found more and more annoying aspects of the iPhone listed below. The cool user interface and virtual voice mail is second to none. In fact, there are no other PDA phone can equal the iPhone’s “Coolness” factor.

1. The AT&T Edge is way too slow for any real function for Internet use such as surfing the Web, retrieving emails, updating weather, updating stock market, streaming YouTube videos, and checking directions from the Maps module. Although if you can get to a WiFi hotspot such as Internet Café, your house, or your neighbor’s unsecured WiFi access, the iPhone becomes a much speedier Internet device. But really, most of us didn’t get the iPhone just so that we have to be near a WiFi hotspot.
2. The virtual keyboard initially was pretty cool. Apple even has a video tutorial on it and it really got me sold on how smart the iPhone is initially. With the design of the virtual keyboard, it expanded the size of the screen. The keyboard is neatly “tucked away” when not in use and the entire real estate of the screen can be used for viewing video, movies, etc. However, the video is mis-leading. The accuracy of the keyboard is pretty low. In fact, during the 1^st week, I had to type over and over again to get the right keys to register. As the weeks went on, my accuracy got better. Another draw back is that, I can’t type while driving, which is something I shouldn’t do anyway. However, if you live in LA like I do, traffic is pretty slow most of the time. I also have to type focusing on my fingers rather than the display which I’m not used to.
3. No To Do or Task List – Can you believe it? I used to do lists and tasks lists all the time to remind me to do things with an annoying alarm. It will keep reminding me every 5 minutes until I’ve completed the task.
4. Can’t directly Sync to Entourage (Mac version of Outlook) without using iCal, and Addressbook. The whole synching was a nightmare to begin with. Like most of you, I’ve been using a PDA for quite sometime, and I wanted to off load that information onto my iPhone. It was a monumental task to move it from my Outlook, to my Entourage, and then iPhone required the latest version of iCal, and iTunes to transfer data. At times, I wanted to chuck my iPhone out the window.
5. Can’t copy and paste document – which is a major issue for me because I hate to re-type similar things or information from an email to a calendar event. Especially, I wasn’t that proficient with the new iPhone virtual keyboard.
6. Can’t view websites created in Flash. At first, it would be so cool to use my iPhone to showcase my Flash driven website (http://www.tiamophoto.com/) but I soon realized that it won’t work with Flash sites because they require a mouse pointer which the iPhone lacks.
7. Can’t download files nor applications. Here’s a real good one for you… are you sitting down? I signed up for a iPhone workshop after I got the iPhone with a local Apple Retail store. They sent me an email confirmation to my iPhone mail program. The email says to click here to add to my Calendar, so that it will remind me when my workshop appointment is near. Guess what, it can’t do it because it can’t download a file to add to my Calendar. Please bear in mind that I’m working with all Apple products and software and it’s not even compatible!
8. Can’t use mp3 files you own or purchased from iTunes as ringtones, The preloaded ringtones are a little on the “weak” side.
9. Battery life is horrible. I have to charge it every night otherwise, it would not last me for the whole day. Worse, the battery is embedded into the phone. Therefore, you can’t replace the battery or bring an extra battery. In fact, after a number of hours of usage, you must return your iPhone to Apple and have it serviced and have the battery replaced.
10. It has a notebook, but it doesn’t sync with Memo, Notepad, etc. I keep many of my passwords to websites sign on my Memo module. I can’t use it with my iPhone.
11. The headphone that comes with the phone is not so good. Because of the phone jack, it’s so narrow that any third party headphones such as the Bose headphones are not compatible with the iPhone phone jack.
12. It needs more storage other than 8 GB since the OS takes up 900MB.

Summary: The iPhone is a great iPod/Phone combination... second to none. However, as a PDA phone it still has a lot of room for improvement. You're better off with the Blackberry Curve, Treo 700p, or the Samsung Blackjack phone if you need a PDA phone.

Receiving my first call on my iPhone

From reading yesterday's post, you would know I got an iPhone. I spent the whole night charging the phone for the first time because I was too tired to activate the phone last night. The phone was half-charged when I opened the box. That was a nice of Apple to do that for us, just in case we need to use the phone right away.

Activation of the iPhone requires the latest version of iTunes and it allowed me to contact AT&T directly and activate the phone. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. I heard some poor fellow, took over 10 hours for AT&T to activate the phone. I really hate AT&T's service.

Below is a video of Lan calling me for the first time after I added her to the Contacts folder and with her distinctive ring.

Got my iPhone today! Yeah!

I got my iPhone today. Allen found a seller through Craigslist. He had 3 phones but all we need is just 2. He has the original receipts purchased on 6/29. It's brand new untouched, the seal is still on the box. He was willing to part with these 2 phones for a nominal fee... for his trouble for lining up on 6/29. Allen and I thought it was fair so I went to pick these phones up.

What's coincidental is that the seller is James Poon, one of my former scouts from Troop 206 (now Troop 283). It was nice chatting with him again. I'm glad that he's doing well in college.

Didn't get my iPhone yet.

I came in the office early this morning and Steve Graham told me that his wife got an iPhone and that Mark Friedlander waited in line last Friday at the Grove and got one as well. It turned out that there were plenty last Friday at some Apple stores as late as 9PM.

Boy, I could have gotten an iPhone had I made a trip to the Pasadena Store on Friday. Oh well, I can wait. I read the review and Apple has many areas to improve on the iPhone. It was kind a cool that Mark came by and show me the iPhone in the afternoon. He and I actually had a pact back in January that we will show each other's iPhone.. whoever gets it first. :-)

The Apple iPhone arrives today!

Apple computers are definitely the master of hype. I should learn a thing or two and apply to my own business marketing strategy. Steve Job introduced the iPhone back in January. The Keynote address blew Bill Gate's keynote at the CES away. It was no coincidence that the 2 Keynotes were presented at the same time at 2 different cities... Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Steve Job's presentation was so smooth that he got everyone convinced that everyone needs an iPhone and all 5,000 attendees wants to haul out and get the damn thing right away!

They had people lining up in front of the NYC 5th Avenue store starting this past Monday June 25th. They then closed the store from 2-6PM today to prepare for the launch. The people got anzy right around 6PM and the crowd started the chant in counting down to 6PM. The press were swarming outside the store as well to catch a glimpse of the launching of the iPhone. 6PM rolls around and the guests who lined up were greeted with High-Fives and applause.

These people just spent $1300 for 2 phones (because each person is allow to buy no more than 2 phones, and these people were running out of the store smiling. That's amazing! $1300 for 2 mobile phones and they were estactic and thought they were the luckiest people in the world!

People are camping on the Streets for the iPhone

I just heard in the news that there are people already lining up for the iPhone. It's not for another 4 days!!