Everyone is all excited today about the free iPhone 3.0 software update. Everyone that is except me… Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably dock my first gen iPhone tonight when I get home and download it. The only new features that I’m interested in trying right now are spotlight search, cut and paste and voice memos.
So instead of watching the clock till I can get home to update my iPhone, I am doing a couple of different things today. First of all, I returned my Palm Pre to my local Sprint store this morning. The return was painless. The clerk recognized me from the day I purchased it, and when he saw me with the bag in my hand, he said “Didn’t work out huh?”. About 15 minutes later I was walking out of the store. No hassles, evil eyes or anything. I did have to pay a $15 return charge. It would have been $30 if the only reason for the return had been because I had just changed my mind. But since it was due to the coverage area, it was just $15.
The rest of the afternoon I’m going to spend trying to find applications to install on the HP dv2 that I’m going to be using for a week instead of my Macs. I need a good Twitter client, Photoshop application, and multi-client chat application to start with. For Photoshop, I’ll most likely use Gimp since I use it at my day job and it’s pretty similar to Photoshop. And, it’s free! For chat, I could use meebo, but I might go with Trillian as I used it back in the day and liked it well enough. Rob told me that I need to install Sailing Clicker to get around the lack of a remote control.
One hour till it’s time to go home. Vista here I come. 
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Try TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com) — it’s Adobe AIR based so it’s cross-platform and it has a neat customizable three-pane interface (you can choose things like your feed, the public feed, replys, DMs, TwitScoop, even Facebook status updates). I like it muchly.
Boss went home at lunch to update his, co-worker docks at work so updated here.
It wasn’t out before dentist appointment this morning or later when I was waiting for UPS to drop off 4 packages (yay for Amazon Prime) … so I guess I’ll have to wait until I get home from work to update to 3.0, just as well…my bluetooth stereo headphones are somewhere at home.
@TheDreamer The 229.3 mb download of 3.0 just started on my machine.
@Ben S getting it now
i have 3.0. It’s pretty good!
Julie, you sound awfully excited about this DL even though you said you weren’t.
“Everyone that is except me… ”
@Mark Not really… Just something to do while I do other things
I’m waiting for the jailbroken 3.0 ^^
I would like to be able to use my phone in another country, so I’ll wait.
I recommend Tweetie for Mac, although Twitterific is always a classic. Never been a big fan of Air apps, but that’s just me.
@Tamara I downloaded Blu, but it wouldn’t login, so I installed Twirl.
@Julie : I’m returning my Pre on Sunday. Stupid of me that I paid the first monthly bill for it already too. So hope they return that payment too. I’ll let you know how it goes for me.
I updated to 3.0 this morning and have to say that I am still extremely disappointed with the software.
MMS doesn’t work unless you have some mythical MMS UA Prof URL setting
Landscape keyboard isn’t a big thing for me
Internet tethering wasn’t available
It’s not faster, or least doesn’t feel faster across the OS or in Safari
Voice Memo — I’ve had this since Nokia S60 days, never used it, never will
Enhanced Stock App – some visual improvement, but that’s about it
What’s still missing: Background apps. When I can run fring or Facebook as a background app and stay notified when there are updates, I’ll start getting a little more excited.
In short: nothing exciting. I should have slept in an extra half hour instead
I just paid $10 to Apple for functionality Microsoft put in PDAs a decade ago? Woo hoo ! Joke’s on me I guess.
Hello!
I’ve been following your blog on RSS for a while.
I just wanted to pop in and say that you should try Pidgin for all things IM.
@Jackie The clerk at my store told me that I could ignore the bill. I had already received it in the mail… Good luck! I’m sure you’ll have no problems returning it.
@Kenneth After iTunes installed the firmware on my iPhone, the iPhone itself had the WAITING FOR ACTIVATION popup on the display for hours. I finally just removed it from the dock and took the SIM out to put back in my Pantech Matrix Pro. I’ll have to switch again this morning and see what it does. All the new software features are there, but I bet I can’t make calls on it.
@Tim Good idea! I know that Claire likes Pidgin a lot. I forgot all about it. I’ve just been using meebo so far.
I second the TweetDeck. I’m using it on Mac and iPhone, and there’s a lot to like. PLus, if you create an account with them, they will sync your column categories. On a nice wide screen, TC is awesome! (For those who’ve not used it, TD lets you have various groups of people you follow in different columns. Like friends, work, public celebrities, companies, etc. You can also filter for or against any text string. Right now, I’m filtering out any tweet that contains the hashtag “#squarespace” – just because it irritates me. Try it – it’s free, cross-platform, and since Twitter is a web app, you really can’t cause issues on the account.)
Yep… Tweetdeck is an awesome app, I rarely use anything else. As Smythe says, you can create groups and filters. For an AIR app, it’s rather nifty!
Just installed 3.0 on my iTouch. And needless to say I am disappointed. They didn’t do anything “new” with the software. I feel cheated, and I only paid $10 for it.
Sure there is cut and paste, but I don’t think it should have ever been excluded. To me, that is one of those features that ranks up there with a display.
Voice memos? Meh. Not for my iTouch, especially since I’d have to connect a mic.
Bluetooth is very nice, but if my iTouch had bluetooth all along, why did I have to wait almost a year and pay $10 just so I could use it?
I will wait and see if there are new apps on the pipeline that will make better use of the new APIs built into 3.0. The new api to use the dock port seems to be all sizzle and no steak. We’ve seen Springboard modules for Visors, the Universal port for Palms, and several other connectors come and go with little more than a keyboard released that could use them. A glucose meter is a very niche product, but would be very useful for diabetic iPhone or iTouch users. I’ll wait and pass judgement on the new APIs in 3.0 until I see more apps and devices that can make use of it.
So far it seems that 3.0 really should have been 2.0 to me, with 2.0 being 1.0. Maybe I’m overly critical? I was absolutely floored when Apple actually released the darned iPhone with absolutely no way to build apps for it. Then they give a half-butt “Safari is the API!!! ROFL!!!!” speech at WWDC. Nobody bought that one.
I guess I’m becoming bored with Apple. Is that bad?
@Tyler No, it’s not bad and often times lately I find myself feeling the same way. Well, not exactly bored, but more like disappointed. Apple is just so high and mighty anymore. It’s their way or the highway. I’m so sick of hearing about this or that app and why they denied it from the app store. Windows Mobile and Android are more appealing to me this days