Best new iPhone feature
by Volker Weber
Hardly ever mentioned, the landscape keyboard in Mail is the best new feature for me. Much easier to type on with fat thumbs. Most important new feature probably is Spotlight search across all apps and data:
Comments
...the "search across all applications" is what I feared. I need something to scan in one of my email accounts (with more than 11000 mails), not in every conceivable place. Now again a disappointment. For professional use, the iPhone still falls short of being useful. I put up with the medieval interface of WinMob for it´s useful features for professional users (decent exchange integration).
If you like hearing lots of MP3 and watch videos on the run, that´s a different story. I don´t play, listen, view and so I might seem medieval to some readers of this fine blog as well ;-)
To me it seems that the iPhone V.3 is convoluted with stuff that I just don´t have time for and still misses out on essentials.
Landscape was overdue, and like cut & paste I can´t comprehend why it was missing in the first instance. I find myself using other phones more frequently than my iPhone which has found it´s primary use in iPing, managing my squeezebox. The drain on battery is another story, it just doesn´t hold up long enough.
Version 3 doesn´t seem to be iPhone Viagra either.
Sadly spotlight search is limited to Apple apps. No API available for others ... yet.
@Armin: All overdue? Well, sure. But I bet those where just further down on the priority list at Apple.
I am very happy with Version 3.0, couldn't think of moving to another device at the moment, even not the Pre (which I tried).
You can´t imagine how much it hurts saying all that above, being always an evangelist for the products of this company since NeXT times ended. I happily used the Norton, even.
But I am highly disappointed about the "priority list" and the focusing on unnecessary features. As 80% of business value lies in 20% of a given product features, I might simply not fit the target group.
Or are everybody else´s standards lower than mine?
I simply can´t put up with basic stuff not being available on a very costly device, with a concept that should roll ease of use, readability, ergonomic design and sexyness into one device.
It´s always the iPhone users that end up shouting at it in airports or underground stations, because the implementation of the codec or the microphone is simply done unprofessionally. Quality of speech shold at least be up to Nokia standard (uhm - Nokia, so last millennium).
Then, again, the SIM lock stuff is more evil than DRM in my book (I use a non locked phone from a free country).
It hurts me to see, how Apple, whom I always regarded as an ethical company, makes the user bend back over to protect carrier´s revenues.
Just my 2c.
I totally agree with you Volker on both these features.
They enhance the user experience on the iPhone by a quantum leap.
BTW, is it just me or has f/w 3.0 improved keyboard responsiveness and accuracy as well?
Like many of us, I have had a long learning curve but I have now come to the point that I like typing on the screen more than on a physical keyboard.
"The Norton" ? ;-)
lol, what was that? Newton, but Siemens branded. Very useful, including a MODEM ;-)
Another neat thing I just noticed:
In Safari, tap and hold on a link. You can now "Open on new page" (and more).
I concede, after having installed version 3, that it´s gotten higher marks in usability. Plus it does search in mails as well. Slowly, but it does it.
