Section: iPhone + Communications, Carriers, Email/IM, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps

The new iPhone 3G hasn’t even been released yet, but seven problems with the new iPhone have already been pointed out by many, all of which have been based on demos and published specs of what the iPhone 3G will offer. We may get 3G and GPS, a way to connect to Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, but what about all of the other features that are missing from Apple’s device? Outlined below are the seven most prominent issues with the upcoming iPhone 3G, as defined by Forbes.com and Yahoo Tech:

1. The cost - The price of the actual iPhone 3G itself seems to be a lot more affordable than that of the first generation, but sure enough it’ll cost you an extra $160 or so over the next two years versus the original iPhone, and even more for people outside of the U.S. (such as for customers on Rogers).
2. The camera - Unfortunately, there’s still no flash or video recording features on the device, and the iPhone is still stuck with a 2 megapixel camera, while other smartphones will be gaining up to 8 megapixels with their built-in cameras this year.
3. The battery - Non-replaceable, yet again, which shouldn’t be a surprise, since Apple is starting to do the same thing with its notebooks as well.
4. No MMS - Apple is basically right that you don’t need MMS to send pictures on a device that has a full e-mail client, which the iPhone 3G does, but the real problem comes when users of other phones send you a photo via MMS: you simply can’t view it on the iPhone.
5. No Cut-And-Paste - Copy and paste is an essential feature for the iPhone, which has been requested by users since the first generation iPhone was released. Copy and paste is a simple tool that would make blogging and other tasks on the iPhone a whole lot easier.
6. No live TV - The YouTube implementation was seen as a great feature when the first iPhone was released, but it has grown tiresome and old. Live TV is a feature that has been implemented into many other smartphones as part of the standard data plan, but one gets the impression that Apple keeps it off the iPhone just so that they can sell you TV episodes at $1.99 each instead.
7. No 32GB option - 8GB feels like a pathetically small storage capacity, and now 16GB still doesn’t seem like enough. 32GB USB thumbdrives have been on the market since 2006, as cheaply as $140. Apple is likely to launch a 32 GB model in the near future, but it should have came with the launch of the iPhone 3G.

Although the iPhone 3G is undoubtably one of the greatest smartphones on the market, these crucial missing features show that it does have its weaknesses as well. We can only hope that Apple will implement these features into the iPhone in the near future.

Via [Forbes] and [Yahoo! Tech]

Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »