iPhone 3G

I guess it was inev­it­able that I would write a post relat­ing to Apple’s new iPhone and MobileMe ser­vice. I’d held off a little so that I could see some of the fall out and what the deals are like over here in the UK.
The price is clearly the biggest thing about the iPhone 3G and it seems that, for once, we are receiv­ing a bet­ter deal than the US. It’s pos­sible for us to get a free iPhone, depend­ing on the price plan, and even on oth­er price plans its a very reas­on­able price (£99) for such a device.
I’m per­son­ally most stoked about the GPS cap­ab­il­it­ies. As someone who is look­ing to buy a Sat Nav this sum­mer, I’m look­ing for­ward to see­ing how well the iPhone can handle being used on a long drive. I’m a little scep­tic­al about how the Google Maps imple­ment­a­tion (no view as if you are driv­ing) can work for this. Maybe with the 3rd party applic­a­tions avail­able once the App Store launches the Sat Nav spe­cial­ists like Tom Tom will be able to imple­ment their soft­ware. Either way, it looks like even more poten­tial has been added to the iPhone.
MobileMe looks like an extremely good imple­ment­a­tion and con­sumer product, I unlike many oth­ers don’t have an issue with the brand­ing either. The inline ver­sion is my pre­ferred ver­sion, but the cloud icon com­mu­nic­ates per­fectly to people just what the ser­vice does. I’m look­ing for­ward to try­ing the ser­vice and, if it stands up well, los­ing the hor­rible GMail IMAP implementation.
Since it’s been a few days since the key­note, I’ve had the oppor­tun­ity to see how every­body is moan­ing about the new iPhone. It seems to have done well, apart from the issues with price plans in the states, the only moan I have seen is regard­ing the cam­era. More spe­cific­ally the lack of a front facing one and con­sequently the lack of video chat. Every­one harps on about it, and in all hon­esty I think the people who are bothered about it are those who have nev­er had a phone cap­able of it.
My last three mobile phones have been cap­able of it. They have all had a front facing cam­era and the oppor­tun­ity to video call. Many of my friends have also had such cap­ab­il­it­ies on their phones. I’d say in the last 3 years it’s been quite a wide­spread option. But that’s what it has always been, an option. In those 3 years, I’ve nev­er used or even wanted to use the func­tion, nor do I know any­one who has. It’s a fea­ture that every­one seems to want, but it also seems to be a fea­ture that no body uses.
All in all I’m pleased with the update, the price point and 3G addi­tion make it a very appeal­ing phone (not that it was­n’t any­way) here in the UK. The GPS, at least in my eyes, has made the iPhone a real deal break­er. There is now the scope to not just replace my iPod and mobile with one device, but also the Sat Nav I’ve been plan­ning on buy­ing this summer.