Glen Scott - Keeping it simple, since 1977

I’m really happy with my iPhone, but I must admit I was initially tempted to upgrade to the new 3G version which is released this Friday. However, after thinking things through I’ve decided to stick with the “old” version. Why? Well, with the free OS 2.0 upgrade, I will get these features for free anyway:

• Native applications
• Cisco IPSec VPN support
• MobileMe
• Improved mail client
• Enhanced contact management
• Better battery life

and more.

Meaning the only differences between my iPhone and the 3G iPhone is:

• 3G
• GPRS

So it boils down to whether I want to pay £99 for these two features. And I don’t: they are nice options, but far from essential. 3G is faster than EDGE, but for general browsing of websites I don’t think it will make a huge difference, especially because many sites serve up optimised iPhone pages already. Furthermore, enabling 3G on the phone will zap the battery faster than when using EDGE. And GPRS, while a nice idea, is far from essential in my day-to-day usage of the phone right now.

iPhone 3G

John Gruber on the iPhone upgrade dilemma:

So what it boils down to is whether you think it’s worth $199 up front — plus $15 extra per month for the new data plan with SMS — for faster cell network data.

The iPhone 3G Upgrade Question

Using your iPhone abroad is expensive, so to keep costs down make sure you have Data Roaming turned off:

Settings -> General -> Network -> Data Roaming

Furthermore, make sure that auto-checking of email is disabled:

Settings -> Mail -> Auto-Check

Finally, turn off visual voicemail before you travel:

Dial 1760 to switch the divert to voicemail off and dial 1750 to switch on the divert to voicemail.

Travelling abroad with iPhone: usage and costs

About time

Apple: iPhone Software Kit Coming March 6 (AAPL) - Silicon Alley Insider

For the last few weeks, the Mail functionality has been broken on my iPhone. When looking at the Inbox, I had one message that said “Load another 25 messages…”, and selecting this did nothing. I scoured the web, and found a couple of possible solutions: resetting the iPhone, removing the mail account and setting it up again, but neither of these worked for me. Finally, though, I have found a solution and can enjoy Mail again:

• log into Yahoo! Mail on your desktop machine, not your iPhone.
• Create a new folder called temp

• Choose the ‘Select All Messages’ option from the ‘More Actions’ menu in your Inbox

• Move messages to the temp folder

• Check on your iPhone that your Inbox is empty: you may need to refresh
• Move messages back from temp to Inbox

Bingo!

If you have a large music library on your computer, it won’t necessarily fit on your iPhone or iPod. Instead of syncing your whole library, it’s worthwhile being a little more selective with the tunes that you want to listen to on the move. To this end, I have two smart playlists set up that I sync with my iPhone:

1. Wheat, No Chaff

This chooses tunes that I have rated 3 stars or above

2. Recently Added

This playlist picks new music that I have added to my library in the last fortnight.

So a combination of these playlists results in a good mix of great tracks, and new stuff. You can choose to syncronise only selected playlists in the Music tab of your Device:

Received some rather good news from O2 today:  the £35 per month tariff that I’m currently on is being upgraded in February:

Free minutes:  from 200 to 600

Free texts: from 200 to 500

Pleasing!

O2 tariffs for iPhone