iPhone 2.0 Launches, Kind Of
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Apple, iPhone
Planned obscolescence? Hardly. My original, non-3G, slow-as-a-dead-turtle iPhone is now running software version 2.0.
Caveat: as far as I know, nothing’s actually launched yet. I followed TechCrunch’s instructions to download the software update outside of iTunes and their link to the App Store, which still isn’t featured in the main iTunes store page. However, it all works (more or less, I’ll talk about that in a second).
I downloaded the Facebook, Google, Evernote, and Twitteriffic applications, and then a few random games. All of these were free, might I add. One small tidbit worth noting is that the Applications section in iTunes has a link to “Check for updates”, so I’m guessing developers can push updates through iTunes.
The Facebook app isn’t working yet; when I try to log in, it errors on “Can’t connect to Facebook”, so I wonder if their server’s aren’t ready yet (although the Facebook blog has a post this morning announcing the new app).
Google’s application simply makes it easier to search than using Safari, and can use your location for local search.
Evernote successfully synced down all of my notes. I haven’t played around with this application too much, but I suspect it’ll supplant Notes as my, well, notes app of choice.
Twitteriffic is still problematic. Scrolling isn’t smooth and there are some HTML tags that are being displayed instead of interpreted in the ads. Interestingly enough, it also doesn’t seem to utilize Apple’s push service to notify me when I get new tweets; i.e., I received tweets via SMS and not via Twitteriffic. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future.
This stuff looks really good. I’m going to try buying some games soon (Bejeweled or Prism, probably) and see if I’m getting my $9.99’s worth. More soon.
Update: 2.0’s still not out yet, but here’s The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s coverage on how to get it. I’m also seriously considering switching to NetNewsWire as my feed reader, because the iPhone and Mac apps sync feed and read items. Mmm…sync.