iPhone 2.1 update: the aftermath

Now that 2.1's out, your iPhone 3G is finally perfect -- right? Well, that all depends on your definition of "perfect," but odds are you still have a niggle or two poking out from behind that heaping pile of bugs and security flaws that were smoothed over with Cupertino's putty knife in last week's update. Here's a quick look at what we're hearing so far:

* Excluding those of you who don't know where you are, our poll on claimed reception improvements in 2.1 suggests that the majority of iPhone 3G owners (by a slim margin) are seeing no improvement or -- gasp! -- a degradation in signal strength since 2.0.2.
* Given that 2.1 patches up some bugs with third-party apps, it comes as no surprise that a few of 'em are apparently breaking with the new firmware (a disappointment, yes, but not a surprise). It sucks that Apple whacked the ball into developers' courts on this one, and we're hoping for the sake of users and devs alike that it's not going to take many sleepless nights of re-coding and debugging to get the affected apps back on the straight and narrow.
* We're now hearing some reports of email buffoonery ranging from an inability to add new accounts to 2.1-equipped phones, to failures of existing accounts that had previously worked, to total Exchange breakage. Are you folks seeing anything there? Any corporate types freaking out that they've lost access to their beloved ActiveSync setups?

We actually found another bug in 2.1 ourselves: we can't find copy / paste anywhere. It's anyone's guess how that one slipped by the testers.

Is ASUS prepping a 5-megapixel Omnia challenger?

It looks like ASUS has more in store when it comes to touchscreen phones than that P552w we saw the other day. According to pictures leaked to the Mobile01 forums, the company is planning an Omnia-esque device that will feature a large (WQVGA or WVGA) touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, a trackball for non-touch navigation, and the predictable 3G radios / WiFi. Not much is known about the device at this point, though speculation is running rampant on the forum as to CPU specs and on-board memory. It's likely this will be at least competitive in comparison to recent Window Mobile devices we've seen of this variety, though nothing's certain till we get word from ASUS... which we're waiting patiently for, fellas.

Finally some good news from Apple, as we test our Apple iPhone 3G with the most recent update, iPhone 2.1.

The iPhone 2.1 software update works very well, and you should download it immediately if you are using an Apple iPhone 3G. This is the big fix we've been waiting for; the one that Steve Jobs promised at the "Let's Rock" event Apple held here in San Francisco earlier this week. Apple promised a fix for reception issues, reliability concerns and battery life, the holy trinity of the cell phone game. The good news is that after only a few hours with the iPhone 2.1 software installed on our iPhone 3G, we can say that the new release seems to deliver.

Pages load much, much faster, and 3G reception seems greatly improved. Our Apple iPhone 3G has remained a steady 1-2 bars ahead of our AT&T Tilt, on the same 3G network, here in San Francisco. Pages that used to stall before loading now seem to spring open much more quickly. We tested the iPhone 2.1 software on AT&T's network against the iPod touch in Wi-Fi mode and the iPhone was never more than a few seconds behind the iPod, usually taking about 10 seconds longer or less to open the same Web page. Against the AT&T Tilt, Safari is a much faster browser than Internet Explorer, so our results have always been better on the iPhone.

We've also experience no application crashes since we updated to the iPhone 2.1 software. Super Monkey Ball, which used to crash often, hasn't blacked out our device in more than a dozen tries opening and quitting the app. Even better, the App store on our phone and our laptop seem more in sync, both reporting the correct number and type of application updates available, for the first time ever.

We're still testing battery life after the iPhone 2.1 software update, so we'll have to update later with our complete results, but if the only improvements were in the dramatic reception and network speed improvements we've already seen, for that alone we would have been thankful. Of course, we're still holding out for copy and paste capabilities, and maybe some Flash in the browser, but we'll have to hold out for future updates before we get ahead of ourselves. At least now that some significant problems have been fixed, we're more confident recommending the iPhone 3G and looking ahead to the future for the platform.

HTC go HD with the HTC Touch HD

Our friends at MoDaCo have breaking news of another new device from HTC, this time in the form of the HTC Touch HD which looks like an iPhone killer if ever I saw one!

As you would expect, very little known about this new device at the moment but early specs suggest the folowing:

HTC Touch HD Specification:

* Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
* Qualcomm 7201A processor @ 528MHz
* 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM (+32MB on processor)
* WVGA (480x800)!!!
* 115mm x 62.8mm x 12mm
* GPS / HSDPA etc. etc.
* 5 Megapixel camera (no flash)
* No Dpad or scroll wheel, does have a stylus
* microSD slot
* 1350mAH battery
* 3.5mm headset jack on the top

There are plenty more photos and information about the Touch HD on MoDaCo.com so check it out. What an amazing looking device!

If you know more then please drop us a line!

HTC wars: Touch Pro, Touch Diamond and S740 go head to head

Now that the cat's out of the bag it was no trouble tracking down HTC's S740 this morning, and just for kicks we rammed the phone up against the Touch Pro, which we subsequently rammed against the Touch Diamond and an iPhone for a generally violent display of smartphone force. It is worth noting that while the S740's keys are similar to the Touch Pro's, they're not quite as deep or clicky, which leads to a rather sub-par typing experience by HTC's standards. That glossy mirror finish on the phone screens isn't doing them any favors either -- even when wiped smudge free it seems to impede viewing -- and we must say the Touch Pro's matte finish makes the Diamond and iPhone 3G look cheap in comparison. Oh, and when asked about the Dream, the HTC rep quickly replied "we don't know anything." It was worth a shot, right?