What are you? In the past days we have reported speed stats, features, screenshots, and impressions on iPhone 3.0. We tested it on an iPod Touch. But something weird has occurred. And I’m pretty sure Apple is aware of it.
Remember that they said MMS and stereo BlueTooth would not be added to the first generation iPhone due to hardware limitations? Here’s what I say. If you have a first generation iPhone or iPod Touch, 3.0 is bad news for you.
But we also ran this on an iPhone 3G. And it’s completely the opposite of our impressions on 3.0 on the first gen iPod Touch. Though we were not able to run speed tests, or spend much time with it, it is running very well. In fact, the owner of the iPhone 3G said “it’s running better than with any other 2.0 firmware I’ve had installed”. And though he only gave us a short time to play with it, it’s running much smoother than on our old iPod.
Basically, scratch out all our complains and bug reports. Boot Time is much better than the iPod Touch (first gen). It’s only a few seconds slower than 2.2.1 boot time. Copy and Paste although working OK on the iPod is running much smoother on the iPhone 3G. The “Shake to Shuffle” feature we reported was not working well on the old iPod is working OK on the 3G. What’s more, the owner of the phone told us he has yet to have had his phone freeze or reboot (well, he said App Store crashed once). So… this has us puzzled. Basically it seems Apple is pushing the limit on hardware and the old devices can’t really keep up.
So what does this mean? It’s good news for iPhone 3G and 2G iPod Touch owners. Not so good for owners of the old devices. 3.0 is supposed to come out in the summer, so Apple can still improve this. But for now, that’s what’s going on.