iPhone 3G: What we didn't get

By Nicole Lee | June 10, 2008 | 27

The long-awaited 3G model, available July 11.

Australia gets the iPhone 3G on July 11 and it does indeed have quite a few improvements over the current iteration — but notable omissions have disappointed some fans.

3G is huge, of course, GPS is a welcome addition, and third-party applications are nothing to be sneezed at. Not to mention it's thinner at 115.5 millimetres by 62.1 millimetres by 12.3 millimetres, has a flush headphone jack, and just got a huge price cut. (In the US the 8GB will retail for US$199 while the 16GB will retail for US$299. Australian prices will be confirmed in the next few weeks.)

But we were expecting a lot more than what Jobs announced. Here's a short list of what we wanted from the second-gen iPhone, but just didn't get.

Multimedia messaging — Almost every other cell phone in the market has the ability to send images to other cell phones via multimedia messaging, or MMS. Yes you can still e-mail those photos, but MMS is such a basic feature that it should've been in the iPhone from the start.
Copy and paste — Again, this is such a basic feature. Having copy and paste makes it easier to type out text messages and e-mails.
Video recording — In the world of mobile video, Qik, and YouTube, it's a shame the iPhone doesn't have video-recording capabilities. Yes the quality wouldn't be that great, but it should be an option anyway.
Voice command — For a touch-screen phone, we think voice command and voice dialing would've been a great feature add-on for the iPhone. Perhaps this will be added via a third-party app, but we would really prefer this to be a native setting.
Bluetooth flexibility — Right now, all you can use Bluetooth on the iPhone for are headset voice calls, and that's it. This is sufficient for most people, sure, but we would like for Apple and AT&T to open up the Bluetooth profiles for the iPhone. This means we would like stereo Bluetooth and A2DP for streaming music wirelessly, Bluetooth tethering so we can use the iPhone as a modem, and finally we would like to have Bluetooth file-transfer protocol so we can transfer files to and from the iPhone.

These are just a few omissions we could think of. Did the iPhone 3G meet your expectations, or would you rather it have a few more features? Let us know in the comments!

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mad posted a comment 5 years ago

I have an iPhone and the only thing I may say is - don't buy it !
It is everything else but a good mobile phone !

notaniphonefan posted a comment 5 years ago

Got an iphone on a $60 telstra plan. Feel conned because the lack of features were not explained to me. I expected basic features like forwarding sms, movie camera, etc, (like nearly every other phone on the market. The salesperson pushed all the other features, and I made the mistake of assuming that basic functions were there.

Remo Caione posted a comment 5 years ago

How do you forward a text message?

BEEFSTA posted a comment 5 years ago
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Australia

I was almost going to switch from Nokia's and Sony's now, I won't even consider it, NO MMS - thats Outrageous, crap camera, no video camera, Ahh NO VIDEO CALLING AND CONFERENCING, I need that for work, People give this phone a miss and wait for the W960i, N96 or C905

MooCowMedia posted a comment 5 years ago

I was already to buy Iphone today, and then found out that it doesn't support mms..I need that for my business. So it looks like i will be waiting for the new Blackberry, due out soon

mickewans posted a comment 5 years ago

Its also missing flash, so a large proportion of Websites and video files can not be viewed. However there is reason to the Iphones missing features... MONEY... Apple have effectively through controle of file upload, bluetooth, no flash, and no MMS closed the app to content providers for ringtones, music, games and videos getting onto their phone, instead for all your content (unless you crack it) you will need to go to the itunes, appstore and pay on apples terms. This must be a very scary situation for telstra and 3 who are very content hvy in their business model, and ohhhh look are not selling the iphone on their plans. Its also a scary prospect for the likes of Jamster, Dada and Mobileactive who on sell ringtone and game content and cant sell to the iphone users of tomorrow.

Ten posted a comment 5 years ago

im confused about the bluetooth on the new iphones?? will i say...be able to bluetooth a picture i just took with my iphone to a different phone??? and will i b able to do the same kind of thing with my computer???

Andrew posted a comment 5 years ago

The new iPhone is lacking so many features. Picture messaging, video recording, not video calls, only 2mp camera, no cammera flash & the bluetooth is near useless... what was Apple thinking!!!! such a big let down, but knowing Apple there will be a new model out for x-mas

dougy posted a comment 5 years ago

Anything that makes telephone calls and integrates flawlessly with itunes AND outlook will make all other phones look stupid. Period.

Didn't anyone realise that you will soon be able to download any song/video clip, or full length movie on the iphone..and watch it on a screen that seems like HD?

Sell your TV and get an iphone - its all about the content...tv sucks, every single song and movie ever made doesn't suck....simple right?