The iPhone update

So, the World Wide Developers Conference - Apple's geek Superbowl - was yesterday. Followed it on and off via MacRumors Live, which was interesting.

10.6 will be called Snow Leopard. The main keynote speech was iPhone, iPhone, iPhone.

• They let a lot of small applications take the spotlight, showing off the new SDK to be released in July.
• They then showed some firmware updates, and some application updates.
• Finally, they announced a second generation iPhone.
  
• The primary difference is 3G; 2.8x faster connection to the internet.
  
• GPS was also added, and a 16 GB option.
  
• The new phone (8 GB) will be $199, apparently subsidized by AT&T, and probably less susceptible to Jailbreak.

Reviewing the remaining problems:

• The AT&T network still doesn't quite hold a candle to Verizon for voice. My phone regularly drops calls inside the beltway in DC.
  
• Multimedia messages? No. You have to write down the username and password they send you, go to Safari, open up the link they sent you, and type in the username and password from that piece of paper. Perhaps if this was a direct click-through, it wouldn't be an enormous gaffe.
  
• It doesn't sync via bluetooth; not contacts, not calendars. It doesn't use it's bluetooth to enable bluetooth headsets for listening to MP3s, which is pretty much industry-standard at this point.
  
• No Flash player. This isn't Apple's fault, but they don't seem to be pushing for it, either.
  
• I have a 16 GB USB drive that won't let me store files on it. This is minor to me, but seems that it should be easy.
  
• Safari lets me turn the device sideways, and turn the keyboard sideways, and is awesome. Every other application ignores this API hook, unfortunately. I have fat fingers. This would immediately make the device much more useable. Hell, just give it to me for text messages.
  
• Bad Flickr integration. SDK might fix this, but man, would I like it.
• Bad Chat (AIM/GTalk) integration. SDK might fix this, but man, would I like it.
  

All in all, there are better devices out there, save the web browser, which is top notch. $199 is a much, much better price point. The biggest sadness to me is that the problems they seem to be having... seem so easy to fix, overall?

Meanwhile, my EDGE iPhone, when transmitting, is perhaps the highest-interference device I've owned in a decade. Walking by computer speakers or a home stereo causes them to put out a horrible sound, and it disables my bluetooth mouse at work while causing the guy in the next office to complain his bluetooth headphones are "broken". It's like carrying a tiny electronic bomb.