It’s like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story made popular by the movie of the same name. Benjamin (played by Brad Pitt) is born old and crippled and as he ages be becomes handsome, strong and potent.
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Starting off as a revolutionary, though slightly truncated mobile, the iPhone changed the ball game in the cellular world. Now, in its second year, it has hit all the clones and smartphones from BlackBerry Storm, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson’s latest model and even Nokia’s showpiece N97 for a six! As it is getting older, it is becoming better. Just like Benjamin Button.

After selling more than 13 million sets in less than a calendar year, “Benjamin Button” has become irresistible. (Think Brad Pitt). Apple gave us a preview last Wednesday of the things to come with its iPhone 3.0 software upgrade.

For the love of Apple or money I wouldn’t even consider buying the iPhone 1.0. Its touch screen and the accelerometer were enticing, but it lacked features that even a basic phone had. Then came the iPhone 3G and I grabbed it. And that despite it lacking some very basic functions. (An accelerometer is an electronic component that measures tilt and motion. Apple introduced it in the first generation iPhones to detect whether the phone is upright or sideways, and automatically rotate the graphics on the screen accordingly.)

Why did I buy one, you would ask; we didn’t even have 3G in India. Why pay Rs 36,100 (16GB model) when you cannot even do basic things like copy/paste and forward an SMS. It did not even have MMS, forget Bluetooth transfer and sharing contacts.

I was probably among the first few people to buy the iPhone 3G. Its touchscreen, shiny plastic back and sleek look along with WiFi were too enticing — and it had GPS. The phone came with an App Store icon. With a light tap on it I could enhance the set with free games, productivity applications, entertainment, utilities, health and fitness tools among several other things. As for lack of copy/paste and forwarding SMSes, I learnt that these were only software issues and would come to the iPhone sooner or later.

With remarkable foresight Apple had built a phone with hardware that would stand the test of time. People would not have to change models every year to get better functions on their phone.

Come June, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will rejoin after his extended medical leave. That is when we will be getting our 3.0 software upgrade for the iPhone free and for the iPod Touch for $9.95

Shorn of jargon, Apple will give developers the tools to make better iPhone applications. But what will the users get? Here is the list of key benefits out of 100 that Apple says the iPhone 3.0 update will give.

• Cut, Copy and Paste across all applications. This announcement was greeted with thunderous applause, prompting cynics to ask why people were clapping for a feature that every mobile phone already has.

• Forwarding SMSes and the ability to delete multiple messages at one go.

• MMS. I didn’t think it necessary, but with QR code it can be used to sell tickets. QR codes store addresses, URLs and other information that can appear in magazines, business cards, on advertisements and tickets. The code can be generated by a phone application and sent to a user as an MMS. This again is scanned using a mobile phone to permit entry to concerts, movies among other things.

• Spotlight. OS X Leopard’s search facility will be added to the phone. I always hated swiping through seven or eight pages to find the app I wanted to run. With Spotlight I’ll get there in a jiffy.

• Turn by turn GPS navigation. If your city is not mapped properly by Google you can download third-party maps like Map My India.

• Support for Bluetooth stereo headphones.

• Exchange files and Contacts over Bluetooth. Songs will be excluded.

• Instantly hook up with another Bluetooth phone and start playing games. No pairing is required.

• You can now type your e-mails in landscape mode. This gives you more space between keys and lessens the chances of hitting the wrong alphabet. You can type faster this way.

• Parental Controls. Parents can now ban sites and videos that they do not want their children to watch.

• Better streaming of videos. The iPhone will adjust playback depending on your Internet speed. So you’ll get uninterrupted streaming.

• Tethering. You can use your iPhone as a modem to get onto the Internet.

• Voice Memo. You can record your letters and mail them and even attach Contacts.

• Sending Contacts to others.

• Attach multiple photos in an e-mail. Currently you can attach only one picture.

• Search your e-mails. If it is not found on the phone it will search the server too.

• Subscriptions. This will allow you to buy new levels of games through the application. You’ll be able to buy magazines, books and even newspapers through the Kindle 2 app that is already available in the Apps Store.

• Push. Instead of running applications simultaneously, draining battery life, audio and text alerts will be pushed into the closed app.

• Medical Apps will allow you to measure your blood sugar levels through an adaptor and even track your blood pressure.

With the freedom given to developers the iPhone can be turned into a control panel for practically any piece of electronics you can plug it into. This will allow users to pair the phone with a set of speakers to turn the screen into a digital equaliser. And, oh yes, just shake your phone to shuffle your songs. Remember, it is an iPod too.

Written by :SURIT DOSS

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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