Apple Genius Support

Today I am going to tackle a tech topic that is frequently overlooked. Everyone has computer issues from time to time and need assistance from the vendor. The question is how well does the vendor respond?

My Airport Extreme base station stopped working preventing me from using AirDisk to backup my laptop. I first tried switching out the hard drive with another one and it wouldn't mount. Next I took the drive that was in the Airport and plugged it into my laptop and it did work. So I was able to determine it was likely the USB port.

I dropped by the Apple Store and asked if a Genius could take a look. Unfortunately that store was full for the day but they scheduled me an appointment later in the day at another Apple Store in town. So I returned later to the other store and explained to the Genius everything I had done on my own to diagnose and he said sounds like a dead USB port to us as well. I had already tried everything they would of tried.

So he took my Airport went to his computer and started processing the replacement request. The good news while I have had the Airport for a couple of years they were going to replace it free of charge. I fortunately have Apple Care on my laptop which extends coverage to all Apple Monitors and Apple peripherals while the laptop or desktop is covered.

The good news was Apple was replacing my hobbled Airport, the bad news they didn't have my model in stock and it would be a couple of days. I asked the Genius if there was anything he could do, without my Airport my phones at home don't work more than one laptop can't easily be connected to the network etc. He suggested buying a new unit and just return it in a couple of days when mine comes in. I told him I didn't care for the solution because it just felt wrong to me to do that. It costs me money up front and when I return it Apple has to refurbish it and sell it for less money. So he said he would see what else he can come up with.

A few minutes later after talking to the manager he came back and said he would just give me the newer model to replace my older model unit. He took one off the shelf unboxed it and traded me my old unit for a newer model unit.

This is not the first trip to the Apple Genius Bar where they have taken such good care of me. A few years ago my iPod died right before a trip out of town and it would be miserable to fly across country without my iPod to listen to on the trip. So the Genius saw I had a dead hard drive and that model was no longer stocked so they bummed me up to a newer model classic and sent me on my way.

I can't stress enough how beneficial the Apple Care warranties are to extend the warranty of any device you own from Apple and if you go in and stay calm and polite how willing the Apple staff is to make your experience as painless as possible and sometimes you only have to ask them to help you out and they can go that extra mile to make your experience a pleasant one.

The nicer you are to them the more likely they are to use that extra discretion Apple gives their employees to make you a happy customer.

I do recommend going on to http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ and schedule a reservation so you can reduce your wait time when you go to the store.

Will Microsoft be able to offer this sort of experience with its retail stores when they start opening around the country? Tell me what you think here.

Is Your Mac Ready for Snow Leopard?

So with Snow Leopard just over two months away is your Mac ready? Apple's guidelines for the new OS are fairly simple. Your Mac must have an Intel Processor, 1 Gigabyte of RAM, 5 Gigabytes of free disk space, and a DVD drive to install the disk.

All Intel Macs sold from May 2006 on are all able to run Snow Leopard. Depending on how old your machine is will determine the number new features which you can take advantage. For instance the first Macbooks, and iMacs sold from May - Nov of 2006 had Intel Core Duo Processors which had 32 bit CPU's. You can install and run Snow Leopard and you will get a performance gain but you will not get as dramatic a gain as you would on a 64 bit Mac sold after November 06 which was designated as a Intel Core 2 Duo. The Mac-mini was Intel Core Solo and Core Duo from May 2006 - August 2007.

To check which Processor you have in your computer Click on your Apple Menu, go to About This Mac, and look at the Processor line. If you have PowerPC you can not upgrade to 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you have an Intel Core Duo or Core Solo you can run the upgrade but can't take full advantage of the new 64 bit system.

Also on the next line down it will tell you how much RAM you have in your system remember 1 gig is the minimum. RAM is cheap now and upgrades are fairly simple on most Macs. I would recommend putting in as much RAM as your system can support and you can afford. You can never have too much RAM.

Hard Drive space is important. You need to have at least 5 Gigabytes free to do the installation but once the installation is done you will recover some space on your hard drive. According to Apple’s Specs possibly as much as 6 Gigabytes. Once this is done you can also use a program like Drive Genius 2 to remove the PowerPC code from your Applications and save more space.

Hard Drives are not that expensive anymore and hard drive upgrades on the Mac are fairly straight forward. The newer Macbooks and Macbook Pros pre Uni-body model have a lot of screws to remove to get to the hard drive so be careful and make sure you keep track of the screws. I will cover hard drive replacement in a future post.

For those with Macs that are pre Uni-body it seems the only feature we don't get with Snow Leopard is hardware H.264 decoding. The CPU can handle the decoding but hardware decoders are always more efficient and free up your CPU for other tasks.

For all Intel users this is going to be a good upgrade for improving performance in virtually every area of the system and making small visual enhancements. This is a bargain for the $29.00 price tag as well as getting us ready for whatever Apple has in store for us next with 10.7. in the next 18-24 months after Snow Leopard ships.

If you are on a PowerPC system and are starting to think about an upgrade of your Macbook, Macbook Pro, or Mac-Mini, or PowerMac computer now is the time! The Snow Leopard upgrade will only cost you 9.95 and you can start enjoying the added performance from the newer video cards, faster CPU's, and larger Hard Drives.

If you are on an PowerPC iMac I would wait until after October to upgrade. The rumor is new iMacs will be coming soon and then your machine will ship with Snow Leopard.

Mac OS X Under the Hood

Mac OS X Snow Leopard as a mentioned in a previous post (see New Features In Mac OS X 10.6 Coming Soon) we talked about a few of the new features of OS X 10.6 that users will be able to see. Today we are going to talk about what you will not see. Those tweaks and changes under the hood that will make OS X easier to use and faster.

First I should mention in the MWDC 2009 Keynote Phil Schiller noted that the new Snow Leopard would take up less space. With the upgrade the average user should recover about 6 Gigabytes of disk space. I think this is the first Operating System upgrade that actually makes the OS smaller. Due to the lack of Power PC support in this version only Intel machines built in the last few years will be able to run the upgrade and large chunk of the space saved probably comes from removing the old Power PC code from the Operating System.

First and foremost on the behind the scenes changes is Finder is completely rewritten in Cocoa and 64 bit. This means the Finder the first app that launches and gives you access to your files is going to be much faster and more stable. Some of the early indications from Apple indicates it will be on average twice as fast if not a little faster than that.

Making Time Machines twice a fast, for those of you not using Time Machine for backup yet I can't stress enough what a great job it can do of saving you from hardware failures or from accidental deletions or overwrites of files. I have used Time Machine a lot in the past couple of years to recover documents or rebuild whole systems and it has never failed me.

Snow Leopard is also promising faster wake up from sleep, faster shutdown and faster to join networks. This saves time at the beginning and end of your work time with your Mac.

Snow Leopard is also adding a great feature for travelers. The computer can now determine what time zone it is located in and update it's clock automatically using the Internet and Geo Location technologies. Now when you are flying across country your computer can know the local time when you arrive.

Better support for selecting text in PDF's has now been added so if you have a two column document the computer can select the left column first and the right column after making it easier to copy information from one document to another.

Disk Eject now will tell you if a disk can't be ejected what Application is using the disk so you can close it and then eject your disk.

iChat now allows higher resolution video conferencing with reduced bandwidth cost, a 33% reduction in bandwidth requirements makes it easier to use higher resolutions and continue to do other things on the Internet at the same time.

Other things that users will not see is Grand Central Dispatch and Open CL. These two technologies allow programmers to write apps to take better advantage of the modern multi-core processors in the entire Intel Mac line and Open CL allows programmers to use powerful Graphics Processors to do regular CPU tasks. This allows the Operating System to better utilize the powerful hardware we already have.

Also to make Snow Leopard a better corporate citizen they are now including Exchange Support in Mail, Address Book, and iCal. Now we can use the apps we have known and loved for years with Exchange servers. Allowing users to keep all of our email, contacts, and calendars in one place regardless if the data lives on our Mobile Me or Exchange accounts.

The best news for users of OS X 10.5 Leopard the upgrade is only going to cost $29 and if you bought a Mac after Jun 11th the cost of upgrade is only $10. This is great bargain for everything that is coming with the new version of OS X. Come the end of September Mac users will certainly be seeing a Leopard of another color.

Hard Drive Performance

In the last couple of weeks I have installed a few replacement hard drives. While doing so I thought I would take the opportunity to do some performance testing on those drives. The first drive in the line up is my Seagate 140 Gig 7200 RPM SATA drive that came with my MacBook Pro. The Second drive is a Western Digital 7200 RPM 320 GB SATA Drive that I installed into a friends Mac Book Pro. The third is the latest 7200 RPM 500 GB SATA drive from Seagate that I just installed in my MacBook Pro.

First I have to say having more than 300 GB free on my laptop is great. I am not worried about running out of space anytime soon at least. That being said what about performance? I used Xbench for my testing and my test results were a little surprising. The Seagate 140 being the oldest drive it is not surprising it is also the slowest by far. The two newer drives the results are not quiet so clear.

While some of the early reports of performance on this drive indicate it should be faster than the 320 GB hard drive my testing is indicating that is not the case. The extra storage is beneficial and the performance is fairly close. Hopefully there is something that can be changed or configured to get additional performance out of the hard drive.

I would say the 500 GB is worth the price and the performance increase is good enough if you are using a hard drive that is more than a year old you will get a performance gain. If I find a way to increase performance I will make sure I post it.

New Features in Mac OS X 10.6 coming soon!

For those Mac fans out there that have been eagerly anticipating the new release of OS X 10.6 and dying to see what is coming soon the wait is almost over. While Apple told us the changes to 10.6 would be performance and under the hood changes and no new features we knew the people at Apple couldn't resist giving us new features and making our user experience just a little bit better.

In a recent YouTube posting LeopardOctober put up a video showing off some of the new features that are coming to Snow Leopard. Some of the new features that are coming to 10.6 include expanded data detectors, The Put Back Feature, Slider to adjust icon size right on the Finder, Stacks support Scrolling and drill down, Videos are playable right in the thumbnail icon, Click and drag screen shots with time date stamps in the file names, Services now alphabetized by type, plus expanded keyboard shortcut options. These are a few of the leaked cosmetic changes that are on top of the under the hood stuff that the user won't see but will definitely feel.

The Data Detectors were added in 10.5 and allow you to click on a phone number or a date and add it to your phone book or your calendar depending on the data type. It is an easy way to move appointments or other data from Mail into other apps and not have to retype information.

The Put Back Feature will allow you to go to your Trash Can and move files back to where they came from.

The Slider to adjust icon size while minor is a convenience that works well with playing Quicktime movies right in the thumbnail.

Stacks Drill Down makes this new feature in 10.5 much easier to use and creates a nice 3D effect to let you know where you are and let you navigate around without having to open another Finder Window.

Services which has been around Mac OS for decades and has always been an under utilized feature in the Apple menu has been alphabetized by function to make it easier to use. It is a quick access to common functions right in the Apple Menu.

In 10.5 we got Quick Look to allow us to preview documents and videos by pressing the space bar. In 10.6 we can actually play videos right off the thumbnail icon and not even have to open Quick Look. While I wouldn't recommend watching your favorite movie that way it is a quick way to find something you are looking for in your library.

Under the hood 10.6 is getting quiet a makeover with a whole slew of new features and tighter code I will take a look at next week.

To take a look at the You Tube Video of these new features visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEGVFArP9yU

The promise of MobileMe

While many in the media have complained about MobileMe's new Back To My Mac feature as not working or unusable I say it is great step in the right direction. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of things still lacking in MobileMe I would love to see happen to give me more seamless access to my data.

First the Back To My Mac feature has worked very well in networks where outgoing ports are not blocked. UDP 4500 and TCP 443 need to be available for Back To My Mac to work on OS X 10.5 Leopard. Currently I have a G4 Tower, Macbook Pro, and an account on Mom's Powerbook G4. All of these machines show up in my network list in most places I go and I can easily access my G4's hard drives or use Screen Sharing to access the desktop.

Now with the latest update to my Airport Extreme base station I can now access my file share on that device wen I am away from home. The limit being it only supports one Mobile Me account and our family has two Mobile Me accounts. So only one of us gets access to the Airport Extreme while away from home but it is a step in the right direction.

Since I have an account on Mom's laptop since I used it while mine was being serviced last year I can Screen Share here computer where ever I am with a network connection and remote control her computer and help her with issues she might have or answer questions about her Mac.

To make this work well. The first thing I did was plug my Airport Extreme WAN port into my cable modem. My Vonage router plugs into the LAN port on my Airport Extreme and works great. If you are using a Linksys or Netgear device then look at NAT-PMP (Network Address Translation - Port Mapping Protocol) or UPNP (Universal Plug n Play), or open the TCP 443 and UDP 4500 and point them at your Mac. As long as there is nothing preventing outbound traffic while you are away from home and your computer doesn't go to sleep you should have access to your Mobile Me.

If you have questions or issue with your Mobile Me drop me an email or comment and I will take a look at it.

Safari 4 Public Beta A First Look

I always get excited at the prospect of trying out new software. What new features or innovations are we getting this time to make our lives a little easier and a little more productive is the questions I ask myself as I install the new software and eagerly await my first opportunity to take it for a test drive.

Well, this time Apple has really outdone themselves with Safari 4 Public Beta. Everything we wanted in a browser and more. First the browser chrome is totally minimized so your focus is on the webpage not everything around it. You can now drag your tabs out of your browser and move them into a new window or collapse multiple windows into a single window with tabs. It just makes it easier to organize your work flow to whatever works best for you the user. Also to minimize the chrome the tabs have been moved out of their own area above the bookmark bar and given their own space at the top of the window itself.

The rendering speed in Java thanks to the Nitro engine makes this the hands down fastest browser I have ever used! I use Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari on a daily basis both on Windows and Mac. Now there is nothing that comes close to the speed of Safari it is like the whole Internet just got a Turbo Boost! Safari also sports a new predictive loading feature so your browser can start loading pages before you even ask for them making load times even shorter.

The visuals of the new browser are just amazing as well. When you grab the right edge of a tab and pull it off the Window you get a thumbnail of the tab and when you release it it blows up into a full window ready to use.

New Developer tools lets you view pages as different browser types, view site elements, Resources, Scripts, and profile websites to show you where the performance issues lie. I can't wait to spend some real time digging into these features. It really gives developers an opportunity to make sites better and faster.

On opening your browser you can choose to be presented with a grid of your top sites you visit. Small, medium, or large you choose the amount of updated pages you see in this panorama. Click a site and it flies into the full window and you are off and surfing.

Even browsing bookmarks was rethought with the addition of Cover Flow. On first access it is a little slow while the browser goes and gets a thumbnail of each page. After that it is like surfing Cover Flow in your iTunes Library, or your data in the Cover Flow View is Leopards Finder. It is just so well thought out. You can even search for bookmarks based on keywords. You don't have to remember the site name just type in some things you remember and let Safari do the rest. Even your browser history is available in Cover Flow to find things fast and easy.

So far in my attempts to stress test the browser I opened over 85 tabs in one window and moved between them while downloading files, pulling tabs out to their own window and pushing other back into the first window. If you have multiple windows open you can even click Window / Merge All Windows and all of your browser windows consolidate down to one Window with multiple tabs instantly.

Safari has just moved way ahead of the pack in the browser wars and it seems everyone in this space is leaving Microsoft in the dust. With this browser a completely standards compliant platform it is sure to pick up a huge market share in the future and will be the browser that Windows and Mac users alike are sure to fall in love with.

Reverse Switching?

In my years of working on Macs I have never known of anyone who was willing to switch back to a Windows PC after using a Mac. However after years of helping people make the transition I may have found the first one.

What motivates someone who has switched to a platform that frees them from Virus, Spyware, and unending security problems and hack attempts to go back to constant patching and the need to be distrusting and vigilant? Worried about Rootkits, botnets, and other dangers lurking on the Internet?

I am not saying the Mac will be safe from all of this forever at some point someone may come up with a way to infect a Mac on the Internet but for now it is very difficult to do and requires a user to actually install a program on the machine with Admin privileges to be infected. We saw the first two in the wild this year. One claiming to be Photoshop CS4 and the other claiming to be iWork 09. So as long as you are not downloading illegal software from the Internet you are fairly safe from the dangers lurking on the Internet.

Some users are still trapped on the Windows platform to a degree by companies like Intuit who keep promising Mac users versions of their software that will work on the Mac or websites that will work with browsers other than IE 6. At least design websites that work with Firefox and we will be set. Also companies like MLXchange the company that produces MLS for Real Estate Agents the end user portion works on any browser but the part the Real Estate Agent uses only works on Internet Explorer 6.

When will companies learn there are millions of users out there who want a choice? Who wants to make their computing life simple? We as Mac users do not really want to be forced into running Internet Explorer in an emulator or run Boot Camp or Parallels to do our daily work. Users forced to do this day in and day out can become frustrated and make them want to go back to Windows. Apple and Mac developers need to take a stand and start giving us real alternatives to the Windows domination we have lived with for years. While the Apple has become more compatible and things like VMWare, Parallels, and xVM Virtual Box from Sun have given Mac users the ability to run Windows the reality is we would like to stay in OS X, stay safe, and still run all of our programs.

Dealing with the heaviness of Virtual Machines and not one but two very complex Operating Systems exacts a heavy toll on the average user creating more frustration. It is time to make the computing experience easier and safer for business users as well as home users. Make the computer experience something they look forward to and don't have to fight with all the time.

It doesn't matter if you use Mac, Windows, or Linux. They are all very complex and unexpected things happen and not everything is as intuitive as we might like them to be. Not everyone wants to be a computer expert. Sometimes people just want to get their work done. Let's create an environment they can do just that.

Apple has the easiest to use of all the Operating Systems out there. So let's start getting software on Mac OS X so users don't have to switch back and forth all the time. Let's remove some of the complexity from end users computing lives. Let's help those that are thinking about switching back to Windows why they don't want to go back down that path.

MacHeads

The new movie MacHeads is now available on iTunes and Amazon.  It started out as a film talking about the most fanatical of devoted Mac fans.  What other computer could create such a devoted following?  It is interesting to see some of the examples of Mac devotees that make me look moderate.  I love my Mac and using a PC often feels like a punishment every time I have to sit down and work on one.  But some of these guys are really passionate about their computers.

Later in the film the focus shifts on to what Jobs has done for the company and nearly deifies him.  I like Jobs and wish him well in his recovery and hope he does return to Apple to lead the company into creating some more insanely great products and keeping Apple growing while he grooms a replacement that will be as capable as Steve Jobs.

The films most important point is the feeling the Mac community is falling to the wayside as Apple becomes more mainstream and as a company Apple is starting to ignore the Mac User Groups (MUGS).  

While Apple is focusing more on their retail stores and providing access to their Genius' to answer questions I don't think the Mac User Group will ever go away.  In the 21st Century Mac User Groups will just have to market themselves differently.  This will be a future blog topic I am sure.  When the Las Vegas Mac Users Group (LVMUG) contacts our local Apple Store they are always happy to send someone to talk to us about new products that have shipped or existing products  that may be of interest to our users.  

Overall with a runtime of just over 50 minutes it is an interesting film that all Mac lovers are sure to enjoy.  

15 Must Have iPhone Apps

Since I got my iPhone 3G in July of this year I have collected the following list of Must have iPhone app downloads. All of these are free apps on the Apple App Store.

1.)Google app
This particular app makes Google search as easy as pushing a button and saying the words you want to search for on Google, or putting the phone to your ear and wait for the tone and state your search. Use it to search or just amaze your friends

2.)Mobile news
This is a great app from the Associated Press. It even uses the GPS to find news that is local to you. Great way to stay in touch with news around the corner or around the world.

3.)Shazam
Ever hear a song while walking through a store or hear something on TV or the radio and you don’t know the name but you love the song. Just click on Tag now and let Shazam tell you what the song is and who sings it. Later you can download it on iTunes to play again and again.

4.)AOL Radio
AOL Radio is a great way to stream any AOL Music Radio Station right t your iPhone or in the car to your car stereo with a Dock or FM Transmitter. Listen to music from around the world while you drive to work. A great replacement for XM Satellite Radio

5.)Pandora Radio
Another Streaming Radio App but this one you create your own custom channel and listen to the music you like. If Bob Seger is your favorite singer, or Plush if your favorite song just enter it into Pandora and it will pick that performer or song and others of a similar style you might also like. Give them thumbs up or down with each track to make the list better over time. Discover new music while enjoying your favorites.

6.)Remote
Control your iTunes Application on your computer over wifi from your iPhone. This is great if you have an Airport Express ($99.00) at apple.com and stream your music to other rooms from your computer. Use your iPhone as a remote to control track, playlist, even volume.

7.)YPMobile
A quick and easy Yellow Pages guide for your iPhone. Between this a Google Maps I have never had to use 411 to get any information from my iPhone.

8.)Light
Lots of these simple apps exist on the App Store but they are amazingly useful when walking into a dark room with just your iPhone. The white screen and brightness turned up all the way it makes a great way to light a dark room for a little while anyway.

9.)RDP Lite
Did you ever need to login to a Windows PC remotely. With this app you can access your computer desktop from virtually anywhere. Also versions are available for VNC clients as well. The Lite version is free the full featured Pro version does cost money.

10.)MeetBubble
Bubble is great for making sure pictures, tables and other items are level. Taking advantage of the sensors in the iPhone Bubble will ding and give you a “Whoop There it is” when he is centered.

11.)Take me to my car
Have you ever left your car in a Parking Lot and forgot where you parked? With Take me to my Car you just open the app before you get out of your car and bookmark your cars location with the iPhone GPS. When you leave later open the app and you will get walking directions from your current location to where you bookmarked your cars location.

12.)Stop Watch
This is a self explanatory app that let’s you time things. Start/Stop and Lap are all options on this iPhone Chronograph.

13.)beamMe
BeamMe is a great new way to send and receive vCards with other iPhone users. Just enter their phone number or email address and click send card and BeamMe sends them your contact information to add to their address book.

14:)
Bump is a great way to swap contacts with iPhone users. You open the Bump application and then bump your phone to another iPhone user who has bump open. It uses GPS and 3G wireless to connect to each other and ask you to verify you want to send your contact information to that person and what information you wish to send them. Then it writes into your address book.
Fring isn't as useful now that push notification on AIM works and Skype will be coming soon.
14.)fring
This is a multi-platform text and Voice chat software. Pretty much any IM client and Skype is supported. The Skype Voice Chat only works on WI-FI networks.
15.) Skype. Yes our friends at Skype have finally introduced Skype for the iPhone. It offers great voice chat over Wi-Fi only and sounds almost like you are on a phone call. They also have text chat built right in. Now that iPhone supports push notification I would look for that in the near future from our friends at Skype to give you a notice you have an incoming chat even while the app is not open.
Easy Wi-fi is no longer needed on the iPhone 3.0 software. Apple & AT&T added a feature allowing you to automatically authenticate to the WiFi Access Points at any AT&T WiFi location.
15.) Easy Wi-fi
This makes joining AT&T WI-FI hotspots a snap. Just open the App and enter your phone number for the first time and it will connect to a local AT&T hotspot and setup your free WI-FI access. This is by far the easiest way to join an AT&T WI-FI hotspot only taking a few seconds.


My iPhone has changed the way I live my life and I get excited each time a new update to the phone is released making it even more useful and almost impossible to live without. As people who are used to technology and have high expectations of tech we will always want them to do more and with the iPhone platform the will continually add new features and software that will amaze and astound us and make our lives even easier and put more knowledge at our fingertips.

iPhone 3G Review

After standing in line for 8 hours to be one of the first to get the latest iPhone from Apple, I must say I was impressed with this device. It is far more than just a phone it also a great PDA and entertainment device. It has a great feel with the curved back and metal bezel framing a nice sized glass multi-touch display. This device gets attention just holding it. Everyone seems to want to touch it and comment about how light it feels while it is only hundredths of an ounce lighter than the previous iPhone for some reason everyone seems to think they feel lighter. It is comfortable to hold in your hand even for long periods of time like when watching movies. Overall I would say if you are switching from any other phone to an iPhone it is worth the wait.
If you already own an iPhone you can upgrade your firmware to the 2.0 version and get most of the features the new iPhone offers with the exception of the 3G high speed wireless and GPS options.
The iPhone is a platform more than just a phone. New software is being released every day through the AppStore to add functionality to the device. MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few of the Social Networking Tools that are available for free. Programs to help identify that song on the radio you like but don’t know the name of, the list of apps is already in the thousands and more developers and apps are being added every day to make the iPhone even more useful.
Now there are still some limitations of the iPhone. The lack of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) the ability to send video and photos over the Short Messaging Service (SMS) feature is kind of limiting. You can email a photograph to someone but you have to know their cell phones email address and not just the phone number. The camera still doesn’t support recording video, and the ability to Copy and Paste between apps is still missing. While the 3G is much faster and the WiFi connection faster yet the battery does tend to run down rather quickly requiring me to keep a charger by the bed, at my desk, and in the car so I don’t get caught with a dead phone/iPod. Part of the battery issue is the fact I use it all the time. I get my email instantly and can read it while I am listening to music or pause the video to check messages. When a phone call comes in my music or movie automatically pauses and takes me to the phone app so I can answer it.
The GPS with Google Maps and traffic information is a fantastic feature to help avoid congestion on the highways and to help you find stores and services you are looking for at the touch of a button. I am already discovering new restaurants and stores near my home I never knew were there because my phone just shows them to me.
iPhone has set the bar very high for cell phone manufacturers to make an all in one device that is fast, easy and makes a fashion statement. There will be a lot of imitations but I think it will be some time before anyone comes up with a device this good. At least until Apple comes out with the next one.