iPhone Update: Over 1,000,000 iPhone 3G S Sold Over the Weekend

The iPhone 3G received a product update last week and loads of people decided to wait hours in line to be able to get their new shinning iPhone 3G S. Were you among those lusting after the new model? We enjoy it when good products get better, and in that respect, the new iPhone definitely hits the mark. Since it's launch on Friday, over a million iPhone 3G S were sold. In the midst of this successful launch, there was also a report from the Wall Street Journal, which seemed like an intentional leak, about the health of Apple icon Steve Jobs.

Friday's launch of the iPhone 3G S was a resounding success. Initial figures reported that over a million iPhones were sold over the weekend. But is the new iPhone really worth the purchase? The iPhone is great, but there is one thing that absolutely needed to be improved: the camera. The 2MP camera was just not good enough. It looks like it was put on the iPhone almost as an afterthought. SonyEricsson has been making better camera phones for years. Finally, with this new product update, the iPhone received a new and improved camera. It's a 3MP camera that really hits the mark. You can even take HDR photos with it! The camera comes with an auto-focus and improved software to make taking photos just plain easier. It can also do spot-metering and finally does video as well. Andy Ihnatko from the Chicago Sun Times has posted analysis and tests on his Flickr site. The photos look like they were taken from a camera, not a phone.

Apple says that most apps will run twice as fast on the new iPhone. You can also share your 3G connection with your MacBook using internet tethering. One interesting new feature allows you to find the iPhone if it ever gets stolen. You can also remote wipe all of the data on your iPhone, making sure that no one can steal it. That's something that can be quite useful.

While this has been a boon for Apple, some other news was leaked to the Wall Street Journal early on Saturday morning. It was actually published around midnight on Friday. From the way that the article was written and some great insight by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, it's apparent that this information was intentionally leaked by Apple. Steve Jobs got a liver transplant in Tennessee to help treat an unconfirmed medical condition. The transplant happened about two months ago.

The chief executive has been recovering well and is expected to return to work on schedule later this month, though he may work part-time initially.

The reason why it took place in Tennessee was that there are no residency laws for transplants and the average waiting time to receive one is about 48 days, whereas the national average is 306 day. Initial news of the success of the new iPhone sent Apple's stock soaring. It was brought down on Tuesday when the news of Jobs' health was received and then started back up again since then. [top image via Nomad, others via Apple]

i pre-ordered mine and had it delivered last friday. coming from the 1st gen iphone, which i had since launch weekend, the 3GS is a huge improvement. i still don't like the plastic back, but the phone is very fast compared to the original. 3.0 updates are nice and i'd argue little things like landscape and copy/paste are more important than the camera upgrade (the ability to actually focus makes a huge difference).

that said, i've been using SE handsets since 2001 and love them. the design, interface, durability, and features has always been great. sometimes i miss the fact that i don't use them anymore. have had well over a dozen models all the way up to their 5mp cameras. phenominal quality.

tethering and MMS technically aren't available in the US yet. you can do it, but not legit through ATT.

for the 'find your phone' feature, that's only for mobile me subscribers.

http://images49.fotki.com/v1502/photos/5/51621/396461/IMG_1378-vi.jpgnow i just can't wait for the dev-team to release a jailbreak version for the 3GS. it's annoying having a stock background/icons/message alerts/etc.
Cheers,M

posted by Matt. M on June 24th 2009 at 4:49pm
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And now the original 3G is only $99, affordable for the likes of me. Which will do while I save my pennies for the 4G.

posted by rosenatti on June 24th 2009 at 6:52pm
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Sony Ericsson handsets have great simple UX. Hard to do better in a basic feature phone.

Harder to do better in an app platform though than the iPhone at the moment. Android, Palm, RIM, and WinMo have their work cut out for them.

posted by RJHD3 on June 24th 2009 at 9:24pm
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I ordered one on Wednesday afternoon - my old Verizon Motorola V710 was literally falling apart after 4 years - and it arrived via FedEx on Friday afternoon. Talk about service! So glad I didn't drive 40 miles to the nearest Apple store.

I hadn't upgraded iTunes in months, so I had to do that first, which took about 10 minutes. The activation process itself was dead simple - just sync the phone. iTunes warned me that it might be 48 hours before the phone started working and my old Verizon number transferred over, but within 10 minutes I got a message on the iPhone telling me it was now activated.

Could not be an easier user experience. No wonder Apple is cleaning up in this space. It's a pity they're stuck on AT&T's crummy network, although I have to say the network is better than I thought it would be. I guess the idiots at AT&T have been busy improving it, after all.

The phone itself is insanely fast. When surfing the web over WiFi here at home it almost feels faster than my year old dual core 2GB PC. Even over 3G it's amazingly fast. Battery life is good. Not incredible, but good, especially given how fast it is and how bright the screen is. I have no trouble using the touchscreen keyboard, and wouldn't trade the iPhone's sleek form for one of those clumsy little Blackberry style keyboards.

The Google maps application - which shows where you're at via a little blue dot on the map, and can rotate the map depending on the direction you're facing - is the coolest thing ever. I'm smitten!

posted by sunspot42 on June 25th 2009 at 1:12am
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