I’m not sure why I didn’t correctly capitalize the title. Perhaps it’s Apple’s way of screwing things all up with its lowercase ‘i’ in the product names.
The big news today for iPhone/iPod users is the release of iOS 4, bringing us features that are revolutionary! …despite many other phones having access to such features for quite some time. But that’s neither here nor there. Sadly, one of the biggest features of this new firmware, multitasking, is one that I don’t have the privilege to use. Being on the iPhone 3G (with the 2G completely unable to upgrade), I’m without features. I understand though, as the 3G can barely handle the few apps that are allowed to multitask on the 3G (mail, iPod, Safari, etc). It’s why I’m upgrading to the iPhone 4 (hooray for a new toy!). What I don’t get is why I can’t have my own damn wallpaper on the home screen. The 3G can’t possibly be that restrictive. Hell, that feature has been available on jailbroken iPhones since as long as I’ve had mine.
But I digress. Again, I’ll be upgrading phones soon so some other poor soul with the iPhone 3G can complain.
What am I having a problem with is the new category feature. I commend Apple for finally giving us folders so we don’t have to swipe through 8 pages just to get to the app I want, but it’s just really lacking. The first part is that I’m only allowed to have 12 apps total in one. Not even a feature to add more and allow swiping for navigation. So what if it might defeat the purpose of having folders in the first place? It still cleans up the clutter! It’s a bit ugly to have multiple ‘game’ folders. I personally broke it up into Favorites, Quickplay, and general games. Damn things are hard to categorize beyond ‘games’. Another problem I have with folders is that the icon for it makes the rest of the screen feel so empty. I would think Apple would have a little better alternative to the icon, being so caught up in design as they are. But hey, my complaints are mostly visual. It does the job of clearing page after page. I’ve gone from eight to three, and I do admit that when you actually click on a folder, it looks pretty snazzy.
Was it worth the update? No, not if you go through the hassle I had to go through. The update required a backup from my iPhone, which it spent a good hour doing until I stopped it due to my impatience. I deleted some music off my phone, removing over 8GB worth of data and the backup still crawled. This was about five hours after I’ve downloaded the update. I ended up taking a recommendation from Apple forum users and just restoring my entire iPhone. It might have taken an hour or two, but at least I saw progress. Still, I’m going to go through the same process when I get my new phone, so it’s all a bit redundant just to get folders.
iOS 4 is a great firmware, don’t get me wrong, but for the 3G, it doesn’t impress as it will on the faster phones.
