Apple iPhone 3G Cell Phone Review - Other Features

Tethered Modem (0.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G cannot be used as a tethered modem. This is an unfortunate omission and another thing that we wish had been addressed since last year's model. Almost every other smart phone on the market can be tethered to your computer either via Bluetooth or a USB cable and used to access the internet. We hope this is a feature that Apple adds in the future.

GPS (6.5)
GPS support is one of the big new features of the iPhone 3G, and it does an excellent job of integrating this into the mapping application. When you open the Google Maps application and click on the locate button, you first get the standard circle that indicates that the application is using cell site triangulation to work out where you are; the circle indicates its best guess. But if you are in an open area where the iPhone 3G can pick up the signals from GPS satellites, this quickly turns into a pulsing blue pin that indicates that it has a proper GPS fix. We found that this happened pretty quickly; when we were stationary with a view of the open sky, it typically managed to locate us within 30 seocnds to a minute. In a moving car, it took longer, but it still worked out where we are wihin a couple of minutes.

Many cell phones won't keep track of where you are if you are on the move; they detect your position, but then don't update it once they know where you are. The iPhone 3G updates the location; the pulsing blue pin moves with you on the map (see the image below for an example). In a car driving in normal traffic, the iPhone 3G kept a good lock on our position on the road that we were on. Once we moved out of GPS coverage  (such as moving into a building) and the device could no longer pick up the GPS signal, the maps application reverted to the circle that indicates an approximate location.

The Google Maps application can provide directions, but it cannot do turn-by-turn directions. If you ask the program for directions, it will produce a route and show this on the map, but it will not tell you where to turn or warn you if you miss a turning. So, this means that it is not suitable for car navigation at the moment; you would be constantly looking from road to screen, and back again. Apple, for some reason, is blocking software developers from offering turn-by-turn navigation applications, but the GPS software developers TeleNav have said that they will be offering turn-by-turn GPS navigation on the iPhone at some point in the future. However, at the moment, the iPhone 3G can't do turn-by-turn directions.

The GPS features are not limited to the Google Maps application, though; other applications can access this information and use it. The free Local Picks application, for instance, can grab your location and use this to provide a list of nearby restaurants, complete with distances to the restaurant. It cannot, however, pass this information to the Google Maps application; you have to enter the address yourself.  When an application wants to use your location, a dialog box pops up that allows you to either allow or deny the phone access to this information. 

PTT (0.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G does not support AT&T's push to talk network, which allows you to use your phone as a walkie-talkie.

Previous    Next