Walt Mossberg reviews the iPhone 3G, isn't that impressed (now with more David Pogue and Ed Baig!)
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted July 8th 2008 9:44PM
posted July 8th 2008 9:44PM
Update: David Pogue of the New York Times has also turned in a kinda-sorta review of the iPhone 3G, though it reads more like an overview of its features than a honest-to-goodness critique. He also makes passing reference to the GPS antenna being "too small" to function as a proper GPS, which makes roughly zero sense to us. Feel free to figure it out on your own.
Update 2: Can't forget Ed Baig of USA Today, who says the new model is "worth the wait" (not to say we have any option at this point anyway, seeing how hard it is to find an original anywhere). He seemed to have trouble picking up 3G service in some locations, though it's not clear whether that can be chalked up to technical issues with the handset or a lack of coverage where he was testing. Like the others, Baig discovered a noticeable improvement in audio quality and a noticeable hit in battery life when hooked up to the 3G network. Gotta pay to play, we guess.
Price too steep, eh? I just wish I could get your price plans..
Canadian, eh?
:P
Rogers raping you with the price plans, right Bruce?
That is one...handsome....man.... NOPE!
Or he just took a long drag off a blunt
Yup
Walt Mossberg - personal technology for the septuagenarians
Sigh
Clearly, as you most definitely didn't read nor watch, bypassing both in your quest for low ranking....
Nice to know that Kernel Sanders has found work
Dude, Colonel Sanders is dead....
@J-Rad
KERNAL Sanders?
If that's the case, what happens if you mac crashes? Colonel Panic?
Colonel Sanders, unless you're talking about the many other definitions of "kernel".
But yeah, put some more hair on him and slap his mug on a KFC bucket.
Ouch! Low ranked, an all time first for me. I can imagine how a troll must feel everyday!
The sad thing is that I had spent five minutes searching for the correct spelling of what you all claim to be 'Colonial'. Another first: Google has screwed me.
Agreed; neither Google nor the gene pool have treated you well.
If you mac crashes I would say you probably get Colon Panic.
Colonel Panic...hmm...sounds like a Venture Brothers villain.
"May I please speak with Colonel Sanders"
"He dead!"
"I want to see the Colonel!"
"I told you, he dead!"
GatgetMan, congratulations! You are now officially Engadget's #1 court jester. :)
@J-Rad...
It's time to forget you ever posted here....
I don't see any reference for Colonel Sanders in Colonial America...
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/colonialamerica/Colonial_America.htm
You mean #1 court jackass
Apple couldn't get General Protection Fault and Colonel Error. They already work for Microsoft.
Walt Mossberg saying something bad about an Apple product? Wasn't that in the Bible somewhere? I mean, should be be preparing for the Apocolypse?
Is anyone really surprised that the reviews are mediocre? It's not like they were going to reinvent the wheel with this phone (or give it Bluetooth or MMS...).
Here's a good analogy:
Windows ME : Windows 98 as iPhone 3G : iPhone
More like Applecalypse AMIRITE?
Dave, but that would mean that Windows ME was marginally better than 98.
and some could argue ME was better in some regards than 98, besides being a memory hog...
Mossberg speaks.
+ Engadget reports.
+ You decide.
= Profit
(something like that)
Sounds like a fox news advertisement.
Nice to see that someone isn't blinded and automatically praises the damn phone. At least he was honest about it. Personally, I'd love to have an iPhone, but the plans area ripoff, I'll just stick to Verizon and buy the next gen iPod Touch thats HOPEFULLY gonna be announced soon
Isn't blinded and automatically praises the iPhone?
The damned review is named "Newer, Faster, Cheaper."
Yeah, completely neutral. All he does is point out what we already knew would improve about the iPhone.
Really, 3G is faster than EDGE? Thank god Mossberg told me or I would have never known!
Tony,
Sure, Mossberg is biased. However, giving away the result of the review in the headline is not evidence of said bias. You write the headline (or your editor does) AFTER the review is complete, not before it.
Everyone seems to agree the new hardware isn't that much better, which is what we all expected. I've never had good luck with a GPS phone, which is why I have a real GPS unit.
What I think is funny is how everyone complained about the first iPhone, saying it should have been 3G and it should have had GPS, and how Jobs was lying about battery life and all that. Now the iPhone has 3G and GPS, and, sure enough, both have major drawbacks.
BTW, Verizon data plans are the ripoff. $40/mo.
Looks like the original iPhone data plan was $20 because ATT knew that users would scream highway robbery if they tried to charge their normal $30 data plan for a device that only supported EDGE :)
Don't you mean "I like it, I don't care what Mossberg says, and especially don't care that I've never actually used one" or something like that?
Kind of what I expected except the news about the bad battery. That's a real disappointment.
glad Mossberg addressed the pricing policy which is the biggest setback of the iPhone 3G. for once, I have no issues with Mossberg's review. Its fair.
Well, he could have mentioned that if battery life is more important than 3G, you can turn it off and get the same battery life the first iPhone had.
I didn't need walt to tell me this update was a let down...
come lately features and still too big.
"...and gripes that you can only sync Exchange or personal email accounts -- not both."
Weird that Mossberg actually states:
"One drawback: While you can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased."
Come on, try to post the correct information so people don't get confused!
it's true, if you sync Exchange contacts you lose your personal contacts. The same with the calendars, sync work Exchange cal and it wipes your iCal data.
To me that makes the Exchange feature near worthless. So I can have work and home email but not work and home calendars or contacts.
Uh... is that an XPS One in the background?
I CALL SHENANIGANS!
I think it is an XPS One. That's pretty funny considering how much he loves Macs like the Imac
It IS an XPS One and look at the bottom left of its screen...*BLAM* it's the Vista orb.
He's reviewed it in the past; that's probably the unit they sent him.
I think steve jobs asked walt to return the demo unit back .. and michael dell was kind enough to let him keep that xps unit, hey if you can't keep it, you might keep praising the thing, who knows steve might have a melt down and give walt one demo unit for keeps !!!
The iP3G is what it is...incremental hardware improvements and 3rd party software support. Its an above average device to be sure, but not the game changer that the original iPhone was.
Hopefully the 3rd generation will make bigger strides.
Weird, I know somebody running the 2.0 beta and he has both Exchange and a personal IMAP account syncing on the phone. I wonder if they took that option out in the final rev or if ol' Walt is just mistaken.
But does he have both exchange calendars and contacts syncing?
Does it record video? If not, I'll wait yet another year. Version 3 FTW!!!
Or just download any number of the video recording apps that will be available once the store opens...