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3G iPhone's Bells, Whistles Make Beautiful, Costlier Music

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By LAURA FIORILLI-CREWS

TBO.com

Published: July 11, 2008

TAMPA - The new iPhone is here! It's faster! It's louder! It's cheaper – well, not really.

This morning, TBO's Scott Newman blogged from the epicenter of Apple camaraderie – the line outside International Plaza, where hard-core enthusiasts waited for the chance to buy the iPhone 3G.

I'm writing to you from a much more muddled place. I'm a longtime Apple fan coming up on my first anniversary with the iPhone. I love the phone. But I'm waiting to upgrade.

It's going to be hard for my husband and me to resist the new iPhone's charms. The 3G network, which is the wireless data service that sets this model apart from its predecessor, leaves the old Edge network in the dust.

Today I went outside and watched Newman's phone blaze its way to NYTimes.com, a relatively complex site that's not terribly iPhone-friendly. My older iPhone struggled to load all the articles and graphics. Those who upgrade will always beat me in a Web-browsing race.

It has been about a year since the first iPhone went on the market. Aside from the faster network, comparing the "old" and new iPhones is a lot like comparing your nearly-new car with this year's model. You still recognize the overall package, but you notice lots of little improvements. GPS, clearer sound and the ability to use standard headphones are all tempting advantages over the old model.

The cost, though, gives us pause. The Apple nuts who waited in line all night – or even the slightly saner folks who will stop by the Apple store this weekend – are paying less for their new phones than we did last year. By the month, though, they'll pay more, thanks to the increased cost of the 3G network and a new pricing scheme for text messages.

Last month, Gizmodo calculated the cost of owning various smartphones over the required two-year contract period. The result? The iPhone 3G, despite its cheaper sticker price, ends up costing $160 more than the old one. The difference is all in the monthly fees.

A difference of $160 isn't going to break the bank, but it is something to consider, especially since we are satisfied with our old phones.

But there's a bright side. Today, Apple debuted not only the phone, but also the App Store, a collection of new widgets that expands the phone's capabilities. You can download these applications just as you would music or videos from the iTunes Store. Some are free; others carry a fee, with many seeming to cost about $10.

Some improve on iPhone basics, such as the calculator and weather forecast. Others bring popular services such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to your phone's desktop, eliminating the need to use the Web browser.

Still others go way beyond the bounds of what we used to think a phone could do. You can turn your phone into drums or a piano, rattle an animated light saber or play games such as Super Monkey Ball that use the iPhone's accelerometer to turn up the action – and toss your stomach around a bit in the process.

Those willing to hack their iPhones (Hint: One of the willing lives with me.) have been playing around with these gizmos for months. Now Apple is opening up a whole new iPhone world to everyone. Developers will produce more of these apps.

So even if I don't run out and buy a new one, starting tonight, my 1-year-old iPhone will do a lot more than it could before. And it already was cooler than any other phone out there.

Should I upgrade now? It wouldn't be the first time the Fiorilli-Crews household tossed $160 (or, shudder, $320 for the both of us) at a shiny new gadget. But the iPhones we already have haven't lost their shine.

An upgrade is somewhere out on the horizon. Until then, my much-loved first-generation iPhone will keep me more than happy. Did I mention it makes phone calls, too?

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