Bob is back, baby, and he’s running down the iPhone’s new features
Remember Bob from the iPhone guided tour (real name: Bob Borchers, senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing)? Well, if you’d been missing his calm, reasoned delivery explaining all the features of the iPhone, never fear: Bob is back.
Apple’s posted a new guided tour video that goes over the features introduced in iPhone software 1.1.1 made available today. The bulk of the video focuses on the marquis addition to the iPhone: the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. The iTunes store is actually pretty straightforward; I already purchased an album with no problem. Bob also gives a quick overview of custom ringtones in iTunes.
Other features covered in the update are the ability reorder cities in Weather and stocks in Stocks, the display of the Apple Bluetooth Headset’s battery life in the menubar, double-clicking the home button to bring up favorites or iPod controls, and the ability to double-tap the spacebar to insert a period and a space. I had some trouble with viewing Mail attachments in landscape, but I think that’s because it only works if the attachments are not displayed inline, as most images are; I sent myself a message with a PDF, XLS, and DOC attached, and those worked as advertised. I don’t have the equipment to confirm how well TV Out works, but I can confirm the existence of Widescreen and TV Signal options in Settings -> General -> iPod, along with a switch for Closed Captioning.
Bob glosses over several other new features, such as the fact that speaker phone and receiver volumes are louder, alert volumes now match your ringer volume, and the ability to turn of EDGE data when traveling internationally (under Settings -> General -> Network; note that this does not seem to deactivate the GSM radio).
According to Bobbo, there are plenty of other new features in the update; the only I noticed that Bob didn’t mention was the ability to change the alert sound when you get a new text message—but, for some bizarre reason, only text messages. You can’t change the new email, new voicemail, or calendar alert sound. What’s up with that, Apple?
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Comments (8)
You know, I was _REALLY_ hoping (thinking) they would provide the ability to sync Calendar ToDo items. How can you create a business productivity tool and NOT supply to do items.
I would glady give up the ability to check weather if I could have To Do items.
Posted by Mike Erickson | September 27, 2007 4:22 PM
I think this is something you'll see in Leopard. Both of those items are new additions to Leopards' version of Mail. No sense in writing ways to sync with Notes or To-Dos if you are getting rid of them as we know it now. Remember, Leopard was due to be released around the same time as iPhone at first. Once Leopard was pushed back, I hope they just took that capability out until Leopard comes.
At least this is what I'm hoping... ;-)
Posted by Walt | September 27, 2007 4:39 PM
I don't know why only SMS alert sounds (not mail, calendar, etc are modifiable). (Nor do I know how modifiable, as I haven't updated yet--about to.)
But it was the SMS that I most needed, to allow iPhone to be used as a pager. I suspect I will STILL need repeated sounds until incoming SMS is acknowledged (as an option, since someone using SMS for text messaging--odd concept--wouldn't want it).
Off to fill up Teddy's Tubes.
Posted by John Baxter![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://iphone.macworld.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
September 27, 2007 5:45 PM
I think the biggest fix was allowing the iPhone to sync played songs back to iTunes. It made smart playlists useless when the iPhone couldn't sync what it had just played.
My biggest disappointment is no updates to the Calendar. No colors or groups to go with iCal? No icons, no links to contacts? Come on guys!
Posted by Randy Kaempen | September 27, 2007 9:02 PM
The update also has an option to change the alarm tone. you need to goto clock -> alarm -> edit and then u see the new row to choose the sound.
Posted by Mithun | September 28, 2007 9:21 AM
One more item I was really thinking (hoping) they would provide is attaching a ring tone to incoming mail so I could make it LOUDER. The current tone used for Mail notification is so faint, I can NEVER hear it.
I am coming from a Treo using ChatterEmail and the notifications options were AWESOME, and since I dont have PUSH mail with iPhone (that must be coming to .Mac soon) I have to physically CHECK my mail all the time.
This is actually must less productive than the Treo
Posted by Mike Erickson | September 28, 2007 11:33 AM
One thing at a time people. Everyone wants everything yesterday it seems.
Posted by Freakhead | September 28, 2007 3:26 PM
You can also hold down certain letters on the keyboard for international characters.
Posted by Erik Madsen | September 28, 2007 3:38 PM