New Apple iPhone 3GS2 comments

Apple has introduced iPhone 3GS since Friday, which has 16 gigabytes and has capability to capture video, so even with a fingertip we can trim the ends of a captured video and then upload it to YouTube or MobileMe, right from the phone.

The company said the S stands for speed so if we are used to the old iPhone the speed boost will hit us between the eyes, especially when we are opening programs, playing games and loading Web pages.

The built-in three-megapixel camera is much better, too. The camera still tends to blur moving subjects, and even still life, aren’t as crisp as from an actual camera. But the color and clarity are definitely improved, especially in low light.

The new autofocus feature lets us tap the screen preview at the spot where you want the exposure, white balance and focus to be calculated. Except when the subject is a few inches away, you don’t see much difference in the focusing - but your tap location can make a big difference in the brightness and color (exposure and white balance) of the finished photo.

Better yet, the 3GS now captures video. It’s the real deal: sharp, smooth, 30 frames a second. Once again, it’s not quite what you’d get from a proper digital camera or a Flip camcorder-it tends to “blow out” the bright areas - but it’s darned close.

We cannot beat the capacity, either; in theory, the 32-gigabyte iPhone can capture 17 hours of video - just enough for the elementary-school talent show.

With a fingertip, you can trim the ends of a captured video and then upload it to YouTube or MobileMe, right from the phone. (That part, it does much better than a digital camera.)

The new voice-control feature may be the most useful change of all. Hold down the iPhone’s Home button for a moment, say “Call mom’s cell” or “Dial 800-555-1212,” and the iPhone places your call, crisply and accurately.

The new Compass program looks like a classier version of a regular Cub Scout compass - great when you emerge, disoriented, from the subway. In Google Maps, it adds an indicator beam, showing which way you are facing on the map. No longer must you walk in a circle, staring at the iPhone map like an idiot, just to figure out which way is up.

The iPhone 3GS also gains what Apple calls an oleophobic screen. It may sound like an irrational fear of yodelers, but in fact, it’s a coating that lets you wipe away fingerprints with a single rub on your clothes. It really works to keep the iPhone looking new longer. Maybe fewer people will now bury the iPhone’s gorgeous, slim shape in a homely, bulky case.

Finally, the iPhone 3GS harbors a better, beefier battery, thereby confronting another chronic complaint. It gives you about 25 percent more life a charge (five hours talk time or 30 hours of music), easily enough to last at least a day of moderate use. As Palm Pre owners know, that’s rare on a 3G superphone.

There are dozens more new features on the iPhone 3GS - but the really exciting part is that older iPhones can get them, too. They’re part of a free software upgrade called iPhone 3.0. (You get the upgrade when you sync your phone to iTunes. For $10, the iPod Touch can get this upgrade, too.)

Chief among them: the long-awaited copy and paste commands, which appear at your fingertips when you double-tap text in most programs. Now you can paste text and graphics from a Web site into an e-mail message, for example, or copy an address from a text message into your calendar.

There’s Bluetooth stereo audio, too, meaning that you can listen to your music with cordless headphones, leaving the iPhone itself in your pocket or backpack, it’s has available on the iPhone 3GS.

A handy voice-recording app comes complete with trim editing and e-mailing commands, thereby turning your iPhone into a high-quality, huge-capacity digital audio recorder.

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