Apple provides the 3.0 upgrade “free” for iPhone owners, but those folk have either paid a premium for their devices or are locked into multi-year service agreements. If you have an iTouch, the upgrade is basically $10. While I would prefer that it was a free upgrade, I feel obligated as a software professional to pay for the software I use (I like it when people who use my software pay for it).
The 3.0 upgrade adds a bunch of features. In the brief time I’ve had the update, I haven’t used many of the new features but cut & paste is a welcome addition. Push notifications look like they will possibly fix the ‘no background apps’ issue, I’m looking forward to trying out some apps that make use of the feature. I didn’t notice that the web browser was slow, but I’m all about faster browsing.
I wish they had gone further with the bluetooth enhancement – ideally if they had managed to allow me to use my existing bluetooth enabled phone via an iTouch based interface I would have had a budget iPhone. Imagine being able to dial your current non-Apple phone via the touch and then have it route the headset audio through the touch. I suspect you’d soon get sick of carrying two devices and would drop the money on a real iPhone. Oh well, today all that is offered is stereo headset support.
Read on for details on my upgrade difficulties, and how I resolved them.