Mossberg, Pogue, Baig review the iPhone 3G

Use this
http://www.newluddite.com/2008/07/round-up-of-iphone-3g-reviews.html

Still with the iPhone MMS whining?

MMSs suck, an here's why: They are usually hard to create, you have to throttle down the size of anything you send, they take forever to upload to the network, and even longer (sometimes a few days) to get to their intended recipients if they even get there at all, they frequently just don't work on the recipient's phone or network, and they are billed like a higher priced SMS even though they are only using packet data.

Just use you email application and send your photos to: "Your Buddy's Phone Number"@"Their Carrier's MMS Address".com . They can reply or just send an MMS to your email address.

Email is easier to use and more widespread than MMS. Just my 2¢.

For reference:
Alltel = xxxxxxxxxx@message.alltel.com
AT&T (Cingular) = xxxxxxxxxx@mms.att.net
Boost Mobile = xxxxxxxxxx@myboostmobile.com
Cincinnati Bell = xxxxxxxxxx@gocbw.com
Sprint = xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile = xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net
US Cellular = xxxxxxxxxx@mms.uscc.net
Verizon Wireless = xxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com
Virgin Mobile = xxxxxxxxxx@vmobl.com

Read the article here: http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/08/sending_and_receiving_mms_on_y_1.php

My main interest in the GPS is as a bicycle computer. I don't know much about GPS and have never used one. Do you folks think that an app would be possible? I'm thinking of something where I hit "start", go for a bike ride, and when I get back I can see how far I went, maybe with a map of my route. I'd be happy if it's accurate to +/- 5%. What about elevation? Will the iphone's GPS have elevation data or just latitude/longitude? It would be really nice if I could get an elevation profile, too! I don't really need it for "navigation".
Most of my bike rides are in areas with no phone service, GPS will still work, right?
If I can use the GPS this way, I'll go for the 3G. Otherwise I'll pick up a 2nd hand 16GB 1st gen iphone.
Thanks,
tys

@artaxerxes: Yeah, but like someone said above, AT&T promotes TeleNav on all their GPS-equipped phones, pretty much. You really think they won't try to take advantage of that on the iPhone? There's got to be ways around that statement (like not using Google Maps, since it's that language is sourced from the Google API restrictions).

Personally I'm hoping someone comes up with a solution that has the maps on the handheld itself, so you don't have to rely on cell service to use your maps when you're in the middle of nowhere, but I guess failing that I'll take what I can get...

He probably just means that the GPS accuracy lacks as compared to, say, a Garmin handheld GPS unit.

I'm sure the chip provides much better accuracy, for example, then their current cell-tower-triangulation method, but in a dedicated GPS receiver you have a decent sized antenna and a 12-channel receiver taking readings once a second, this can get you a reading within a few feet if you're under clear sky. Get buildings, clouds, or trees in the way and the accuracy drops, but that fatty GPS antenna can usually still find you within a couple of meters.

Cut to the iPhone, it wasn't designed as a GPS, it was designed as a phone with a GPS in it, so there are some compromises, and they're not compromises in the GPSes favor. For one, it's got to be a lower-powered GPS radio, to sip from the little battery in the iPhone. Another, like Progue said, is that the antenna has got to be smaller than that of other GPS receivers, and it's probably not in an ideal location either -- I doubt, for example, that the GPS antenna will be facing the sky if your iPhone is mounted on your dash.

All of these lead to a less accurate GPS signal.

My Garmin can show me exactly where I am in my yard...I'm thinking the iPhone GPS will more tell me that I'm at my house, as opposed to another house in the neighborhood -- still pretty accurate, but not quite as accurate.

Lastly, cell phone GPS units are dependent upon the cell network for their map data. This is an awesome advantage and disadvantage. It's awesome because you never have to pay for map upgrades. It stinks though as soon as you're trying to route and you don't have cell coverage.

So for 80-90% of what people use GPS for the iPhone will do just fine, but for sure if you want rock-solid navigation you might still consider bringing TomTom along.

Even if the antenna is "too small" (which I read as not getting good enough reception, which I find hard to believe considering the number of phones that have perfectly sufficient GPS), at the end of the day the GPS programs will work just fine, they just might be a little inaccurate. Take Google Maps. If that works, then the GPS works. Maybe the error will be a little greater than, say, an industrial surveying GPS, but as long as you feed the program GPS coordinates, that's all that matters. All of these things have SOME kind of error, and these days it's rare that it's very much error at all anymore.