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iOS 4

iOS was release last week and as soon as it was available, I upgraded my Trusty 3G.

This is my Business phone, With being a 3G, I wasn't getting a lot of the 'Tentpole' features, but my phone is crucial for me to do my job and I have some key productivity apps on there, so why did I do it so soon after release?

My iPhone had been a little problematic for a week or two. This began when its battery was draining in a couple of hours. A quick reinstall of Mail had curbed this a little, but I was feeling that a restore was in order.

The GPS on the 3G wasn't working well and I was hoping the the upgrade might fix the issue.

Multiple Email Accounts. I have a few different work email accounts for various tasks, some shared with others and up until now Webmail was the only real option to pick them up on the move.

The upgrade took just over an hour, I had to upgrade to iTunes 9.2 initially, but it went smoothly, and a lot of time time was the initial backup before the upgrade and the Restore after the upgrade. It all went smoothly

So, What so I think?

Things I like.

3G is faster:
As soon as I upgraded, the 3G seems faster. I'm not sure though whether this is due to an improved OS, or a clean install. It has been noticably better.

Battery Life is better:
Again since the upgrade, the battery in the 2 year old 3G is last much, much better. I'm getting a couple more hours between charges.

Folders:
I can now get to all of my apps reliably in one or two taps with Folders. Any new apps go on the second screen until I decide whether I want to keep them or not. People have moaned about only being able to get 12 apps in a folder, but I don't see the big deal. You can get access to up to 192 apps in two taps, less if you want some apps instead of folders. Even 8 folders and 12 apps (including the dock) shows you 108 apps within 2 taps. How many people regularly use more than 100 apps?

Mail:
I don't use the universal Inbox, but the ability to move between inboxes in single taps is much better.

Google Maps:
Much faster, much slicker

iBooks:
What an application. I'm still getting to grips with it, but loving the interface and it's made me even more determined to afford an iPad

Complex passwords:
I can now use a much more secure password on my phone rather than just 4 digits.

Problems:
Calendars:
I sync both work and person calendars onto the iPhone via both Exchange and Mobile Me, they used to have different colours (Red for Exchange and Blue for Mobile Me's first calendar) but now it seems that the first calendar from each service is set at Blue, this makes it hard to differentiate between them easily.

Safari:
Safari is still glacial on the 3G, I like iPhone Safari, but the reality is that Opera is much, much quicker on 3G and therefore I usually end up using Opera which is not as nice to use.

Overall, iOS 4 has been stable, fast and a worthy upgrade, the two niggles I mentioned are just niggles, but if they weren't there I wouldn't go Grrrrrrrr when I try to use those features.

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