iOS 4.1 Giveth, but mostly Taketh Away (from 3G)
By now everyone has heard that Apple has released the latest version of their iPhone operating system, the iOS 4.1. Jobs showed many exciting new features, and promised bug fixes, which he said including the poor performance issues experienced by 3G owners. Well, they certainly fixed the performance issue–but at what price?
I bought the iPhone 3G when it came out in 2008. Yes, I even waited in line for an Apple device.[1. Truth be told, it was a short line. Nothing like the lines for the original iPhone the year before.] I liked the phone, and unlike many others really felt no need to upgrade to the 3GS the next year, or even the iPhone 4.[2. Probably because I already had the “wifis”.] I did jailbreak my phone, but I only did that after Apple unceremoniously removed the Google Voice application from the App Store.
I did generally update my phone whenever a new update came out, only waiting first to ensure the jailbreak was also available at the time. This was true with the 4.0 update as well. I wanted folders, and multitasking. Who wouldn’t? It’s what we have all been clamoring for since the first iPhone arrived. And, as promised iOS 4.0 (and later, 4.01) delivered. Sadly, for iPhone 3G owners that meant that we paid a great price–our phones no longer responded to our desires with swift efficiency. Instead our phones responded sluggishly, if at all. Answering phone calls became a race between the phone responding to my command to answer, and the caller’s patience on the other end. More often than not the caller, unaware of the skirmish between me and my phone, would hang up.
So I, like every other 3G owner who had upgraded to 4.0, upgraded when the 4.1 iOS rolled out. And yes, the snap, the responsiveness, is back. Mostly.
But “Surprise!” that is the only significant new feature announced in 4.1 to actually make it into the 3G version of 4.1.[3. Actually, the nearly useless “Ping” did make it into the 3G phone. Yeah-useless. In my opinion.] In fact, they removed multitasking!
I will say, I was never happier with my decision to switch to the Android OS and the Samsung Captivate Phone
The 3G never had multitasking, unless you jail broke it and was using a 3rd party multitasker.
Jonathan beat me to it: the 3G never had multitasking with 4.0.
I wonder how many other companies work so hard to provide earlier models with as much compatibility with newer software updates… And that is not an Apple fanboy bait, I really do wonder since I have heard on podcasts that we both listen to that earlier version of Droid based phones will be unable to run FroYo (or whatever the name is) and those phones came out just within the last 12 months! I would be very angry if I were left behind so quickly.
Actually, “most” of the popular Android phones that have come out will be able to be updated to 2.2. Of course, those phones have only been out since January 2010. (specifically, the Droid at Verizon.) One important thing to note is that the android OS first arrived on the scene for open source use in October 2008 with the 1.1 version of the OS arriving in February. Since then, Google has been releasing updates to the OS quite frequently, evolving the OS from the 1.0 offering to the 2.2 Froyo offering in less than 2 years. Each OS version has added significant usability and feature upgrades as well.