User Friendly Tech Svcs.

A geek you can talk to.

I am a proud owner of the original 1st generation iPhone and have been following the news regarding the release of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 software.   I listen to several tech podcasts, and news about the new iPhone hardware and software releases have been prominent in nearly all of them lately.  The general consensus seems to be that if you don't need the GPS and/or 3G data service isn't available in your area, then there's really no compelling reason to buy the new iPhone 3G. Another reason (for me anyway) to avoid buying a 3G iPhone is the new policy that requires buyers to activate the phone in the store, which means signing a 2-year contract for a rather expensive service plan.

That said, most reviewers are excited about the new App Store that is available in the new 2.0 software and suggest that 1st gen. iPhone owners upgrade to 2.0 to take advantage of that. I had been holding out until the new software had been "jailbroken", and just this week, I finally saw that the PwnageTool 2.0.1 is now publicly available from the iPhone dev-team.  The folks over at Wired's Gadget Lab have successfully tested it on "a sacrificial iPod" touch, and it seems to work well.

I performed the jailbreak on my iPhone when I first got it, and it already does everything that I want it to with the exception of cut and paste, which isn't included in the 2.0 software anyway.  Neither is A2DP, the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile that allows streaming of stereo audio from mobile devices to wireless headsets.  I own a Jabra stereo bluetooth headset and I still can't believe that the iPhone didn't support cut and paste from day one.  Either of those features would get me excited about upgrading, but I have to say that my attitude ranges somewhere between indifferent and disappointed.

iTunes started notifying me that the software upgrade was available a few days ago, but one would have to be living under a rock not to know that.  Considering the lack of interesting features and the fact that there seem to be as many stories of problems with the 2.0 software as there are accolades, I am going to hold off on upgrading my iPhone to 2.0.