Potential iPhone 3GS buyer

DeaconFrost

DeaconFrost

[H]F Junkie
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Sep 6, 2007
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I'm due for an upgrade in a few days with AT&T and my wife and I have been thinking about getting two iPhones, most likely the 16 GB variety. I both have 8 GB Nano's that will be replaced, and neither of us fill up the 8 GB, or even close. I have a few questions, however, so hopefully some of you have experience or answers to share.

1. Can I have two e-mail accounts on the device, that are kept separate, and I can reply to both e-mail accounts separately? One will be my personal through my web-host using IMAP, and second will be my corporate, using IMAP to connect to Exchange. I have two employees with these phones connecting to our corporate e-mail just fine, so I'm not worried about that side. I mainly want to have two inboxes, and be able to respond to those e-mails using the account they are related to.

2. Can some of the default apps be uninstalled if I know I won't use them?

3. How is the device in terms of opening office files and PDFs, especially the newer office format, like .docx?

4. Can the iPhone handle meeting requests yet? As of last September, the e-mail client couldn't open those messages.

5. I understand that the Google Maps app works like a GPS device, but does it call out street names, or do you have to read the directions from the phone's screen? I'm wondering if it would be good enough to replace a Garmin Nuvi.

Thanks for the answers, and if there are any very useful apps you love, feel free to post them as well.
 
I can answer some of your questions

1. Yes, you can have multiple email accounts that operate independently.
2. The only way that I know how to take off some of the default apps is to jailbreak the iphone and use poof to hide them
3. not sure on this one
4. not sure on this either
5. On this unless you buy the tom tom app for $50 you will have to read the streets on the device, it will highlight the road you need as well as where you are in relation to it for your directions.
 
1. Yes, when you open the Mail app you then choose which account to view (it does remain on whatever screen you leave it, but switching between accounts is easy as it's just pressing back)

2. You can't remove them, but they are 1-2 Mb at most and you can just put them on the last page and ignore them

3. PDF's work well, old and new Office formats work fine to view, there's a $10 app that lets you edit them too

4. not sure, I think with Exchange support, since Exchange syncs calendars too, it can, but I'm not 100%

5. Google Maps does not speak to you, rumor is Google Navigation (which does) will come to the iPhone but that is a rumor. There are also GPS apps from several main GPS makers that make your iPhone a full GPS device ($50-100 in price). The GPS sensor in the iPhone is excellent though and I've been able to use Google Maps as nav without issue
 
You can always put the icons that you don't use on another page at the end of your apps, that always works and you still have it there if you need it. An alternative would be to jailbreak then use categories to put your icons into 'folders'
 
DeaconFrost said:
I'm due for an upgrade in a few days with AT&T and my wife and I have been thinking about getting two iPhones, most likely the 16 GB variety. I both have 8 GB Nano's that will be replaced, and neither of us fill up the 8 GB, or even close. I have a few questions, however, so hopefully some of you have experience or answers to share.

1. Can I have two e-mail accounts on the device, that are kept separate, and I can reply to both e-mail accounts separately? One will be my personal through my web-host using IMAP, and second will be my corporate, using IMAP to connect to Exchange. I have two employees with these phones connecting to our corporate e-mail just fine, so I'm not worried about that side. I mainly want to have two inboxes, and be able to respond to those e-mails using the account they are related to.
Click to expand...
Yes, i have exchange, gmail, mobileme, and others all on the same phone.
2. Can some of the default apps be uninstalled if I know I won't use them?
Click to expand...
You have to jailbreak it to uninstall them. Lots of work to save 25 kilobytes of space by deleting the stocks app. Just move it 10 pages to the right.
3. How is the device in terms of opening office files and PDFs, especially the newer office format, like .docx?
Click to expand...
I don't know about docx, but pdf's open in safari natively and work great.
4. Can the iPhone handle meeting requests yet? As of last September, the e-mail client couldn't open those messages.
Click to expand...
Who the hell told you meeting requests wouldn't work last September? That is a lie, they worked then and still work.
5. I understand that the Google Maps app works like a GPS device, but does it call out street names, or do you have to read the directions from the phone's screen? I'm wondering if it would be good enough to replace a Garmin Nuvi.
Click to expand...
Google turnbyturn navigation only works with google phones... There are 4 or 5 different navigation apps for the iphone, i use navigon and it works good.



I have a 3g and a 3gs, i love the 3gs 1000x better.
 
The iPhone supports viewing of .c, .cpp, .diff, .doc, .docx, .h, .hpp, .htm, .hpp, .htm, .html, .m, .mm, .patch, .pdf, .txt, .xls, .xlsx documents from attachments in emails, or through various file sharing apps on the iphone. (Dropbox, iDisk, ect.)

And yes, the inbox for each email is separate from the other email's inbox. And anything you reply to in each inbox will send through that mail account, and not the other. (if you select a mailto: link on a website, then you will be sending from the default account.
 
DeaconFrost said:
I'm due for an upgrade in a few days with AT&T and my wife and I have been thinking about getting two iPhones, most likely the 16 GB variety. I both have 8 GB Nano's that will be replaced, and neither of us fill up the 8 GB, or even close. I have a few questions, however, so hopefully some of you have experience or answers to share.

1. Can I have two e-mail accounts on the device, that are kept separate, and I can reply to both e-mail accounts separately? One will be my personal through my web-host using IMAP, and second will be my corporate, using IMAP to connect to Exchange. I have two employees with these phones connecting to our corporate e-mail just fine, so I'm not worried about that side. I mainly want to have two inboxes, and be able to respond to those e-mails using the account they are related to.

2. Can some of the default apps be uninstalled if I know I won't use them?

3. How is the device in terms of opening office files and PDFs, especially the newer office format, like .docx?

4. Can the iPhone handle meeting requests yet? As of last September, the e-mail client couldn't open those messages.

5. I understand that the Google Maps app works like a GPS device, but does it call out street names, or do you have to read the directions from the phone's screen? I'm wondering if it would be good enough to replace a Garmin Nuvi.

Thanks for the answers, and if there are any very useful apps you love, feel free to post them as well.
Click to expand...

1) Yes, as long as they're not both Exchange-based.

2) No, but you can move them way off to the side where you'll never see them.

3) Not sure about docx specifically, but it can read .doc and .pdf files in the email program at least without any trouble. Of course, to edit, you'd need a separate app.

4) I assume you're referring to Exchange. I'm pretty sure it can, but don't quote me on it.

5) It's a maps app, not a navigation app. Works much like Google Maps does on the internet. You'd need something like the TomTom app to do this, but they're fairly expensive. It's been rumored that Google plans on releasing Google Maps Navigation, as is now on the Android, for the iPhone, but it might take a while if and when it arrives.
 
Dont buy one now..the new ones will be announced in June.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Don't buy one in June, the next ones will be announced a few months after those.
Click to expand...

WTF? Yes but this upgrade will most likely have an OLED screen. Since 3GS hardware is fine, and the 2011 version most likely introduces the next Cortex/Sgx iteration, which presumably won't affect those satisfied with 3GS performance, it makes sense to wait. Also this upgrade is about 4 months away vs 16 for the next iteration.
 
for GPS, it's worth the investment to grab the TomTom application, it has turn by turn and all kinds of nice features. Since I've purchased it, I haven't even touched my delphi unit. You'll want the windshield mount and charger for it though because it'll kill a full battery in an hour or two


for document files, there are plenty of programs (and plugins for jailbroken phones) that will allow you to open pretty much any file type
 
Verge said:
Who the hell told you meeting requests wouldn't work last September? That is a lie, they worked then and still work.
Click to expand...
I told me! I couldn't get the meeting requests to show, since they come across as .ics files. Apple's support forums were littered with people complaining about this, including official responses saying the feature wasn't available. Apparently, it was supposed to be included in version 3.1 and wasn't. Trust me, I had a small binder full of proof printed out, since my CEO has one of the two iPhones we have in my company. Even now, she has to forward the meeting request to her admin, who replies with the meeting info in the body of an e-mail. She also has no option to view the .ics file or accept/decline the invite. I was also on the phone with AT&T's support and was told be them that it wasn't possible at the time. If there's been an update since then to fix the issue, I'd be thrilled.

Here's my original thread:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1465870
 
DeaconFrost said:
I told me! I couldn't get the meeting requests to show, since they come across as .ics files. Apple's support forums were littered with people complaining about this, including official responses saying the feature wasn't available. Apparently, it was supposed to be included in version 3.1 and wasn't. Trust me, I had a small binder full of proof printed out, since my CEO has one of the two iPhones we have in my company. Even now, she has to forward the meeting request to her admin, who replies with the meeting info in the body of an e-mail. She also has no option to view the .ics file or accept/decline the invite. I was also on the phone with AT&T's support and was told be them that it wasn't possible at the time. If there's been an update since then to fix the issue, I'd be thrilled.

Here's my original thread:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1465870
Click to expand...

I get meeting requests everyday on my iphone and accept / deny them. Work fine here.
 
Database said:
I get meeting requests everyday on my iphone and accept / deny them. Work fine here.
Click to expand...
Is this with an Exchange account? I have them coming in by IMAP, using the default Mail app, and all meeting requests come in as a blank e-mail with only a .ics file attached.
 
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