Guess what? The more you use your iPhone, the faster its battery drains. This is hardly a surprise.

Further, certain iPhone features require a bit of extra power and will drain the phone’s battery even faster. Again, not much of a surprise. It’s simply a matter of physics.

Still, it’s worth pointing out exactly what these battery-eating features are. It may be of particular interest to iPhone 3G owners, many of whom claim that the 3G’s battery life is significantly shorter than that of the original iPhone.

In its iPhone User Guide, Apple offers several tips as to what to turn off in order to conserve battery life:

On page 86, Apple states: “To conserve battery life, turn Locations Services off when you’re not using it.”

On page 102, Apple states: “You might want to turn Push off…to conserve battery life.”

Later on the same page, Apple adds: “When Push is off or for accounts that do not support push, data can still be “fetched.” For optimal battery life, don’t fetch too frequently.”

On page 104, Apple further notes: “Using 3G…may decrease battery life. If you’re making a lot of phone calls, you may want to turn 3G off to extend battery life.”

On its “Batteries - iPhone” page, Apple offers additional battery-saving tips. These include: (a) Turn off Wi-Fi; (b) Turn off Bluetooth; (c) Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas; and (d) Minimize use of third-party applications (especially games that prevent the screen from dimming or shutting off or applications that use location services).

Apple also suggests turning off the display for video podcasts, and just listening to the audio. It similarly follows that watching any extended video (such as a movie) should be avoided if you need to preserve your iPhone’s battery for other higher priority tasks.

Of course, all of this can be taken to impractical extremes. I can imagine a satiric skit about the iPhone battery, with the punch line advising that the best way to maximize the life of your iPhone’s battery is to turn off the iPhone altogether and never use it.

Battery life and the iPhone 3G

But seriously folks, what about the iPhone 3G? Does it really eat up a battery faster than an original iPhone? I’ve read several articles on this subject and have done some informal testing on my own. My (still a bit tentative) conclusion is that, when settings between an original iPhone and a 3G are the same, they use up the battery at about the same rate. The biggest reason that 3G users may see increased battery drain is due, not to the hardware, but to the new 2.0 software: Location services, push, downloaded games and the like. However, as these items are available to original iPhone owners as well, they shorten battery life on any iPhone (or iPod touch!). It is only the 3G service itself that may lead to a faster decline in battery life on an iPhone 3G. And while keeping 3G enabled does appear to take a toll, I have not found it to be a dramatic difference. In any case, the iPhone 3G is competitive with other 3G smartphones (as shown in this chart from PCWorld).

The 3G’s mystery battery drain

There is one irritating exception to the above generalizations. There is a battery drain that occasionally happens with my 3G but never with my original iPhone or iPod touch. It is quite dramatic and, unfortunately, I still don’t know the cause.

Perhaps once a week or so, the life drains out of my iPhone 3G’s battery at an alarming rate, even when the iPhone is sleeping! For example, my iPhone may still have about 80% power left at the end of the day. As such, I may decide not to connect it to a charger. The next morning, I turn it on and find the red “low battery” warning on the screen, claiming I now have less than 10% battery power left. My original iPhone and iPod touch, on the other hand, show almost no battery decline during this same period. I have seen numerous similar reports but still have not found a solid explanation.

My current theory is that the iPhone is activated by some process while sleeping, such as the arrival of a text message or a phone call or a pushed email. For some reason (presumably due to a bug that affects the 3G but not original iPhones), the 3G doesn’t correctly go back to sleep after this. Instead, it stays in some quasi-active state and begins to drain the battery as if I were actually using the phone. The next morning, when I finally wake it up, the battery charge is almost gone.

I have experimented to see if some particular iPhone feature (such as having push or 3G enabled) is the primary trigger for this symptom. Apparently not. I still have these occasional battery drains, whether these features are on or off. Hopefully, an iPhone firmware update will eventually resolve this problem. [Meanwhile, if you believe you know what is going on here, please email me to let me know!]

What else to do…

Assuming your use of the iPhone demands that most or all of its battery-draining features remain enabled — and that your iPhone is losing its charge more quickly than you would like, what can you do?

• Charge your iPhone’s battery every night. At least you’ll always start the day with a full charge.

Apple also notes: “It’s important…to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).” Otherwise, the length of time that a charge lasts will decrease.

• Keep an extra charger in your car and/or at your office — so you can charge your iPhone “on the go.” Just be aware that “the iPhone 3G cannot be charged with a FireWire power adapter or FireWire-based car charger.”

• If you charge your iPhone by connecting it to your Mac, make sure your Mac does not go to sleep while charging. Apple warns: “If your iPhone is connected to a computer that’s turned off or is in sleep or standby mode, the iPhone battery may drain.”

• Consider getting an external battery for your iPhone, such as the Kensington Battery Pack and Charger. Such devices can be especially useful when you won’t have access to a power source for an extended time, such as when on an airplane. You can watch a movie on your phone and still have a separate full charge left for the remainder of the day.

Finally, you can hope that Apple one day releases an iPhone with a replaceable battery. That way, you could carry around a spare battery and swap it when needed. This is what I routinely do with my digital camera. It would be great to have the same capability for the iPhone. But I’m not holding my breath here. Apple hasn’t yet offered a replaceable battery for any iPod or iPhone. I’m not expecting them to change their policy any time soon. But I can still hope.

It’s official. Thanks to the “iphone-dev team” folks, you can now jailbreak an iPhone (or iPod touch) running 2.0 software. As to why you might want to do a jailbreak, given that iPhone’s App Store already provides the ability to download third-party software, check out my most recent TMO column.

To jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch, all you need to do is download PwnageTool, launch it and follow its directions. Using its “Simple mode,” the utility walks you through the needed steps. The only misstep, when I tried it with my iPod touch, is that the utility did not alert me to Option-click the Restore button in iTunes, instead of just plain clicking Restore. The Option option is needed so you can select the special custom Restore.ipsw file that PwnageTool creates. As the last step of the jailbreak, your device restarts and displays a pineapple icon, instead of the familiar Apple icon. Cute.

When done, you have a functioning jailbroken iPhone. It all worked without a hitch when I gave it a whirl. I can now add jailbreak software alongside programs downloaded from the App Store. All is well — except for one thing: There isn’t much jailbreak software to install. Virtually all of the jailbreak software that you could run on a pre-2.0 iPhone is not available for 2.0 devices.

Previously, I had jailbroken my iPhone (running 1.1.4) using ZiPhone, which apparently will not be updated to work with 2.0 software. This (and a few other similarly functioning utilities) jailbreak the iPhone using a different technique than PwnageTool. From a practical standpoint (and ignoring some internal political debates between developers in this area), one big difference between ZiPhone and Pwnage is that ZiPhone puts Installer on your iPhone (a utility that I have covered in detail in a previous column) while Pwnage uses Cydia.

Both Installer and Cydia function in a similar way to allow you to install additional programs on your iPhone or iPod touch. However, after completing my 2.0 jailbreak and launching Cydia, I was disappointed to find that almost all of the programs I had installed via Installer on my 1.1.4 iPhone were not listed. At first, I thought that this might be some Installer vs. Cydia difference (with Cydia on the losing end). However, according to the FAQ that accompanies Cydia, the real problem is that almost all pre-2.0 jailbreak programs are currently incompatible with iPhone 2.0 software — and so are not listed in Cydia. The older software should eventually be updated and “ported” to Cydia but, for now, “you will have to be patient.” Bummer!

If you do decide to jailbreak your iPhone, I strongly recommend you read the entire Cydia FAQ before you start complaining about its limitations. The FAQ provides a good summary of the current state of affairs.

I did have one glitch with all of this. After selecting to update or install software from Cydia, the installation appeared to hang (the sundial “cursor” kept spinning and never went away). Eventually, I gave up and did a force quit of Cydia (by holding down the iPhone’s Home button). I have already had to do this twice. All was well after relaunching Cydia, including finding that the software had successfully installed. Still, this has made me a bit nervous about Cydia’s reliability.

Because of such concerns, I don’t yet intend to extend my jailbreaking from my iPod touch to my iPhone. Before I mess with my phone, I want to be absolutely convinced that there are no negative side effects lurking in the shadows — and that there is enough software available to make the jailbreak worthwhile. If and when that day arrives, I’ll jailbreak my iPhone and (of course) I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you want to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, you have several choices. I know. I’ve tried them all. I’ve even written about them in a previous article here at TMO.

You can create a ringtone in iTunes. But that only works with a small subset of the songs in the iTunes Store — and will cost you 99 cents a pop. Alternatively, you can create a ringtone for free from any unprotected music you own — using GarageBand. But that assumes you also own a recent version of iLife (4.1.1 or later) and want to deal with the steeper learning curve involved in using GarageBand. Otherwise, a variety of hacks and third-party utilities can also accomplish this ringtone-creating task, each with their own pros and cons.

That’s old news. What’s new is that there is a new kid in town: RingtoneStudio for iPhone ($14.95 from PocketMac Software). I’ve already dumped all of the old alternatives in favor of this new utility. I believe you will too.

What makes RingtoneStudio the new champion? It does everything you need it to do with the absolute minimum of fuss. First off, it works with virtually any unprotected audio or even video file, including unprotected music purchased from the iTunes Store. It also works with videos such as movie trailers on Apple’s site. Note: If you try to use RingtoneStudio with protected music, it may appear to succeed — but you’ll wind up with an empty file.

To create a ringtone with RingtoneStudio, simply drag the desired file to the application’s window. If you’re looking to select a song from your iTunes Library list, you can easily locate the file in the Finder by accessing the song’s contextual menu in iTunes and selecting the Show in Finder command. If the file is already less than 30 seconds in length (which is probably not the case), RingtoneStudio converts the file to the ringtone format and imports it into your iTunes Library, as a ringtone — all in one step. Done. Finito. That’s all folks.

If the file is more than 29 seconds long (which is more or less the limit for an iPhone ringtone), don’t worry. RingtoneStudio opens up a separate display from which you can select any 29 second (or less) segment that you wish to use as your ringtone. This all works similarly to the ringtone edit function in iTunes, except you don’t have to pay 99 cents to use it. One more click and the edited ringtone is in your iTunes Library.

I did have a glitch with one music file: it hung RingtoneStudio (the program got stuck at the conversion stage until I Force Quit). I have no idea what was up with that particular file. But the program otherwise worked fine with everything else I threw at it.

If you plan on creating your own ringtones and want to do it as cheaply and painlessly as possible, all in one step with just one utility, RingtoneStudio is the tool you want. Get it!

For the next 48 hours (from July 11-13), I’m going to use this blog entry to post my semi-random comments and discoveries regarding the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software. The most recent comments are at the top.

App Store software: slow to sync, upgrade and backup. [Note: This is my last update for this "48 hours" blog entry.] Today, I upgraded the NYTimes app (that I had previously obtained from the App Store). It was a simple process (and you even see a “loading” message appear under the app’s icon in the Home screen while the update is taking place). But it took about 10 minutes to complete. At one point, my iPhone became so non-responsive, I thought it had crashed.

Similarly, transferring apps from the iPhone to iTunes on your Mac (or vice versa) during a sync takes an unusually long time, much longer than I would expect given the number of MBs involved. Further, when you sync your iPhone, the first step is typically a backup of the iPhone’s non-media content. This appears to be backing up all the App Store apps on your iPhone. If you have added new software since your last backup, the backup takes a long time as well. [Update: Actually it appears to take just as long even if you haven't added new software. If you have a lot of App Store apps on your iPhone, be prepared for long backup times with each sync.]

I guess this is all something I’ll just have to get used to.

On a related note, if you want to browse through the software available in the App Store, with the intent of obtaining and installing several items at once, you are much better off doing so via the iTunes Store on your Mac, than via the App Store on your iPhone. On the iPhone, every time you select to buy an app, it bumps you out of the Store and back to the home screen. When your return to the Store, you have to re-navigate to where you last were. The user experience in iTunes is much better.

A warning: If you do download apps directly to your iPhone, you will get a warning message the next time you connect your iPhone to iTunes. It will alert you that it has found items that are “not present in your iTunes Library…If you do not transfer these items…they will be removed from the iPhone.” So, unless you want to lose these items, make sure you click the Transfer button here. If you do make a mistake here, Apple claims it will allow you to redownload any purchased software.

Update: On the other hand, as described in this iPhone Atlas report, things may not work as Apple describes. In fact, you may have trouble getting rid of an app that you no longer want.

Location Services. In Settings > General, you have the option to turn Location Services On or Off. This is true for the original iPhone (running 2.0 software) as well as the iPhone 3G. Here is what the latest version of the iPhone Users Guide has to say about this feature:

Location Services allows applications such as Maps and Camera to gather and use data indicating your location. Location Services does not correlate the data it collects with your personally identifiable information. Your approximate location is determined using available information from cellular network data, local Wi-Fi networks (if you have Wi-Fi turned on), and GPS (if you have an iPhone 3G).

You can turn Location Services off if you don’t want to use this feature. If you turn Location Services off, you’ll be prompted to turn it back on again the next time an application tries to use this feature.

Note: To conserve battery life, turn Locations Services off when you’re not using it.

Locations warnings are the requests made by applications (such as Camera and Maps) to use Location Services with those applications. iPhone stops presenting the warning for an application the second time you tap OK. Tap Reset Location Warnings to resume the warnings.

You can reset the location warnings: Choose General > Reset and tap Reset Location Warnings.

Reactivating my original iPhone. My iPhone 3G has been running smoothly now for 48 hours. I continue to discover some some minor “clean-up” tasks that need to be done, such as relinking ringtones and photos to contacts, but the phone is overall doing very well. Those first day hassles are already a fading memory.

Update: I am still having some problems with Contacts. All of the photos and custom ringtones changes I made yesterday were gone today. I thought at first that it had to do with an alert I received about Contacts sync conflicts when I last synced the iPhone (apparently many of the contacts were missing the “person” tag). However, after re-adding the custom changes, they were again deleted on my next sync (even though there was no conflict this time). I continue to investigate this.

The final step in my transition weekend to the 3G was to take my original iPhone and switch it over to my wife’s phone number. I had already called AT&T to make sure they had a record of her new SIM card. All I now needed to do was connect the iPhone to iTunes, activate and restore it as a new phone. I did all this — without a single hiccup! In case you are in a similar situation, here is a brief rundown of the recommended steps:

1. Connect the iPhone to iTunes (while logged into the new owner’s account on your Mac).
2. Ignore the request to update the iPhone to the 2.0 software. Instead, click the iPhone name in the Devices list. A “Welcome to AT&T” screen should appear. Click Continue to initiate the activation sequence. As part of the process, you’ll need to set up an iTunes account for the second person (if they don’t already have one). When done, you should have a functioning phone.
3. Next, from the iPhone’s Summary screen, click the Restore button. Turn down the request to backup your iPhone before continuing (as you will be setting this up as a new iPhone).
4. The iPhone Software Update 2.0 will be downloaded and the restore sequence will begin, all without any input needed from you. You’ll see the typical messages: “Preparing iPhone software for restore,” “Verifying iPhone software,” “Restoring iPhone Firmware,” and “Your iPhone has been restored and is restarting…” When the sequence is completed (which can take several minutes), the final automatic step is to sync the iPhone (which adds Contacts, iCal events and Safari bookmarks to the iPhone, assuming you optionally selected for this in a prior step).
5. You can additionally sync any music and photos now. Or not. In either case, the new owner is now ready to enjoy their new iPhone.

Fast battery drain. I’m still testing this one out, but it appears that my iPhone 3G runs out of battery power a lot faster than my old iPhone — even when I am not using it. I believe this is a separate issue from the increased battery usage of the 3G network — which is acknowledged in text found in the Settings > General > Network screen, where you can turn the 3G network on or off.

The battery drain happens even overnight, while the iPhone is not in use (on in standby mode, but with the screen off). The next morning, the 3G’s battery is significantly depleted, whereas my old iPhone’s battery level has not noticeably dropped at all. Others have reported related problems (see here). I am going to to do some formal testing of this, both with 3G on and 3G off — and I will report back soon.

Update: The problem appears not as bad as I initially thought. One difference in my most recent test: I made sure that the battery was fully charged, as determined by the battery icon in the toolbar shifting from the lightning bolt to the plug. The large battery image in the main screen indicates a “full” charge too soon; don’t rely on that.

• G3 network drop-outs. Sunday July 13. I live in the East Bay of San Francisco, just a stone’s throw from the city. As such, I expected to be within a 3G network coverage area. As it turns out, I am — sort of. However, when I pick up a 3G network in my home, it is very weak (only 1 bar). On the plus side, for an Internet connection, even a weak 3G signal is faster than a 5 bar EDGE connection. Phone call quality also remains good even with a “weak” 3G signal. The problem is that the 3G connection periodically drops out, and the iPhone reverts to EDGE. Overall, as I travel around nearby communities, I get a 3G connection no more than half the time. If that’s the best I can do in this techno-rich area, I imagine it is worse — much worse — in most other places. Clearly, AT&T has a ways to go before iPhone users will get the maximum benefit from 3G.

• MobileMe. Just beginning to experiment with MobileMe (I’ll have much more on this later). As of now (Saturday morning, July 12), if you enter www.mac.com in your browser, you are still taken to the “maintenance” page that says “MobileMe web applications not yet available” (which is not true). If you enter www.mobileme.com, you are taken to the MobileMe PR page on apple.com. If you intsead simply enter “me” or “www.me.com,” you are taken to the actual MobileMe site. From here, you will be given the option to set up your account (new or existing). Once set up, you can access the MobileMe applications, as well as your iDisk.

You can get MobileMe setup help by clicking the “Set Up Now” button at the top of the Info page of your iPhone in iTunes. Or by simply going here.

I was pleased to find that, as promised, all my existing .Mac HomePage Web sites are still there and work with the same URL.

Apple initially released a Mac OS X update that changed the .Mac System Preferences pane to a MobileMe System Preferences pane. It pulled it almost immediately (probably because of some just discovered bug). It will certainly return soon. For now, however, the .Mac System Preferences works for MobileMe just fine.

Update: Mac OS X Update for MobileMe 1.1 is now available, but it has a unique install process: you install it by first launching System Preferences and selecting the .Mac pane (as described here). A dialog alerting you to the update appears after a few moments. From this dialog, you click to go to Software Update, which now offers to install the new MobileMe System Preferences pane. Mac OS X 10.5.4 is required.

Tip: If you currently have an “old” .Mac account on your iPhone, delete it and create a new MobileMe account. If not, you are very likely to have problems with the new push mail features of MobileMe. I’ll be writing more about this and other MobileMe issues in a MacFixIt article due within the next week or so.

• New feature sitings. When entering passwords (many of which I had to be r-enter after upgrading), I noticed that the last character you type now appears in plain text. This is a welcome change, as it allows you detect typing errors. In prior versions, all entered text remained “hidden.”

There are several new settings, including General>Restrictions (it’s a parental controls feature). Plus, third party applications can add their own listing in Settings. On my iPhone, I so far have settings options for AIM and NYTimes.

• Improved sound. Yes, the sound is much better in the iPhone 3G than in my original iPhone. Among other things, the better sound makes playing games a bit more enjoyable. But most importantly, the ringer and alerts sounds are now capable of being much louder. Last night, while I was sleeping, I received a text message on my iPhone 3G. The alert sound was so loud that, even though it was in the next room, the iPhone sound woke me up! That had never happened before.

• Games. Saturday morning. Spent time last night playing Texas Holdem. Wow! I highly recommend it. It has two modes: single player view (in which you watch movie-like clips of each player’s action) vs. full table view (if you hold the iPhone horizontally). Much better than any other Holdem game I have ever seen. Super Monkey Ball and Cro-Mag Rally lived up to their hype. I confess, however, that I am still having trouble using the iPhone as a game navigation device.

• Success! 5:20 p.m. iPhone activated. It took a call to AT&T (not Apple) to get the problem resolved. They had me turn the iPhone completely off, remove the SIM card, and give them my SIM card number — and they then did some voodoo at their end. Apparently, whatever AT&T should have done this morning when I was at the store, was not done. After putting everything back together again, the iPhone worked as expected. Yeah!

Updated my iPod touch to 2.0 as well. No problems. It appears that Apple has finally gotten their servers working again.

• Still can’t activate. It’s 3:50 p.m. PDT. I just tried activating my iPhone 3G again. All seems to go well, except that I still get a message on the iPhone screen that states: “”Activation Alert; No signal detected. Signal is required to complete activation.” The end result is that my iPhone is fully functional except for the phone activation. In other words, I have a sort of “iPhone touch.”

• AppStore apps sync on third try. It took me three tries to get all my AppStore apps (that I downloaded to my Mac via iTunes yesterday) to transfer to my iPhone. The first time, the sync just ended before completing the transfer. The second time, iTunes froze in the middle of the transfer. The third time was a charm.

• iPhone 3G half-way activated. The last time I tried to activate my iPhone, I succeeded in getting about half-way. It restored data from my backup but was not able to activate my phone service, giving me a failure notice. iTunes now says that my iPhone is up-to-date and no longer requests that I activate it. The result is that I have an iPhone with Wi-Fi and working applications, but no phone services. I can even get programs from the AppStore (that I had downloaded via iTunes) to sync to the iPhone and work. Still, I assume I will have to do a complete Restore and start over, before the phone service becomes active. Meanwhile, at least my old iPhone continues to work, so I am not completely without a functioning mobile phone.

• 2.0 software hide-and-seek. Apple has apparently temporarily given up on letting users upgrade existing iPhones and iPod touches to 2.0 software. As I write this (2:15 p.m. PDT), my devices are again listed as “up to date” at version 1.1.4. For a brief moment, a 2.0 upgrade was listed and I was almost able to update my touch. But the upgrade failed and when I tried again, the option to upgrade had been removed.

I also have had trouble getting MobileMe setup.

What a mess. I would hate to be an Apple employee today.

• Updating an existing phone to 2.0 vs. upgrading to a new 3G. Apple states in a support article that “Normally if you choose to update, the iPhone or iPod touch software is updated but your settings and media are not affected. If your device currently has a software version prior to 2.0 (1.x) and you are updating to software version 2.0 or later, all data on your device will be erased in order to perform install the new software. In this case, iTunes will offer to create a one-time media backup of your device depending on what content is on your device and what content is stored in the iTunes Library you are connected to.”

Note, however, if you are instead moving from an original iPhone to an iPhone 3G, the above “one-time media backup” is not relevant. Instead, as noted in this Apple article, you will have resync your media to the new iPhone, as you would after any typical iPhone restore.

However, as I have now discovered, if you restore an iPhone running 2.0, it will download the 2.0 software from Apple (as expected) and do the “one-time” backup, even though you are not upgrading from 1.x. software.

Just in case you haven’t already read enough accounts of people attempting to purchase an iPhone 3G today…here’s mine.

With several AT&T and Apple stores within a short drive of where I live, I had to take a stab at which place was most likely to bear fruit — and how early I needed to arrive. I picked an AT&T store — and showed up around 6:15 a.m. There were already 35 people in front of me.

AT&T reps were very friendly and kept coming out to offer us water and candy. At about 7:15, they informed us that they only had 50 iPhones to sell (15 Black 16GB, 15 white 16GB and 20 8GB models). As I wanted a 16GB black model, I calculated my chances of getting one at about 50% at best (I was assuming that most of the early arrivals in the line would go for the 16GB). Meanwhile, there were now over 200 people in line, so many of them would leave with no iPhone at all. The AT&T rep said you could get a sort of rain-check, but no one was looking forward to that.

Immediately after the store opened and those first in line were ushered in, the pace of the line slowed to a near halt. Those of us still waiting were told that the in-store activations were not working and that we would have to activate our iPhone’s at home via iTunes (despite Apple’s prior claims that you would not be able to do this). I thought this might have have speeded up the process, not slowed it down. However, we were also informed that the computers were running slow and (drum roll) the computers were charging customers the wrong prices. Fixing the pricing error was taking a good deal of time; hence the slow-down.

By about 9:15, I made it into the store and nabbed the next-to-last 16GB black phone. By the time I left, they were sold out of all iPhones. According to the reps, more might not arrive until next Friday.

With my iPhone in hand, I went home to activate it. No such luck. After spending about five minutes trying to access the store, all I got was an unknown error (-4) and a suggestion that I try again later.

And so here I sit for now. You would think that after having lived through the previous iPhone launch, and having weeks to prepare (if not months), Apple and AT&T could have avoided these screw-ups. Apparently not.

While on iTunes, I checked to see if my old iPhone or my iPod touch could be updated to the 2.0 software yet. No luck here either. iTunes continues to report that my devices are up-to-date with the 1.1.4 version. Hopefully, that will change soon.

Anyway, after I get my iPhone 3G up and running, I’ll return here with more info.

Update #1 [10:55 a.m.]:

• The 3G comes with a new, significantly smaller, power adapter. That’s an improvement I guess. However, it no longer has a detachable or retractable plug. I especially liked being able to put the metal prongs out of harm’s way. On balance, I prefer the old style adapter, which happily still works with my new iPhone.

• After upgrading to the 3G, I will be giving my original iPhone to my wife (who currently is using a Motorola phone). The AT&T rep told me that this required a new SIM card, as neither her old card nor the card currently in my iPhone would work. They gave me the new needed card. A word to the wise: If you are in a similar situation, be sure to clearly explain it to the rep, so as to make sure you get the new card before you leave!

It also appears that there is no direct way to transfer the address book from my wife’s old phone to the iPhone. Fortunately, most of the needed addresses are already on her Mac. Looks like this will be a minor hassle at worst.

Update #2 [11:35 a.m.]

The iPhone 2.0 software for upgrading original iPhones and iPod touches is out (or at least it was out). However, because of the ongoing mess with Apple’s servers (the same mess that is blocking activation of my iPhone 3G), you’re better off waiting for the mess to be fixed before attempting an update (as noted in this AppleInsider story).

Note to readers: In all of the activity and confusion of the day, I inadvertently deleted the reader comments to several recent blog entries. There is no way to retrieve them. If your comment was one that was deleted, I apologize.

The difference between great vs. poor user interface design can be hard to quantify. Similar to the supposed difference between art and pornography — you know it when you see it.

You certainly can’t tell which is a better designed product simply by looking at a list of their features. Two products may have similar options, one may even have more options than the other, yet the lesser-featured product can be far superior — because of its superior user interface design.

Well designed products work they way you expect. As you use such products, it becomes clear that the designers thought about the concerns you might have and designed the product to address those concerns. This may seem like something that happens in the design process of almost every product — and thus not worthy of praise. In an ideal world, such would be the case. We do not live in an ideal world. Too often, I start using a product and almost immediately begin to grumble: “Did anyone even turn this thing on and try to use it before they started shipping it?”

Apple, of course, has built its success on a foundation of superb interface design. More than anything else, it is what has distinguished the Mac OS from Windows. Unfortunately, you can’t always see the value of a well constructed interface from a brief look. This is one reason that Macs have sometimes had a tough time. “Why should I pay more for a Mac? A PC with Windows 95 has all the same features,” a prospective buyer might have asked more than a decade ago. Sometimes I think there are two types of technology users: those who need to ask that sort of question but never “get” the answer and those who get the answer without ever having to ask the question. Fortunately for Apple (as well as for those of us who root for the types of products Apple makes), the latter group appears to be growing.

It is this recognition of superior user interface design that, more than anything else, accounts for the stunning success of Apple’s iPod and iPhone. The arrival of these products sent a clear message: There is a better way! To give you an example, consider visual voicemail on the iPhone. Sure, every mobile phone supports voicemail. But after you’ve used an iPhone, and seen how easy it is to listen to any stored message, in any order you want, without having to first dial a number and work your way through a phone tree — you begin to see how saying “the iPhone and Phone X both support voicemail” doesn’t begin to tell the story.

Not all bathroom scales are equal. If you pay attention to user interface design, it will drive your purchase decisions. It made a decisive difference, for example, in my recent purchase of a bathroom scale. Based on online recommendations, I narrowed my choice to two scales. Unable to easily pick a winner in the store, I bought them both home to test them out.

Both scales needed to be turned on before you could get a weight. With Scale A, however, a tap of your foot anywhere on the scale’s surface turned it on. With Scale B, you had to press a small button to turn it on. If you worked at it, you could press the button with your toe; but it could take several seconds to pull off this minor feat. The other alternative was to bend over and use your hand. It may sound trivial, but this is not want you want to have to do every time you weigh yourself. Unfortunately (for Scale B), this was only the start of the button pressing differential. Both scales offered the option to provide various metabolic data (such as your Body Mass Index, BMI). Scale A cycled through all the data after just one button press. With Scale B, you had to press a separate button to get each of four data points (making this worse, the labels on the buttons were hard to read from a standing position). Without hesitation, I returned Scale B, grumbling to myself: “Did anyone actually stand on this scale and try to use it before they let it leave the factory?”

The TiVo remote surprise. Sometimes, a well-designed feature is so subtle that it is barely considered worth mentioning — even by the vendor. Yet, it can be critical. When you find such a feature, it’s like discovering buried treasure. Such was the case with setting up the remote control of my new TiVo.

I was already familiar with TiVo’s renowned user interface, so there were no initial surprises here. The surprise came when I began to configure the TiVo remote to work both with my TV and my audio receiver. In Step 1, you enter a 4 digit code so that the remote will turn on your TV and adjust the TV’s volume. In Step 2, you enter a code for your receiver. After doing this, the remote’s volume and mute buttons control your receiver instead of your TV. I did this and all worked as expected. Except for one problem: While the TiVo remote could turn my TV on and off, it had no such effect on the receiver. A primary goal for me was to eliminate the need for multiple remotes. If I still needed a second remote to turn the receiver on and off, TiVo had missed the mark.

Here, at last, was the surprise: TiVo had anticipated my concern and had an answer. As I recall, the TiVo onscreen prompts did not tell me about it (a minor flub on TiVo’s part). Instead, I discovered it only after searching the TiVo Web site: After completing Step 2, return to Step 1 and enter the code for your receiver (it won’t even be listed on the screen, you have to remember it). Now, the TiVo remote’s TV Power button will turn on and off both the TV and the receiver simultaneously!

Surprisingly, most other remotes (even most universal remotes, aside from programmable ones such as Logitech’s Harmony remotes) are not able to pull of this feat. At best, if you want a remote to switch from controlling your TV vs. your receiver vs. your cable box/DVR, you have to press a separate “device” button each time. If you forget to do this, it can take several more button presses to recover (such as when you accidentally change the channel on your TV instead of your cable box, and have to reselect the proper Input). In contrast, TiVo’s remote sends signals to all three devices without any device switching required, each button on the remote always working the expected device(s). That’s great user interface design. And it’s a great example of why user interface design matters.