Jace Cole (dot) com

I’m starting my countdown to more iPhone withdrawal , according to the Wired & other great sources there will be some nice and modest upgrades in the new iPhone. I’ve been relegated to a Blackberry since my firm will simply not wake up and support Microsoft ActiveSync.

I’m thinking of at least taking it for a spin … too bad AT&T is the only choice for these things.  T-Mobile’s service is far superior but unfortunately T-Mobile has put their 3G UMTS on the 1700/2100 MHz freq … AT&T’s is on the 850/1900 MHz.  The iPhone does not support T-Mo’s 1700 MHz band

Still … It’s something for me to get geeked out about and look forward to, even if it ultimately it is not compatible in supporting my work mobile life. I’ll be sticking to my antiquated and ugly Blackberry 8900.

So I’ve got the new 2.1 iPhone 3G firmware installed and immediately there is a noticeable difference in the 3G reception in my condo.   Pre 2.1 I would be very lucky to get more than 1 bar of 3G signal strength in my condo.  With the new firmware I’m now getting full bars.  I think to throw some “lip stick on the pig” Apple also changed the 3G signal strength logo ,  it’s no longer in a white box, now just pretty letters.  There is also noticeable improvement in the speed of navigation between SMS messages, contacts, and your e-mail.

It’s a wait and see now on battery life improvement.  My hope are up.  I want this thing to work like I’d expect of an Apple product.

It’s good to see lot’s of other Chicagoians are seeing the same improvements based on the comments from Scott’s iPTIB blog at the RedEye.

Update: According to Engadget Poll it looks like I’m not alone in seeing remarkable better reception / fewer dropped calls.  One of two of my biggest peeves with the new iPhone 3G.   According to the poll over 13,000 are claiming better reception and fewer dropped calls.

It’s too early tell on battery life,  it appears to be better , but won’t really be able to tell until I have a full week of normal use under my belt.

Amazingly and as promised, Apple has released the iPhone 2.1 firmware through iTunes this morning. The iPhone 2.1 contains the following updates as listed by Apple:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• Significantly improve battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improve email reliability, notable fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
• Improved performance of text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

What’s even more amazing is they actually call out all the flaws I’ve been seeing,  rather than the standard line of “Bug Fixes”.

I’m installing now … I’ll give a full report after a few days on the new firmware.

I’m rocking the new Wordpress app for the iPhone! Now I can blog from anywhere… Like right now I’m sitting on the toilet at my hotel in Atlanta… kidding

But seriously cool app, hope they develop some moderation functions soon. Right now you can just write new posts.  Big thanks to Jon Wilbur for pointing out how to get the app to work for root domains,  a bug that wasn’t quite worked out in the first release.

You can also add pix!

OK – this is your free opportunity to make fun of me for this total take on American marketing spurring consumerism at it’s finest. We are less than 22 hours away from the iPhone 3G launch. I’m am so stoked, best way to celebrate my birthday is being a true Apple fan boy and camping out at 3a in front of Chicago’s Fullerton Ave AT&T store.  I’ll be getting the white 16GB iPhone for myself,  and the 8GB black for the Pete man.

I’ve been the biggest blog whore lately salivating of Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch app previews for the new 2.0 firmware, checkout Boy Genius Report’s unboxing gallery … and TUAW’s countdown to the MobileMe Launch!

Tonight I’ll wake my ass up at 3a (or so excited just might not sleep) and head over the AT&T store, coffee and bagel in hand, camp out with my MacBook and blog live while sitting in line w/ who knows how many other geeks.