Brief Thoughs On The New iPhone

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new iPhone out.  😀

I spoke with the small business manager at my local Verizon Wireless store last week and decided to take a drive over early Friday morning.  Well, not too early, probably about 8:30 in the morning.  Upon arrival, there was a line, though not a long one.  This store is located in the far corner of the suburbs, so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a crowd.

It didn’t take long to get my phone (actually picked up 2 of them).  There’s plenty of information out there about the new iPhone.  I had written about the new Passbook feature recently, and after some exploring on the phone, it looks like there’s probably about a dozen or so apps that are already supporting Passbook in some form or fashion.  Recognizable names are American Airlines, Lufthansa, and United as well as non-travel apps like MLB.com, Ticketmaster, Target and Walgreens.  I have yet to figure out how to use the Walgreens or Target portion, but I am planning on attempting to use Passbook for a flight check-in on Tuesday.  More to come….

iOS 6 has some nice updates, nothing particularly earth-shattering.  They did add a couple of features to the phone programming that have been long overdue.  These make the phone work better as, well….a phone.  Siri seems to be a bit more responsive as well.

Lastly, I knew the screen was bigger on the new phone, but until I held it side-by-side to my old one, it didn’t occur to me that they had done so with minimal changes to the actual size of the phone.  The new one is significantly lighter as well.

It’s early, but I’m reasonably happy with the phone and iOS6.