AllThingsD » virtual keyboard

Take a Note: Typing With No Hands

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:08:24 +0000

I am writing this paragraph on an iPhone. But I am not typing it on the phone’s virtual keyboard. I am dictating it using a little-known feature that allows you to employ your voice instead of your fingers, wherever text entry is possible on the device.

[ See post to watch video ]

And now, for this paragraph, I have switched to an Android phone. Once again, I am composing these words using only my voice, and not typing them on the virtual keyboard.

Those two paragraphs, dictated as emails and then cut and pasted into this column on a computer, required far fewer corrections than you might think, given the bad reputation for accuracy that voice input on digital devices has acquired. I only had to add a comma I’d forgotten to specify in the first paragraph and capitalize the word “Android” in the second paragraph.

For me, a daily user of virtual keyboards, the process was quicker and more accurate than typing would likely have been, even for the relatively short blocks of text typically composed on phones.

So, on the suspicion that dictation on smartphones might prove useful for others as well, I’ve been testing it heavily over the past week. I used a top phone with Google’s Android software, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and an Apple iPhone 4S. In general, I found that, while dictation could occasionally fail badly, it worked surprisingly well in a wide variety of environments and applications.

On both leading smartphone platforms, I found that relatively short dictation—such as emails, texts, tweets, Facebook posts and notes—was at least as accurate, and often more, as typing on a glass screen. It was better in quiet environments, but did OK even in most noisy places like grocery stores, coffee shops and carwashes. It was also faster, since, as long as you don’t have to correct numerous errors, speaking is usually faster than typing on glass.

For this review, I am not mainly referring to Siri, the widely publicized, voice-controlled feature on the new iPhones, which can do things like tell you the weather, or stock prices. Nor am I discussing the “voice actions” on Android, which can perform Web searches and other tasks. Both can also help with some text dictation. I concentrated on a much simpler feature of both platforms: a small microphone key that’s included right in the phones’ on-screen keyboards.

Apple’s dictation system did better at capitalizing proper names.

Android phones have had this microphone key for a couple of years, and Apple added it to the latest iPhone, the 4S, last fall, and to the new iPad, when it came out last month. But I’m guessing that many users of these phones either haven’t used this special key, or haven’t even noticed it.

While the microphone keys work a bit differently on the two platforms, they are basically similar. When the keyboard appears, ready for you to type, you can instead hit the microphone key and simply dictate what you want to say. The phones then send your spoken words to a remote server, which rapidly translates them into text and sends them back to the phone’s screen. If corrections are needed, you make them by typing, though both platforms make this easier by indicating the likeliest errors, and suggesting alternatives.

A couple of caveats are in order. I didn’t compare dictation to typing on a phone with physical keys, whose devotees are often speedy and accurate. Instead, I thought the apt comparison was with a virtual keyboard, which is becoming the norm on phones, but is still a source of frustration for many users.

But Android was more reliable.

I also didn’t try dictating a long document, like this column, because phones are rarely used for lengthy composing.

I found that both platforms’ dictation systems worked well enough for me to recommend them. In case after case, both phones got it right, or close enough to require little correcting.

But there are differences. Android has an advantage in that, in the newest version of its operating system, it displays the dictated text almost in real time, lagging just slightly behind your spoken words. On the iPhone, the system only reveals its rendering of your dictation after you’ve tapped on a “Done” button.

Android’s dictation system also supports many more languages than Apple’s—40 languages and dialects, including Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew. On the iPhone, only English, French and German are currently supported, though Apple says Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish will be added later this year.

However, I found the iPhone 4S worked better than the Galaxy Nexus in noisier environments. For instance, in a crowded shopping-mall food court, while neither phone was perfect, the iPhone understood me to say: “I am dictating this email from the very noisy Court at Montgomery Mall on the iPhone”—missing only the word “food” and capitalizing “Court.” The Android phone mangled a very similar sentence as: “I am dictating this email on droid phone from the bearing noise for it montgomery mall.”

Google notes that, unlike Apple, it supports many phones, and that the results might have differed on another model, with better noise cancellation. Apple says the iPhone 4S does have noise cancellation. And, in any case, the two phones’ results were more comparable in quieter settings.

Apple’s system also did better at capitalizing proper names, like Stradivarius, or Red Sox, or even Google (which my Android phone, ironically, always rendered in lowercase). But Google says it will be updating its dictation feature in weeks to better handle proper names.

On the other hand, I found that, when Android did err, it had a more extensive and easier to use manner for correcting those mistakes than the iPhone did. Android was also more reliable; sometimes the iPhone returned no text at all.

Still, I found these differences less important than the fact that, for me, the results on both platforms were impressive. On both, if you say words like “period” or “comma,” you generally get the punctuation mark (though both try to make the distinction when you actually want a word like “period.”)

And, in test after test, both did a good job. Errors were generally fewer than if I had typed the words quickly.

Both have a downside: Because they do the transcription on their servers, and they are anxious to improve, they do retain some information about what you’re saying. Both companies say they respect your privacy, but, if you worry about transmitting your messages or notes to Apple or Google, don’t use dictation.

Otherwise, especially for those who find typing on glass clumsy, the microphone key on Android and the new iPhone is something you might want to add to your arsenal of ways to use your phone.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Nuance to Buy Virtual Keyboard-Maker Swype for $100 Million

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:04:27 +0000

Nuance, a voice recognition technology company, has acquired Seattle-based Swype, which is known for its very popular virtual keyboard commonly found on Android phones, according to a person close to the situation.

A source pegged the deal’s size at more than $100 million, but less that $150 million.

The company was not reachable for comment. The deal was first reported by Uncrunched, but I was able to confirm it separately.

The acquisition is expected to be announced tomorrow by Nuance, a publicly held company that has a market value of nearly $7 billion. [UPDATE: Here it is. Total price: $102.5 million.]

Swype was co-founded by Cliff Kushler, who previously worked at Tegic Communications, which is known for developing T9, the predictive-text software that is now owned by Nuance.

As touchscreen phones became more popular, the predictive texting that eliminated triple-tapping became less necessary, as new forms of input on a piece of glass became mandatory. Nuance bought the technology from AOL.

The idea was first hatched by Kushler and co-founder Randy Marsden, who developed the onscreen keyboard included in Windows. In 2008, Mike McSherry, who was the co-founder of both Amp’d Mobile and Boost Mobile, became CEO.

The company raised a $3.5 million round earlier this year from existing investors, including the venture capital arms of Samsung, Nokia and DoCoMo.

Swype has found a huge following on Android devices, and at the time of its last round was estimating that it was being shipped on half of all Android phones. It also had its sights set on the tablet market. Nuance is an obvious acquirer of the technology because of the wide swath of patents it owns in the space, but Google or another handset maker would have been an option, too.

The importance of voice and text entry became even more prominent this week after Apple unveiled Siri, a voice-activated assistant.

A New BlackBerry That Pushes Few Buttons

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:15:46 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Finally, Research In Motion has its first true touchscreen BlackBerry without a keyboard.

This smartphone, called the BlackBerry Torch 9850, improves on past BlackBerry models like the Storm, which nixed a physical keyboard but required users to press down on its screen as well as touch its glass, and the Torch 9800, which offered a real touchscreen but maintained a slide-out keyboard.

I’ve been testing the Torch 9850 over the past several days and while its looks will lure you in, its place in the mobile-app ecosystem will push you away. This device, which uses an upgraded 7.0 version of the aging BlackBerry operating system, becomes available from Sprint on Sunday.

The Torch 9850 is the first BlackBerry with a true touchscreen. Above, the Torch in camera mode.

It costs $150 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate that comes in the form of an American Express rewards card.

Two other new BlackBerry models with touchscreens and physical keyboards will be out on Sunday: the $250 Bold 9930 from Sprint—a Verizon model is available online now—and the $50 Torch 9810 from AT&T; all prices require two-year contracts.

Neither device has a remarkably different design from its predecessor; rather, they have better processors and run the 7.0 BlackBerry operating system.

Big Screen Display

The Torch 9850′s thin, tapered design houses a gorgeous 3.7-inch, high-resolution touchscreen—the largest display yet on a BlackBerry.

One end of the device holds the four familiar shortcut buttons and small optical trackpad, which is a huge help for precisely selecting a word or object on the screen. And the 9850′s speedy processor gives it fast, responsive performance.

BlackBerry users who are tired of feeling like they’re behind the times whenever they pull out their smartphones will surely save face with this model.

Indeed, the appeal of this new Torch is mostly superficial. The user interface of RIM’s new 7.0 operating system isn’t noticeably different from its predecessor, 6.0. What’s worse is that the selection of apps that run on this new operating system is even smaller than the number of apps available for older BlackBerrys.

A RIM spokesman would only say that “thousands” of apps currently work on the 7.0 OS and that the number would steadily grow. But the overall BlackBerry App World holds 35,000 apps, while Apple’s App Store offers 425,000 apps and Google’s Android Market offers over 250,000 apps.

Waiting for an Upgrade

RIM fans are holding out for a BlackBerry that will run QNX, the company’s next-generation operating system that could give BlackBerrys an operating-system overhaul with a dramatic new user interface. But Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-CEO, announced that a BlackBerry with QNX won’t be available until early 2012. People hoping to upgrade their current BlackBerrys in the meantime will be disappointed to hear that none of the BlackBerrys released before this group can be upgraded to the 7.0 operating system.

The device’s home screen

The first thing hard-core BlackBerry fans will ask is how the on-screen keyboard on Torch 9850 works. I was skeptical throughout my first day with it.

Like all on-screen keyboards, using this one requires an adjustment period, and I felt much more comfortable using it after several days. But even after that adjustment period, I still reached for my old BlackBerry with the physical keyboard to compose long emails. New Torch users should consider going cold turkey with a physical keyboard to prevent such relapses.

RIM’s SureType technology tracks users’ typing patterns and frequent-word occurrences to smartly predict what they’ll most likely be writing, so the Torch’s touchscreen keyboard does get better the more a person uses it.

An Email Machine

Email has always been a strength of the BlackBerry, and the Torch 9850 is no exception. Enhancements in its new operating system include smarter handling of Gmail messages by stacking messages according to conversations. If you read the most recent message in a conversation thread but there’s a message further back in that same thread that you haven’t read, a yellow glow appears below the icon representing the top message. Emails can also be starred, like in the Web version of Gmail, but can’t be automatically sorted into categories of “Important and Unread” and “Everything Else” like the Web version.

Each model in this new crop of BlackBerrys has what RIM calls Liquid Graphics technology, a feature that intends to deliver fast and smooth touchscreen performance. I found the performance to be noticeably better than any previous BlackBerry, but it didn’t feel dramatically faster than an iPhone 4 or new Android device.

Likewise, the Web browser on the new 7.0 operating system felt speedy and did a good job displaying Web page contents, but it didn’t play Flash videos.

Universal search was already enhanced in the BlackBerry 6.0 operating system, but in 7.0 it now works with voice searches. I tried this several times with good luck.

One-Step Picture Sharing

I used the Torch 9850′s five-megapixel digital camera to capture handsome photos, quickly uploading them to social networks like Twitter and Facebook in one step. The Torch 9850′s fast processor speed really shined when I restarted the BlackBerry after installing an updated version of an app—something that usually takes several minutes took seconds.

If you’re wedded to the BlackBerry and you’re eager to upgrade, the BlackBerry Torch 9850 is a slick device that’s fast to respond in various tasks. But the scant number of apps available for it will be a real drawback and won’t satisfy BlackBerry fans looking for an iPhone equivalent.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katherine.boehret@wsj.com

SwiftKey X Adds Yet Another Virtual Keyboard Option for Android

Ina Fried — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:00:33 +0000

Windows Phone 7 and iPhone owners have just one option when it comes to software keyboards — use the virtual keyboard that is built into the operating system.

Android device owners, meanwhile, have a growing array of choices, each with its own take on just what will make text entry easiest. Swype, which just closed another round of funding, focuses on tracing each word rather than pecking letter by letter. Nuance offers several options with its Flex T9 product, which lets users speak, trace, handwrite or type. The latest entry is SwiftKey X, from England’s TouchType Inc., a 35-person start-up.

What makes SwiftKey unique is its effort to personalize itself to the user. Like a growing number of virtual keyboards, SwiftKey can not only predict, midword, what a person is trying to spell, but also guess what word might come next. It learns the words you use by scanning various sources, such as your Gmail, Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as text messages and other data entered on the phone itself.

“It now can personalize to the way you speak,” Chief Marketing Officer Joe Braidwood said in an interview.

SwiftKey, which started in beta testing a year ago, can also handle more than one language at once, as long as a user selects the various languages they might be planning to type. For example, start typing in French and SwiftKey will select a word en français as the next likely word. Return to English and the suggestions return to English as well. Braidwood said the multilingual crowd represents the most passionate of SwiftKey’s early users.

“For them that really solves a problem,” he said.

The app can also build a custom heat map, figuring out not just how accurate or sloppy one’s text entry is, but also just where users tend to press their fingers.

SwiftKey X comes in tablet and phone versions, both of which are paid apps. The phone version will sell for $3.99, with the tablet version slated to cost $4.99. To celebrate the launch, the company plans to offer each for $1.99 for a bit.

Longer term, SwiftKey faces the same challenge as much of the software keyboard business — getting preinstalled on devices — an area where Nuance and Swype are way ahead. So far, SwiftKey’s only announced bundling deal is with INQ Mobile, on its Facebook-centric Cloud line.

Braidwood said the company actually tried to go straight to device makers, back when it was just a research project at Cambridge University, but it turned out that the phone makers wanted more support than the small firm could give. Instead, it released its code direct to users a year ago, to get feedback and expand. Various versions of SwiftKey have since gotten 1.5 million downloads, including about 300,000 in paid sales, since the full first version of the product was completed last September.

“It was beautifully timed with Android’s growth,” he said of the software’s release.

Exclusive: Swype Grabs More Money for its Virtual Keyboard Push

Ina Fried — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:00:38 +0000

Swype, the company best known for an on-screen keyboard that lets users trace entire words, has scooped up a further $2.5 million in funding, its CEO told AllThingsD this week.

In an interview, CEO Mike McSherry said that Swype has turned profitable in recent quarters, but said the new funding will help the company continue to bulk up in its effort to bring its virtual keyboard to more places. The new funding is from existing investors, including the venture capital arms of Samsung, Nokia and DoCoMo; it completes a round that began with $3.5 million in new money form Ignition Partners — an investment disclosed back in March.

The company estimates it is now on half of Android phones shipping and is still hoping to find its way onto other leading smartphones and tablets. Swype now has more than 80 employees and has added offices in Korea, North Carolina and the Boston area, in addition to its Seattle headquarters.

“I think you will continue to see us getting deployed and moving toward our goal of being the default keyboard on any screen,” he said. The company is already on 50 million devices and expects to be on double that many by the end of this year.

Last month, the company announced a new version of its software, adding predictive text as an input option in addition to its familiar tracing option. Rival Nuance also offers multiple input options as part of its keyboard software.

Next up, McSherry said, will be adoption on some Windows 7 tablets, though McSherry acknowledged it is unclear just how large the volume of such devices will be.

With Nokia as an investor, Swype is hoping that it will also land on some future Windows Phone devices. And, naturally, the company would love to find its way onto the iPhone as well, though there is still nothing to announce on that front.

“We continue to have interesting discussions,” McSherry said.

[ See post to watch video ]

Swype Grabs More Funding, Looks to Trace Path Into New Areas

Ina Fried — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:52:56 +0000

Swype, the Seattle company known for its fast text-entry method, is looking to speed its growth even further.

The 70-person start-up is in the midst of rolling out new versions of its software and taking on additional funding. The company just closed $3.5 million in funding from Ignition Partners and expects to announce deals with other backers in the coming weeks.

Ignition partner Adrian Smith said he is glad to be investing in the company, since he’s been doing unpaid advertisements for the technology for quite a while now. “I’ve actually been an avid Swype user since the beta came out,” he told Mobilized.

For those who don’t know Swype, it augments the standard mobile device software keyboard by allowing users to trace the word they are trying to enter rather than pecking away one key at a time. The company’s software is loaded on about 26 million phones so far and is the default means of text entry on about half of those.

CEO Mike McSherry declined to say whether the company is profitable, but suggested the new funding was more about the opportunity to cement relationships than needing the money.

“This was an opportunistic fund raise for us,” McSherry said.

The new funding follows investments of roughly $6.5 million in late 2009 and early 2010 from Nokia, Samsung and DoCoMo, among others.

Next up on the product front is the addition of predictive text to the traditional Swype motion.

“We think that is going to be received very well,” McSherry said.

Most of the company’s business is being preloaded on Android phones, especially from Samsung, HTC and Motorola, though it is also adopted on Symbian phones as well as older Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.

Neither the iPhone nor Windows Phone 7 allow third parties to customize their software keyboards, effectively shutting out Swype on those platforms. However, McSherry said that the company has had talks with both companies.

“We want ubiquity and scale, so of course we would like to be on those,” he said. “We’ll see where those chips fall.”

The company also has its eye on tablets and other devices, as well as ways in which Swype could play a broader role in the phone’s user interface.

From McSherry’s way of thinking, the keyboard can be a starting point rather than just the last step in navigating a cell phone or other device. Why not, he suggests, start typing and then make a gesture to send the entered text as an email or to search the Web. McSherry said he can imagine even being on televisions and having a direct connection to a cloud service.

McSherry said that the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft could open things up on the WIndows Phone front, given that Nokia is a big backer of Swype, with CEO Stephen Elop tweeting in December about Swype as the best means to enter text.

“I would hope that would help us in trying to get on that platform,” McSherry said.

Smith said he likes the core technology because it allows people to be more productive on their phones. “You can Swype much more quickly than you can hunt and peck,” he said. But, he agreed that Swype needs to be more than just a one-hit wonder to reach its full potential. “There are a lot more things that they can do,” Smith said. “To me, if it was just a keyboard entry it wouldn’t be very exciting.”

News of Swype’s latest fundraising was reported earlier by Seattle-area tech news site GeekWire.

Virtual Keyboard Makes Smudges a Must

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:24:18 +0000

Do you love your smartphone but hate its on-screen keyboard?

From an efficiency perspective, virtual keyboards offer lots of advantages like shortcut buttons that appear when you need them (think of a “.com” button that shows up while typing an email address). They rotate depending on whether the phone is held vertically or horizontally. And they disappear when not in use, doubling the screen size for better viewing and touch gestures.

[ See post to watch video ]

But for some people, the tactile feedback of a physical keyboard is more comfortable and reassuring. I’m familiar enough with my BlackBerry keys that I can often type using my thumbs without looking down, much like touch typing at a computer. With a virtual keyboard, you have to keep your eyes on the screen. And for some people, walking and typing with an on-screen keys produces a lot of typos because of jerky movements.

What if your on-screen typing was faster and more enjoyable? Thanks to a smart keyboard called Swype, your virtual keyboard can do something your smartphone number pad can’t do: Let you type without lifting a finger. Swype (swypeinc.com) allows you to trace a word out on the keyboard in one continuous swiping motion, from one letter to the next. Raising a finger off the screen after the last letter of each word starts a new word. Predictive technology guesses what word you’re trying to spell according to what would make the most sense. Special swiping gestures capitalize words and add punctuation. Though using Swype requires an adjustment period, typing with it feels more fun and game-like than tapping out individual letters on a glass screen. For people who don’t like typing with an on-screen keyboard, it’s a viable solution.

Swype is currently preloaded on 10 devices in the U.S., including smartphones from all four major carriers. A Swype Inc. representative says Swype will launch on a few tablets running Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system by the end of this year. It comes in keyboards for 35 languages, and the company will launch Chinese and Korean versions before the end of this year. In December, Swype launched for the first time as the default, or main, keyboard on Samsung’s Omnia II, and has since been sold as the default on five other devices, including Samsung’s Vibrant. If set as the default keyboard, a Swype demonstration video plays when smartphones are first turned on so people know how to use it.

Swype

Typing the word ‘quick’ on the Swype on-screen keyboard involves one continuous, Z-like swipe, starting with the letter ‘q’ and ending with the letter ‘k.’

Swype isn’t currently available on the iPhone and iPad. A Swype representative says the company has been in talks with Apple but it has had no indication from Apple (AAPL) whether the keyboard will be incorporated into the devices.

An Apple spokeswoman declined comment. An app similar to Swype, called ShapeWriter (www.shapewriter.com) works on Apple’s iPhone, but only as a standalone app. and not as a built-in keyboard. This means that text documents must be written in the ShapeWriter app, then exported for use in other programs.

I’ve been using Swype on a Motorola (MOT) Droid X, which costs $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two year Verizon contract. Swype comes preloaded on this smartphone, but isn’t the default keyboard. In order to switch to Swype I had to hold my finger down in a text entry box, select “Input Method” and choose Swype. This process won’t be easily found by the average user.

Some shortcuts on Swype aren’t obvious, so a tutorial video that highlights these functions can be launched by holding down the keyboard’s Swype key.

For example, capitalizing a word like “Katie” could be done the old-fashioned way by tapping “Shift” and “k” (all Swype keys also work with taps, like regular on-screen keyboards). But it was more fun to use the Swype swiping method to type “Katie.” I placed my finger on the “k” then swiped up above the keyboard (Swype’s gesture for a single-letter capitalization) before moving my finger back down to the keyboard and continuing the rest of the word by tracing my finger from “a” to “t” to “i” and then to “e.”

My finger was on the glass screen the whole time and lines appeared on the keyboard where my finger had gone, like finger trails of dust. A Swype engineer calls these trace paths.

Capitalizing entire words or acronyms like “WSJ” works by swiping a finger up above the keyboard and drawing a loop anytime while you’re typing a word. If a word has a double letter, like “pull,” simply let your finger linger a little longer on the “l” key, indicating the recurring letter. I was shocked by how accurately this particular gesture worked.

Touching the cursor to any word then moving a finger from the Swype key to Shift pulls up a menu of all capitalization options for that word (all lowercase, all capitalized or first letter capitalized). I selected one to quickly convert the whole word to that style.

Some people complain that Android devices don’t give people an easy way of moving the cursor, so a gesture in the Swype keyboard—swiping from the Swype key to the Symbol key—pulls up a directional menu with cursor options like up, down, left and right.

Certain words make sense to the keyboard according to the design that was traced and what letters logically followed one another. One such example is “49ers”: I dragged my finger from one key to the next and was surprised to see this rarely used word appear. And texting lexicon like “l8er” (later) and “4ever” (forever) showed up the same way.

You can teach Swype to learn your most-used words by tracing the word once and hitting the space key, as long as this combination is all letters or all numbers. If the word has an alphanumeric combination, like myname@gmail.com, it must be manually added to the Swype dictionary. I did this by highlighting the word (in this case an email address), then hitting the Swype key.

Punctuation was a little tricky since I’m used to double tapping on the iPhone or BlackBerry space bar key to insert a period at the end of a sentence. To add a period with Swype, you drag a finger from the period key to the space bar key. The same is true for other punctuation, like comma and space; exclamation point and space; or a question mark and space.

Like all on-screen keyboards, Swype takes some adjustment, but typing can be more accurate, feels faster—and more entertaining—the more you use it.

Email Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

At Last, a Keyboard for Some iPhones

Yukari Iwatani Kane — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:03:42 +0000

If there is one complaint people have about their iPhones, it’s that the popular cellphone doesn’t have the option of a physical keyboard to type on. That has now changed, at least if you’ve “jailbroken” or modified your phone so it can download unauthorized software.

Matthias Ringwald, a doctoral candidate specializing in wireless sensor networks in Zurich, Switzerland, launched a piece of software called BTstack Keyboard, which will let users use Bluetooth-enabled keyboards with their iPhones. The software is available through the unauthorized app marketplace Cydia for $5.

IPhones rely on typing text using a virtual keyboard on the display screen, an attribute that does not appeal to some people. The handsets have Bluetooth capability–a popular way to connect peripheral devices–but so far Apple (AAPL) has only allowed it to be used to connect with other iPhones to play games or with certain accessories like headsets. Ringwald was one of the users frustrated by the limitation. He spent eight months developing the software before releasing it on Wednesday.

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Apple Apps Ahead

Yukari Iwatani Kane — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:01:56 +0000

Apple (AAPL) is about to remove the shackles from developers of applications for the iPhone.

While iPhone users have mostly praised the steady stream of games, guides and other programs released thus far, many developers have been frustrated by their inability to do more, such as allow users to purchase digital content within an application. Until recently, Apple Inc. has been slow to give them the tools or a blueprint with which to make that possible.

Now the company says it is on the verge of launching a new iPhone operating system — and a toolkit to help developers of new applications for the handsets. Apple says the new operating system itself will add more than 100 features, including the ability to cut and paste text, and a virtual keyboard for use when the phone is turned sideways, making it easier to type emails. The toolkit is expected to add about 1,000 functions to help developers come up with new applications.

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A Stylus for the iPhone

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:04:02 +0000

Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I am a Palm Treo user and would like to get an iPhone for the apps. But I have tried the virtual keyboard on the iPhone in the store and hate it. Is there a stylus you can use for better accuracy, or some software trick?

I don’t know if they improve accuracy, but there are several stylus brands made for the iPhone and iPod Touch. They are aimed at making typing easier, especially if you have long nails or are wearing gloves. One example is the Pogo, a $15 iPhone stylus from a company called Ten One Design, at tenonedesign.com.

In addition, there are several iPhone apps that attempt to help typing accuracy by allowing you to compose emails, text messages and Twitter posts using a wide, landscape keyboard rather than the narrower standard keyboard. You type your message in these apps, and then the app sends them to the iPhone’s email program for transmission. One that I have used is called TouchType. It works with email and Twitter, and costs 99 cents.

Another interesting solution is a free app called ShapeWriter, which lets you type by sliding your finger along a keyboard to connect the letters in words. You never have to lift your finger until you are done with a whole word. Messages you compose in ShapeWriter can be saved as notes or shipped to the email program for sending.

Finally, I should note two things about typing on an iPhone. First, it’s difficult to know if you’ll be comfortable with it from just a few minutes in a store, because it usually takes a few days to master. Second, some people won’t ever find it acceptable, and these folks should choose a phone that has a physical keyboard.

In your review of the new version of the Safari Web browser, you said some Web sites were publishing methods for undoing some of the changes in it that you criticized. Can you explain how I can do that?

There are two methods for changing Safari 4 so it looks and works more like the previous versions, while retaining its faster speed. One method involves typing techie commands into the computer. But, for mainstream users, I recommend another: downloading a new free utility called Safari 4 Buddy. It’s available at swoon.net/site/software.html.

Safari 4 Buddy allows you to just check off buttons that can change the placement of tabs in Safari 4 so they’re under the toolbars, rather than at the top of the screen, and restore the blue page-loading progress bar that Apple killed. It also permits users to change other settings Apple omitted from the browser’s Preferences menus. I have tested it and it works.

However, this utility works only on the Mac version of Safari 4. I don’t know of any way to make these changes in the Windows version. Also, there’s no guarantee that Apple won’t make future modifications to the browser that might reverse any customizations Safari 4 Buddy makes.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Goodbye BlackBerry (and Hello iFart App?)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:00:11 +0000

Hello, my name is BoomTown and I am a reformed CrackBerryaholic.

How bad was it? Here’s the worst story: I was holding my BlackBerry in my hand, inadvertently for once, when I gave birth to my son in 2002.

Long story short: I was emailing away throughout labor, suddenly had to have emergency surgery, was quickly drugged into paralysis and forgot it was gripped in my hand–all until the anesthesiologist looked at me like I was a freak.

I should have been embarrassed by that. I was not. Hence, that makes me a full-fledged Blackberry addict.

Actually, I was one.

Because over the weekend, while casting about for a good New Year’s resolution (Work less? Nope! Exercise more? Double nope!!), I impulsively decided to dump what is pathetically one of my more satisfying and reliable relationships ever for a questionable new one.

That’s right, I have finally abandoned the BlackBerry for the iPhone.

I have no idea what possessed me, but suddenly I had to change dramatically and change now. (I could blame the influence of fellow CrackBerry user President-Elect Barack Obama for that mood.)

So, I finally made the dreaded switcheroo from the devices made by the fine folks at Research In Motion (RIMM), which I have used since the first stubby little block of greyish plastic until the last stubby bigger block of reddish plastic.

To be honest, I have been flirting with the idea of leaving my longtime love for a while now.

Almost sneakily, I bought an iPhone from the get-go when it came out from Apple (AAPL) in June of 2007, because it was just too cool a device to pass up.

I was instantly delighted by the touchscreen swooshing and squinching, its breakthrough quality as a handheld media player, the Internet access that finally worked and the generally clever way of organizing contact and other information. I also liked the voicemail recording a lot.

Not so much the AT&T (T) cellular network, of course, but that was livable. What was not, as it was for a lot of people, was the poor email experience, specifically the virtual keyboard.

To say my entire life revolves around email and texting is to go overboard. But not by much. It is, in fact, the bane of my partner, who has learned to live with it grudgingly.

My obsession has even turned into mimicry by my other son, a three-year-old, who grabbed a small and rectangular block of wood recently and started tapping on it with his fingers, proudly declaring, “I’m Mama working!”

Oh dear. Like I said, I am pathetic in this regard (on the plus side, I don’t drink, do drugs or watch “Dancing with the Stars”).

But my issues with the dullish BlackBerry slowly mounted, from its too-small screen, to the substandard Internet experience to the limited ways to store emails to the overall clunkiness of it.

And when the apps came out for the iPhone, it got worse, since the ones on BlackBerry just are not as robust at all.

And with those apps, I now did not even have to really launch a browser and click away in frustration. Instead, I could largely rely on an increasingly interesting array of software that made my digital life a lot easier.

I am not including the iFart app in this group, of course, the kind of toddler programming that I had thought I had left behind when I started ignoring Facebook apps. Verdict: Eww.

In any case, my BlackBerry still had those lovely clickety-clack keys that have always been a joy to press and with which I could write a book in a very short time, I had become so adept at using them.

So, I had great hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, with a clicking-like virtual keyboard, as the solution to all my problems. Or so I thought.

When I first saw it, I knew this was not what I had been waiting for, which was underscored by Walt Mossberg’s review.

The weird push on the glass screen made me feel like it was going to break with every click. What I really wanted was the tactile feel of the keys and not the click feel.

The G1 smartphone from Google (GOOG), of course, offered a real keyboard and the big touchscreen. But it just looks and feels too much like–let’s be honest–a pair of clogs I once wore in seventh grade and have regretted ever since.

And, while there is a Palm device reportedly coming out this week with a touchscreen and a slip-down keyboard, I guess I have finally become tired of waiting for something that is perhaps not possible: A virtual keyboard that feels real.

Thus, I gave into the iPhone and learned to live with my all-thumbs typing.

And, as many have said, I am actually getting better at that. Not speedy, as I was with the BlackBerry, which–ironically–has caused me not to use the iPhone as obsessively and to put it down a lot more.

Except that, as soon as I do put it down, it is immediately picked up by my now six-year-old, the very person who had endured my incessant pregnant clicking.

As it turns out, he is obsessed with the many game apps I have downloaded for him onto the iPhone–currently “Crazy Penguin Catapult.” (Verdict: Unusually fun.)

So much so that he sneaked into my bedroom yesterday morning and spirited my iPhone away for a session while I slept late.

What can I say? Like mother, like son.

In this regard, let’s hope not.

[Photo credit: Cool, but creepy BlackBerry Baby image is from All Media.]

Google Answers the iPhone

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:02:04 +0000

In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option. But that will all change on Oct. 22, when T-Mobile and Google bring out the G1, the first hand-held computer that’s in the same class as Apple’s iPhone.

[ See post to watch video ]

I have been testing the G1 extensively, in multiple cities and in multiple scenarios. In general, I like it and consider it a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Both devices run on fast 3G phone networks and include Wi-Fi. Both have smart-touch interfaces and robust Web browsers. Both have the ability to easily download third-party apps, or programs.

But the two devices have different strengths and weaknesses, and are likely to attract different types of users.

If you’ve been lusting after the iPhone’s functionality, but didn’t like its virtual keyboard or its user interface or its U.S. carrier, AT&T, the G1 may be just the ticket for you. But it does have some significant downsides.

By far, the G1′s biggest differentiator is that it has a physical keyboard, which is revealed by sliding open the screen. The keyboard proved only fair in my tests, with keys that are too flat and that can be hard to see in bright light, and with a bulge in the body on the right side that you have to reach over to type. But, for the many people who can’t stomach typing on glass, the G1 keyboard will be a welcome sight. It’s complemented by a BlackBerry-like trackball for navigation.

The G1 has a smart-touch screen like its iPhone rival, for Web browsing and downloading programs. But it has a physical keyboard for conventional typing.

The G1 has a removable battery and uses removable, expandable memory cards. And it’s even a bit cheaper than its Apple (AAPL) rival: $179 versus $199. Its data plan also costs less — $25 a month versus $30 — and includes 400 free text messages, which cost extra on the iPhone. There’s also a $35 plan that includes unlimited text messages. And both plans include free use of T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi hotspots.

The G1 has a slick, clever touch interface to go along with its keyboard, and it includes a powerful new operating system. The operating system, called Android, was built by Google (GOOG). It is slated to appear on other phones over time, though it likely will look different on other devices because it is fully open to modification by other companies.

On the G1, the touch interface is fast and smooth. Programs appear when you drag up a tab at the bottom of the screen, and notifications of new messages can be read by simply dragging down the top bar of the screen.

You get much more flexibility in organizing your desktop than on the iPhone. In addition to placing icons for programs there, you can add individual contacts, music playlists, folders, Web pages and more. You just press on the screen for a longer-than-usual time, and a list of items you can add appears. It also has a higher-resolution camera than the iPhone, but like the Apple phone, it can’t shoot video.

It’s also much easier to place a phone call on the G1 than on the iPhone. You can just start typing a contact name or phone number while on the home screen, sparing you the need to enter the phone or contacts program. And there’s a virtual phone keypad that allows you to avoid opening the physical keyboard just to dial a number. It’s also much easier to jump to the top and bottom of long lists.

The G1′s Web browser, built on the same technology as the iPhone’s, worked well at rendering scores of common sites in my tests. You can either pan around pages with your finger, or choose to view the whole page at once and zero-in on a section by moving a small rectangle around.

This first Android phone, which was largely designed by Google and built by Taiwan-based HTC, also includes some key features Apple omitted. These include a limited ability to copy and paste text, and the ability to send photos directly to other phones without relying on email, a common phone feature called MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service. And, unlike AT&T (T), T-Mobile (DT) will even allow users to legally unlock the phone after 90 days and start using it on another carrier, provided you pay a hefty early-termination fee.

In my battery tests, the G1 lasted through the day, but I had to charge it every night. That’s better than the initial battery life on the current iPhone, though in fairness, Apple has improved the iPhone’s battery life through software updates, and I found them to be about the same for mixed use.

In my talk-time test, the G1 got just under its claimed five hours, about 19 minutes better than the iPhone.

There are two email programs: one for Google’s Gmail, another for all other email services. There’s an instant-messaging program that works with multiple services. There’s one program for accessing Google’s YouTube service and another for Google Maps. The G1′s Google Maps program even has a feature, coming soon as well to the iPhone, that offers photographic street views of certain locations. But the G1, unlike the iPhone, includes a compass that orients the street views as you walk.

The built-in download store for third-party programs, called Market, worked well in my tests. I was able to quickly download games, productivity programs, and other apps and, unlike Apple, Google says it isn’t blocking any programs.

However, the G1 also has downsides. It’s a chunky brick of a device. While it’s a bit narrower than the iPhone and feels OK in the hand, it’s almost 20% heavier and nearly 30% thicker. It also has a smaller screen and doesn’t accept standard stereo headphones.

The G1 also skimps on memory. It comes with only 1 gigabyte of storage, just one-eighth of what the base iPhone offers. To increase the G1′s memory, you have to lay out more money to buy a larger memory card.

The G1 also limits third-party applications to a paltry 128 megabytes of memory. At one point in my tests, after downloading a bunch of third-party programs, and adding songs and videos, the G1 warned me it was running out of room, a warning I have never seen on my heavily used iPhone.

Another downside for some users: The G1 is tightly tied to Google’s online services. While you can use non-Google email and IM services, the only way you can get contacts and calendar items into the phone is to synchronize with Google’s online calendar and contacts services. In fact, you can’t even use the G1 without a Google user ID and password.

The G1 doesn’t allow the use of Microsoft’s Exchange service for email, contacts or calendar items, or any other company’s over-the-air synchronization for contacts and appointments.

In my tests, synchronizing with Gmail, and with Google’s contacts and calendar applications, was smooth and fast. So, the G1 may be great for dedicated Google users, but not so good for folks who rely on competing calendar and contacts services from, say, Yahoo (YHOO) or Microsoft (MSFT). Future Android phones may not be so tightly tied to Google services, but the G1 is.

It also can’t synchronize any data at all directly with a PC or Mac. For instance, it can’t sync with Microsoft Outlook or Windows Media Player on a PC, with Apple’s iCal or Address Book programs on a Mac, or with iTunes on either Windows or the Mac. It has no PC-based synchronization software of its own, and it offers no way to automatically back up your settings, music, applications, videos or photos, either to a computer or to an online repository, though Google says it plans to add a backup feature.

To get Outlook or iCal data onto the G1, you must install add-on software. To get your songs, videos and photos onto the G1, you must plug the phone, or its memory card, into your computer and manually move the files over.

Overall, I found the G1′s user interface inferior to the iPhone’s. It lacks the iPhone’s ability to flick between multiple pictures and Web pages, or to zoom in and zoom out of a photo or Web page by simply using two fingers to “pinch” or expand the image. It also doesn’t automatically change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape simply by turning the phone.

Further, many common controls that are easily visible on the iPhone can be accessed on the G1 only by pressing a menu button or by using keyboard shortcuts you have to memorize. Examples are stopping the loading of a Web page or moving forward to the next Web page.

There’s also no on-screen keyboard even for quick tasks, such as typing Web addresses, so you’re constantly having to turn the phone and open the physical keyboard, which quickly becomes a pain.

The G1 also is a greatly inferior multimedia device when compared with the iPhone. Its music player, while adequate, isn’t as nice as the built-in iPod on the iPhone. And it lacks a video player altogether, though a rudimentary one can be downloaded from the Market. The G1 does come with a program for buying songs from Amazon (AMZN), which worked well in my tests.

And then there’s the network. Despite all the troubles AT&T has experienced with its fast 3G network, which is still being built out, that company has 3G service for the iPhone and other devices in 320 U.S. metro areas. By contrast, T-Mobile offers 3G in just 20 U.S. metro areas. Eight more cities are due to come online by year end, which will still leave T-Mobile’s 3G coverage far behind that of AT&T and Verizon (VZ), which will soon introduce its own iPhone competitor, the BlackBerry Storm.

I did 40 speed tests comparing the G1 and the iPhone to see how fast they could download a Web page over 3G. The tests, conducted in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Washington, D.C., showed the iPhone to be consistently faster, by an average of between 50 and 100 kilobytes per second, even though T-Mobile’s network was carrying much less traffic than AT&T’s.

Overall, the G1 is a very good first effort, and a godsend for people who prefer physical keyboards or T-Mobile but want to be part of the new world of powerful pocket computers.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Using a Stylus With the iPhone

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:14:02 +0000

Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I bought an iPhone and was frustrated that my fingers appear to be too large to type properly on its virtual keyboard. Is there a stylus that works with the iPhone?

I hadn’t realized this until recently, when a friend who bought one showed it to me, but, yes, there is. The iPhone wasn’t designed to operate with a stylus, and the small, thin, hard kind that one uses with, say, a Treo, doesn’t work right with the iPhone. But there are some companies that sell a wider type of stylus with a soft tip that approximates a small fingertip, and is designed for the iPhone.

If you type “iPhone stylus” into a search engine, or an online store like Amazon.com, you will see a number of inexpensive choices. One downside: the iPhone doesn’t have a built-in slot for a stylus. My friend carries his, which has a clip on the end, like a pen, in his pocket.

I just purchased an external hard drive for my PC that connects through a USB port to back up photos and important files in the event of a computer crash. Would this hard drive be affected if my main hard drive crashed? Should I disconnect the external drive when it’s not in use?

The two hard disks are separate devices, and if one has a mechanical failure, it doesn’t affect the other. There might be some scenarios in which a problem with the computer itself, as opposed to a breakdown of its internal hard disk, could affect the external drive. And malicious software could corrupt or erase files on the external drive. An electrical surge could also affect both drives, or fry the computer itself.

Many people can’t disconnect their external drives, because they use automated backup programs, or frequently save files to the drives. If you are doing only occasional manual backups, you could disconnect the extra drive when not in use, so you’d feel more comfortable. But, for maximum peace of mind in case of an electrical surge, you should disconnect it not only from the PC, but from the electrical outlet as well, even if you are using a surge protector.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

A Few Shortcuts to Juice Up a BlackBerry

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:36:02 +0000

If you’re a BlackBerry user, you’re probably getting tired of hearing about all the things Apple’s iPhone can do. Rumor even has it that a more iPhone-like BlackBerry is in the works. But don’t despond: Your current trusty emailing device has a few tricks up its sleeve that you may not know about.

This week, I gathered up some useful shortcuts that come built into most of the BlackBerrys, even older models, made by Research In Motion Ltd. but not many owners actually use or know about them. Ironically, most of these shortcuts are conducted using a BlackBerry feature that the iPhone lacks: its physical keyboard. (The iPhone uses a virtual keyboard that appears on-screen only when needed.)

Some useful shortcuts are built into most BlackBerrys, even older models, though not many owners actually use or know about them. Most of these shortcuts are conducted using a BlackBerry feature that the iPhone lacks: its physical keyboard.

Some of these shortcuts are seemingly obvious, like number or capitalization locks, but others are more obscure, like codes that can be entered to display the BlackBerry’s precise signal strength. Some shortcuts are performed with a single keystroke; others work in conjunction with a trackwheel or trackball, depending on your BlackBerry model, and still others work when two keys are pressed simultaneously. BlackBerrys with condensed keyboards that use auto-correcting SureType may require extra or different keystrokes.

Navigation Simplified

A series of keystrokes work in various BlackBerry applications to make navigation much faster. Pressing the Space bar works like Page Down on a computer keyboard, moving down one screen per press. Holding Shift while pressing the Space bar moves in the opposite direction, like the Page Up key. To quickly move to the very top or bottom of a page, press “T” or “B,” respectively. Another way to page down or up through lists is to hold the ALT key while scrolling with the trackwheel.

Users can toggle between the BlackBerry’s running applications without the extra step of navigating back to the Home screen. To do this, press ALT and the Escape key, then release Escape and use the trackwheel to scroll through a display of icons that represent running programs until you reach the desired program, then release the ALT key to select that program.

Messaging Magic

Shortcuts in BlackBerry messaging can be a real boon when you’re trying to get work done quickly. While looking at a list of emails, hit “C” to immediately start composing a new email. When a specific email is highlighted, pressing “R” will reply to that message; “L” will reply to all and “F” will forward it. Hitting “J” while an email is highlighted will jump directly to the oldest message in that email chain.

A list of emails can be more neatly organized from the message screen by holding the ALT key and pressing a letter. “I” will alter the list to show only incoming emails, “O” will show just those emails that were sent. “P” shows a phone log, including dates and times, and “s” displays all SMS messages made or received on the BlackBerry.

In the body of a message, pressing the Space bar twice inserts a period and capitalizes the next word. When the left Shift key and ALT are pressed together, the keyboard’s number lock is on; the right Shift key and ALT work as the caps lock. Holding any letter down will capitalize it, saving users from pressing another key to do so. To type a letter with an accent, hold the letter key down while scrolling up or down with the trackwheel until you find the correctly accented letter.

Type Less, Say More

While composing emails, a series of AutoText codes can be typed in the email body to automatically display certain phrases or information. Typing “mynumber” and a space in the text of an email will automatically display your BlackBerry’s phone number. Similarly, when “LD” is entered the local date is displayed, and when “LT” is typed the local time appears.

If your email inbox is full and you can’t send emails, find out the PIN of your recipient’s BlackBerry and use it to message the person directly. (To find your own PIN, type “mypin” and a space into the body of an email. This code can be used to send PIN messages from one device to another without using the device’s usual email system.)

Geeky Codes

If you’re just dying to know some techie details about your BlackBerry, the “Help Me!” screen will be right up your alley. To view the “Help Me!” screen, press ALT, Shift and “H” simultaneously. This displays data that won’t matter much to the average person, such as the device’s vendor ID, platform and free file space. But it also shows the exact percentage of remaining battery power on the BlackBerry, which could be helpful if you aren’t sure how to interpret the imprecise battery indicator bars at the top of the home screen.

Another way to geek up your BlackBerry is to change its signal strength indicator from bars to numbers that tell how many decibels per milliwatt the device is transmitting. To do this, go to the Home screen and hold down the ALT button while typing “NMLL.” My BlackBerry displayed a minus 75 when I made this change. Strengths of minus 50 to minus 90 are said to be good, while anything higher, like minus 100, isn’t. Though this numerical indicator won’t likely be of any practical use, you could use it to turn to a friend and compare reception during an excruciatingly boring meeting.

One way to impress a technophile on a date is by pulling up a BlackBerry’s Event Log. To do this, go to the Home screen and hold down ALT while typing “LGLG.” This retrieves a long list of numerous confusing codes representing the functions that were performed on your device. The Menu screen in the Event Log gives users the option to clear this log, freeing up some BlackBerry memory, while an Options screen lets people set the log up to record only certain kinds of activities.

Finally, to reboot your BlackBerry without removing its plastic back and taking out the battery, press ALT, Right Shift and Delete simultaneously. More codes can be found in the blogosphere or in a special section of RIM’s Web site: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/blackberry101/tips/. Adopting just one of these shortcuts can significantly change the way you use your BlackBerry.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Newer, Faster, Cheaper iPhone 3G

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:10:34 +0000

Apple Inc.’s iPhone has been the world’s most influential smart phone since its debut a year ago, widely hailed for its beauty and functionality. It was a true hand-held computer that raised the bar for all its competitors. But that first iPhone had two big drawbacks: It was expensive, and it couldn’t access the fastest cellular-phone networks.

[ See post to watch video ]

On Friday, Apple (AAPL) is launching a second-generation iPhone, called the iPhone 3G, which addresses both of those problems, while retaining the look and feel of the first model’s hardware and software.

The base version of the new iPhone costs $199 — half the $399 price of its predecessor; the higher-capacity version is now $299, down from $499. Yet, this new iPhone is much, much faster at fetching data over cellphone networks because it uses a speedy cellular technology called 3G. And it now sports a GPS chip for better location sensing.

The company also is rolling out the second generation of its iPhone operating system, with some nice new features, including wireless synchronization with corporate email, calendars and address books. And there’s a new online store for third-party iPhone programs that Apple hopes will make the device usable for a wider variety of tasks, including gaming and productivity applications. This new software and store will also be available on older iPhones, through a free upgrade.

I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.

Apple’s new iPhone operating system includes an ‘App store,’ where you can browse for, and download, third-party software.

The iPhone 3G is hardly the first phone to run on 3G networks, and it still costs more than some of its competitors. But overall, I found it to be a more capable version of an already excellent device. And now that it’s open to third-party programs, the iPhone has a chance to become a true computing platform with wide versatility.

There are two big hidden costs to the new iPhone’s faster speed and lower price tag. First, in my tests, the iPhone 3G’s battery was drained much more quickly in a typical day of use than the battery on the original iPhone, due to the higher power demands of 3G networks. This is an especially significant problem because, unlike most other smart phones, the iPhone has a sealed battery that can’t be replaced with a spare.

Second, Apple’s exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T Inc. (T), has effectively negated the iPhone’s up-front price cut by jacking up its monthly fee for unlimited data use by $10. Over the course of the two-year contract you must sign to get the lower hardware prices, that adds $240, overwhelming the $200 savings on the phone itself. If you want text messaging, the cost rises further. With the first iPhone, 200 text messages a month came free. Now, 200 messages will cost $5 a month, or another $120 over the two-year contract.

The iPhone 3G still has a couple of features that made the first version unpalatable to some potential buyers. It uses a virtual on-screen keyboard instead of a physical one. While I find the virtual keyboard easy and accurate, not everyone does. Also, in the U.S. and in many other countries, the iPhone is still tied to a single exclusive carrier, whose coverage or rate plans may be unacceptable to some.

Here is a rundown of the changes in the new model.

Design: The new iPhone looks almost exactly like the old one. It is the same length and width, has the same big, vivid screen, and has the same number and layout of buttons. The main difference is the back, which is now plastic instead of mostly metal and curved instead of flat. It’s very slightly thicker in the middle, with tapered edges, and weighs a tiny bit less.

The new iPhone 3G (left) delivers much higher Internet download speeds over cellular networks than the original iPhone (right).

Like its predecessor, the iPhone 3G comes in two models distinguished only by storage capacity: 8 gigabytes and 16 gigabytes. The top model is available in black or white.

Apple has greatly improved the audio on the new iPhone. I found the speaker was much louder, for music and for the speakerphone. But the new phone produced an echo when used with the built-in Bluetooth system in my car. Also, the headphone jack is now flush with the case instead of recessed as on the first model, so it can accept any standard stereo earphones.

The camera, however, is still bare-bones. It can’t record video and has a resolution of just two megapixels. The power adapter is now tiny, at least in the U.S., but Apple no longer includes a dock for charging, just a cable.

Software: The basic software is similar. The biggest addition for some users will be full compatibility with Microsoft’s (MSFT) widely used Exchange ActiveSync service, which many corporations use. In my tests, I was able to connect the iPhone 3G to my company’s Exchange servers in a few minutes, and my corporate email, calendar and contacts were replicated on the phone. Any changes I made on the iPhone were reflected almost instantly in Microsoft Outlook on my company PC, and vice versa. Email was pushed to the phone as soon as it was received on the company’s servers.

One drawback: While you can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased.

The new iPhone and upgraded older iPhones also will be able to use a new Apple consumer service, MobileMe, which offers synchronized push email, calendars, photos and contacts.

There are other improvements. You can now delete multiple emails at once, set parental controls and search your contacts. You can also save photos in emails or from Web sites. You can also now open Microsoft PowerPoint files sent as attachments, though I found in my tests that opening larger PowerPoint files crashed the phone.

Some software features missing from the first iPhone are still AWOL on the new one. There’s no copy and paste function, no universal search, no instant messaging and no MMS for sending photos quickly between phones.

Network: Like the old iPhone, the new one can perform Internet tasks using either Wi-Fi wireless networking or the cellphone networks. But the addition of 3G cellular capability makes the new model more useful for Web surfing, email and other data tasks when you’re not in Wi-Fi range. In my tests, in Washington and New York, I got data speeds mostly ranging between 200 and 500 kilobits per second. By comparison, the original iPhone, tested in the same spots at the same time, mostly got cellular data speeds between 70 and 150 kbps on AT&T’s old EDGE network. The new iPhone typically was between three and five times as fast as the old one.

While AT&T now has 3G networks in 280 U.S. cities, and aims to be in 350 by year end, it is converting its cellphone towers gradually, so not all areas of included cities have 3G coverage. The new iPhone falls back to EDGE speeds when 3G isn’t present.

One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon (VZ) phone and got perfect reception.

Battery life: Apple claims that over 3G, the new iPhone can get five hours of talk time, or five hours of Internet use. Talk time is twice as long on the older EDGE network, and Internet time is an hour better with Wi-Fi.

I ran my own battery tests using the phone’s 3G capability. Although I left the Wi-Fi function on, I didn’t connect it to a network, so the phone had to rely on 3G. In my test of voice calling, I got 4 hours and 27 minutes, short of Apple’s maximum claim and nearly three hours less than what I recorded in the same test last year on the original iPhone. In my test of Internet use over 3G, I got 5 hours and 49 minutes, better than Apple’s claim, but far short of the nine hours I got using Wi-Fi in last year’s tests.

More important, in daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day. I overcame this problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible, turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether, which the phone permits.

The iPhone 3G’s battery life is comparable to, or better than, that of some other 3G competitors. But they have replaceable batteries. The iPhone doesn’t.

Third-party software: If things go as Apple hopes, third-party software could be the biggest attraction to the new iPhone 3G, and to upgraded older iPhones. By some estimates, there will be hundreds of these programs, some free and some paid, almost immediately.

Apple didn’t supply me with programs for testing, but I managed to try several on older devices upgraded to the new operating system. I tested a game that used the phone’s motion sensors to control the action, and I tested several programs from America Online (TWX), including AOL Instant Messenger; AOL Radio, which streams music from the Internet; and AOL’s Truveo video search engine. All worked very well.

Among the programs Apple has publicly previewed were a sales automation program from Salesforce.com, a game called Super Monkey Ball from Sega and a program for bidding on eBay (EBAY). Also made public were a news reader from the Associated Press, a program for following live games from Major League Baseball and several programs for doctors, including the Epocrates drug reference.

Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.