I just got my 3GS today. I have had problems with it in my home connecting the "Weather" app via WiFi, while my 1st Gen iPod Touch grabs it in seconds. Did Apple disable this? Personally, I'd like to get rid of it, but of course, you can't. Some of the other apps are also slow in grabbing WiFi, while again, my iPod connects quickly. "Weather" never connected at all after several attempts - it just says "Updating", while The Weather Channel works fine. Overall I like it, especially not having to re-enter all my contact info, etc etc - Synch was noticeably faster. Browsing is also faster - no question.

Well, here is what I have found with my 16GB 3GS:

The voice control system does work as expected, it does "mess up" if there is background noise. Also I do not think there is anyway of activating the feature from a hands-free bluetooth speakerphone making the feature a little less useful in my book.

I did test the camera, and it is super simple to use. Again it works as expected there. I do wish Apple would send the video to iTunes instead of iPhoto! Apple, why do we want videos in our iPhoto library?

The compass works REALLY well! it is very fast and accurate, it is a very cool feature. I tested google maps on my way home tonight and it worked flawlessly! It kept my "pin" exactly were I was on the road, even as I lost cell reception for 5-8 miles or so. When I lost reception the map disappeared... obviously, but it kept right on showing me were I was over the gray screen which I am VERY pleased with since it is able to cope with only partial data and does not give up easily. This is what makes a device truly useful!

The speed overall is quite good.

BTW - I am upgrading from the 4GB original iPhone, so more changes for me than that of a 3G upgrader.

Been playing with iPhone OS 3.0 for the past few months and the 3GS brings the speed needed to make it usable again. It's enough to make you wonder how you ever got along without it.

Just a quick input: there's a few magnets in almost all macs: Al iMacs and the new display use rare earth magnets to hold up the glass, MacPros use magnets for the security latch, obviously the magsafe connectors on laptops, and the sleep switch on laptops is a magnet (knew someone who wore a magnetic "medicine" wristband and was constantly putting his PBG4 to sleep!), not to mention the magnetic latch on all new lappies. Forget Greenest, Apple needs to say "World's Most ATTRACTIVE Portable Computers" Plus some companies still make iPhone cases with magnetic clasps (bad idea for flash memory!). Any and all of these would confuse the compass if close enough. I was playing with the compass app at the local store with a friend, had a blast doing the figure eight (need to write a game that does this....)

My biggest speed increase was in games. Going from a 4gig 2G iPhone to the 16 gig iPhone 3Gs, everything loads faster. The biggest example: Oregon Trail. I wouldn't play it because every loading screeen took 20-25 seconds. I barely have time to blink on the new system. So I'm really pleased.

The fact that the compass doesn't point exactly to magnetic north while near a metal object isn't surprising.

All magnetic compasses are influenced by nearby metal and magnets. It's just nature. The magnetic field of the earth simply isn't all that strong; a nearby metal object will distort the earth's magnetic field.

Standing next to a large boulder or car will also have an impact on local magnetic forces.

This effect happens to a regular "mechanical" compass, purpose-built high-accuracy electronic compasses, and even a "needle in a cork" compass.

I am getting 40-100 kb/s downstream with 5 bars of 3G on my new iPhone 3Gs. That is SLOW... I am very disappointed with the reception as well. Inside the Apple Store it just says "NO SERVICE" and AT&T tells me it's because the building structure interferes with it. That's funny because I have a Palm Pre as well (trying to decide which to keep) and the Pre gets 600k/sec-1.4 MB/sec and perfect reception everywhere (including inside the Apple Store).

Someone please tell me why Apple chose AT&T? For the love of God please tell me that AT&T has a plan to fix this b.s.??

Safari seems to have a larger cache size... pages refresh MUCH less often when revisited (after opening several additional pages). I haven't heard mention of this elsewhere, and it's one of those little things that make a big daily difference.

All in all, I see thus update as major, not minor. Copy/paste, compass (which I love, surprisingly, especially with the map app), voice control, etc, etc. Very nice, and definitely worth the upgrade.

I have the original 2-yr old 8GB iPhone. A coworker came in today proudly holding a 16GB 3GS. And handed it to me. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly fast, snappy, smooth everything worked compared to mine. The second thing was even more noteworthy - internet. I'm on Edge - this one obviously 3G. We compared those two and this of course would be of interest to any Edge original iPhone owner. Every web site seemed to load to completion of the blue loading bar in about 1/3 the time. It was absolutely startling. I tried to be obvective about this. But my subjective impression was that this new phone not even tested on wireless felt close enough to my laptop on a wireless network doing internet browsing. Unbelievable! Looking forward to the increase in network speed later this year. Oh yes, both phones running 3.0.

Is the voice feature free? AT&T lists a charge of $4.99 a month for "voice dialing". Is this required?