Mossberg on 3G iPhone

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Here's the verdict from the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg on the 3G iPhone, which comes out tomorrow morning. The two most noteworthy observations are that (a) email and internet surfing is between three and five times faster as it is with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited", and (b) in Mossberg's own testing, the iPhone 3G's "battery 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."

Six more observations: (c) "Apple's exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T Inc., has effectively negated the iPhone's up-front price cut by jacking up its monthly fee for unlimited data use by $10, and if you want text messaging, the cost rises further -- $5 bucks for 200 monthly messages, or another $120 over the two-year contract"; (d) the main stylistic main difference is the back, which is "now plastic instead of mostly metal and curved instead of flat, and is very slightly thicker in the middle, with tapered edges, and weighs a tiny bit less"; (e) the audio on the new iPhone is greatly improved; (f) the headphone jack now accepts any standard stereo earphones; (g) the camera, however, is still bare-bones with a lousy 2 megapixel resolution; (h) Apple no longer rincludes a dock for charging, just a cable.