Apple iPhone 3G S Gets Scrutiny from the Times, Journal

Regarding the Palm Pre, the technology critics at The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal were of a single mind. This week, however, it was the Apple iPhone 3G S that underwent their thorough testing, and the critics reported back less aligned.
 
The Journal's Walter Mossberg dutifully listed, and in many cases complimented, the attributes Apple has added to this latest iPhone, as well as its new iPhone OS 3.0 software, but overall he seemed to find it … serviceable. The way a hungry person might find that a perfectly nice peanut butter and jelly does the trick.
 
"I've been testing both and I like them a lot, with some minor caveats," Mossberg wrote.

The Times' David Pogue, however, seemed more a hungry man with a foie gras burger on his plate—finding it a hunger-sater not beyond a criticism or two, but overall delightful.
 
With older iPhones, Pogue wrote, there was a disconnect between the head and the heart. One's emotions, he wrote, "were swept away by everything Apple does so well: beauty, polish, elegance, simplicity and the thrill of interaction…"  But meanwhile, Pogue continued, "Your brain kept waving its little hand in the back of the classroom. 'But the camera's terrible!' it would say. 'It can't record video!'"

With the iPhone 3G S, Pogue wrote, "Apple is finally throwing your head a crumb."
 
Both Pogue and Mossberg found the new processor to offer considerably faster speeds and the battery to last longer, and complained that smartphone is only available on AT&T, which has yet to allow MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and tethering—features that carriers in other countries are supporting.

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