The iPhone, Rehashed

The new iPhone can surf the Web faster than its predecessor, but it doesn't offer a lot you can't get on the old phone. (By Alan Diaz -- Associated Press)

The iPhone also brings along most of your computer's information and entertainment.

Its calendar and contacts programs link to a Mac's iCal and Address Book applications or to a PC's Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail (or the address books of Google and Yahoo's Webmail services). You can let iTunes keep things coordinated or use Apple's new, $99-a-year MobileMe service to synchronize over the air -- though MobileMe's initial buggy performance argues for holding off on that.

And the iPhone plays your digital music, photos and videos just like the iPod that it is.

Now the iPhone's capabilities transcend the efforts of Apple's programmers, thanks to the App Store, available in iTunes and on the iPhone's home screen. This archive of third-party programs makes the software-loading routines of Palm OS or Windows Mobile phones look painfully primitive: Select a title you like, and after a couple of taps and a short download, it's ready to use.

The store carries about 800 applications, some free but most costing 99 cents to $10 (paid through an iTunes account). The selection already covers a broad range -- games, to-do lists, databases, e-books, Web-radio jukeboxes -- although it still needs an Internet calling program.

The iPhone 3G's system software throws in some small but notable usability fixes -- for instance, you can now search your contacts and delete multiple e-mails at once. But the same software, App Store included, is a free upgrade for first-generation iPhones.

How could a new iPhone make the old version obsolete? Apple would do well to address the other complaints iPhone users have raised: the inability to copy and paste text between applications, its laughably inadequate support for picture messages (to view them you must visit a special Web page and type in a cryptic username and password), its woefully limited Bluetooth support, and a camera that can't record video.

More storage would help, too.

But the most useful upgrade for the iPhone would be to stop locking it so tightly to AT&T. If you want to use another compatible network -- say, when traveling internationally to avoid AT&T's steep roaming rates -- you still must take your chances with unauthorized, risky unlocking utilities.

In many other aspects, the iPhone is the device that changes everything. But in this aspect -- even as other carriers move toward more open networks -- the iPhone alters nothing at all.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com. Read more athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/.