The Penn Stater Magazine

Steven Levy on the New iPhone

June 18, 2009

Penn Stater Steven Levy ’74g—who used to be the top technology guy at Newsweek but got lured away to Wired magazine last year—has written a review of the new iPhone 3GS, which he says “introduces a long list of improvements, big and small.”

The new iPhone will be released tomorrow, but if, like me, you already have an older iPhone (or an iPod touch), you can download the new 3.0 software for your current device any time now. The software upgrade has many, though not all, of the bells and whistles that the new device has. I did the software upgrade last night and can already tell that I’m going to like the Voice Memos app, the spotlight search, and the ability to turn the thing sideways while typing e-mails in order to get a bigger keyboard.

Levy says if you’ve already got an iPhone and you’re not yet at a point in your contract where you’re eligible to upgrade to the new 3GS, there’s no rush about getting the new device: “…the wise thing for those more recent buyers to do will be to install the new software and stick with their 3G iPhones at least until their contracts run down.”

If you don’t want to read the full review (which isn’t that long), you can read a quick-hit summary of it at Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry Filed under: Penn State alumni. Tags: iPhone, Newsweek, Steven Levy, Wired magazine, Apple Computer, iPhone 3GS, Voice Memos app, Gadget Lab.