If you are a first time user and your iPhone 3G is brand new, you will need to add contacts to your iPhone otherwise, you will have to dial the number directly using the keypad.
To add contacts, do the following
1. turn on your iPhone
2. look for and tap contact at the bottom of the screen.
3. look for and tap the plus (+) sign a the top right hand corner of the screen.
4.Fill in the necessary information for the new contact.
5. Add photo by tapping the add photo icon a the top left hand corner of the screen.
6. Choose your existing photo (should already be on the iPhone) or take a brand new photo
7. Save the information by tapping the save button at top right hand corner of the screen.

Making the call
1. Maneuver back to to the contact screen.
2. Scroll up and down to choose the person you want to call
3. Tap on the name then the number to call the person.
4. If the person’s name is not listed among your contacts, tap the keypad at the bottom of the screen, dial the number and you are on your way.

Recent Calls
Check recent calls by tapping the word “recents” at the bottom of the screen.
Return the call by tapping on the name.

voice mail
1. To check voice mail, tap on the voice mail icon a the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap to select the voice mail you want to listen to
3. Delete when done, or call back the number
4. Change the nature of your voice mail greeting by selecting greeting at the top left hand corner of the screen.

Note: before voice mail will work properly, you will need to set it up first by selecting a password for access and choosing a customized greeting or the default greeting that comes with your iPhone.

Almost a year ago the first iPhone was shipped (June 29, 2007) – the cost $500. After two whopping price reductions, the iPhone 3G (8 GB) is now $199 and it’s a lot faster than the first generation and offer much more features.

According to Steve Jobs, speaking at the WWDC conference 2008 in San Franscisco last week, 6 million iPhones have been sold since its launch, there is a 90% customer satisfaction rating, 98% are using it for browsing the net, 94% are using email, 90% text messaging, and 80% are using 10 or more features.

Challenges
As the iPhone revolution rolled on, it faced a number of challenges: lack of 3G network capability, limited third party application support, not enough overseas sales, and too expensive.

With last week’s announcement, the “new” iPhone 3G seemed to address these issues.

Starting on July 11th, you will be able to get the new iPhone 3G with thinner at edges, full plastic back, solid metal button, the same 3.5” display, camera, headphone jacks, and improved audio at the new price in 22 of 70 countries.

But Why 3G ?
The answer…faster data download.

Demonstrations showed that the new 3G iPhone can download a web browser 2.8 times faster than the edge network and just a shade slower than wi-fi ( 59 s edge, 21 s 3G, 17s wi-fi).

When compared to other 3G phones it took 33 seconds for the same task on the Nokia N95, and 34 seconds on the Treo 750 which amounts to about a 36% rate increase.

Email attachments
Downloading email attachment took 5 s on the 3G iPhone, 18 s on edge, and 3 s on wi-fi (3.8 times faster than edge). Once again there was very little difference between 3G and wi-fi.

More Talk Time
As for battery time, you can now get at total of 300 stand-by hours, 5 talk time hours (compared to 3 hours for other 3 G phone), 7 video hours, and 24 audio hours on a fully charged battery.

GPS built in
One other big new addition is GPS tracking. The original iPhone was able to pinpoint location using data from data from cell towers, and wi-fi network. Now it’s able to track movement with GPS data.

More Countries
Up to this point only six countries were authorized to sell the iPhone. Within the next several months 70 countries will sell the device and several other carriers will sell the service …not just AT& T.

That said, I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these “babies” to see if it lives up to the billing.

Before
Prior to the new updates, you could use the map feature on your iPhone to type in an address and get a map of a region. You could then zoom in and out with one or two tap of the screen, scroll up, down, left, or right by dragging your finger across the screen in the associated direction, get a satellite view of the map by tapping the satellite button, and bookmark the region by tapping the bookmark button.

If you wanted to find a particular location in the region, let’s say a restaurant, you could type in the name of the restaurant, do a search and get pin-pointed locations of that particular restaurant in the region. You could then tap on the pin of choice to get the address, phone number, and website of the restaurant you want. And, make a reservation by simply tapping the phone number to make the call.

To get from where you are to the restaurant, you would then map the trajectory by tapping the route button, check the traffic by tapping traffic button, and follow the turn-by-turn instruction to get to the restaurant.

But, how useful was this feature? Very useful, especially on such a small device as a mobile phone. However, there is one drawback – too many taps. With a feature such as this, you want the mapping process to be simpler, so that you can quickly Id your starting and ending points, map the route, determine traffic, and get the direction quickly.

Let’s see what the new updates offer.

After
With the new map update, you now can now automatically find your current location with a single tap of the location button at the bottom left of the screen (thanks to the Wi-Fi base stations and cell tower locations). You can then tap the direction button to fix your location in the start field, type in your destination as your end-point, tap the route button…and wala, the trajectory to your destination is mapped in a few seconds.

Now , how fast is that? Very fast. You can still do all the other stuff, like zoom in and out, scroll up, down, left, and right, get traffic conditions, and get different map views – including the new hybrid view where you can get a satellite view on top of a regular map view with street addresses etc., but only when necessary.

Also with the new drop-pin feature, you can drop a pin to pinpoint your current location, bookmark it, save it as start or end point, drag it around with your fingertips to a new location, and use it to map your path.

Are these map features perfect? Absolutely not. There is always room for improvement. But are they excellent as is? You bet, especially since this is only the second upgrade to the iPhone. Clearly Jobs and his entourage is listening and is making an effort to give the public what it wants. I am sure other smart phones will follow suit.

Now, if you want to access these updates, simply hop over to the itunes store and download the updated software for free and you are on your way. If you don’t have an iPhone yet, you can get one here.