Previously, iTunes media transfert was either a full sync, meaning you had first to put songs in a playlist then tell iTunes to sync it with the phone, or a full manual process, where you could drag and drop files, but would loose the power of using the sync options defined.

It is now possible to simply drag and drop songs from the iTunes list to the iPhone icon, which which prompt iTunes to immediately transfer these songs to your device.

iTunes 10 will list those songs under a new “Manually Added Songs”  group in the “Music” tab of its iPhone settings.

This new feature allow the best of both modes: full sync while still allowing immediate media transfer on demand. Sweet.

See it the new iPhone sync music settings screen on this screenshot.

PS. I discovered this by chance, and I can’t understand why Apples doesn’t announce such new features somewhere in their release notes.

This is an in-depth look at the iPad user interface with guidelines and examples: what’s new, and what lessons were learned from theTablet PC concept and the iPhone’s  user interface.

If you think the iPad is just a bigger iPod, this presentation is for you.

View the slides on Slidshare (and make sure you read the notes!): Why the iPad UI matters, and how it differs from the Tablet PC, but also from the iPhone. 

I actually agree with many of Jude’s points:

1, 2 & 5) Typing is in some ways harder than it used to be when you were used to physical keys and T9 text-prediction.

3) The switch between portrait and landscape mode can be annoying, especially when lying down. There should at least be a preference to disable for in each app.

4) When the iPhone is off, it is off, and will not start itself up on time to wake yourself up as an alarm clock. Which also means it is totally off, not in some standby mode.

7) The battery life is not great: my iPhone 3GS last little more than a day in normal use, years ago I had a Nokia 3210 that lasted 4-5 days.

So the iPhone is not a great mobile phone, I would actually agree with that.
Many users who only need a simple basic mobile phone, would be better served by cheaper and less fragile devices, such as my old Nokia 3210.

But what surprised me in that post was that it was not mentioning what makes an iPhone so much more than a mobile phone.

The iPhone is not just a mobile phone

The iPhone is a mobile phone (calls, SMS), but that is not all.

It is a song jukebox (the iPod app).
It is a live TV (see (live UK TV).
It is a TV/VCR combo (the videos in the iPod app).
It is a photo album (the photo app, or Flickr’s app).
It is a pocket translator that speaks foreign words for me. (iSpeak serie).
It is a networked computer (mail, safari).
It is a photo camera.
it is a video camera with built-in editing facility.
It is a book that can display thousands of titles (Classics).
It is a map that always knows where I am and how to go where I want to go (Map app with GPS, Sat Nav apps ).
It is a game console (too many games to link!).

And all of this in the volume of a deck of cards.

For me, the small dose of usability that has been lost from simpler phones is much more than compensated by everything else that this device can do. Even in Star Trek, they didn’t foresee such advanced technology.

The iPhone is not perfect and there are tons of things than it could do better. But yes, for everything that it does, I do love my iPhone.