First and foremost, the iPhone is a really great phone. The interface is intuitive; the syncing process seamless. Integration between my address book, pictures, and even music is top notch. I’m glad I held out for the iPhone and I’m glad I waited until now to try web and mail on a mobile device. Until the iPhone, I simply dismissed web and mail as something that was cool but would entirely frustrate me.
Now that I have the web, maps, and email, I’m in love.
I’m sure I have not found all of the goodies on this phone, however I’ll outline some that I have found I particularly enjoy:
- Contact list: The “Favorites” contact list function allows you to take anyone in your address book and add them to a special “favorites-only” address book. This is stupid easy and insanely useful. Sort favorites however you’d like — I have Emily at the top, then Adam, then my family. It’s the most used feature on the phone so far!
- Earbuds: They double as the microphone/headset. No more bluetooth for me (I’ll outline this in the negatives below).
- Text messaging with a QWERTY keyboard: Textile or not, it is a snap. Never having it before, WOW! What a difference.
- The by-letter scrolling feature of the contact list: I originally thought lack of a keypad would make dialing someone a pain (before hitting 5 would go straight to J and hitting 5 three times would go to L — easy), however this is really intuitive and I can usually go to the right letter just by touching the right side of the screen so in the end it ends up being even less keystrokes
- Google maps: How did I ever live without maps on my phone?!
- The “locked” screen: Whoever had the idea to show you what has happened without unlocking is a genius. I just press the button and it tells me I have 2 missed calls and a text message from various people. Wonderful!
Being a first generation device, there are things that aren’t perfect. I’ll go over a few things that are bugging me so far:
- Battery life: Charging every night is a huge pain. I understand I’m doing more with this phone than any phone I’ve had before, but I really should be able to go longer than 24 hours without a charge. This isn’t faulting Apple exactly, but why is battery technology so far behind?
- Bluetooth: Maybe it’s my Jabra JX10, but it still doesn’t sound good. I don’t understand how people can use bluetooth headsets. The batteries never last and they sound like crap. Adam’s motorola headset is the same.
- Ring Tones: How do I add a new one? Or select a song from iTunes to be my ring tone? Come on, Apple, seriously… ring tones are HUGE business. How can this NOT be an option!
- Missing plugins and readers: I need to listen to .WAV and .PPT files via my email. And where is Flash?
- Fragility: This phone seems so fragile. I’ve watched an iPhone stress testing video where they dropped the phone on concrete and it held up without scratching the screen, but the first time I drop this thing I’m going to die!
I’m sure as time goes on we’ll see more features, including ring tones and perhaps even hacks to enable disk access to the phone and edge internet via the usb cable connection to a laptop. I’m ok waiting for these features as I primarily want the iPhone as a phone but once they have them this will be a major contender for the “real” smart phones.
Jc, How would you describe the web browser experience?
Browsing the web is fun. Some sites work better than others. For example, babble doesn’t work all that well, which has been disappointing. I’ve been considering writing babble for the iPhone. We’ll see
Jc, does meebo work on an iPhone? (www.meebo.com)
Is the browser fully functional or, is it a micro/mini-browser?
Maybe they will have the kinks worked out of babble by the time I get one? Dag, the wait for it to come north.
why am i not surprised u buying this? hahah u can’t stop urself from buying the newest gadget can u? =p Definitely a cool phone, but being a first generation and having to charge the phone every night would drive me absolutely mad!
I just gave meebo a try. It seems to work slightly bit not really that well. Buggy and slow. I can’t wait till real, non-web applications are available.
Continuing on the thread…Now that you have been using the iPhone for a while, jc, what kind of applications would like that aren’t currently available.
Primarily, a rss reader. Secondly, I’d like a way to snip songs and turn them into a ring tone. Third, instant messaging. I don’t use im all that often but im in a web browser always has and always will suck.
I actually had one for a little bit and returned it. Mainly because as something other than a phone, it is currently just a great great toy. Its a beautiful and sexy, but it lacks any business application at the moment. The hardware limitations are not all that important, but the current software relegates it to toy status. I wish it had GPS, wish it had a microSD slot, wish it had 3G…thats about it, but they’re actually rather important.
But, Since it is a software issue, the iphone has the benefit of being able to be updated via itunes. Hopefully they will; add stereo bluetooth support, allow custom ringtones, allow third party apps, allow bluetooth keyboards, have ms exchange connectivity via something other than imap. The software upgrades will come, hopefully sooner rather than later.
the main reason i actually chose to return it is lack of signal in the hospital and thats more of an att problem than it is apple. hey..this sounds like it could be a blog entry…
How is the iPhone screen’s visibility compare to the RAZR under bright sunny conditions?
The first month anniversary of iPhone’s unveiling occurred a couple of days ago. How was your 1st month with an iPhone? Would you go back to the RAZR? Does it meet/exceed your expectations?
One thing that came out of the big product update from Apple today is that you will be able to buy ringtones for 99 cents and have access to a boatload of songs as ringtones. The iPod Touch looks like a cool toy but memory available sucks.
“Why is battery technology so far behind”
Lets not blame the battery, these devices are adding bigger screens and ever demanding processors. I wonder if a solar panel on a phone could ever generate enough power to extend the battery life of the phone?
I think the only long term solution will be multi-core processors that can run slow and use a lot less power. Problem is there is going to have to be a massive software rewrite to make this happen.