I suppose my little blurb about my new iPhone will go unnoticed in the blogosphere. Like a drop in the lake. But hey, maybe since my post has the words "iPhone" I will get mega hits?!?!
My story of iPhone acquisition is a unique one. You see, I ran over my other phone on accident. This left my boss frustrated that he couldn't call me. So he offers to buy me an iPhone, complete with the plan and everything. I suppressed my glee when I heard this and replied, "Sure, that sounds great." So I am going to be the test bed for integrating the iPhone into our business systems.
Ok. Narrative over.
The iPhone has a large initial wow factor. It's kind of overwhelming going from a phone that has buttons and requires a degree from MIT to utilize it to one that can be operated by a four year old and does 10 times more.
Here is a breakdown of what the phone is capable of:
- Email from a POP server (gmail, yahoo, msn, etc)
- Fully functional web browsing (if a little slow on the EDGE network)
- Certainly the best iPod the have created yet
- Calculator
- Youtube
- Stock tracker
- Photos
- Calendar
- 2 MP Camera
- Direct link to iTunes
- Fantastic hands free system
The saleslady at the AT&T store told us that you cannot access secure email from the phone. That is not exactly true. It's true that you can't get email directly from the secure server but you can get a web based email system to access that server with the appropriate settings and check that from your web based email. I will write more on this later.
Here's another list of the stuff I didn't like:
- Very difficult to use when driving. Now I know it's not a good idea to drive and work your phone but the iPhone is even worse. Usually you have buttons to feel around when driving so you don't have to look at your phone and you can keep your eyes on the road or whoever your prefer. Not so with the iPhone. It's hard to hit buttons that are securely behind a piece of polycarbonate plastic and an electric field. You have to look at the phone to use it. Scrolling through your contacts while on the highway is not advisable at all.
- The EDGE network is not the fastest man has ever seen. There are unsubstantiated reports of men growing old and having children while waiting for google.com to load. It't not really that bad but if you are in a hurry you might want to log onto a free Wi-Fi spot to get things moving.
- No 3rd party apps at this time. This really bugs me with Apple. Usually they have pretty good relationships with their users but this takes the cake for being stupid. If you do jailbreak your phone you do so at your own risk. Upgrading may turn your $400 phone into a nice paper weight.
- The earbuds are cheap. Instead of providing some decent earbuds that stay in your ear Apple provided stock earbuds. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch to provide some decent earbuds for a $400 phone. Does it?
- The camera is kinda iffy. It takes pictures fast. There is no delay but some resolution would be good. The photo's are blurry if you don't hold the camera perfectly still.
- The headphone jack is a piece of crap. For some reason Apple made it so that you have to have a straight headphone jack to plug in to the iPhone. If you have some expensive earbuds like me that have a bend in the jack then it won't work with the iPhone. So you are stuck using the crappy buds that come with the phone and fall out of your ear all the time. Frustrating for a $400 phone. It's not like Apple would make more money from doing that...
Despite my much larger rant on the fualts of the iPhone I do like it a lot. I really think it's the future of phones to be far more functional. Doing email, internet, and everything in between will get a lot easier and cheaper to.
Of course I could go on and on about the cool little features that Apple incorperated into the phone but that would be reinventing the wheel. Go here to watch the iPhone video by Apple.
I recommend the iPhone for someone who like have a very cool phone and some truly revolutionary abilities but is willing to put up with the quirks. I'm sure Apple will continue to make it better. I'm also sure that waiting for the 2nd gen iPhone would be wise. Perhaps they will fix all those mistakes and get on the 3G network?
