20 Things About the iPhone
I’ve always been kind of ambivalent about mobile phones. While useful they are a major pain to use. I’ve mostly had one from work or a simple pre-paid phone. I was content with that until Apple debuted the iPhone. Being an Apple fanboy and a gadget whore this was like candy to me. After its release I waited about 3 weeks before breaking down and buying one.
I’ve had my iPhone for about six months now, purchasing one shortly after they were released. It’s been a good six month overall. The service has been good and the phone itself is a pleasure to use compared to the others I have used. There are things I both love and hate about the phone though. I’ve compiled a list of twenty things, 10 for each regarding the phone.
Without further ado here is my list.
10 Things I Love About My iPhone
1. It looks Great
This may be superficial but everything about the phone is good looking. From the hardware design to the UI look. The phone is the right size for my hand and not too heavy. The lines flow well an the buttons are in places and work in ways that make sense. You have four buttons total on the phone. 2 for volume controls, one for on/off/sleep, and one for “home” functions in the UI.
The UI is pretty as well, and very easy and intuitive to use. The icons are simple, the display clear, and the multi-touch slick as hell. And finally there is coverflow. It’s sexy and has a great wow factor. Even now I still like to play with it.
2. iPod Functionality
I have a total of 3 iPods now. A shuffle I use for workouts, a 30 gig photo I use for long trips, and my iPhone. The amount of space is enough for daily use and the fact that it plays music and videos is great. I used to sneer at phones that played music but now I think I understand the allure of having one device to do both. It really does make life easier. It’s made me re-evaluate my view on “convergence” type devices.
3. The Camera
This should be a non-surprise for my friends. I am an avid taker of pictures. I’ve had the picture bug for sometime and having a camera phone only feeds the addiction. It’s not just having the camera though which is of an impressive quality. It’s the ease with which I can take a picture and send it to someone via email, sync it on my computer (it reads as another drive mounted to import from), or to simply assign the picture to a contact. This ease struck me when watching someone try and take a picture and find it with a blackberry. They couldn’t easily find it from the picture taking app. With the iPhone it’s part of the same app. You can see some of my iPhone pics on flickr.
4. The Headphones
The iPhone came with a combination headphone/mic/remote control for the phone. It works very well. The headphones are standard quality for music, but for phone calls it works really good. The mic seems to be good quality and I’ve gotten used to the remote. It’s my hope they add the remote ability to all the iPods at some point
5. Email!
The iPhone has full email capability, something that helped convince me to buy it. My blackberry for work does email and it’s painful to say the least. I currently am checking email for three of my accounts, 2 are imap. It handles that and attachments fine. I’ve read word docs, pdfs and an excel spreadsheet.
6. Safari!
Web browsing from the phone is pretty nice, as much because of the lack of flash support as anything. The landscaping mode is nicely done, a requirement really.
7. Call Handling
What I mean by this is how it handles things while a call is going on as well as calling. The large number pad and easy way to dial from a contact are nice. But what if I want to go speaker or use the keypad? Take the phone away from your ear and go. The way the sensor works for being near the ear helps prevent accidents thankfully. I’ve only messed with the 3 way once, but it worked flawlessly.
8. SMS Messaging
SMS handling is like being in an iChat. It makes the conversation flow much nicer. Also sending messages ties well into contacts too. The biggest thing for me is the preview though. It pops on the screen right away and lets me read without going into the sms section. I hate having to dig to read that stuff.
9. The On-screen keyboard
Once you get get used to it the on-screen keyboard works surprisingly well. It also includes word completion and seems to remember contact names. The keyboard does have some context awareness. If you are in the screen to enter a url it changes the default input, the same goes for mail addresses. They recently added a 2 space shortcut for periods which I love. I hope they continue to add similar shortcuts.
10. Easy Synching
A big thing for me in getting a phone has been synching common data between them. On past phones this was address book. With the iPhone that includes calendaring, music, bookmarks, and notes. It’s surprisingly easy now. iTunes manages this synchronization for me. Once I told it what to sync that is. Music is a playlist. Podcasts and video the last three unviewed unless I tell it otherwise. And contacts/calendars/bookmarks? I just told it what to synch and it works both ways.
10 Things I Hate About My iPhone
It’s not all roses and unicorns though when it comes to the iPhone. There are some things which I don’t like about the iPhone. These things are not deal breakers for the iPhone but things I hope they will address one way or another.
1. The Edge Network
This is probably my biggest beef with the iPhone. It may be an AT&T issue, but since the phone only works with AT&T right now it’s an iPhone thing. The main problem I see is the inconsistency of the speed. Sometimes it is fast, sometimes it is slow as hell. It’s too variable imho.
2. Ringtones, iTunes Style
Custom ringtones is not something I regularly use but when I want one I want one. The fact I can only use ringtones from the iTunes store is annoying at best. I wanted to add the Yip Yip “Bring bring” for example. Right now there is no easy way to do so.
3. No Landscape Mode For Mail
Safari does landscape mode for viewing webpages. Mail? Portrait mode only. For HTML emails this is really a pain in the ass. For other mail it’s merely annoying. I hope Apple changes this.
4. Occasional UI Slowness or Freezing
I’ve seen this mostly when going to the main screen, waking from sleep or dealing with some SMS messaging. But the UI has a tendency to slowly respond or sometimes seem to freeze on occasion. I’ve filed radars with Apple, I hope they do something about it.
5. The On-screen Keyboard
Your read that right, the on-screen keyboard. While I love it in most cases it can be infuriating. The completion sometimes gets a little too aggressive and if typing fast kicks in. Also I seem to have a tendency to hit the P instead of the O. Also, why can’t it go widescreen outside of Safari? Come on Apple, let’s have some more widescreen love!
6. Wifi Handling
While the overall wifi setup is nice some parts of it really, really suck. The fact that it will join an open network even when it gets a bullshit or no ip is annoying. It should be smart enough to detect a valid ip and know when to fallback to Edge. Right now it’s an on or off thing from what I can tell regarding fallback.
7. No Games
Give me games! Solitaire, or Tetris, or Breakout, or something. When I am standing around waiting for my train underground give me a way to waste time please. I don’t always want to read a book or the paper. And hitting on a cute gal, while fun is not always something I want to do. Especially at 6 AM.
8. No Contact Search
Apple gave a way to scroll through the “rolodex” of my contact list, but I can’t search for a name or number? Seems like a big oversight to me. One they need to correct quickly.
9. No .Mac syncing
Seems like a strange oversight to me really. I am a .Mac subscribers and I wish I could keep the phone in sync over the air with my account. It would be a simple extension of really of what it does w/ itunes. I can’t see a real reason why they don’t allow it right now.
10. Waiting for the SDK to Hit
The default apps for the iPhone are good but not enough. I used AppTap for a while to add some applications but with the firmware updates lost it. I’ve not felt like trying to get that working again. Apple has promised an SDK come February though. It’s a waiting game right now, but still annoying.
Conclusions
This is my list of things I love and hate about my iPhone. If you have things you love or hate, or suggestions how I can overcome some of the limitations please comment. I’d love to hear what others thing.