Taking a break here to chatter a bit about my iPhone. Catya and I got ours at the same time, and I have to say, it’s been a pretty nifty experience all around. The iPhone is pretty much the first ‘quasi-perfect’ melding of handheld computer, telephone, and portable internet device I’ve ever used.
I’ve named mine ‘speicus’, a reference for you Roger Zelazny fans. It’s really more of a companion than my Treo ever was. I have it hooked to my 2 email accounts (work and home), and viewing / responding / filing mail works perfectly, whether I’m on the 3g network or on a local WiFi connection. I love not having to carry an iPod around around for music. Not to mention having a web browser that is powerful, well supported, and fast, and there are volumes of applications coming through the AppStore that keep things interesting.
However, naturally, it has it’s faults. I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t gripe and groan about things, so here’s my current ‘stuff that is aggravating me’ list…
- Contacts
The Contact manager is quite powerful. I was able to sync it against my Google Contacts via Outlook (bleah), and all 400 contacts came into the phone just fine. The problem is that it’s SLOW. Pulling up my Contacts list and scrolling it can take 7+ seconds to get started, that’s just plain too long. - SMS
I text a lot. The SMS interface is good, but it’s hard to get to – it’s just a normal icon in the program listing. You can shortcut the one useable button on the phone to get somewhere quickly with a double tap, and I have that set to go to my favorites in Phone, but to get to an SMS conversation, I have to tap Home, scroll to the first window, tap SMS, and then select which convo I want to participate in. Startup of the SMS app is also quite slow, sometimes taking 4-5 seconds to come up. - Buttons
I applaud the design of the iPhone. The screen is a joy, touch sensitive, multitouch, fast and beautiful. There are 5 external controls (Home, Volume up/down, Silence, and Close (?)). The last 4 have fixed, non-changeable functions,and the Home button is required to always be Home, but has 1 programmable function (double-tap). IMHO, a button on either side of the home button would have been a huge win. They could have been reassignable, and having shortcut access to certain well used applications would be great.
That’s it. For 2 weeks of heavy usage, these are really the only things that have made me go “grr”. If I were pressed for another problem it might be the battery life. But really, the volume of things this device is doing, from internet connections to bluetooth to playing games to playing music, coupled with easy charging via USB cables, I’m okay with having to plug it in once a day to recharge it.
My first store-bought new Apple product, and I’m impressed.
Yeesh, I thought you’d melted your new phone when I first saw the picture! I’m glad that’s not the case. I should get a skin for my iPod because it kinda lives in my glove compartment now, or in my purse, and is unprotected.