Now that I’ve had a few days to play with my iPhone, here are my first takes…
| Likes |
Not Quite Likes |
- Super easy. I didn’t have to read a manual for anything. Well, no I read up on what that little “E” was for (Edge)
- When the synching is done, it’s done. You don’t have to eject the iPhone before unplugging it. You just unplug it. I wouldn’t have considered that a big deal had I not had that capability but now that I do, I marvel at the convenience.
- Switch from WiFi to Edge on the fly. You have to set up protected WiFis but it’s not a big deal and once you have your WiFi info in there, it just swaps to WiFi as needed. And if there’s no WiFi, you go to Edge. Edge is not unbearably slow. It’s much better than what I was experiencing on my RAZR so I’ll deal.
- Visual Voicemail is AWESOME! I hated hearing “you have four messages” and not knowing who left them without listening. I might have 7 missed calls and 4 message. I know not to bother listening to Mom’s messages for the most part because they just say “call me back” or “I’ll try you at home” (though I’m not sure why she tries me at home where she leaves me a message that says “call me, I tried your cell.”). Now I can see a list of the NAMES of the people that left me a message and choose to listen to those messages – in whatever order I want – or touch a button to just call back. If you try to call me, chances are, I’m not going to answer. Because I like to look at my list of voicemail. :)
- SMS is also tres cool. One thing I hated about text messages was when I was texting more than one person and I’d get all confused with the replies because I didn’t know who sent what without going back and forth and then if they sent me a response three hours later from when I sent them a message, well then I’d have to remember what I’d asked in the first place. Remembering things is not my strength. But the iPhone handles SMS kind of like instant messaging. Everyone you’ve texted, or who has texted you, is listed separately and when you select their name, you see your conversation just like an IM window would look. Brilliant!
- The SMS handling and the virtual keyboard have made me into a texting fool. I didn’t like the keyboard much at first. It felt too small and my fingers fumbled to hit them right and so I was so slow to type and I kept having to hit the backspace because I’d type wrong. But then I started to trust the phone and I’ll be darned but it’s VERY forgiving. When I touch the wrong key, I can keep typing because nine times out of ten it knows what I MEANT to type and it will make the correct word appear so that when I hit space to move on, the RIGHT word, and not my mangled word appears. I can now two thumb text with no real issues. I’m still not as fast as my 19 year old niece who can text without looking. We raced. I was close though. She says she couldn’t use the iPhone’s keyboard because she can’t text without looking, which is apparently crucial for her while driving. I try not to think about that, by the way.
- I love how you can flip through cover art by sliding your finger across the screen. The same way you do pictures. I love that the phone recognizes that you’ve turned the phone and it turns the display – not on all screens, but all the ones that count. I love how you zoom in and zoom out by sliding your fingers out or in. I REALLY love that when the phone goes dark when you’re talking on it it automatically brings back up the screen when you pull it way from your face. It’s sleek and beautiful.
- And this one is very minor, but just proof in my mind that the designers were really thinking. There is an icon for the calendar, and in icon view it shows the day of the week and the date instead of a static icon. And there’s an icon for the weather that shows the current temperature for the default location even in icon mode. [update: was a coincidence that it was 73 degrees when I looked at the phone - it always shows 73 degrees.]
|
- The earbuds stink. I think my ear hole is smaller or something. I can’t use the earbuds I have because they don’t have a built-in mic. I could use my bluetooth, and I have, but then I can’t hear the music or podcast through an earpiece – I have to hear it from the less than preferred speaker.
- The camera doesn’t have video which I didn’t think I’d miss, but I do. The display before taking a picture is gorgeous. So big. But the pictures are kinda blurry. And when you send them, they’re 640×480. Supposedly if you sync with iPhoto you get the full 2 megapixels but um… I can’t figure out how to sync them. They don’t just move over.
- I’ve never been a ringtone fanatic. I usually pick a special one to use for my husband – usually make it myself with recording directly in. But now I *can’t* download ringtones. You have to use one of the ones that come on the iPhone. They’re not bad, but I don’t want to have to use them. I’m convinced that will be one of the earlier updates we see – the ability to download ringtones. And like everyone else, I’m guessing they’ll be 99 cents from the iTunes Store.
- Hitting the Phone button when I want to look up a contact is confusing to me. Sometimes I don’t want to call. I might need an address or something. But I have to hit Phone first. Would be nice to have a contact button though, and just select one to call… but then I’m not sure where they’d put the other options under the Phone heading so I guess that’s really the better way to go. It just takes some getting used to and it’s not a real complaint.
- No games. :( The only iPod game I played is iQuiz, but even just that would have been nice on the phone.
- If I turn on music or a podcast and then leave that screen to surf the ‘net or look at the weather or just play around with stuff, if I don’t have the headset plugged in, I haven’t found a quick way to pause the music. I have to touch the iPod button and then pause. I want to be able to do it quick, without leaving what I’m already doing.
- Something is up with my contacts. I added a contact on the phone but after synching, it was gone. This has happened twice. And I don’t see an option of the phone overriding the computer or the computer the phone. It just says to sync or not. That’s kind of a problem. I need to be able to add contacts directly to the phone. Not a deal breaker, but still.
- No video out. Well, unless we get an accessory later, but I don’t see the option to output the video to a tv or projector. That would be really nice – especially with the YouTube
- No MMS. The only way I can send a picture is via email. I want to send a picture to someone’s PHONE not just their email.
- No record feature. I like to make quick recordings of things – like reminders and such. Or capturing my kids saying cute things. I even tried attaching the external mic for my iPod but it said the accessory wasn’t supported.
- This is on the con side, but only because most people think its a con… but the iPhone doesn’t have flash support and can’t play quicktime movies – at least not embedded in a web page. But gosh neither could my RAZR so, so what? It’s first and foremost a PHONE. The rest is gravy. A rich, delicious, gravy.
|
So overall, I LOVE my iPhone. I still have to bring along my iPod so I can record on the fly. Oh, and so Nathan can watch Dora because with only 8GB, I just don’t have room for the entire season of Dora the Explorer. Besides, I don’t want my 3 year old playing with my iPhone.
I found this link on Lifehacker with 10 apps for the iPhone. I’ve bookmarked them all! And now I’m going shopping for a skin over here. Though I might wait a bit on the skin because I don’t want to cover my beautiful phone and people not know what it is! :
Subscribe to RSS
4 People have left comments on this post
Jul 7, 2007 - 08:07:25I’m back!! So, you would defenitley say that the iPhone was worth the wait? Can you imagine? Just remember back when you were a little girl… (longer for me)… ‘technology’ was getting a remote control for the television, that wasn’t me or my siblings!
It definitely seems that the pros out weigh the cons, and the cons are only cons, if our minds say they are. It’s not like it doesn’t ‘work’, just that we don’t have some of the bells and whistles? Like you say, minor things that don’t make the phone frustrating. If you couldn’t dial up a friend, now THAT would be a con! LOL
So… will the kids and hubby be getting an iphone next? ;)
Hey! I was browsing your awesome reviews on the iPhone, and thought you’d like to know: there are games for the iPhone- and they are free! go to macmost.com and click for iPhone games. I am the host of their weekly video podcast- “they” are clevermedia.com -a company that creates games for the pc, etc. Anyhoo, just though you’d be interested to know about the games for your new cool phone :) Enjoy!
Hi Tech Mom!
You wrote “If I turn on music or a podcast and then leave that screen to surf the ‘net or look at the weather or just play around with stuff, if I don’t have the headset plugged in, I haven’t found a quick way to pause the music. I have to touch the iPod button and then pause. I want to be able to do it quick, without leaving what I’m already doing.”
There IS a way around this…. under settings you have to set your home button to respond to a double click. Then when you double click your home button… a floating Itunes controller pops up enableing you to pause skip tracks and change volume!
Hope this helps,
Jason Joseph
You’re right, Jason – but only with a newer firmware (1.1.1 I think?) than what came on the iPhone the day I bought it. I was SO grateful for that little addition! Made my iLife a LOT easier! :) Thanks for the comment!