A Windows Guy on an Apple Phone
I have a confession to make. A few weeks ago I caved and bought an iPhone. At first I thought I might pass. After all, I have been a Treo user for over 2 years (both Palm and Windows Mobile flavors) and I was fairly certain I would miss the vast array of available software, the built-in Windows Remote Desktop, and of course the 3g support. Not to mention the fact that I have not historically been a fan of Apple products, in particular their operating system and software. But most importantly... I refuse to wait in line to buy a telephone.
A Little History
Cell phones and I have a rocky relationship. I have probably owned about 25 different cell phones over the last 12 years. I despised all but one. These devices, while ubiquitous, are some of the worst examples of technology failures available today. Yes, they sometimes have neat features such as playing video, games and voice recognition- but you can be fairly certain that whatever it can do, it will do it poorly. Sometimes the failures will be spectacular and obvious but more often the failures are insidious... noticeable only over time as you continue to live with the phone day after day.
Failure to Communicate
Let's start with the "move to digital" which when it occurred promised conversations with no static! They failed to mention that the move had more to do with cramming 50x more conversations on to their existing network and as a result we all sound like robot Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. Oh, and about that static, yes it's gone, but it is replaced with... silence! This is exactly the opposite of what you want to hear in the middle of a sentence. Don't even get me started on the web browsing experience.
Motorola is the worst offender of them all. I have owned a few Motorola phones over the years and they all seem to share one trait: they exhibit patterns of behavior that make me think that nobody at Motorola ever actually uses their own phones. For example: Motorola phones feature an audible tone to let you know when the battery is nearly dead, sounds great right? Except for the fact that this tone is repeated incessantly! Let me tell you about this low-battery tone. The "tone" occurs several times per minute, for several hours before the phone actually dies. To make matters worse, it sounds like a dying bird. I have been awakened from my warm slumber many times by my Motorola phone chirping... over and over again. It's silly if you think about it. Cell phones have clocks right? Just a couple lines of code could have at least made it NOT do the repetitive-audible-alert at night. But it would have required one of the engineers to actually use the phone in the real world to figure this out. Seriously though, do we really even need a repeating audible alert to let us know when the phone battery is dying? Just die already. Maybe throw in one dying-bird sound in a last gasp to let me know it's all over. Then...just... die. And don't wake up again until I plug you in. And yes, I made several futile attempts wading through the phone's "interface" for an option to make it stop. If it had an option to do this, I couldn't find it which only made matters worse.
iPhone FTW
Fast forward to 2007 and I am happy to report that I have found a phone that I actually really enjoy using. Don't get me wrong, after using this phone for more than 3 weeks, I have a huge bug-list compiled that I will be sending to Mr. Jobs shortly. Despite this fact, I still really like this phone. You see, my normal response to problems with my cell phone is to "t-bone" them (this maneuver is typically done with flip phones while open - over the knee works best), throw it out of my car window (careful not to hit anyone), and in rare cases - return it to the store. It is only because of all the things I love about this phone that I feel compelled to take the time to write Apple and hope that they address my concerns via a software update. But I still love this phone. Why? For starters... the things that it does do... it does very well. Here is a quick rundown of the things that make the iPhone great:
The Phone
The phone portion of the, er... phone is the most well thought-out I have ever encountered. Things like the proximity detector that prevent your face from hitting the soft buttons while you are on a call (something that plagued me with my Treo 700) are great. The in-call interface is excellent and easy to use. This alone could make this phone my favorite cell phone ever... because if there is one thing a cell phone should do well... you get the point. But it gets better.
The Web Browser
Browsing the web on cell phones is typically an exercise in futility. "Mobile browsers" usually take the webpage, crunch it up and spit out something barely recognizable. This phone is the first I have seen that has a usable web browser. And I do use it, a lot. Which is something I could never say with my other phones as it was far too painful. Using your fingers to zoom around the page feels like the best case scenario for browsing the web on a small screen platform. Not as fast as using the PC - but light years ahead of previous attempts at mobile browsing. The end result is that for many tasks such as Wikipedia lookups, movie show times, Netflix queue adjustments and news; you no longer have to go and sit down in front of your computer and stare at a monitor, you just do it whenever and wherever. This means less time at the computer. I like that.
Photos
Well implemented and a pleasure to use. The big, high resolution screen really makes a huge difference compared to other phones. Zooming and turning the phone on its side for landscape is also great. It's neat to be able to show any picture in your photo library to anyone, anytime, in high-resolution.
Calendar and Contacts
Synchronizes with Outlook 2007, displays my alarms. Even the contact photos sync bi-directionally. What else do you need on a phone?
Email
While it could use a junk email filter, it works.
Form Factor
The best looking phone available today. It's much smaller and thinner than my Treo. The metal case and glass screen gives it a very solid feel, unlike most of the plastic electronics that come out today.
You Tube
This is just neat to use on a phone. The videos look great. This is only usable with WiFi around however.
On Screen Keyboard
The keyboard is very usable even with bigger fingers mainly because of its predictive abilities which actually work pretty well (most of the time). Overall I would say I type about 30% slower than I did on my Treo, however it is worth the trade-off for a software updatable keyboard. I could see Apple adding features and being able to customize the size in the future. You don't have that possibility with hardware keyboards.
The Bad
Well there's the good, before I close, I also think you might want to know a few of the problems I have had with the iPhone. Don't let this dissuade you though. Like I said before, in nearly every other way other than those listed below the phone is stellar. To the point of making these issues not seem quite as important as they might otherwise.
No Vista 64 bit Support?
The package clearly says that Windows Vista is supported. It doesn't say "32-bit only". If you say you support Vista without any disclaimer, I think it's reasonable to expect that 64-bit is supported as well.
Must use iTunes to sync
I am not a big fan of Apple's attempts at Windows software. It honestly seems like they give it the short end of the stick to prove the points made in their commercials. iTunes is no exception.
3g Support missing
Everyone has said this and I am sure it's coming in a future model. But I feel the need to repeat how useful this feature would be.
No Pictures in Text Messaging
Why? Nobody knows.
Only 8gb Max
This is not big enough to replace my normal main MP3 player. An SDHC expansion card could have solved this. But they didn't include one.
No Flash or Java in Web Browser
Devastating.
No Custom Apps [officially] Supported
'Nuff said
Those are my biggest beefs with an otherwise great product. The cool thing is that many of them can be addressed via a software update.
Conclusion
When deciding between the iPhone and, say a Windows Mobile or Blackberry phone - it really comes down to what's important to you. If you want your phone to do a lot of things not very well, go with the others. If it's important to you that your phone do a few key things very well then the iPhone is a great choice and you will probably love it. Those key things are: a great phone, calendar/contacts support that sync with Outlook, a great text messaging client, awesome photo library, the best mobile web browsing available, a next-gen iPod built-in, and a small attractive form-factor with an huge high resolution multi-touch screen. I'll take that over a Treo or Blackberry any day. I am not a big fan of Apple's computers or their software, but it's difficult to deny that the iPhone is a huge leap forward for cell phones. The attention to detail in the interface is unparalleled. It has most of the features I need and it is a pleasure to use and own; which puts this phone over the top. If you are on the fence about the iPhone - get it. It is the best phone I have ever owned.
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