Special Report: What we like about the iPhone
23/10/07 15:53
Our experiences using the iPhone in Ireland...
There are many things we like and dislike about the iPhone after our first few weeks of use. Here is a selection:
What we love about the iPhone:
1/ the screen- we love the clear, crisp display. But above all this, it has no scratches. Whatever Apple have done with the design, it is robust and scratch-free so far, and the materials used are just what are needed.
2/ Safari- this has transformed our use of a mobile phone or PDA. We struggled to use a Treo 650 before the iPhone, and the internet experience on the iPhone is miles ahead of any other handheld device.
3/ The unlock procedure- to wake the iPhone you press the home button and then slide your finger across the screen to push open the slider bar. This is just intuitive and pure genius. There is no chance of the phone accidentally turning itself one, unlike other mobiles.
4/ Wi-Fi support- it is just simple and clever. If it finds a network it asks you if you want to join. If it doesn't it checks your mail using GPRS. So easy to use.
5/ the headphones- for listening to music or videos, but also taking and making calls. The clicker on the headphones allows you to move forward a music track as well as pause/play. In phone mode, it is used to answer and end calls. Simple to use and small form factor.
6/ airplane mode- clever way to let us use our device as an iPod on a plane.
7/ third party apps- we actually don't mind Apple's view to block these, but given that we can use them on the iPhone with firmware 1.0.2, we love them. They fill many gaps, such as IM, to do list, voice memos.
What we like about the iPhone:
1/ the mute button on the side- we like a simple button to silence our phone when entering a cinema.
2/ the camera- not the most brilliant camera out there, but we have taken some good pictures with it and are pleased with the results.
3/ SMS text messaging app- ok its like using iChat in a different context, but we still like it.
4/ Calendar app- we like the new list view and we like that the Calendar icon always has today's date, unlike the iCal icon in OS X.
5/ the keyboard- the iPhone has a virtual keyboard, and one big advantage is that it can change depending on what app you are using. In Mail, the @ symbol is present without having to hold or press other keys (such as a shift key). But in Safari, the keyboard now has a ".com" button to insert the end of a website address- makes perfect sense. Physical keyboards just can't do this.
What we are neutral about on the iPhone:
1/ You Tube on the iPhone- we sometimes find something useful in it, but would we miss it?
2/ stocks, weather and calculator- all of which are ok, but they are just OS X widgets transferred to the iPhone. The calculator might be useful, and maybe the weather, the stocks we don't use. Hmm we just don't care either way for these.
3/ Notes app- ok it is useful, but the fact that it doesn't sync with anything is just annoying. We want a notes or to-do list that syncs with iCal.
What dislike about the iPhone:
1/ the lack of colour coding for our events in the calendar- its in iCal so what not on the phone? Work and Home events are all the same colour. This is not helpful.
2/ no copy and paste function- this has been much discussed on the internet, and we have found times when we needed it.
3/ our keychain on our Mac does not sync- you have to enter all of those passwords for websites yourself. If you don't know them and you need to login to a site, you may find yourself stuck until you get back to your Mac.
4/ Google Maps- seems to struggle with lots of Irish addresses. Come on Google.
What we hate about the iPhone:
1/ lack of iChat- we miss this and can't figure out why its not there.
2/ search feature in contacts section- we sometimes need to search for a detail in one of our vCards.
3/ separate email sections- we use 3 email accounts regularly, and on the iPhone this creates 3 separate Inboxes. We would like to have all mail arrive in one Inbox. We seem to spend a lot of time going in and back out of different inboxes, and it gets annoying.
4/ number formatting- if we enter numbers in an international format in Address Book and sync with the iPhone (e.g. +353 123456789), and this person phones us, their number is not recognised by the iPhone contacts section. In other words, the iPhone sees "01 23456789", and thinks this is different to "+353 123456789". The "+" version will only work if we are roaming abroad.
Some issues no one has control over right now...:
1/ voicemail messages- when we miss a call we don't get a message that there is a voice message waiting for us. We have to tap on the voicemail button regularly to just check it and see.
2/ number formatting- the iPhone formats all numbers using the first 3 digits as the area code. This works fine for US numbers, but makes Irish numbers look a little strange. But what do we expect- this is a US phone after all.
Simon Spence/2007
There are many things we like and dislike about the iPhone after our first few weeks of use. Here is a selection:
What we love about the iPhone:
1/ the screen- we love the clear, crisp display. But above all this, it has no scratches. Whatever Apple have done with the design, it is robust and scratch-free so far, and the materials used are just what are needed.
2/ Safari- this has transformed our use of a mobile phone or PDA. We struggled to use a Treo 650 before the iPhone, and the internet experience on the iPhone is miles ahead of any other handheld device.
3/ The unlock procedure- to wake the iPhone you press the home button and then slide your finger across the screen to push open the slider bar. This is just intuitive and pure genius. There is no chance of the phone accidentally turning itself one, unlike other mobiles.
4/ Wi-Fi support- it is just simple and clever. If it finds a network it asks you if you want to join. If it doesn't it checks your mail using GPRS. So easy to use.
5/ the headphones- for listening to music or videos, but also taking and making calls. The clicker on the headphones allows you to move forward a music track as well as pause/play. In phone mode, it is used to answer and end calls. Simple to use and small form factor.
6/ airplane mode- clever way to let us use our device as an iPod on a plane.
7/ third party apps- we actually don't mind Apple's view to block these, but given that we can use them on the iPhone with firmware 1.0.2, we love them. They fill many gaps, such as IM, to do list, voice memos.
What we like about the iPhone:
1/ the mute button on the side- we like a simple button to silence our phone when entering a cinema.
2/ the camera- not the most brilliant camera out there, but we have taken some good pictures with it and are pleased with the results.
3/ SMS text messaging app- ok its like using iChat in a different context, but we still like it.
4/ Calendar app- we like the new list view and we like that the Calendar icon always has today's date, unlike the iCal icon in OS X.
5/ the keyboard- the iPhone has a virtual keyboard, and one big advantage is that it can change depending on what app you are using. In Mail, the @ symbol is present without having to hold or press other keys (such as a shift key). But in Safari, the keyboard now has a ".com" button to insert the end of a website address- makes perfect sense. Physical keyboards just can't do this.
What we are neutral about on the iPhone:
1/ You Tube on the iPhone- we sometimes find something useful in it, but would we miss it?
2/ stocks, weather and calculator- all of which are ok, but they are just OS X widgets transferred to the iPhone. The calculator might be useful, and maybe the weather, the stocks we don't use. Hmm we just don't care either way for these.
3/ Notes app- ok it is useful, but the fact that it doesn't sync with anything is just annoying. We want a notes or to-do list that syncs with iCal.
What dislike about the iPhone:
1/ the lack of colour coding for our events in the calendar- its in iCal so what not on the phone? Work and Home events are all the same colour. This is not helpful.
2/ no copy and paste function- this has been much discussed on the internet, and we have found times when we needed it.
3/ our keychain on our Mac does not sync- you have to enter all of those passwords for websites yourself. If you don't know them and you need to login to a site, you may find yourself stuck until you get back to your Mac.
4/ Google Maps- seems to struggle with lots of Irish addresses. Come on Google.
What we hate about the iPhone:
1/ lack of iChat- we miss this and can't figure out why its not there.
2/ search feature in contacts section- we sometimes need to search for a detail in one of our vCards.
3/ separate email sections- we use 3 email accounts regularly, and on the iPhone this creates 3 separate Inboxes. We would like to have all mail arrive in one Inbox. We seem to spend a lot of time going in and back out of different inboxes, and it gets annoying.
4/ number formatting- if we enter numbers in an international format in Address Book and sync with the iPhone (e.g. +353 123456789), and this person phones us, their number is not recognised by the iPhone contacts section. In other words, the iPhone sees "01 23456789", and thinks this is different to "+353 123456789". The "+" version will only work if we are roaming abroad.
Some issues no one has control over right now...:
1/ voicemail messages- when we miss a call we don't get a message that there is a voice message waiting for us. We have to tap on the voicemail button regularly to just check it and see.
2/ number formatting- the iPhone formats all numbers using the first 3 digits as the area code. This works fine for US numbers, but makes Irish numbers look a little strange. But what do we expect- this is a US phone after all.
Simon Spence/2007
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