For background, I'm a classic gadget freak. I've had many Macs and PCs, Treos, Palms, Blackberrys - including the Pearl, and many different mobiles over the years. I've been eagerly awaiting the iPhone as my Pearl replacement. I was primarily interested in carrying my phone, Music, podcasts, DVD Rips, iCal, and Gmail with me during the day. Here are my initial thoughts:
- Fantastic, beautiful, elegant design. Very responsive UI in all apps.
- Perhaps I was lucky; moving my AT&T BB contract took ~5 mins
- Had an "invalid SIM" error 30 minutes after activation!? Powered down and reseated SIM to fix. No misbehavior since...
- Typing is initially awkward, but I'm learning quickly. 2 Thumbs will work!
- Email really needs "mark all as read" and "delete marked" commands
- Email and SMS could really benefit from "landscape keyboard"
- Has a 2 MP camera, but only emails 640x480 resized images.
- Video camera would be great (version 2 I guess)
- Camera image quality (after fetching via iPhoto) is on par with others
- No Vibrate first, then ring. Vibrates and rings simultaneously.
- Silent/Ring switch is very useful.
- No "message waiting" LED (like blackberries have)
- Seamless, excellent WiFi
- Phone is slightly worse than Pearl at holding weak signals. My Pearl is always solid at the house even with our weak signal; the iPhone seems to oscillate from 1 to 4 bars, and drops some calls. The difference is pretty small, however. Might be due to WiFi, bluetooth, etc all running. Will test.
- Audio and Video performance is outstanding, as is the UI!
- 320x DVD rips look great (and save space). I wouldn't bother with 640x...
- Earbuds, mic, and integrated "spongy switch" work great.
- Should have (at least) included a slip case!
- Safari is the best smartphone browsing experience by a wide margin.
- Where is text iChat?!!!!
- SMS interface is a very nice iChat imitation.
- No ability to add "name, address, home phone" to welcome screen. If an honest person finds your iPhone, it's not easy to identify the owner (I put a label on the back, which really detracts...)
- Can't modify sounds used for events other than phone ringer (e.g. - mail), but can turn them off at least.
- Map app is outstanding!!! Useful as yellow pages (like Calamari ad), Used it twice today to locate a store and restaurant.
- Live traffic is cool!
- Widgets are great! We need more...
- Needs a file manager/"disk mode" (I've heard it's coming...)
- Bluetooth in my Lexus 400h worked fine, incoming and outgoing
My overall rating is a 9.5/10. The newness will wear off, but objectively, I really believe this device is a tremendous leap forward! It's the first unified device I've used that really feels truly integrated, and I suspect it will only get better with future software/firmware releases. It is really, really, well thought out, and in case you missed it before, it looks like a piece of art! Apple's competitors better crank up their R&D in a hurry...
Rich
- Fantastic, beautiful, elegant design. Very responsive UI in all apps.
- Perhaps I was lucky; moving my AT&T BB contract took ~5 mins
- Had an "invalid SIM" error 30 minutes after activation!? Powered down and reseated SIM to fix. No misbehavior since...
- Typing is initially awkward, but I'm learning quickly. 2 Thumbs will work!
- Email really needs "mark all as read" and "delete marked" commands
- Email and SMS could really benefit from "landscape keyboard"
- Has a 2 MP camera, but only emails 640x480 resized images.
- Video camera would be great (version 2 I guess)
- Camera image quality (after fetching via iPhoto) is on par with others
- No Vibrate first, then ring. Vibrates and rings simultaneously.
- Silent/Ring switch is very useful.
- No "message waiting" LED (like blackberries have)
- Seamless, excellent WiFi
- Phone is slightly worse than Pearl at holding weak signals. My Pearl is always solid at the house even with our weak signal; the iPhone seems to oscillate from 1 to 4 bars, and drops some calls. The difference is pretty small, however. Might be due to WiFi, bluetooth, etc all running. Will test.
- Audio and Video performance is outstanding, as is the UI!
- 320x DVD rips look great (and save space). I wouldn't bother with 640x...
- Earbuds, mic, and integrated "spongy switch" work great.
- Should have (at least) included a slip case!
- Safari is the best smartphone browsing experience by a wide margin.
- Where is text iChat?!!!!
- SMS interface is a very nice iChat imitation.
- No ability to add "name, address, home phone" to welcome screen. If an honest person finds your iPhone, it's not easy to identify the owner (I put a label on the back, which really detracts...)
- Can't modify sounds used for events other than phone ringer (e.g. - mail), but can turn them off at least.
- Map app is outstanding!!! Useful as yellow pages (like Calamari ad), Used it twice today to locate a store and restaurant.
- Live traffic is cool!
- Widgets are great! We need more...
- Needs a file manager/"disk mode" (I've heard it's coming...)
- Bluetooth in my Lexus 400h worked fine, incoming and outgoing
My overall rating is a 9.5/10. The newness will wear off, but objectively, I really believe this device is a tremendous leap forward! It's the first unified device I've used that really feels truly integrated, and I suspect it will only get better with future software/firmware releases. It is really, really, well thought out, and in case you missed it before, it looks like a piece of art! Apple's competitors better crank up their R&D in a hurry...
Rich