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I agree as well, but wait, I wonder why Apple is giving every employee a free iPhone. Sounds like a good chance for some R+D on mail and biz apps. The iPhone may not be everything the Blackberry is today but guess what's coming. Let's face it we are all test pilots, and what a great ride we are in for!


I'm just not thrilled that I had to pay $600 to be "test pilot"!!
 
Very nice review. Detailed, didn't miss anything and very fair assessment of pros and cons. I love that toilet test and the comment compairing exchange support with an off-roading Honda.
 
Other phones DO have such basic functionality as:
Mark all -> Mark as Read
Mark all -> Delete

Or - more directly -
Mark all as read
Delete all.

( Or equivalent).

If iPhone even lacks this basic functionality then its a serious usability flaw.

How do you know that such flaws will be fixed in a software update? If so, how long will users have to wait? 1 month, 3 months.. ...

Maybe 6... I don't care.. I use my laptop for emailing, much nicer work experience.. and occasionally my iPhone when really necessary. Call me old fashioned, but that's the way I prefer to work.. and I think that for the vast majority of iPhone users, emailing is the least important element of the phone anyway.
 
I'm just not thrilled that I had to pay $600 to be "test pilot"!!

To be fair, the software is updatable. The hardware itself seems pretty feature-complete. No GPS, maybe? Even then, that might be software-fixable, since i'm not real clear if the GPS info comes from tower triangulation, or an onboard piece of hardware which the iPhone may not have.

I have faith Mail 2.0 will be much better, and iPod 2.0 will be an actual iPod versus this crazy thing they have on there now. Safari is pretty complete (flash?) and the Phone works quite well all around. Better than most cellphones.
 
Maybe 6... I don't care.. I use my laptop for emailing, much nicer work experience.. and occasionally my iPhone when really necessary. Call me old fashioned, but that's the way I prefer to work.. and I think that for the vast majority of iPhone users, emailing is the least important element of the phone anyway.

Probably for iPhone users.. but if you want anything more than just basic, iPhone isn't going to cut it.

I'm glad your iPhone provides you with the very basic level of functionality that you require:)
 
Great review.

The biggest news in there is the fact the Infineon mutlimedia processor is potentially 3G capable.

I'm surprised no-one's made more of that.
 
Great review.

The biggest news in there is the fact the Infineon mutlimedia processor is potentially 3G capable.

I'm surprised no-one's made more of that.

I'm totally unsurprised that the iPhone actually does 3G, it makes sense for Europe, and an easy way to one-up competitors.

I love Arstechnica reviews, though their ratings aren't very good, even the Zune got an 7.
 
My response to this:

"No wireless syncing over Bluetooth or WiFi, must tether via USB, no modem use at all"
-Bluetooth is cool for phones that do not come with a way to connect your phone to your computer but the iPhone comes with a dock and cable! I mean seriously. Nitpicking.

Uh, no, it isn't. Bluetooth-syncing is one os the main purposes of Bluetooth. And do you REALLY think that it's a good idea that you have to carry a cable and a dock with you if you want to hook the phone to your computer? Seriously? iPhone COULD sync over BT just fine. But it doesn't, for some reason. Pray tell: what benefit does that give us, the consumers? And why doesn't it work as a modem?

I have a phone that syncs over USB-cable. And still, I routinely use BT for the syncing, since that's a lot more convenient than to carry a cable with me. And yes, you COULD use it for music-syncing as well. After the initial sync, you would just replace few songs at a time, and BT could handle that just fine. Yet we can't do that, and you are now desperately trying to tell us that that is actually a good thing?

"But iPhone doesn't need Bluetooth since it has a cable and a dock!". Uh-huh. 1999 called, it wants it's tech back.

"E-mail implementation feels weak, uninspired"
-Just exactly what is this supposed to mean?

Read the review.
 
I'm totally unsurprised that the iPhone actually does 3G, it makes sense for Europe, and an easy way to one-up competitors.

I don't know about one upping anyone. All medium range and up phones are 3G here.

Like you, I'm not surprised by the inclusion of the functonality though. More relieved than anything.
 
I don't know about one upping anyone. All medium range and up phones are 3G here.

They are still being led into a false sense of security that the iPhone doesn't actually have 3G so they don't have to try as hard ;).

I have to admit even though my phone is 2.75G (GPRS/EDGE) at the moment, I would be hesitant to get a non 3G phone now.
 
Look, it's obvious that Apple tried as hard as they could to have this thing out the door by June 29th (as evidenced by having to move people from Leopard development to iPhone development), and some areas suffered by getting a bare-bones implementation (ie, Mail). In its very first try, Apple has managed to completely rewrite the rules of the game and other manufacturers will be forced to innovate. So in that respect, the iPhone is already a huge leap forward. One of its greatest features is the ability to be updated through iTunes like an iPod, which means that frequent updates and patches can fix problems as they arise, and add new features as competitors update their products. So hopefully all these issues with Gen 1 will be fixed in the next few months.
 
Delete from the Inbox without having to go to the message

-If you get 50-100 mails a day and don't use Yahoo IMAP, Outlook, or Mail.app on your desktop, you need to manually open all your messages on the iPhone to clear their "unread" status. This takes me 20 minutes to a half hour!.

No, you don't have to manually open ALL the messages on the iPHONE to clear unread status.

On the page that lists all the emails, you can delete two ways from the INBOX

1. Upper right hand corner, tap on EDIT. Then tap on all the red minus marks to delete. Then tap on DONE to go back to the list view

2. Slick fingers way : Put your finger down on the message line right under the time stamp, and HOLD. The message will turn blue. Then, without lifting your finger, slide it to the right, and you will see a red DELETE button show. Lift and Tap on the delete button to put your message in the trash.
 
while push email was great on my blackberry curve...
the full blown html email support i recieve on my iphone makes me not miss push mail at all.. The emails i recieve are exactly the same as if i wasl ooking at them over my computer. I am hoping i future software update brings staionarys to the email app on iphone that will blow anything out of the water.
While limited on numerous functions compared to whats out there the iphone is amazing i seeriously thought nothing can sperate me and my blackberry boy was i wrong.

What new apps do you think apple will release for the iphone?
 
And hopefully people will stop talking about an iPhone 2 considering version 1 is still in it's infancy stage.

I don't expect these fixes in iPhone 2...I expect them in iPhone 1.1. iPhone 2 will have 3G and probably more memory. Who knows what else.
 
I don't expect these fixes in iPhone 2...I expect them in iPhone 1.1. iPhone 2 will have 3G and probably more memory. Who knows what else.

Given that iPhone 1 apparently has latent 3G capability (and boy is it needed in Europe/Asia) then it's a certainty for iPhone2 ;)
 
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