Initial iPhone impressions

[Michael CM1]

Yeah, this has probably been done a million times over. But I'm super special so I'm putting my 2 cents in after owning an iPhone for about a day now.

Overall, it's awesome. I couldn't stand getting the MFing screen cover on (a dust-free environment? Where the crap can you find one?) but eventually did well enough until i feel like shelling out another $15.

The call quality and volume on normal use and speakerphone is all way better than I expected. This has either gotten a lot better since the initial launch or the reviewers trashing the quality must've been using VoIP all the time.

The use of contacts, favorites, etc. on calls (and the other features easily accessible) make this way more useful than most other phones. It's nice to actually have my contacts listed in last name alphabetical order (how hard is that, Motorola????) and neatly integrated with e-mail.

Speaking of e-mail, that is quite a neat-arse feature. It makes e-mail a little more like using instant messaging. I do wish I knew how to *send* e-mail via BellSouth's servers while not on my home WiFi network. That was a little irritating.

EDGE is not as bad as some people make it to be. Slow? Sure. But it's mobile Internet. The battery life on this thing is so good that if 3G was going to kill it that much (and you know we'd all be killing AT&T's network with 3G), EDGE was a good way to start.

The iPod app is pretty much killer. It's WAY better than the Classic system of doing things. I wish videos could play "correctly" when the iPhone is in the charger position, but I can get over that. Having the built-in speaker has already been a neat feature.

Maps is as good as you can get without a GPS locator. It's accurate for me within a few hundred feet. The ability to search for things like restaurants has already been useful since Ted's Montana Grill uses a lot of Flash.

Speaking of Flash, that's probably the biggest thing missing. I had no idea how much useful stuff used Flash until now. But aside from that, Safari is wonderful. I plan on really testing out what I can do with it once I'm away from home/work where I have broadband Internet already.


Who else has opinions!?!?!

 

[macDonalds]

Hands down it is the best device I have ever owned. I only wish for video, IM, flash, and copy and paste.

 

[BiikeMike]

glad to head you are happy with it. I think I'm going to pick one up this week after months of debating. Were you already with AT&T? I'm suprised t hear you say the battery life is so good, most people say it sucks.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Welcome Michael...

CM1 to the iPhone Family.

 

[jemeinc]

Really? My battery life is significantly better on the iPhone than any other phone I've ever had- well, except for that Nokia I had that ONLY made phone calls, and had no caller id, several years ago- still waiting for that battery to fully discharge ;-)...

In the past couple of years I've both a TREO and BB and the iPhones battery is better- at least for me anyway- people have different uses which I'm sure affect it differently..

I get just under 6 hours of usage time on a regular basis- and have since they came out in June..

 

[0098386]

I'm planning on keeping my iPhone docked when at home and overnight. I do this with my iPods and I've never had them drain on me.

And btw this thread makes me want my iPhone even more. Might get one this Friday.

 

[Michael CM1]

Hands down it is the best device I have ever owned. I only wish for video, IM, flash, and copy and paste.

I think video would be neat, but it's not like I used it that much on my RAZR (if ever). I'm never around Saddam getting hanged or drunk women at Mardi Gras, so I don't really think I'd use video much. If there was a choice, I'd rather have the camera's innards improved *toward* those of an SLR camera. Yeah, I'm spoiled with one of those. I had forgotten that you CAN take blurry images with a camera.

IM would also be nice, but I'm not sure how much that would take off on the mobile market. I think the built-in e-mail and SMS does about what IM would do (and they can work on EDGE). But it never hurts to have options.

Flash? Yeah. Hurry up, Apple and Adobe. Never realized that a lot of useful stuff was Flash!

Copy and paste would be nice. What would also be nice is some feature where YOUR FRICKIN E-MAIL ADDRESSES ARE STORED. I hate typing in my looooong e-mail address at a bunch of Web sites that need it. If I could just tap a "favorites" and have favorite text strings to choose from, that would save me so much time. I really don't think I'd know what to do with cut and paste until it was available.

Speaking of C&P, one thing extremely lacking is this: I write articles for a newspaper and there isn't a way I know to write something in textedit on my laptop and then send it via my iPhone. The place I usually write from has shoddy WiFi and this would save me a lot of hassle. But I can't just sync a text file to my iPhone and then send it with mail. ARRGH.

But seriously, this is the best damn phone ever made. It's not perfect, but it's better than anything I've seen. There's a reason it's taking such a big share of the Smartphone market.

 

[Michael CM1]

glad to head you are happy with it. I think I'm going to pick one up this week after months of debating. Were you already with AT&T? I'm suprised t hear you say the battery life is so good, most people say it sucks.

SUFI!

Yes, I was already with AT&T (back when it was Cingular). Their coverage seems to be the best in the area. Never even thought of unlocking because I like the visual voicemail feature (although I haven't really used it yet, just tested). Hopefully for the rest of you, the other carriers will work with Apple like AT&T did and it can go on other networks without jailbreaking.

 

[AppleFan360]

Speaking of e-mail, that is quite a neat-arse feature. It makes e-mail a little more like using instant messaging. I do wish I knew how to *send* e-mail via BellSouth's servers while not on my home WiFi network. That was a little irritating.

EDGE is not as bad as some people make it to be. Slow? Sure. But it's mobile Internet. The battery life on this thing is so good that if 3G was going to kill it that much (and you know we'd all be killing AT&T's network with 3G), EDGE was a good way to start.

Thanks for the report. I've had my iPhone since last fall and love it!

To send e-mail while I'm not on my home network, I changed the POP account settings on the iPhone so that e-mail is sent using SMTP through cwmx.com port 25. Under host name in SMTP, it reads "cwmx.com:25" with no username and password.

I agree about EDGE. While it's slow, it's not all that bad. Many sites now have iPhone interfaces like Amazon. They work great for quickly looking up stuff. When I'm out shopping in a store, I check Amazon to see if I can get a better price right in the store. If I can get the item cheaper, I walk out. The employees at the store hate that especially the ones at Best Buy.

I also agree about battery life. If I turn off the phone at night, I can go for 3-4 days without a charge.

Enjoy the fun times ahead with your iPhone. With the SDK on the streets, things will only get better.

 

[Michael CM1]

Thanks for the report. I've had my iPhone since last fall and love it!

To send e-mail while I'm not on my home network, I changed the POP account settings on the iPhone so that e-mail is sent using SMTP through cwmx.com port 25. Under host name in SMTP, it reads "cwmx.com:25" with no username and password.

I agree about EDGE. While it's slow, it's not all that bad. Many sites now have iPhone interfaces like Amazon. They work great for quickly looking up stuff. When I'm out shopping in a store, I check Amazon to see if I can get a better price right in the store. If I can get the item cheaper, I walk out. The employees at the store hate that especially the ones at Best Buy.

I also agree about battery life. If I turn off the phone at night, I can go for 3-4 days without a charge.

Enjoy the fun times ahead with your iPhone. With the SDK on the streets, things will only get better.

I've got it worked out to send e-mails using EDGE away from home, but then I gotta turn off WiFi at home to send out. This is kind of annoying since I have BellSouth DSL (which is now really AT&T) and AT&T runs the EDGE network. I mean I can get around this. I sent Apple a suggestion on adding multiple settings (one for WiFi, another for EDGE/3G) for Mail.

I didn't know about Amazon having a different site. I knew Facebook did, and USA Today has a different one for mobiles. I'll have to use that trick. I definitely plan on price-checking when out shopping. I just wish more stores had online shopping as user-friendly as Best Buy, Buy.com, and Amazon. Some places look like they were designed by monkeys.