iPhone Experiences and Reviews

[TahoeGuy]

A few things to improve

After having used the iphone now for nearly 24 hours, I'm totally in lov with it and wouldn't trade it for anything but a newer 3G iPhone, hopefully with the following improvements:

1) 3G
2) A louder speakerphone
3) A louder earpiece volume (internal)
4) The ability to email calendar appointments to others.
5) The ability to reorder the stocks that I track so that I see them in the order I want regardless of the order I entered them in

These are minor gripes. But they're all fixable and would make a better product in the future.

Way to go Apple!

 

[Heijtink]

change in your pocket?

Talking about change in your pocket. You can keep your change. But as for me. I just only pay electronically. I live in The Netherlands (Europe) and there are hardly any senario's where I (notice the "I") need lose change. Just swipe your card and type in your PIN (Personal Identification Number) and you're done. Saver, faster and more iPhone friendly I suppose. Even though the stress tests seem to conclude in the favor (or favour) of the iPhone. I lived in the UK where having change in your pocket is far more common. Even for me. All the corner stores and news agencies required you to have cash if you desired to purchase things.

I wonder how much space of the 8GB is used for the OS on the phone. I also wonder whether it's easy to upgrade the memory at a later date. Maybe iFixit will help us out in this area. I wonder whether its a software or hardware limitation that you can't record video.

I hope that the next "gen" iPhone includes:

- GPS (or something equivelant).
- No MMS as that's just old-fashioned. Email is the way forward. Just as the first iMac's didn't include a floppy drive. Every revolutionary product needs to add features but also leave some out. In order to set the next level.
- VNC. It would be nice to be able to control you computer at home. You migth not have all the features on the iPhone but why not use your computer and then connect to your computer with SFTP.
- Your iPhone should be able to read for you your text messages and emails so when you're driving or other things you can still be up-to-date.
- Have a download folder where you can put random stuff in from your computer and where you can download anything into from your safari or mail apps.
- Last but not least a bluetooth or wifi sync option wher you don't have to link your phone to your computer everytime but can just be in the house and it will sync as soon as you're around or in the house.

And yes we have now a way to use files from iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Safari, Mail but the iChat is still missing.

Greetings,

 

[Clix Pix]

I LOVE my iPhone!!!

Took it to work this afternoon and showed it off and experimented with work's internet access, then went to the store and sat in the parking lot and again checked my email before going in (just because I could)....in the store I had fun taking photos of a couple of my favorite (regular) sales people. Heading home I realized that oops, the battery was almost exhausted so as soon as I got in the door I popped it on to the power adapter charger....

This is one slick piece of technology! So far I don't have any complaints -- a couple of things about which I was confused turned out to be user error and I'm still trying to get the hang of typing on the thing, but it is truly a wonderful device far and beyond a mere telephone....

 

[pale9]

The "New" AT&T

for those of you not around long enough to know about the at&t breakup last century, the beast has returned!!!

thanks to nydoofus for pointing this comedy central graphic out to me.

watch the whole scetch here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2004785759717366066

 

[Cybergypsy]

I got my 8GB iPhone in hand at about 6:14PM on Friday. I was seventh in line at the AT&T store of about 57 people. We don't have an Apple Store here. Nobody had to camp out. First person in line was there at 9AM, I was there at noon. Three news crews came by, one came back again for a follow up. Not everyone was going to get one, the AT&T employee said that a fair number (10-15) were in a gray area. I didn't stick around to find out if they actually got one or exactly how many there were.

Activation of the iPhone was really easy on iTunes and took less than five minutes. I was not an AT&T customer and I didn't want to cancel my other service so I opted for a new number. Maybe that's why it was so fast and easy.

First, I want to say that the iPhone is a *lot* to take in at once. I watched all the videos beforehand and it still packs a bunch of features, tons of them undocumented. I'm still finding new things that it does.

The keyboard is really great. The dictionary works great and when you're trying to spell something not in the dictionary, you can hold you finger down on the keys and slide it until you get the right key. That's a great feature.

A small gripe for Mail, it does not have a spam button (at least not for Yahoo Mail, which is what I was trying.)

Safari was my main reason for getting the phone. I have to say that it does disappoint me a little tiny bit. Informationally, the web is all there. But you can only click and scroll. No double click or drag and drop, so 3rd party apps are going to really be limited on this phone.

And finally, my main gripe is that Safari sometimes adds extra space to the right of many different pages. The iChess and listingly 3rd party apps designed to fit the page have to be pinch-zoomed in order to see them even though they are only 320 pixels wide. (The page appears to be 750-1000 pixels wide by default.)

I have to say I love this phone and I can live with the couple of annoyances because this is one %&*# sweet @$# phone! Very glad I got it. If you haven't already, go buy yours *now*!

Ditto

 

[dante@sisna.com]

That's Funny

... Still loving my HTC 8525. Pulling 900k~1.3mb on the train home right now. I'm sure all the iPhone lovers are loving the Edge only support. Maybe Steve didn't realize that all the WiFi Hotspots don't cover the Metro lines.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind having one, but it would not my be main phone. I enjoy my 3G HSDPA too much.

Different Stroks I guess. That HTC's not for me.

 

[joelk]

going on 24 hours and absolutely no regrets. it is simply awesome. i'm two thumb typing pretty easily ... not quite as fast as my prior BB but pretty damn close.

granted there are plenty of rough edges (figuratively ... the thing i beautiful) to round off ... i'd love to have a simulated, small, optional, light to indicate emails of sms' you miss ... similar to a BB except on the screen ... if that is possible from a battery management standpoint.

really looking forward to the surprises that will surely come via download updates.

 

[nagromme]

I tried one today despite the crowds, expecting 2 things to take some practice to get good at:

1. Pressing with the right pressure

2. Typing

Neither one was at ALL difficult. The unit works even better then I'd imagined, and is also amazingly small/thin in person.

I will nonetheless wait for version B But it will not be an easy wait...

 

[frohde]

No International Calling on iPhone

I picked up my iPhone last night and thus far, I am perfectly happy with the device itself - it does most everything that the hype has promised. HOWEVER, a key issue I ran into is the fact that AT&T does not allow you to dial any numbers outside of the US for the first 90 days if you are a new AT&T customer - this is regardless of your credit score!!! I've spent over 3 hours on the phone with AT&T customer support thus far and they have not been able to make an exception yet, I have a superprime credit score and my average T-Mobile bill has been about $500 per month over the last three years.

SO BUSINESS USERS - BE AWARE OF THE FACT THAT YOU CAN NOT CALL ANYONE OUTSIDE THE US WITH THE iPHONE FOR AT LEAST 90 DAYS AFTER YOU BUY IT.

I'm sure Apple didn't think of this when they partnered with the AT&T crooks... I for one will return my iPhone and stay with Blackberry until AT&T comes up with a plan that covers business users with international dialling.

 

[michelle21]

They had them in stock at the Novi Apple Store this afternoon.

Thank you , thank you very much, I went over to the Novi store, 36 miles from my home and picked up a 4gb, would of liked the 8gb but just couldn't justify the other 100.00.

Canceled my online order while I was at the store, very busy... probably will sell out soon.

Never thought I would have 2 cell carriers but I do, I can't give up my evdo but I love this little device.

Of course we have 5 working apple computers in the house, so geeks anyway. I do java programming and the os is very close to unix we use at work.

I love that you can set up a vpn connection with this.
Again thanks

 

[manhattanboy]

i played with the iPhone for 30 minutes today and here are my main gripes:

1) the Keyboard
It is very difficult to type on in vertical mode!

2) Youtube
How do you get it to search the youtube database?

3) Portrait versus landscape
Why can't I get things to appear in landscape mode...it seem only select things appear that way.

4) What was I supposed to be blown away by?
So far, google maps, email, the web, music, videos, appointments, and calls were all done decently by phones costing $70 or less....

 

[mambodancer]

Dvorak?

I have no idea where to ask this, or if it's been asked an answered already, but I'm going to ask anyway...

Is there a way to change the keyboard layout? Like changing it to the Dvorak layout as an example?

I had to laugh at this a bit. You do realize that the DVORAK keyboard layout was designed for ten finger touch typing on a full sized keyboard as an improvement over the QWERTY keyboard? I'm not sure how 2 finger typing is going to be improved by changing to a DVORAK keyboard layout.

Having said that however, it is entirely possible that the key layout could be/should be changed for faster 2 finger typing. That was the original impetus for the DVORAK (for 10 fingers, not two).

Has anyone seen any research papers on this topic? It might be interesting to explore.

 

[Dimwhit]

I had to laugh at this a bit. You do realize that the DVORAK keyboard layout was designed for ten finger touch typing on a full sized keyboard as an improvement over the QWERTY keyboard? I'm not sure how 2 finger typing is going to be improved by changing to a DVORAK keyboard layout.

Having said that however, it is entirely possible that the key layout could be/should be changed for faster 2 finger typing. That was the original impetus for the DVORAK (for 10 fingers, not two).

Has anyone seen any research papers on this topic? It might be interesting to explore.

Well, for one, I would want the Dvorak layout because it's what I'm used to. Just like to have the keys where I used to, that's all. Just as I'm sure when it's available in France, they'll want the 'y' and 'z' flipped like they're used to.

As for a two-fingered layout, I'm not sure if one has been done. I know that there are one-handed keyboard layouts, but I've never used them.

 

[coffey7]

The negative is that every single person i am know(friends, family and customers i deal with) all have verizon phones. if I call them I use up my minutes fast. With my verizon phone I call them all free and can talk all day long. I have never met anyone that uses at@t service.

 

[johnee]

In the iphone scratch/drop test video, he should have performed the following after the drop test:

1) try to connect to a wireless network
2) make a call
3) receive a call

I'm interested if any antenna problems occurred (which is remote as the antenna isn't really affected by physical movement).

But more interesting is the speaker/microphone/ringer. Typically those are the problem areas other than the keyboard in other phones.

 

[brownieguy19]

The iPhone dock...

Has anyone notcied when you put the iPhone in the dock there are little holes at the bottom and then the holes direct sound to an opening which reflects off the surface the dock is on essentially creating louder music? Similar to the way they bounced sound off the powerbook 12'' screen?

Am I crazy? Or is this really designed like this and way cool!

 

[Stella]

How long does the batteries last for - describe your iPhone usage!

 

[brownieguy19]

still calibrating for the most part...

I activated mine this morning and charged it for a little while during sync and activation and have used it pretty much straight for 8 hours and it is still going strong.

EDGE is slow, much slower than my Treo 700p on Sprint, but the phone is so much quicker with everything so I think it is a wash. Not to mention when you get on the WiFi it blows the Treo out of the water. Not to mention the ease of use with full blown web pages. Amazing, well done Steve and Apple.

In love with the iPhone.

Complaints:

I really wish Google Maps was something a little different/better than what Google Maps was on the Treo. It is the exact same, just a few little eyecandy touches, (Apple of course).

The speaker on the road was hard to hear.(Southern California's loud freeways, 101, 405, 210)

My Belkin car charger with the built in audio out works for charging the phone but doesn't play the music through the dock. Also, the audio out on the actual phone is small, and most third party plus you will find are two big, two wide...

 

[zoozx]

Please someone explain to me how you download, compress or whatever. to get a movie you can watch on a iphone. Most movies are over 4 gb so how does this work on a 4 gb iphone?
Plus a fee of 59.99 which will end up being $70 a month with the ridiculous taxes,......$70 a month are you kidding me????
Who needs this?..... do you really need to yack and flap your gums that much on a phone to justify that????
thanks.

 

[brownieguy19]

Please someone explain to me how you download, compress or whatever. to get a movie you can watch on a iphone. Most movies are over 4 gb so how does this work on a 4 gb iphone?
Plus a fee of 59.99 which will end up being $70 a month with the ridiculous taxes,......$70 a month are you kidding me????
Who needs this?..... do you really need to yack and flap your gums that much on a phone to justify that????
thanks.

Movies on iTunes are usually 1-2 gb. Pirates of the Caribbean for example a 2.5 hour movie is only 1.6 gb.

 

[Dimwhit]

Movies on iTunes are usually 1-2 gb. Pirates of the Caribbean for example a 2.5 hour movie is only 1.6 gb.

And ripping an existing DVD with Handbrake makes, I believe, and even smaller file. For current video iPods, a 90 minute movie comes to about 500MB. Probably more for the iPhone resolution, though.

 

[3D-Troll]

I played with an iPhone in the apple store and was surprised how well the touchscreen worked. A co-worker will hopefully have picked up his iPhone and give me the chance to check out my Bluetooth stereo headphones on it. If the phone supports A2DP I might consider getting one. Otherwise I wait till it does.

Steffen

 

[sachamun]

Gruber makes a lot of interesting observations and discusses a lot of the limitations.

He pointed out that the calendar app has no To-Do's, which is a bummer to me as I use it extensively. Since notes are not able to be synced to your mac either, this leaves me in the dark without a good solution.

I hope Apple update this or I'll be waiting for a nice 3rd party 'to-do list' web app that I can update from my mac and on my iphone.

Google Docs is pretty good.

 

[irun5k]

So far, google maps, email, the web, music, videos, appointments, and calls were all done decently by phones costing $70 or less....

If a $70 phone works for you than consider yourself lucky! You only have to spend 70 bucks when the rest of us spend $500! There are a TON of phones out there for sale, there ought to be just about something for everyone. Kinda like digital music players. An iPod isn't for everyone either, but luckily there are lots of other options.

However, you ought not be surprised that not everyone in the world has the exact same interests, tastes, and desires as you. This is the reason why you can buy a car for around $12K or spend a $100K... something for everyone. That is what makes a free society great!

Personally, I totally don't relate well to the wine connoisseur crowd. For me, a $3 bottle of Arbor Mist tastes better than a $50 bottle. However, I don't care if they want to hype up their $50 wines. There is probably something that I personally just don't have the capacity to appreciate. Either way, let them have their wine!

I spent about 5 minutes with the iPhone and knew right away that this was a drastic change in the way of doing business. This is a first generation product. Look at the first iPod. This is great foundation to build upon. Meanwhile, what have the other guys done in the last 10 years? Not much. They've thrown more "capabilities" into the package... adding cameras, bluetooth, etc. But they've largely been "strapped on." Nobody (until now) has take a fresh look at how to integrate all these things.

 

[carltabet]

For Europe, subtract the coins. Very few people over here (except for some southern and south-eastern European countries) carry coins in their pockets.

Oh yeah, I live in Paris and I never carry coins in my pockets. I also make sure I never put my mobile phone together with my keys. Doing otherwise would be sadistic!