My two-years long period of self-denial is officially over. I have joined the many, the happy many, the owners of an Apple iPhone.
I bought a two-year contract on the Palm Treo 700p just before the first generation iPhone was announced, and as such felt morally locked in to keeping it, even as my technophile daughter Kat acquired an iPhone of her very own. This was hard for me, gentle reader. Exceeding hard.
But the chains were unshackled, just in time for a 3G iPhone that cost half as much as the preceding version (at least in up-front costs, AT&T data services increased 50%) while learning along the way that gifting an expensive smartphone to a young teenager is an exercise in destructive load testing.
I’ve had it about a week now, just long enough to form some initial impressions.
The Good:
- It’s minimalistically beautiful, slim and fairly light
- Large screen for online content viewing
- Good reception just about everywhere
- Loves looking for free wi-fi, merges well with encrypted networks
- Well executed mix of converged applications (texting, Mobile Me calendar and email synchronicity, a range of very useful, free applications, iPod music on the go).
- Really cool screen manipulation – spreading two fingers increases the size of web pages, email, maps. Very intuitive.
- Google app: Check the mapping function for the closest gas station or best route (considering traffic) and you’re on your way. The GPS functionality rocks. There are a lot of times in a big city when you wonder about the nearest, closest, fastest. Wonder no more.
The Others:
- Compared to the Treo, the on-screen keyboard (used for texting, email, url entries, etc) takes a little getting used to. Since it’s non-tactile, and I’ve got big thumbs, I spend a fair amount of time hitting backspace for text entries. The auto-correct feature is fairly powerful, but if you miss two or three letters in sequence it gives up the ghost.
- No cut and paste option between apps, or even internally. From Apple’s perspective, this keeps apps from over-taxing the system, but it’s limiting. You could do it with the stylus on a Treo. If you got an email with an address in the Treo, you could cut and paste it to the web browser. In the iPhone, not so much.
- Navigation between apps is a bit of a pain. If you hit the calendar option (or phone push button) on the Treo, you were catapulted where you wanted to go, with only a second click to get you to the actual app (to keep the phone from launching itself off to bankruptcy land in case of pocket bouncing). With the iPhone you hit the recessed “come alive” button, swipe the “I really meant it” bar, see the page you were looking at the last time you were on, hit the come alive button again and navigate to your preferred application. It’s only two steps more than the Treo, but four is twice two. It’d be better, I think, if a come alive actuation and a verification swipe took you the top level, but Apple felt differently. There you are.
- Battery life? Not so much. The Treo would last two to three days. The iPhone shows half power a little more than half way through the day. Maybe it’s the constant usage – much more web browsing and email replying than using the Treo – and maybe it’s the Bluetooth headset (a new Jawbone with noise canceling – highly recommended). But it’s kind of like flying the Hornet: You get used to looking for your next refueling opportunity. I bought a Belkin recharger/transmitter set that works pretty well in the auto-voiture, and carry a USB wire in my bag for laptop replenishment as required.
The complaints seem to outweigh the happiness in terms of words written, but the weight attaches to the iPhone. The iPhone reminds me of all Apple’s hardware compared to the competitor: You make yourself conform to the system with the Treo (or with Windows) and suck it up. With the Apple system you look forward to the opportunity to use the gear.
The only other downside? So many teenagers have it too.
I would have so loved to be an early adopter.
And it runs X-Plane 9, too.
Between that and having a couple hundred ebooks installed on it, waiting in line at the DMV holds no horrors for me now.
Not so many, anyway.
apps you need (most are free):
Grocery IQ
Facebook
LinkedIn
Amazon
easy wi-fi
gasbag
surf report – even if you don’t surf, it tells you tides/sunrise/set and weather
shazam
italk
pageonce
You need the lightsaber app.
I dunno,
For the man who has everything, this looks nifty:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=420983
heh..
Never saw the sense in these new-fangled multi-phone thingamajigs. I have a nice little tracphone that works like a champ. Also have a nice MP3 player about the size of my thumb.
Toss a charger in my knapsack, and away I go.
After going into the ATT store in Fresno to play with the iPhone I hated it. I ended up walking out with a Blackberry Bold. Being one of those apple people doesn’t really appeal to me either.
I’ll be getting the “poor man’s iPhone” – the Instinct from Sprint – next month.
Lex,
Gratz on joining The Club. One of my Christmas presents from She Who Sports The Red Pen was a new 3G model to replace the original model. Gave my old one to my younger son who was having issues with his. The phone was originally one of my presents to her, but she really liked her other present a lot (Photobook of Jarhead Son’s Parris Island graduation – done in Aperture) and decided that I would use the phone more than she would). She’s quite happy with her original model anyway – or so she says!
BTW – the GPS accuracy is pretty good – tested it while walking the 4-legged daughter. Fired up the map app, selected “satellite” and zoomed all the way in. Walked around the block. GPS was within 10 feet for most of the one-mile excursion. Never more than 30 feet.
Apps I like:
LogMeIn- remote control of your Mac. Be advised that it doesn’t like the 1920 x 1200 resolution so I have to reset before I leave the house.
mSecure – stores all your passwords quite nicely.
PocketAid – first aid info at the touch of a finger
Flixter-Movie times, etc.
TV Forecast – keep track of your favorite TV shows.
Centipede- the arcade game
X-Plane – of course!
LightSaber – no question
Shazam – YES!
Does anyone have the time to read anymore? As in “I read a good novel last week”. Just wondering.
I guess I’m much more of a luddite than I thought. I just bought myself my first iPod – never saw the need for it until now. They say it’s great when you have to be in the hospital, so I figure for my few days after surgery that I’ll be bound to the orthopedic ward – it will come in handy. So it’s the Classic, in black, for me.
I am though lusting after the iPhone. We are planning to convert our home PC to a MAC at some point in 2009; I suspect that latest iPhone available at that time will somehow find it’s way into my hands.
BillC: within the last month..
The Last Centurion, by John Ringo
Duma Key, by Stephen King
The Appeal, (Grisham?)
two other smallish fluff paperbacks….
(and, yes, my cell phone is just a telephone that isn’t jacked into the wall)
BillC – I read anywhere from 4 to 8 fluff paperbacks a week, with 3 to 8 “good” books a month thrown in. If I didn’t have to work, that’s about all I’d do – I haunt the Used book store and Amazon.
In Kris’s words, I’m such a Luddite that I own no cell phone and no iPod – can’t understand the fascination. Not interested in phones at all, but I LOVE books and music in the background.
Haven’t tried it, but the BulletFlight app looks interesting:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/apple/4297205/Sniper-rifle-software-launched-for-iPod-touch.html
Bill C, I just finished a book called “The Sword,” by Richard Cohen. I loved it, but you know, as a saber fencer myself, I guess I would have.
Have just started The Closed Circle by David Pryce-Jones. He pulls no punches on the subject of Arab government and society, and so far it’s quite an excellent read.
I seem to always have a couple works in progress. Currently reading:
“Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jarod Diamond
and re-reading
“American Ceasar” by William Manchester
Funny how much you miss on the first pass sometimes.
I enjoy biographies and history mainly.
I can’t imagine someone like MacArthur in today’s environment. His administration of Japan was so complete – can’t imagine the 535 Secretaries of State letting anyone get away with what he did.
I need to read more on the Middle East, Islam, etc. in order to better educated but haven’t been able to get into it.
Books – always have to have real books. Curling up with a favorite book or the anticipation of a new story is just so – warm and old fashioned. And I love it.
I’ve always got a few stacked up ready to go – I am in between things right now but I am a little distracted lately.
Post-op, they say I won’t want to read much right away. Since I’ll be home for 8 weeks, I do anticipate tearing thru a few in that stack as the weeks wear on.
Bill C, I’m glad to see you started out with the best one first
It’s a pocking good book, and any service member of today would see a lot in it that resonates.
Kris ~ Love my Classic. 80gb of commercial free loveliness. A birthday gift from girlfriends while MacGyver was off playing Army in the sandbox. They even engraved it. Movies, audiobooks, music…it’s all there.
For my birthday this past year, MacGyver gave me a MacBook. I fell in LOVE. Well, as much love as one can fall in with an inanimate object (the animate ones are usually more fun).
Last night, I finished up in the kitchen and came to the living room, expecting to find MacGyver (we were going to watch the new ‘Burn Notice’) and he was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find him. I finally stumbled across him upstairs in the office at the desktop.
I had forgotten we had one!
As for books, just wrapped up ‘Fountainhead’ and I’m finishing up a book called ‘Centaur Flights’ about a Cobra pilot in Vietnam. Then I start into ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ by Ackerman.
And the kids and I are reading ‘Despereaux’. What a wonderfully written book! I doubt the movie is as good but that’s why we read the book first!
The lists above seem to have forgotten iSniper, and Ballistic Computer. See “Talk About Your ‘Killer Apps’” 1/20/2009.
How soon we forget.
Congrats. I got one from Santa. It’s awesome.
Apps – AeroWeather; add in the ICAO and get the latest METARs/TAFs.
I haven’t jumped on the ForeFlight 2.0 band wagon yet, but it’s supposed to be really good. Pricey $75, but when adding up the cost of a new AF/D every 56 days, it pays for itself in a year or two.
I also added PilotFAR and PilotAIM for studying on the road. They’re just one of the mind boggling amoutn of apps for this thing, part of the reason I chose it over a Blackberry.
HF6: I got the 120gb iPod. Oddly it was $30 cheaper than the 80gb on Amazon. The Oracle has had a Nano for a couple of years and he loves it. I figured major surgery was reason enough for me to have one.
“Burn Notice” – oh man I am addicted to that show. Unfortunately it’s on too late for us so I’ve only seen season one on DVD. I’m waiting for season two to come out…and trying hard to avoid watching any of season three. I don’t want to spoil it!
Burn Notice is awesome. It’s a show about this smokin’ hot chick with an Irish accent that loves guns and blowing stuff up. Every now and then she helps out some guy named Michael Weston.
He used to be a spy or something.
New Age Luddite here: Cell is just a phone,No IPOD though I do own a CD player and seeing as how my KBR handle is “Bookworm”,I just finished “You Want Fries with That: A White-Collar Burnout Experiences Life at Minimum Wage by Prioleau Alexander.” In one sitting. I was laughing so hard I strained my abs.
The sixth column By Heinlein, two days ago
Currently, “Secrets of the Gem Trade” subtitled The Connoisseur’s guide to Precious Genstones.
By Richard Wise
Lex,
Sounds pretty “cool”.
I may be gauche asking this but beyond the phone bill how much does it cost per month for all the internet bells/whistles. Can you get NMCI webmail thru it?
b2
Ah. This explains the recent appearance of those “mobile photos” on Facebook, Lex. Right?
Kris, what’s TV?
I’ve been watching Burn Notice on line.
It’s *good* that the mid-season hiatus is over.
Seriously, Kris in NE, how hard is it to catch Burn Notice on Hulu.com? They put last nights episode online within a hour of it airing on the West Coast. And if you register and add it to your queue, they’ll email you when new episodes are available. Get on it girl.
Hey, Kris and you other lovely people… glad to find others who are addicted to Burn Notice. We found it by accident last year and were charmed by its clever, sophisticated script [NOT written by silly 24-year old Hollywood weenies with film school degrees anad no real knowledge of the Cruel World in all its non-PC horror]. Also charmed by Fee, who is so over the top as an Irish terrorist who truly lives only when she’s blowing things up in innovative ways.
But we don’t like Michael’s mother, who is enough to make any guy with half a brain leave home and never come back. She was OK in Cagney and Lacey so many years ago. But she hasn’t worn well. And this is a thankless role which characterizes all old ladies as whiny and demanding.
We old ladies don’t like that ..
Marianne
Just mark me down as another Burn Notice devotee also–although here in Cali it conflicts with “Damages” with Glen Close at the same time–’course that’s why Tivio was invented–thank God for that.
Thank you Marianne, I was wondering if I was the only one who felt that way about the mother–and I’m not even a
feminista–although I’ve got the “old” bit covered.
The processor chip is called as a little bit recent model amount however it and the GPU are likely the similar speed since the 3GS. The old Touch with the similar CPU and GPU since the 3G was quicker. Besides getting the clock speed turned up greater the Touch has less software to run because it is not a telephone. It ought to beat any iPhone to this day in performance.