So this weekend a good friend of mine came into town and she had an iPhone. Now, I have been successful so far in staving off my impulses to rush out and buy one. As I have stated in previous posts, I am a technophile and I have had to stop myself from joining the throngs of crazed masses rushing out and plunking down $500 and $600 for one of these prized devices. The logical side of me says to just wait, this is a first generation and it is going to be buggy, plus Apple is going to follow tradition and turn around and come out with something cooler and better within the next year or so.....
But, I have had my current phone, a Cingular 8125, for the past year and a half and I don't like it that much anymore. While the slide out keyboard is very very cool, there area a number of user interface issues that annoy me. And I am just bored with it.
So, as I was saying, I got to touch an iPhone this weekend and it was so cool! Apple is so good at creating user friendly interfaces and true to form the iPhone is no exception. The only thing that I am unsure of is how easy it is to use the keyboards. There is something strange about touchpad typing. With actual keys you can be more precise because you can feel the difference between the keys. With a touch screen you just touch where you see and hope that it is precise enough to display the key you intend. But is it still so cool. The swipe, squeeze and expand functionality of the screen is like a little bit of magic and the screen reorientation feature is seemless and works much better than my current phone.
So, I started getting weak........ (oh look, an iPhone commercial on the TV, right now!)
Since then, I have returned to reality a bit. While the little machine is blissful, it still has it's disadvantages. First, though it has all this integrated data functionality like Google Maps and the ability to render regular webpages, you really can't take full advantage of it on the Cingular, oops I mean the New AT&T, data network is too slow. You really need to be connected to a broadband wi-fi network to really see the full effect of these features. And then there is the battery..... So, like an iPod, the iPhone doesn't have a removable battery. Bad! Also, with such a powerful machine, the battery doesn't last that long and must be recharged often. While Apple rates the talk time at 8 hours and internet/browsing time at 6 hours per charge, actual time by testers and users is coming in at significantly less than that. So that means, more charging. And what do you have to do when the battery wears out? Well, you have to PAY to send the phone back to Apple so they can switch out your battery! This little joy of a service will cost you $79 plus $6.95 shipping and handling plus $29 for the rental of a loaner iPhone. Come on now! This is a phone, not just a luxury item. People use their phones everyday and they contain personal information, and they want us to send them back for an undetermined amount of time and pay for the pleasure??? Not good at all! I have a feeling that this will change sometime in the future when current iPhone users start to experience dead batteries.
So, I think I am safe for now. At least until the next time I get my hands on one!
2 comments:
Wow! Good for you! I've been waiting for someone in my inner circle to buy one before making my final purchasing decision. It looks to be an awesome gadget though.
from what I've seen, all of the reviews have pretty much been roundly enthusiastic. Biggest reason not to get one now though: the max capacity is only 8 gigs. That's nothing, especially if you already have an expansive mp3 collection. (I already have over 6 gigs, that leaves little room for expansion and if yuo start watching TV shows or movies, your memory is gone.) Plus there's teh slow internet and inevitable bugs. Wait until next year at a minimum, or two years once it goes on other service providers.
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