Metafluence

An iPhone review to cut through the noise from fanboys and haters

I’ve thought about chiming in on the iPhone conversation a while back, but I wanted to reserve my comments until I actually handled one. I didn’t want to be one of the millions of fanboys claiming it was awesome having merely drank the Apple iPhone koolaid. I also didn’t want to be a part of the crowd that is miffed by all of the attention the iPhone is receiving by desperately trying to point out any possible drawback in its initial offering. So, Christine and I made a special trip yesterday to the Apple Store in downtown Portland to play with the much hyped iPhone (we figured the crowds would be easier to handle the next day and we were right). Even though we missed the opening day frenzy, there were still a substantial number of people clamoring to get their hands on the most coveted hand-held device in modern history. It was all of this hype that manifested into crowded racks of floor sample iPhones that lead me to my first conclusion: If you think the iPhone is the big deal, you’re missing the biggest reason for the interest. People flocked to the store because they wanted to see what the future of mobile communication and personal computing felt like. In particular, we all wanted to see if a touch screen interface was as cool as we have all imagined for decades. And, it was.

I know Apple is not the first company to release a touchscreen interface. I know that other phone manufacturers have better specs on individual components of the phone. But, if you’ve paid attention to the Playstation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii releases then you’ll know desire for a device doesn’t come from the top of the line specs. People love the Wii because it’s physical interface is really good. In fact, it marks a fundamental shift in the way we approach gaming and even with noticeably behind the times graphics, it can be a ton of fun to play a bowling simulation game. Similarly, the iPhone’s physical interaction is really good. I’m comfortable stating that it’s the best iteration of a mass market device released by anyone to date.

The iPhone’s touchscreen

The first thing I wanted to experience was the touchscreen. I was pleasantly satisfied that the iPhone’s touchscreen interface behaved exactly as promised in Apple’s marketing messages. Flicking between albums in cover flow mode was fun and useful. Zooming in and out on photos and dragging them around was precise and the graphics were smooth. Rotating the iPhone really did switch the display between horizontal and landscape mode. In the 45 minutes I was there I had already grown accustomed to the keypad and imagine I’ll get much better with consistent use. All in all, I felt like the biggest feature was a total homerun and I’m ready to buy one based on the touchscreen alone. It made the applications engaging and simple to use. I’m already hating my old fashioned button based phone.

The Internet on the iPhone

I was really worried about this feature. On the commercials they were always showing the NYTimes.com site, which I know has stellar code done by Khio Vihn. I wanted to see what sites were like that weren’t done by masters of CSS. I have to admit that I almost cried when I saw the web was really working on this phone. I browsed a number of sites (including my own) and was surprised to see that they worked just like a desktop computer. It was easy to double tap on a photo or column of text and have it zoom to fill the screen. It was easy to use my finger to pan around the page and I could use the two finger pinching motion to zoom in and out. I loved the way iPhone manages multiple opened pages, which is that you flick between them like photos in an album. I was using the phone on a WiFi connection and it was a pleasure to use. I haven’t tested in on the EDGE network, but I do know that AT&T has boosted the speed of their EDGE network on the iPhone’s release date, which was after most reviewers said that it was slow to use on the EDGE network.

Using email to send a photo from the iPhone

While at the Apple store, I wanted to test the iPhone’s camera, so I took a photo of Christine using it, which you can see to the right here. I thought the photo came out pretty well. I don’t think it will replace a dedicated point-and-shoot camera, but it will serve wonderfully for capturing unexpected moments and adding people’s faces to their contact entry. I did think the photo was good enough that I wanted to keep it (perhaps it would be an interesting photo to share with my kids who will think it’s funny their parents used phones without touchscreens).

Having never sent an email before, I guessed what I would do was view the photo in my library and then it would have the option to email it. Sure enough, that is exactly how it worked. In order to email it, though, the iPhone told me I needed to have my email set up. I went back to the home menu, clicked on settings, and then selected the mail options. I saw Gmail was an option, and I only had to enter four things to set it up: my name, my email address, my username, and my password. When I hit save, I got a message that I needed to turn on POP email in my Gmail account settings. Again I hit the home button, launched Safari, pulled up Gmail, and easily enabled POP mail on my account. I returned to the photo and this time successfully sent it to myself and Christine. Because this was a demo phone, I didn’t want my email on the device, so I opened the mail settings and easily deleted my account. In total I spent around five minutes setting up email, emailing a photo, and deleting the account. I did all of this without instructions and I never even slowed down from being unsure of the next step. This experience was a real selling point for me.

My thoughts on the common iPhone complaints

It’s AT&T only
I’m not bothered by this, but I can see why people are. Apple did it because they needed some leverage to get a phone carrier to change some of their broken ways. I feel like this partnership lead to a better final product for both the phone and the service. However, if you hate AT&T and/or you don’t want to leave your current provider, this is clearly a drawback and maybe a showstopper.

It doesn’t have a removable SIM card
For international travelers, this can be a huge drawback. I don’t currently need to use my phone outside of the U.S. because the only time I leave is on vacation and I don’t want to be available on my cell. I imagine most Americans won’t see this as a problem because on the whole we don’t leave the states much. ;)

It doesn’t have Flash
I’m bummed about this one. What happened there, Steve? This is the #1 reason why I am thinking about waiting to get the phone. While YouTube is available on the phone, the majority of video services these days run on Flash media players and I want to have access to them. I’m surprised about this omission because it seems like such an easy one to have not missed.

The battery is sealed inside
I do think this is lame. At the same time, in the decade that I’ve owned cell phones I’ve never replaced a battery on one ever. Ever.

Is the hype around the iPhone warranted?

IMHO, yes. iPhone is a major leap forward in mobile computing, communication, and human-computer-interaction. Apple has done a great job of making it highly useable and redefined clearly broken aspects of the cell phone experience (3 way calling, voice mail, full Internet, touchscreen interface, buying service plans, etc.). Apple is not alone in it’s conclusions about where these devices are going as many manufacturers have tried or currently are suing them for similarities in design. I’m still not sure if I’m going to buy this generation or not. The truth is that it has nailed the core features and is completely useful won’t feel like anything is lacking to 85% of users. If it will be six months before they release any upgrades, then I’m going to get it now because the features that are lacking are only relevant to minority of the market, myself included. If it’s going to be three months, then I’ll wait (mostly hoping to get Flash on Safari). iPhone will get better and better with each release and the initial product is exciting enough for this blogger to convince his company he needs one.