Why I love my iPhone
By Haroon Khwaja
Top ten reasons what I love my iPhone:
1. Technology driven: It is a great piece of technology and a step forward in terms of mobile. I love the touch screen, video quality, weight and build.
2. User friendly: It worked straight out of the box. All of it including Bluetooth, WI-Fi, calling, camera, browser, Google Maps, everything. This compares very favorably with the Nokia’s and LG’s of my past which all required configuration, unlocking from my network, upgrading of firmware etc.
3. Positive experience: The browser works very well particularly over Wi-Fi. Think of this as an excellent internet tablet. The browser is Safari and renders the whole page. To explore a page you scroll with your finger, tap to zoom in or squeeze with two fingers to zoom out. All very intuitive.
4. The predictive text works really well once you are used to it. Unlike T9 making a mistake is usually not a problem with Apple predicting the word from the words you have used in the past.
5. Mail and iChat (using an embedded Safari application) both work well.
6. It is a fantastic iPod with good battery life and the storage capacity of a Nano. Video is extremely watchable. I suspect that eventually it will be possible to buy an 32gb iTouch with similar capabilities as an iPhone but without the phone, would Apple will not risk confusing the market by having two products at the same level.
7. Web sites need to be redesigned for the iPhone. This is not because the iPhone cannot display normal web pages but because the experience of browsing on a small screen is so different.
8. The iPhone ups the importance of AJAX. Much of the interface for the phone is clearly built using components from Safari (just like the iTunes store). I particularly like the weather widget.
9. It would be breathtakingly expensive to use it in the UK while roaming on an AT&T contract. Therefore, it is not my primary phone right now. I will need to wait until the UK launch. The Wi-Fi option allows it to be a useful internet device and it would almost be worth buying a Wi-Fi contract for use across London.
10. Google Maps and YouTube both show how applications we know and love can be repurposed for this sized device. Google Maps in particular is excellent.
Compared to my blackberry, the iPhone is a million miles better, fun, stylish and still has the cutting edge finish that I bought a year ago. The iPhone still feels right when you hold it in the palm of your hand with pride. As times have changed and technology has quickly followed it has taken Apple 5 years to create the complete package when it comes to “communication in the palm of your hand”. Microsoft are a few steps behind. I would choose my iPhone over anything else. Well not until the upgrade comes out in 2010.
Comments
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Kevin GannonHave you tried the HTC Hero? You seriously need to give this a test drive!
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HaroonHi Kevin thanks for your comment, yes I have seen the HTC Hero and the demo looks good, however HTC have adapted the Google Hyb style folding edge which doesn’t work compared to a flat edge. The technology is wonderful I agree and the interface touch speed sensor is spot on, but its save and drag text and images is still not as fast as the iPhone.
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NaeemThe iPod Touch plus points
1. Looks good
2. Feels good
3. Tastes good
4. Responsive
5. Neat and compact gadget
6. Great web surfing deviceThe negatives
1. Fingerprint magnet
2. no memory upgrades
p.s. – point 3 above may have been a dream… -
Xavier KlingenfusHaroon, I disagree with your point #6: I think the battery life is awful. The mobile phone market is now a mature market and, even if I appreciate that the iPhone is more a multimedia platform than a mobile, we shouldnt have to recharge the device every 2 days.
The other main weakness of the iPhone in my opinion is the lack of multitasking. The new Palm Pre will provide that and this should be better be part of the 4th release of the iPhone next year. Having to exit an app to open a new one is just so frustrating!
I also agree with Kevin. Im not entirely sure about the performances of the HTC Hero, but visually and in terms of interaction, it very much competes on the same level with the iPhone.
Xavier
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Craig GroblerHey Haroon,
Nice post. I’m assuming you are referring to the iPhone 3GS rather than the previous version (which I have). I agree with your sentiment, but the 2 comments I have about the iPhone are:
- The lack of variety in apps. Currently the Apps available seemed to be a walled garden:(. This is also the reason I switched from Mac to PC many years ago. PC just offers a better platform and tools for developers to explore and innovate.
- My other bug bear is that flash video is not properly supported yet. Too much effort to come up with an elegant solution.
I still pine for my XDA IIi, made by arguably the finest mobile device makers in the world HTC. Which was released 4/5 years ago is infinitely superior to the iPhone, bar the ease of navigation.
Regarding battery life I think you are spot on. Until there is a significant leap forward in energy sources mobile device that has a hefty processing requirement will need constant recharging. The battery life is good relative to other similar power guzzling devices.
PS There is a nice hidden feature in Safari – if you tap the status bar in Safari, it will jump to the top of the page
Laters
Craig -
HaroonI have seen status bar drag on the Safari App, and yes, I agree it is cool. In addition, there’s a few other gems on the Safari / iPhone link which allows you to use the handset even more effectively. The potential to increase a better customer experience lies just around the corner or has it already arrived? In addition, the marketing just hasn’t hit the twin peaks of Apple yet.
The HTC Touch-successor: the Touch2 (previously codenamed the Mega). The 2.8-inch touch screen will run HTC’s TouchFLO interface over WinMo 6.5, which will have a revamped Internet Explorer mobile browser, My Phone backup service, and access to Windows Marketplace.
It is the only non-commercial rival to the iPhone by far and is not as posey, if there such a thing.
