I went out yesterday afternoon and bought an iPhone at last. I walked into the store, told them that I knew all about it, and all about the tarrifs, and please could I just buy one please on the tarrif I instructed.
Ten minutes later I walked out of the store, iPhone in hand.
Simple.
What was not so simple was (having never monkeyed with an iPhone before) figuring out where the SIM card went. No insertion tool. No instructions in the documentation. I finally found out about the tiny hole and the hidden panel after rummaging around on the internet for a while.
A few minutes later I saw and waited for iTunes on my macbook to download and install the latest version of the iPhone firmware. Then came the task of figuring out how the new bit in iTunes worked - how to sync specific bits and bobs to the phone.
Two minor things tripped me up in the first few minutes finding my way around the iPhone interface…
- I couldn’t figure out how to “get back” to the menu at first. It was only after a good few seconds scratching my head that I pressed the big button at the bottom of the display. 2. I couldn’t figure out how to show albums in the iPod app in coverflow mode - it was only by accident that I tipped it on it’s side, and voila - up came the 3D album covers.
So what do I think so far?
MobileMe - despite its flaws - is push email. It’s good at it too. I know blackberry have been doing this for eons, but it’s nice to have email arrivals trumpeted to you without the phone being connected to the net.
The SMS interface is great - looking very much like iChat. I forsee myself using all of my text allocation (I have the 35 plan, which allows something in the region of 600 sms messages a month).
Typing on the on-screen keyboard is nowhere near as difficult as I feared. I guess I am a software developer though, so am more careful than most when typing…
The Camera is not very fast - meaning low light shots are always going to be a problem for it. Quality wise though, it’s fine for a mobile phone camera.
The built in Mail application is far better than I had hoped - I have it talking to 4 different email accounts via IMAP.
Syncing with the Mac is painless, simple and flexible. I hate to say it, but Mac users who have embraced iCal, Contacts, iPhoto, and so on are going to get much more use from the iPhone than windows users (although this has been addressed somewhat by MobileMe).
Movie playback is spectacular. I downloaded Godzilla from iTunes just to try it out (and to try plugging the Mac into the TV via HDMI, which we have never done before). This could of course be the end of us renting movies from LoveFilm if it works well enough…
The App Store is without doubt the biggest ace Apple have put into the iPhone. I have downloaded five or six apps so far - all of which have been fantastic. I have installed all of them from iTunes given the early adopter stories about downloading them to the phone directly.
Safari on the iPhone is spectacular too. By far the best browsing experience I have ever seen on a mobile device. The multi-touch interface, on-screen keyboard, and rotating display make using the web very easy indeed.
GPS is fun - but I’m not sure I have an application for it yet. If an app arrives in the App Store that integrates the Google Local business data into the built-in map application, it would be wonderful. As it stands, it’s a gimmick. Geotagging photos works spectactularly well though.