We bought an iPhone a week ago because we'd like to be able to sync with it. I've used it a couple of hours now. Others at JRiver have spent more time with it. I thought I'd share what we know and what I think of it.
I think we'll eventually find a way to sync with it, but Apple didn't make it easy. The device doesn't mount as a drive. It does appear as a WIA camera so we can acquire photos from it, but that won't help with audio or video.
The device itself is first rate, very sleek, but a little chunky for a phone. It will fit in your pocket, but you'll definitely know it's there. I have a RAZR and, by comparison, the iPhone is big. And heavy.
Using the touch pad to dial isn't bad. Not as good as phones with buttons, but not bad.
The general GUI is extremely nice, perhaps the best GUI I've seen. It's very easy to use (for the most part). There are just a few buttons on the device.
A power switch.
A Menu button (small and round) that brings you home.
A volume toggle button that increases or decreases volume.
A hold switch.
Simple. Beautiful. Fun to use.
But
The networking is weak. The phone seems to default to EDGE, which is v e r y slow. Setting up a Wi-Fi network is not intuitive. Not even close. Entering a 26 character WEP key took me about 10 tries. I had to ask someone else how. You have to choose the HEX option, and then (get this) enter a $ sign first. Then, as you enter the abc472ha.... key, you have to watch the keyboard as you enter each character to make sure you got it right. The keyboard thankfully pops up a little bubble on each key press to show the character you've entered, BUT the characters in the bubble are uppercase, even though you're entering lowercase. AND the characters you're typing are shown as ******* so nobody looking over your shoulder can memorize the 26 characters. It's just a bad experience.
Once you do get a connection, it doesn't seem to hold onto it. Sometimes it will use it. Sometimes it will lapse back to EDGE.
The mail and browser are OK, not great. The camera is OK, very simple, maybe adequate. The google maps are great.
The screen is great. Very readable and bright. It swivels from portrait to landscape automatically as you change the phone's orientation.
On the whole, I'd buy one for my personal use if the networking was better. I don't think I'd abandon my cell phone for it.
For now, I'll wait.
Author
Topic: iPhone -- first impressions (Read 1639 times)