iPhone Hate; iPhone Love
So I’ve had my iPhone for two days, but I can already tell that it’s a love hate relationship. It’s so well designed that I can’t help but love, but at the same time there are just things that don’t work. I’m not talking about the Apple iPhone Bugs List, just things that don’t work the way I want them to.
Stuff that Sucks
Unlocking your SIM
First you have to Jailbreak the phone, bypassing activation, then you have update the software on the phone from an Apple restore image, and finally you have to flash the modem firmware. It will take you 1-2 hours if you’re technically stupid and have a Mac OSX unlocking guide or a windows unlocking guide. All this, just to get it working on T-mobile or Verizon.
The headphone jack
So now that you have your $399 iPhone you want to plug your $299 Shure or Bose headphones in. Well guess what, you can’t. The iPhone headphone jack is recessed into the case so that only Apple’s super slim plug can fit in. Your only choice is to perform surgery on your electronics, or buy an adapter:
Your iPhone after headphone accessory
A smart aftermarket accessory maker will find a way to produce a plug that makes the top of the iPhone flush with the case.
Only 8 GB of Flash
The iPod Touch has 16Gb for the same price. As flash memory is rapidly falling per GB, next year should see 16GB iPhones, possibly up to the 32Gb mark. Early adopters will have to wait, however, and live with their paltry 1000 songs and a movie.
Battery Life
The iPhone’s battery dimension are 43.6 x 50.5 x 5.4 mm, and it is rated at 3.7 V and 1400mAh. Yet, with everything (Edge, Wifi, Bluetooth) turned on, it might barely last you five hours. So what should you do? I’ve looked around for higher-rated batteries in those dimensions, and been unable to find anything that perfectly fits… yet. Within a year, I predict 2400-3200 mAh batteries will come on the market to double your battery life.
Telephone contacts formatting
I expect when I enter someone’s name into my phone it will display “Back, First”. However, the iPhone is cool and trendy and omits the comma, leaving you with “Last First”. This is much harder to read.
Now playing
When I hit play on a song, please do not stop it, ever. Not when downloading x, y, or z, on a telephone call, in some random context. I want my music to play!
Things to Love
3rd party apps
Sure, it’s a pain, but once you do unlock and jailbreak your phone you can easily install some pretty cool apps, including a decently accurate faux GPS app from Navizon which triangulates your position from known cell phone towers and then pins you to Google maps:
Your apps know where you are!
Camera
I am really liking the built-in 2MP digital camera and great touch-interface for it that covers the entire display. It blows away every cellphone camera I’ve ever seen, although I know there are some Asian cellphone cams that top even it. It’s nice to see an American manufacturer paying some attention to the cellphone camera.
Coverflow
This is controversial, but coverflow is one of those “I’m better than you features” that you can show off to collective “oooh” and “aaah”. It’s totally useless, but so cool, which counts for a lot.
Visual music browsing
Battery
I just said the battery sucks, but if you do turn off wifi and bluetooth, it tends to last longer than my old iPod. I haven’t been able to drain during my commute to work, at work, and then back home.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 5:35 pm and is tagged with iphone headphone jack, apple iphone, bose headphones, modem firmware, early adopters, iphones, iphone, t mobile, flash memory, ipod touch, mac osx, battery life, shure, batteries, sim, verizon, bugs, gb, relationship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
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9/23/2007 at 8:27 pm
[...] I just said the battery sucks, but if you do turn off wifi and bluetooth, it tends to last ...