iPhone In The House
It’s been a while since I’ve spent my own money on any phone. One of the benefits of having worked for Nokia for 10 years, I suppose. I could have easily continued to use my supply of Nokia phones until the standards changed or they all broke. Instead, I decided to go iPhone, or more specifically, iPhone 3GS.
Now, I only have had the phone for only 12 hours or so, so it’s difficult to have a fully formed opinion about the device. However, I like what I’m seeing so far. Most of what I am focusing on right now is things I do everyday.
I’m actually typing this blog post on an iPhone thanks to the WordPress app that I downloaded from the App Store. Typing in general on this thing will take some getting used to, but thanks to landscape mode and Apple’s intelligent spell checker as you type, it’s better than I thought. I wish every iPhone app supported landscape mode typing.
The App Store is great–to he point of being downright dangerous to your pocketbook. I was able to find a number of cool apps very easily. Tweetie is a great Twitter app, I like the RSSPlayer app. Other suggestions I will try in the coming days.
I’m finding the lack of multitasking on the iPhone to be less of an issue than I thought it would be. Most apps (at least the built-in ones) seem to intelligently pick up right where you left off. One problem I can already see is not being able to multitask in a call–something I do on my Nokia E71 often enough. The important apps multitask–namely the music and sync email.
The hardware is slick, no doubt. I like the Oleophobic screen, which makes it much easier to clean off. I like that there is a small switch to change the phone to silent mode. The camera is being tested, as is battery life. I took a sample picture using the iPhone 3GS camera and attached it to the end of the post. The WordPress app did resize it, I’ll have to post it to Flickr later on.
One thing that is working better than expected is the Stereo Bluetooth. Unlike my Nokia E71 where dropouts were common, it seems to work flawlessly with the iPhone 3GS. WiFi also seems to work better, but more testing is clearly needed. Certainly Apple’s networking stack is far less retarded than it is on Nokia handsets.
In short, I am liking it so far. I’m relearning how to do everything and I am finding it relatively easy to figure it all out. I can see why people love their iPhones.
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Tags: apple, iphones, mobile phones Fnord
Comment by James
Hey, just so you know, while you’re on a call you can, in a sense, ‘multi-task’. If you hit the home button you can launch and use any apps while still on the call (if you have 3G or WiFi that is).
Comment by Paul M. Watson
You can multi-task in a call. You can launch apps., look up contacts, surf the web etc. while a call is on. It puts a glowing green bar at the top of the screen when a call is active. Tapping it returns to the call app. UI.
Comment by David McDonald
Glad to hear you are enjoying your new iPhone.
You can actually make a voice call and run other apps, I’ve often done this to check on a calendar entry while talking to someone on the phone. In that case the iPhone displays a green bar at the top of screen to show you still have an active call.
I’m currently on the iPhone 3G, but will upgrade to 3GS as soon as O2 allow me to.
Cheers.
Comment by Mauricio Reyes
I guess it’s now iPhoneboy
You will find that you can multi-task with Apple’s own apps. While on a phone call, you can jump to another app (even send an email) while the call is in progress, phone app runs in the background. The whole background process issue was Apple restricting what 3rd party app people could do, thereby protecting battery performance, security, general aloofness etc…
Comment by Lucie Osh
Have an upgraded iPod Touch – love it. I bought it last year primarily for music, to replace an iPod Nano, but have used it for so much more. The app store is wonderful and it does take self-control to avoid running up a big bill.
The other reason I’m commenting is that your cat looks almost exactly like my cat, body type and all. Mine is named Cleo and she’s nine years old. Her favorite activity, aside from eating, is chasing paper wads. She runs over to the printer whenever I turn it on, hoping I’ll make a paper wad for her.
Comment by PhoneBoy
Duh, I didn’t try the obvious: hit the home button in the call! Ok, that’s cool, thanks, everyone!
Lucie: Toby (my cat) used to like paper wads as well (he liked playing cards, too) but he’s about twice as old as Cleo and has grown lazy.
Comment by Stuart
Always interesting to see a new users perspective. Congrats on your choice / desire to try something new. Recommendations for you. Try the WSJ, USAToday, NYT apps. You may like Twitterfon or TweetDeck. Kindle is worth trying. There’s some games too which are just amazing – if you have the time. However the portfolio of apps I use everyday remains relatively small.
Comment by tco
the wordpress app is pretty slick….will the blog be renamed iPhoneboy?
Comment by PhoneBoy
I doubt I’ll rename the blog iPhoneBoy