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Jun 30 / Ozymandias

Picked up an iPhone

Yep, it's true! Couldn't help myself – was visiting the SoHo store today in New York and they had a ton in stock. 


Not going to do a review or anything, but I will say Apple has set yet another amazing UI/interface bar with the iPhone. The interactivity and general responsiveness is amazing – it really does act like those videos you've seen on Apple.com.

Here's a link (since the hyperlink embedding button seems to be wonky today): http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html

And the phone itself is gorgeous. Trust me, to use one is to want one. 

About the only really real problems I have (so far) with it are:

1. Price – there's no getting around the fact that this ends up being a $650 phone (after tax).
2. No Microsoft Exchange syncing – though I haven't had a chance to try it on a PC with Outlook installed, so I don't know what it does there.
3. Only supports EDGE network (and not 3G). Not a problem when you're by a free WiFi hotspot, but slow otherwise.

They'll fix all this – but in the meanwhile, I'm off to play!

Related posts:

  1. Edit: Tasty: Apple iPhone; Not-So-Tasty: Price
  2. More iPhone Thoughts
  3. Juicy Rumor: Apple iPhone? Or even Apple iGame?
  4. LucasArts Games Emulation on iPhone
  5. Wired on Microsoft’s Challenge for Windows Phone 7: Wooing Developers

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  • rubso

    650$ ? No, Thanks.

    I’ll stick with my Nokia mobile phone instead!

    Congrats anyway :D

  • RomeoDude

    I really like the iPhone, but it’s a bit too expensive for me.  I don’t need features like data or text messaging, so I don’t want to have to pay for a plan that includes them.  If the iPhone was a bit cheaper, available on Verizon, and available with different plans I’d probably be sold.  I really hope Apple comes out with an iPhone minus the phone (aka widescreen, touchscreen video iPod) at a reasonable price.  Wi-Fi would be nice too.  Apple’s almost due for a new iPod, so unless Microsoft comes out with a Zune to compete with an iPhone-esque iPod, I’ll probably be getting a new iPod when they become available.

  • http://blogs.spouting-tech.com/thepensivegamer Joe Molnar

    I think it is a great tiny computer with an interesting interface, but here are my issues:

    a) As a phone, things are just too many steps away. Unlike something with a keypad, you cannot type and have it autopick from your contacts.

    b) The multi-touch is generally nice, but I coudlnt’ find a way in google maps (fro example) to zoom in/out quickly. The two finger thing is great for fine tuning, but a slider for quicker access would be nice. I also find it unresponsive in places.

    c) I can’t just use any SIM/stuck to AT&T, with a 2 year contract (even if you use AT&T) and $175 dollar cancellation and only three choice of plans.

    d) Poor camera. As a ‘lifestyle’ device, it would have made sense to have a better camera. A 2 MP fixed focus is pretty old compared to the new camera phone with autofocus. Lens packages are getting pretty small these days too, so this should be a non-issue in rev 2 of the iPhone.

    Now that said. This phone will change the industry.

    a) This is the first phone to drive consumers to line-up. It is a lifestyle device and we need to have devices that are fun and interesting while being fully functional.

    b) The UI is great in many areas, and fun to use. As much as getting to phone features is a bit cumbersome, once on a call all the features are right there, easy, slick and fun to watch in action (love all the little animations).

    c) Apple has shown that they can change the way carriers do their business.

  • http://www.klio.org/marks/ Mike Kozlowski

    So how many phones do you own now, anyway?

    (And I sit here with my ancient, obsolete XV6700…)

  • JohnCz

    Whats up with MS employees covering iPhone?  Its one thing to make brief mention of it or compare it but to make a blog post just seems disloyal.  Apple employees never cover MS products like you just did.  Did you cover MS Mobile 6.0 when it came out…I didn’t think so.

  • http://aiusepsi.co.uk Andy Simpson

    Heh, tough break being a Microsoft employee. Either you’re a shill for only covering Microsoft stuff or you’re disloyal for covering stuff by your competitors too.

  • PhillyRampage

    I can’t wait to see the new iPod.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, I guess you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t, Ozymandias. As a courtesy to your readers next time, please review a MS product but I guess you have to pan it… no matter what it is. As for your purchase, I’m impressed: you actually lasted almost a day before buying it. :-)

    Just one question for you that I’ve been screaming at the TV whenever the news is "reviewing" the iPhone: can you actually _talk_ to someone on it… you know… use it as a phone? I’m one of these weird old-timers who wants to use a phone for… you know… making phone calls.

  • Thomas

    Man I am envious. Will have to wait for quite a bit before it comes out over here and I was forced to get a new phone as my old one broke down only a few months ago, so it will be a while till I can justify getting one. But get one I will. Till then …share? ;)

  • Xwar

    Hmmm… iPhone… or PS3 with Resistance… or up to 11 360 games… I’ve made my choice. :-p

    /Rock Band is gonna be expensive by the way

  • Porktree@beltonmo_dot_net

    Since you don’t need you’re old wm6 style phone just send it to me, my HTC Tornado is getting old and tired. My Mac admin bought one of these and it is amazing.  My only hit is the keyboard (ssh into a server and try issuing long commands).  Oh, and I was told apple was licensing activesync…

  • http://www.squadxp.com jj5206

    The Iphone looks cool, but i just can’t trust Apple. The ipod is a pos that breaks constantly

  • hock

    I am typing this message from my iPhone love it Speaker is terrible interface is the best

  • Imaginedbug

    Andre, how accurate is this review if you look at your own experiences? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2082361,00.asp

    I read in the paper today that if the iPhone comes to Europe they’ll have a lot of work to do before it’ll be accepted as a good phone, because us Europeans have higher standards for our cell phones :)

    Personally, I wouldn’t have bought it. No games, no custom ringtones, lousy camera, lousy call quality, too many ‘button’ pushes to make a call, forced use of iTunes… far too many cons compared to the two pros (it’s an "iPod Elite", it’d make my bro-in-law drool — among other things).

    The price isn’t bad though, if it were simlock-free so I could choose which provider to use.

    I hope your iPhone doesn’t have the same fate ahead of itself as your Wii though… one unused, dust-collecting gadget is enough :)

  • Anonymous

    Well, the iPhone looks interesting, no doubt of that but I foresee a dark future for it at Europe unless is changed a bit. In all honesty, I wouldnt swap my new Nokia N95 (or my older N73) for an iPhone, although I concede I would still change a few things on both phones

  • Aedrin

    The most amusing part is the commercials touting its ‘non wattered down, full browsing experience.’ Only to realize it doesn’t do Flash, or Java, or anything else. Which cancels out YouTube and many other Web 2.0 websites. So much for a ‘revolution’. We had crappy web browsers on phones 10 years ago. (The YouTube you get on the iPhone is a subset of all movies available, so it is not really YouTube)

    And many of the comments about Europe are correct. Much higher standards. Of course the standards in some Asian countries are even a step above that. But America is the lowest in the totem pole. The iPhone does not really revolutionize feature wise. It’s just a (supposedly) better UI. From what I’ve seen it’s mostly a ‘cool’ interface. But not as useful as a few well designed buttons. I like not having to look at what I’m doing. Perhaps most iPhone users are hunt-and-peck typers? ;)

  • Anonymous

    Re: "Andre, how accurate is this review if you look at your own experiences? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2082361,00.asp"

    I’ve only read 2/3s of the review (I think), but in general I’d agree with the review except for phone call quality. I haven’t had huge issues with that aspect personally. I think the PC Mag guys are out of New York, and while I was there I was lead to understand AT&T/Cingular coverage is horrible there; most people seemed to lean toward Verizon. It could be that support is a lot better in Seattle (at least I rarely have significant coverage problems).

  • TANK

    too bad that’s really all it has going for it is the UI and built in video/ipod features.  As a smartphone goes though, it’s at least right now up to par with other smartphone offerings out there.  No Exchange integration is a killer for most companies, plus no Office document viewing/editing.  

    If you’re looking for a multi-feature phone not for office stuff, iphone is a good consumer electronic device.  But it’s totally focused on entertainment.

    Hopefully as it goes along, they start turning the feature sets to the enterprise as well.

  • JohnCz

    Tank, I agree mostly.  Hopefully Windows Mobile, Zune & Media Center teams colloborate to create better consumer centric experience on Windows Mobile.

  • Gimpy

    Oz,

    http://www.360voice.com/blog-gs.asp?tag=sufoor

    For Pete’s sake… why do you guys allow this person to do this?

    He’s hacking games, reverse engineering code, and selling hacks for money on his website,

    http://www.360gamesaves.com

    I contacted XBOX customer service and they gave me the run around. Don’t you guys care about this sort of thing?

  • UMMAGUMMA

    i have yet to buy an ipod let a lone an iphone for 650. i would rather buy a ps3 for that price than a phone with you tube.

  • Anonymous

    Man, all I can say is that in the few days I’ve had the iPhone I’ve gotten easily 10x the use/time out of it than I have the PS3. I’m hoping that changes this holiday, but right now, the last time I turned on the PS2 was over two months ago to play Resistance co-op with a friend (which is great fun, BTW).