I just purchased a new Apple iPhone about 2 weeks ago. I figured i might as well start off with a quick review of the things i liked and disliked (more so wish had) about the phone. I would just like to say that hands down, it is the best overall phone I have ever used. Feature for feature (that i find useful) its a great value.
Setting up the phone was easy. I got my music, contacts (from outlook) and podcasts loaded with no troubles. I did have to use a 3rd party product to get a fair amount of my cover art work. I used a tool called "iTunes Art importer" that worked very nicely. It did run a little slow at times and appear to hang despite the fact i am on a rather quick DSL line, but other than that did the trick. You can get it here:
http://www.yvg.com/itunesartimporter.shtml
I did unlock my phone, but honestly... I dont see much reason to do it. The "Apollo IM" client from google is nice. But that is about the only useful program that i found. Granted you may see it differently. If i have to reflash my firmware then, i will sadly miss this little peace of software. if you do want to unlock your phone and install some cool schwag then this movie is worth watching.
But in its place i did find that Appolopolis is a fantastic site to book mark on your iphone. It will provide you with all kinds of handy little web pages that run as if they are native applications. I highly recommend: Movie.app, iTweet (twitter client), GoMovies, 101 cookbooks, iPhlickr, digg, Gyminee (fitness), fumbleview (football stats and twitter shiznit talking), iRibbit (ebay), and Loud is Relative (concert info).
My main areas of interest in a phone are:
Camera: this camera works well and the way the iPhone transitions between pictures is awesome.
Email: This works well. although it did take me a bit to figure out that you can "cross out" an email to delete it. This is much easier than opening the email and trash canning it.
Contacts: Awe.... I love having all 300 of my corporate contacts in my phone, and being able to create a favorites list. Very cool feature.
web browsing: I have used OperaMini and Safari. Both have nice features. The integration of Safari is fantastic though. Although i do wish this phone had support for flash. That is kind of a large drawback.
SMS: no one does it better.
The keyboard: I think the key here is training the keyboard right in the beginning. It is a learning keyboard so don't just let spelling mistakes slip threw. The phone learns what you want to type. This feature is pretty cool. I typically just type away now and then glance back to make sure things are kosher. 99% of the time auto correct has fixed me up just fine.
Ipod: Nice feature. Works well. with no real complaints.
Talk Quality: I hope the next version sounds better. Most people hear me better on speaker phone than thru the mouth peice.
Bluetooth: I purchased the iphone ear piece. It is a nice unit. I did not have to pair the device but i do find that it is a bit of a gamble on what audio source is going to be used when i make a call. If the earbud is in my pocket, the phone will sometimes choose to use the bluetooth ear piece. and other times i have the ear piece in my ear and I have to go thru some fiddleing to get the iPhone to switch over to it. Once i have a choice of sources, it works fine. All in all pretty good, i just wish it had noise canceling and would stay in my ear a little better. I drive a jeep, so a little wind and the thing flys off my face.
My wish list:
1. Better linux support: I love Ubuntu and would like to be able to grab contacts from evolution email, sync using banshee (with out having to deal with hex information and strings..blah blah blah...ugh...)
2. Ability to connect a Simcard or miniSD to the bottom of my iPhone and transfer contacts and other stuff. This would help transfer my friends phone numbers that are not stored in outlook but instead just on my phone.
3. Removable Simcard. When I go wake boarding or snowboarding, i would rather bring my busted ass Motorola Razor since it already has a cracked display. Dropping my iPhone in the lake is not a great option.
4. 3g network. Granted I have not had a lot of real issues with edge technology. But hey, why not go faster?
5. Movies. Now granted, I rarely shoot video with my cellphone. But if you ever catch a cop beeting someone down or tazering them to death while they are hand cuffed. I would sleep much better at night knowing I caught them in the act... in the form of a movie. A movie that i can instantly upload to youtube as i flee from the police that are now chasing me with batons, tasers, and guns drawn..... awe, isnt downtowns San Jose a beautiful place to live?
If anyone out there is aware of any other cool stuff for the iPhone please let me know. I also do like the fact that i can post blogs from my iPhone using the blogger.com mobile function. I have not tried it out yet, but please feel free to let me know how it has worked for you.
