I bought my iPhone a few days after the launch and I’ve been using it constantly for several weeks now. It’s great.
In theory it doesn’t do anything that my old iPAQ didn’t do three years ago. Web access, GPS navigation, email with Exchange integration, third party applications or music.
The difference is, of course, the user interface which makes doing all these things easy, fast and delightful.
This is what I most like about my iPhone:
- Email works. Messages are easy to read and download quickly. I have an Exchange Server so it synchronises with that. My contacts and diary also synch automatically.
- I use SMS more. I was never a big fan of SMS but now it has an immediacy and urgency that email lacks and iPhone makes it very easy to track conversations and send messages.
- Third party apps. I have a stack of them and some are really good. (See list below)
- Automated updates. I tried to update my Samsung. Big mistake. I spent four hours to find out that I couldn’t do it because the update was region-specific. D’oh! On the other hand, apps and operating system update seamlessly on the iPhone.
- The clock. It’s a simple app but with a shut down time, programmable alarms and the ability to display different time zones it’s actually really useful.
- The Internet. This is where iPhone really wins. It delivers a real, usable web browser on a phone. This means I can get real-time weather from AvBrief.com, radar displays from Meteox and file flight plans on HomeBriefing. I used to have carry my laptop to do all that.
- Videos. I’ve been watching House and the Sarah Silverman show. It’s misanthropes anonymous on my iPhone this week. TV shows are a great way to pass a boring train journey.
- Podcasts. I like listening to From Our Own Correspondent, In Our Time and This American Life and the iPhone is a great way to do it.
Here are some of the (current) limitations:
- GPS navigation isn’t as easy as, say, TomTom and you have to have a good internet connection to download maps.
- Roaming data charges on O2 mean you have to take out a second mortgage if you go abroad.
- No Task synchronisation with Exchange. My old Samsung i600 did this and since I am married to my task list I miss it. Luckily Chapura KeyTasks fills the gap pretty well. A Notes sync tool would be nice too.
- Battery life isn’t great. The latest 2.1 software claims to improve things but I’ve only had it a couple of days so I can test it. It would be nice if Apple gave us the option of adding a longer-life battery.
- No dictionary. I’d love a dictionary, thesaurus and quotations application. I’d pay. It would be useful. Ideally, the entire OED.
Cool third party applications:
- NetNewsWire – RSS reader that syncs with my desktop
- tvGuide – buggy but cool TV listings
- TubeStatus – real time updates on London’s underground network
- WordPress – update your blog from your phone
- Stanza – forget Kindle, read eBooks on your iPhone. It’s really good
- Tuner – internet radio over EDGE
- Last.fm – semi-programmable internet jukebox
- FlightPlan – E6B, W&B, WX and more for pilots (including a valuable critical point calculator, which is very useful for channel crossings etc.)
- Pilot Wizz – more shiny pilot stuff
- Monkey Ball – mindless entertainment
- Facebook and LinkedIn – social networking
- Traffic UK – GPS-cued road jam avoider
- Wikipanion – Wikipedia with an iPhone interface
- Frommer’s San Francisco – travel guide ready for my holiday
- X-Plane – yes, a flight sim on the iPhone
- KeyTasks – synchronises tasks with Exchange
Related posts:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there Matthew,
We met in India – I’m the other ex-Mindscaper
Just wanted to say I’ve been loving the iPhone to but would have to add a further limitation. Despite some phenomenal advances in user interface design I cannot understand the total absence of ‘Cut and Paste’. It’s not like it’s hard to implement, even the Apple Newton had it.
Anyways, hope you are all well. Enjoying the blog.
John D
I really, really wanted one, especially as a PowerBook lover, but went for a Blackberry Bold instead. Why?
* I can type on it really easily
* I can cut and paste
* The battery gives me three days
* I can attach documents to an email
The last one was the real killer. Why does the iPhone, lovelly though it is, lack such a basic function?
Hey, great review. Question: does it allow you to connect your mac via bluetooth to the phone’s internet? Also, does it synch w/ iCal, etc?
Thanks
John / Neil – Cut and paste is an odd omission, I agree.
Gino – I don’t think you can use the iPhone as a modem. I don’t know about syncing with iCal because my iPhone is connected to a PC, but I expect you could do it through .mac or something.
{ 1 trackback }