11/11/2008 (8:22 am)
my life with the iphone
my friend janelle graciously let me borrow her iphone for a few days before she sold it off. admittedly, i’ve always been anti-iphone more based on my impressions of it, rather than actually owning one (it’s a decent chunk of money to invest not knowing if you’ll be into it.). so now that i’ve spent a few days with it, here is what i like and hate about it, keeping in mind that for all intents and purposes, i really love me some palm treo action (with palm OS):
LIKES:
The App Store: The ability to download over the air apps is very cool. the fact that i can buy them if i need to and it gets cleared through a central agency is also a plus. from things i’ve read online, getting an app certified can be a pain in the ass, so i don’t know what kind of testing is done prior to allowing an app to stay, but it seems to work out ok. of course, as a palm user, i’m used to scrounging around the net to find apps, download them, try them out, see if they crash the device and uninstall as needed. you do the same thing with a jailbroken phone, but again, it’s done over the air. the one thing i didn’t like was that there wasn’t a lot of “try before you buy” in the apps that i wanted, but that could be because of my selections.
The Style: The thing just looks damn cool. I like the multi touch, a lot more than i expected.
Safari: This is really where the iphone shines in my opinion, at least in comparison to the treo and windows CE phones i’ve used. web integration is clearly key to the iphone, and it shows.
The Camera: Better resolution on my treo, but i use a 680, so probably anything would be better.
DISLIKES:
Keyboard: Janelle called my fingers stubby, but i just can’t get the hang of a nonphysical keyboard. also, the fact that it won’t go landscape is just stupid stupid stupid.
MMS: How in the hell has apple gotten away without this? Every freaking cell carrier shows how MMS is the shit, sending photos and video to your friends cell phones…unless you have an iphone. in which case it goes to your email. that’s just fucking stupid, and the fact that so many people bought the damn thing anyway just makes me hate the device even more. sure, you can jailbreak it and put swirlymms on it (which i did, and that works OK) but even then, your texts are integrated with each other anymore…you now have 2 texting programs, one for with pictures and one for without.
Calendar: The calendar on the iphone is a piece of garbage. it’s practically unsyncable with google calendar, and if you use something that does sync with it, multiple calendars are out. BIG minus.
Cut and Paste: Now granted, i shouldn’t have expected this from idiots who can’t figure out that typing in landscape mode is a necessity, but still. CUT AND PASTE? When did a Mac platform ever NOT have it?
To Do List: Doesn’t exist. Again, a huge WTF? moment for me. My old Nokia 3610 had a to do list on it. I couldn’t do jack crap with it because i only had a standard 0-9*# keyboard on it, but still it was there. Maybe people at apple just don’t have shit to do. Maybe that’s why none of the crap i hate about the iphone made it onto the platform, because they don’t think about to do lists.
anyway, i’ll be keeping the thing for another day or two, and if i change my mind on something, i’ll let you know…but i won’t be putting it on my to do list…because i can’t.
1 Comment »
Comment by Jones
Yup, you need to spend some time on a G1. The Market is similar to the App store, only more user-controlled (and everything is free right now, as they haven’t started charging for stuff). You can also choose to download apps from other sites, though I have yet to go searching for “unofficial” apps.
The style is far more akin to the Treo, in that functional soviet block-o-tech way. No multitouch, but they might be able to add it in later (one of my two biggest complaints).
The browser doesn’t look quite as amazing as on the iPhone, but that’s mainly due to lack of multitouch, so zooming is clunky. Also, many sites recognize the G1 as a mobile device, so if they have a crippled “m.url.com” address, that loads as default. Which I hate, but there we are; it has still been almost enough browser to tide me over this week while I’ve been without my computer.
The camera ain’t great, and there’s no flash or video support, which makes me sad. Though the conspiracy nut in me says they wanted to put in video support, but couldn’t get a Quicktime license from Apple. I’m sure it could be added later.
The slide-out keyboard is landscape, of course. The thumb typing isn’t quite as comfortable for me as on the Treo, but there are more formatting options, so it’s a toss-up. I once wrote half a novel on my Treo, something I wouldn’t be able to do on the G1. Partly because of how thew phone is laid out, partly because there is NO GOOGLE DOCS INTEGRATION (massive gripe #2; you can read but not edit Docs).
MMS? That’s just part of the Messaging platform, fully threaded texts with option to attach pictures or sound files (and many third-party apps have bulit-in text support, so you can say “send this thing to so-and-so” right from the thing itself). I didn’t realize the iPhone couldn’t do this.
The Calendar is, of course, Google Calendar, with optional instant-sync built into the platform. G1 wins this one hands down.
No cut and paste here, either. Massive fail. Weirdest thing: there is one menu where you can “copy this URL”. There is never a single place that allows you to paste it anywhere. It’s like they actually figured out HALF of the formula. This is my #1 gripe, but it could be fixed with one of the many software updates.
No, there is no Google Tasks built in, but there are already several third-party apps with varying functionality. I think there’s one that links to a website where you can store your lists and add fancy things. The one I use is super-basic, and allows me to scribble notes with my finger instead of having to open the keyboard.
All in all, some of the same flaws, but most of your dislikes are addressed here. Not to say the G1 is perfect by any means; it’s essentially an open beta, launched on the #4 mobile company before the other companies put out their own Android phone. Most of my gripes are fairly fiddly (apart from the ones listed here), and could be fixed easily with software. The handset itself is pretty hearty, although the things you read about it creaking are all true (personally, I kinda dig the creaking). I do like the G1, for me, and like it more than I did in my first few days, which is saying something. It reminds me very much of the love-hate Treo relationship, that mild frustration coupled with fierce loyalty that is oh so unhealthy. But hey, gadget relationships are seldom healthy.
Looks like you got that G1 blog entry outta me after all. Remind me to cut and paste this onto my site when I have a computer that can do that.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
