Apple iPhone 8 GB Review (2007)
18 July 2007I know, I know, the iPhone is not a movie, but as Apple premier video playing iPod it is a unique method of viewing movies, and I have found since getting it I often watch video on it’s gorgeous screen. In fact I have taken to ripping DVD’s all the time, so that I can watch it when I have a break at work, or if I am eating lunch by myself. This really is the first truly portable device that is really good for watching movies on, and since it is your phone, you will always have it with you. There are of course some caveats, like it’s small storage size for video (with movies taking up over 1GB of space) and it’s inability to play video playlists, but it is still an amazing video playing machine. It is also a good phone, and an impressive portable internet device. Sure AT&T’s 2.5G EDGE internet connection could certainly be faster (though the built in Wifi Screams), but having a real web browser on a phone is nothing short of a revelation (even without Flash support). The e-mail needs some work before it can be considered first class though. And the oh so talked about typing, is actually much better than I thought it would be. Honestly I didn’t think I would like it as much as I do, even though I think it needs much in the way of improvements before I would recommend it to a non-tech head, or a tech head trying to replace another high end phone like a Treo (which I have done, though not entirely successfully). Honestly this is the best iPod ever, and a world class phone and internet device.
Read on for more.
While I did want an iPhone, I was going to hold off on getting one, mainly because without 3rd Party Application Support it would be not be able to replace the functionality of my Treo 650. Sure it has far superior internet capabilities, but that is not what I am talking about, I am talking about 2 applications that I have grown to become really dependent on when using my Treo and those are Password Plus and FileMaker Mobile. Password Plus is a program that runs on a Treo and on your home computer and is a password protected storage repository for all of your passwords for everything, and for program serial numbers. So I literally had every password and serial number that I would need in my phone or on my home computer, and the 2 would sync each time I synced my Treo, and amazingly useful feature, and one I used nearly every day. FileMaker Mobile allows you to have a mobile version of your FileMaker databases on your phone, and access them and make changes while on the road. I actually used this for 3 things, for Director’s Boards, which basically let me have shotlists for storyboards I have done in my phone, a database of my DVD library, and a database of all my recipes. And without 3rd party support the iPhone does not support these applications or any other 3rd party ones (even though FileMaker is barely 3rd party since they are owned by Apple). And of course you can’t edit word or excel documents as I could on my Treo with documents to go. Yes you can open and read ones people send you in e-mails, but that is all you can do with them. Hell, you can’t even select text or copy and paste in the iPhone, which is a huge missing feature (it does let you share a bookmark or YouTube video which sends the URL in an e-mail, but that is the closest to copy and paste that you can get.
Anyway, I did get an iPhone, and on opening day in fact. Mainly since my mom bought it for me, on condition that I buy the next model and trade this one to her when I get it. A damn good deal, and I got one. I actually went to the biggest AT&T store in North Hollywood and waited 3 hours, until they were supposed to be selling them, and they told use they got none (though they had display units) so I drove to Northridge and the apple store and waited another 2 hours before I got one. They were out of 4 GB by the time I got to the front, but they had enough 8 GB models, and that is what I wanted anyqay. I got home (though the drive home being unable to use it was brutal) and the sync was very easy since I was already an AT&T customer, though I lost my business discount (WHICH SUCKS) and had to sync music and videos to show it off. Everything is handled right in iTunes and is as fast as could be. Some people ahd issues, but I had none. And I am pretty happy with it, but in addition to the above I do have beefs, which I will go through, as well as what I love.
Firstly the iPod features are amazing and so tactile. you just scroll with your finger, and I never even used coverflow in iTunes, just playlists, but on the iPhone the fact that if you turn the iPhone sideways it goes into coverflow and you can scrow tactilely through the album covers makes it much more usable, and I have grown to love it. You can play songs by Playlist or Album, and you get a big view of the album cover and all the tracks in that album. really the best iPod yet. With videos they play in landscape mode and if you tap once you bring up on screen controls, which can fast forward, scroll ahead ina timeline and play and pause as well as control volume and a single tap again makes the on screen controls go away. And if you double tap the image will zoom to fit the screen (zooming into the center if you don’t like to see black bars on the sides or top and bottom of your video). This is all incredibly intuitive and easy to use. And it looks and sounds great (with the included headphones that also include a microphone, which you can click once to pause, or double click to move to the next track), though the built in speakers are not that great, they do work in a pinch. My one complaint, which I find to be a downgrade from my 5G video iPod is Video Playlists. You can sync them in the music section (for music videos) and you get the videos, but only by artist, not in the playlists, and you can’t make movie playlists, which I used to do not only with my own personal videos, but also with video concert’s with multiple bands show up as each artist, and there is no way to play the tracks in order. I realize I could re-rip the the whole DVD with chapters, but then it wouldn’t be listed by artist like a CD or the DVD is. The rest of the video playing is great, but this lack of playlist support, which the 5G Video iPod is a huge issue and something that needs to be addressed soon.
The Typing is pretty good, but not as tactile as the keyboard on my Treo, but the build in spell checking is fast and very smart, and once you learn not to tap, but to click and release when the correct character is shown, your typing will improve. You can also hold down on the symbol key and drag to the symbol and the keyboard will automatically switch back to the alphabet (which does not have a period key on that page unfortunately). And if you want to move your cursor you click on the text and drag and it zooms in like a magnafined glass and works very well. The worst thing about it is something that could hopefully be easily be fixed in a software update, which is that in Safari you can type with the screen sideways, which is much easier, but programs like Mail and Notes only work in the tall and thin screen mode, so you can’t take advantage of the wide screen keyboard, which is easier to type on with your thumbs. Still for a non-tactile keyboard this works amazing.
Safari on the iPhone is a dream. It rotates to landscape or tall mode, and can view full web pages. You can zoom in or out by double tapping, or by using a t finger pinch or pull out, and with the exception of Flash pages works very well with almost any web page. Sure the 2.5 G Edge Netowork is slow, but it works, especially for non-graphics heavy web pages, and with the included wifi the speed really picks up, and you get the best portable web browser I have ever used. I love being able to administrate my blogs from my phone. It just blows a Treo out of the water for web use. Bookmarks sync with Safari (and I use BookIt to sync my Firefox bookmakrs with iCal and with my laptop as well) and you can either scroll through the list or start to type the address and it will show up. One thing I don’t like is the inability enter passwords visually, which is really hard with the non-tactile keyboard, and is especially hard when entering HEX passwords for WIFI networks, but I will deal with it for now. It would be nice to have the choice though. I do really like drop down menus on web sites though, which are set up like a scroll wheel. Nice.
Mail needs some improvement. As I have said it doesn’t change into landscape view, which would be much easier. No copy and paste limits things. I also don’t like how you can’t see all my mail accounts in one inbox like I can do in Mail in a mac. Also replies to e-mails come in as seperate e-mails with no connection to the orignal e-mail as they do in a desktop program. I know most portable e-mails don’t do this, but this needs to be implemented like the desktop as to not confuse the average mac user. Also the lack of a Spam filter, a search, or a mark all as read or delete unread is a pain. I get tons of spam, and having to delete them one at a time is a pain. Not only that but the slide delete often screws up and sends you into the e-mail, which if it has any graphics can crawl on the edge network. Mail needs a major overhaul.
Notes, the note keeping app is ugly, looking like a yellow notebook, and the only way to get the info out is to e-mail it, and there is no way to get information in besides typing it, and no way to read it on your computer which severely limits it’s usability. I know OS X 10.5 includes a Notes feature in it’s mail app, so maybe this will sync when we get 10.5, but until then this app needs some major help.
Google maps is amazing, and includes mapping, satellite and traffic information, and bookmarks for favorite locations, though without a GPS, you have to know where you are to begin the location search, but still very useful.
The clock app has mutiple time zones, a count down timer, alarms and a stopwatch, and is as easy to use as could be.
The messaging app is nice enough for SMS, and looks like iChat, though it is not real time and has no iChat support (they need to add this later), and can’t send multimedia messages, so you need to use e-mail to send photos. Still I type damn fast in it, and do really like it. And get 200 messages a month with the $20 a month unlimited data plan.
The Weather app is really slick, and is like the weather widget in OS X, except you can set multiple locations an dyou physically can flip through them.
The camera is very high quality for a camera phone, and the photos look pretty good, but nothing compared to a real camera. And there is no zoom or video support at all. Viewing photos is even better, as it syncs with iPhoto with low rez versions of the photos you pick, which you can physically scroll through and zoom in and out using the pinch and pull of your fingers. Very slick and really shows off this things power. The color on the photos does get strange casts though, which need to be fixed, but it is only a camera phone.
Calendar syncs with iCal, and is really slick though it does not have a full week view, it does add a list so you can see all your coming up events, and is a needed feature in iCal (lets hope it is in 10.5). I also don’t like the limited alarms settings. You can only use the ones built into the phone, and not set them or set others, as I like 7 and 1day alarms, but hopefully they will eventually update this.
The phone itself is pretty good, though the quality is only average. And the inability to use your songs as ring tones is ridiculous on an iPhone, when I could do it on my Treo, and the built ring tones are terrible. I do like ho wit dips whatever music you are playing and pauses it and the rings and goes to the phone. Very slick. For a fast dial you can set a list of favorites for quick dials. You have recent called and received calls, then your contact list which is really slick. You can scroll with your finger and hit letters on the right to jump. There is also a standard keyboard and visual voice mail so you can pick which message to listen to first. Very nice. Missing though is a search function, which is horribly annoying, but will hopefully be implemented later. I synced my contacts with Address book, and it worked like a dream, much more consistent than using Missing Sync with my Treo.
The screen is incredible and looks amazing. It is glass and seems very scratch proof, though after years of Treo use I got a screen protector anyway because I just don’t trust not scratching it. The interface is also as slick as can be, and the locking and sliding work great, even if it takes more to do things on this phone than a phone with dedicated buttons. The only dedicated buttons are the Home key which always goes to the main menu, the lock button to lock the screen (and you need to slide your finger across to unlock it so it won’t unlock by itself). then 2 volume buttons and a mute switch, and the touch interface is amazing to behold and works very well.
Overall this device is amazing, butg has some niggling things that really need to get fixed before this thing becomes as ubiquitous as it could be. Still I must say I am very happy. And I am surprised at how much I listen to music on it or watch movies on it. I always carry my 5G iPod, but mainly to use to power my car stereo, and didn’t always carry headphones, but now that the headphones are for making calls as well I got 2 sets (1 for my car) and always carry one, and have gotten cord wraps to wrap the cords around so I am not always untangling them. I also got an incase case to put it in, which is not like the wrap around cases, and allows the device to go easily into it’s dock. It protects it while it is on my hip, but not in hands, but a similar case protected my treo, so I feel pretty safer.
Apple has really revolutionalized the cell phone, though they need cheaper models and models with more hard drive space. If they fix some of my complaints and add enterprise exchange support as well as the option of no camera (for businesses) then this phone will rival the infamous crackberry.