Why I love my iPhone (and why I don’t)

Last week I finally broke down and got an iPhone. When they first came out, I thought, eh, I can live without this overpriced gadget. I got a Blackberry Curve instead, and it was OK. I loved being able to read my email anywhere, but my eyesight is getting worse and the buttons were really tiny — I had to take off my glasses to use the browser or type a message. Also, as a phone, it didn’t pull a great signal.

But then came the iPhone price drop, and then, my co-worker got one and brought it to work, and let me play with it for a minute. I fell in gadget-love with this thing, and started to seriously consider it. I already had AT&T, and the iPhone service is actually cheaper than the Blackberry data plan. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my old pink iPod Mini, but didn’t see a point in carrying two gadgets around if I don’t have to. I don’t have a huge music library, so 8 gig is big enough to hold it all and leave a little room left over for some pictures and other stuff. So…off I went to the Apple store after work, and I came home with my shiney new toy. I haven’t had it for a full week yet, and overall I love more than I don’t love, but thought I’d compile this list.

I Loves…

1. The touch-sensitive user interface, including the zoom function, is the sweetest I’ve ever seen on a gadget of any kind.
2. Fit and finish, as always, are perfect. This is one thing Apple consistently does really well.
3. The phone hardware pulls a pretty strong signal; I haven’t dropped a call yet.
4. Yahoo Mail integration is impressive. It took two seconds to set up, all my folders are available, and messages are pushed/pulled in perfect sync.
5. Finally, a real browser!
6. OK, so there’s no 3G yet, but it’s pretty damn fast when there’s a wireless connection.
7. When I got stuck in traffic last week, it was great to find out where the problem was using the Google Maps app.
8. Weather. Once your location is set up, it’s there with just one touch.
9. The display is amazing for photos and videos, and Coverflow is very cool.
10. The iPhone locks all by itself; I don’t have to remember to do it before sliding it into my pocket or purse.
11. Visual voicemail is very cool. I don’t know why all mobile phones don’t offer this.

Not So Much…

1. The touch keyboard is too small. I don’t have big man-hands, yet I type the wrong letter about 50% of the time — although I’m getting better at using it with practice. They need to make the keyboard available in landscape mode in all applications, not just Safari.
2. Lack of a decent Gmail interface is just fucking lame. Google, you need to support IMAP right this minute! Do you hear me? Don’t make me go back to using Yahoo for my primary email. Fixed 10/28/07
3. No custom ringtones unless you buy and edit them on iTunes? Apple, WTF are you thinking? I tried this function and it works OK, but having to buy a song twice (three times, if I already own it) in order to make it a ringtone just pisses me off. Fixed 12/26/07
4. I don’t give a rat’s ass about having stock updates on my phone, but I can’t remove the icon.
5. If you’re going to make it so I can’t upload my own Java apps, at least provide a couple of games out of the box.
6. For something so pricey, the iPhone really should be 3G compatible to support Safari properly.
7. The Safari browser does not have the Flash plug-in required to run Flash video. There’s an excellent analysis of the various possible reasons and solutions on Mercurious, but for now, it effectively limits users’ ability to watch the vast majority of current internet video without first downloading it and then syncing.

Tagged as: Apple, iPhone