My iPhone Experience

Recently, while my PDA was acting strangely, I tried the Apple iPhone as a prospective replacement for my AT&T Tilt (HTC 8925 running Windows Mobile 6.1). I bought an 8-gig 3G Black. Used it for 4 days, and returned it to go back to my Tilt (after hard-resetting it and reinstalling software).

Here’s what I like about the iPhone:

  • Nice form-factor. It felt sleek & good in my hand and in my pocket
  • Good screen. Nice, large, and bright
  • Decent battery life
  • Good network reception
  • Good sound on iPod stuff
  • Nice little touches throughout — the phone screen going off automatically when you put it to your ear and back on again when you bring it down — the garbage can animation when deleting a picture, for example — and others.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

  • Single-tasking! Why can’t I, for example, update my RSS feeds in the background while I organize my calendar?
  • Kludgy to get Audible audiobooks into the iPhone
  • No copy-and-paste between applications
  • No recurring reminders (I wanted Windows Mobile’s “Remind again 5 minutes before event starts” and other re-reminder options that the iPhone didn’t provide)
  • No caching RSS feed reader (I wanted the iPhone to download & cache all my feeds & images so I don’t have to wait for each one to download, and I can read feeds in a no-network area)
  • No turn-by-turn GPS (I know it’s coming, but it’s not here now)
  • 2 megapixel camera. My PDA has a 3 megapixel. Why go backward?
  • Too many apps that are feature limited or payware. I felt nickled-and-dimed.
  • Cannot hard-reset and rebuild. It felt like I was being allowed to use their proprietary technology, but I never felt like I was using my technology.
  • Apple’s iron-fisted control over the apps that are available and their slow app review/release process
  • Cannot expand the iPhone’s memory
  • Cannot mark calendar events as private
  • Cannot assign calendar events to categories. My brother-in-law showed me a workaround involving multiple calendars, but that made my desktop calendar view messy.
  • The iPhone did not show today’s special events (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) in the calendar view. Sure there are apps for that, but I look at my calendar every day — why should I have to install/open another app?
  • Lack of a Today screen (though I was getting used to not having it) — I saw a cool unlock screen app that would put the day’s events on the lock screen that was pretty cool. Maybe that was for jailbroken phones only.
  • The entire need to “jailbreak” one’s iPhone. I’m an adult. Let me decide what to install on my PDA.

If/when Apple addresses these issues, I will consider the iPhone again. But things like “single tasking” are not likely to be addressed by firmware revisions.

In response to Apple’s rapid release cycle, I’ve heard it said that when Apple releases something that is useful to you as it is that you should consider buying it. The iPhone, while very cool — and the focus of a rabid fanbase — just didn’t have the business applications that I require. It was not useful to me as it is. It’s a good platform; just not for me at this point.



8 thoughts on “My iPhone Experience”

  • Didn’t you comment that the reason you purchased the iPhone, to begin with, was that the your current PDA/Smartphone was unstable? Perhaps if you would “use their proprietary technology” you current PDA would not be so “unstable.”

    Apple has strict control over their products so that users have an enjoyable, RELIABLE experience. If you would use Apple’s products as intended, rather than try to hack the device so you can use “Your technology,” the devices you own might be more stable.

  • Didn’t you comment that the reason you purchased the iPhone, to begin with, was that the your current PDA/Smartphone was unstable? Perhaps if you would “use their proprietary technology” you current PDA would not be so “unstable.”

    Apple has strict control over their products so that users have an enjoyable, RELIABLE experience. If you would use Apple’s products as intended, rather than try to hack the device so you can use “Your technology,” the devices you own might be more stable.

  • @Dan: Yes. Before I purchased, I made sure I could return it. The AT&T store has a fairly standard return policy for iPhone 3G: 30 days, minus a $20 restocking fee. They even rolled back the new contract I had to sign. Note that the older iPhones (non-3G) were NOT returnable.

    @Anonymous: Yes, my existing Smartphone was acting strangely. That was the reason I started considering a replacement. However, I did NOT jailbreak the iPhone or do anything that wasn’t blessed by Apple and my experience was still below my expectations. I should also note that my Smartphone is not hacked in any way, either. I am not suggesting that my Smartphone is perfect — far from it — but rather that it suits my needs more completely than the iPhone did. As stated, I will continue to evaluate the iPhone with future releases to see if the list of issues are addressed in a satisfactory way.

  • @Dan: Yes. Before I purchased, I made sure I could return it. The AT&T store has a fairly standard return policy for iPhone 3G: 30 days, minus a $20 restocking fee. They even rolled back the new contract I had to sign. Note that the older iPhones (non-3G) were NOT returnable.

    @Anonymous: Yes, my existing Smartphone was acting strangely. That was the reason I started considering a replacement. However, I did NOT jailbreak the iPhone or do anything that wasn’t blessed by Apple and my experience was still below my expectations. I should also note that my Smartphone is not hacked in any way, either. I am not suggesting that my Smartphone is perfect — far from it — but rather that it suits my needs more completely than the iPhone did. As stated, I will continue to evaluate the iPhone with future releases to see if the list of issues are addressed in a satisfactory way.

  • Sighh Andrew… the iPhone is not a windows mobile device and for that I am thankful 🙂 Remember I had a windows mobile based device for 5+ years and I have no regrets switching to the iPhone. Multi-tasking? I rather use a laptop if I need to multi-task. To each his own I suppose. I got tired of my clunky feeling, always crashing no matter how many hard resets and reinstalls HTC device. You are honestly the first person that didn’t commit to the iPhone cult after buying one that I know.

  • Sighh Andrew… the iPhone is not a windows mobile device and for that I am thankful 🙂 Remember I had a windows mobile based device for 5+ years and I have no regrets switching to the iPhone. Multi-tasking? I rather use a laptop if I need to multi-task. To each his own I suppose. I got tired of my clunky feeling, always crashing no matter how many hard resets and reinstalls HTC device. You are honestly the first person that didn’t commit to the iPhone cult after buying one that I know.

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