A quick iPhone review
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As I knew I must, I made a pilgrimage to the Apple Store today to check out iPhone.
I had envisioned a spare, empty table with few customers and many iPhones, but actually the table was surrounded by people enchanted by the device, each holding the floor models like rare and precious jewels. Conversation related to things like breaking contracts with Verizon and husbands trying to talk their wives into letting them buy iPhone.
Since I am most interested in the iPhone as an internet communications device, I thought a few comments on this might be interesting and useful, despite the huge overload of information on the web. Also, I think there's something inherently interesting about individual's impressions, as opposed to those of the giant reviewing groups that you've already read.
Of course the first thing I did was to pull up my own web site, the new social network amazing.com. I was planning to make special profiles for the iPhone and other similar devices and so I was anxious to get started ...
Only to see it wasn't necessary. The iPhone pulled up a display of my web page in miniature. After a moment or two of blur it suddenly snapped into focus and I could read the whole thing. I pulled up a bunch of amazing.com profiles and they were all the same - small but sharp and clear as a bell.
Upon reflection, I realized this is because you hold up a phone closer to your face than a computer, so the phone's screen actually occupies almost as much of your eye's viewing area as a laptop screen placed further away. I found even the portrait view extremely readable for my site; for sites using smaller type, flipping the iPhone to landscape mode made them easy to read too.
It's truly amazing to see this vision of the whole web page. The pinching and expanding of your fingers to change iPhone's display worked smoothly and well, but as mentioned above, with the huge screen it really was not necessary for web pages.
Screen and fingerprints
As everyone has already told you, the iPhone has a bright and beautiful screen. Many people are worrying about fingerprints and their impact. The bad news is that if you turn your iPhone off, you will see fingerprints all over the place. But the display is so bright and beautiful that you won't see them even after the use and misuse the demo units get from the store's customers.
Amazing -- just as advertised
It's interesting to reflect on what has been done to sell iPhone. The commercials simply show off what it does and exactly how it works. The iPhone itself behaves exactly as it does in the commercials.
Simple as that.
If you thought the iPhone seemed unreal, like something dropped from another planet, I can't blame you -- but the iPhone is real, and the commercials show exactly how it works.
The performance is that fast, the movements are that fluid, the whole thing looks and feels like something out of a dream.
EDGE network performance
Some have claimed the EDGE network's performance has been improved by AT&T. Oddly enough, they have denied this, which is curious since I got fairly encouraging performance when I switched off the Apple store's WiFi.
When I pulled up a typical web site through EDGE, text came up very fast and images lagged somewhat, but the result was very usable. I'm sure videos would have done poorly but since most information on the web is still text, that doesn't bother me much.
If you're pulling up news sites and mainly reading and looking at pictures, based on my tests at the store I don't think you'll find EDGE that much of an issue. Of course if you want full streaming video that's likely to be another story entirely.
YouTube
I find YouTube video stuttery even using a cable modem and a PowerMac G4. YouTube on Apple's WiFi was smooth and flawless. It may actually outperform a PC, and it will look a lot better because you're closer to the screen and the videos fill the whole thing.
Keyboard
I had about an hour with the device and I went from embarassingly slow to almost proficient in about that time. I didn't miss tactile feedback because the audible click when I hit the key and the key appearing large on the screen both confirmed that I had pressed a key, and that it was the right (or wrong) one.
Unfortunately, I hit a very strange bug where the backspace key would repeat on its own and erase the entire message I was writing, instead of just a single key! The Apple Store people were quite surprised to see it, especially since it happened on two different iPhones. They told me that they would investigate it after the store closed.
Oddly enough, the only performance problems I saw with the device related to the keyboard. There is a short but perceptible lag between when you press the onscreen key and when the image of the key appears on the screen.
Unfortunately, it's extremely difficult to type a complex password into the iPhone, probably because of the aforementioned backspace bug. I finally gave up and changed my password temporarily so that I could log in.
The automatic correction feature was probably confused by all the different people who used the in store test model. But it did look genuinely well thought out. I loved having a ".com" button while typing a URL.
Charm
This is an odd section for a review of an inanimate object, but by putting in physics simulations as things move around the screen, iPhone almost feels alive, like it has a personality. For instance, if you're zoomed in using the photo viewer, and you push your fingers across the screen, it will move the image as you move your fingers. Then it slows you down as you get to the edge, as though there is physical resistance. Then if you continue moving your finger, you pop through the resistance and move on to the next photo. This kind of thing makes it feel natural and doesn't distract you with tiresome error messages. Instead, it's simple and elegant.
Conclusion
Now that the early adopters have their iPhones, the serious job of selling it is underway. So a guy comes into the store, just to look, curious about the latest phenomenon but not really keen to buy and after a 10-minute demonstration he was ready to break his Verizon contract.
I think this happens a lot. iPhone is unlike any other product in this space, in that it knows how to charm and seduce people. Try saying that about your cellphone, and try walking into the Apple Store and not walking out with iPhone.
I dare you.
[You can write your comments by replying below, and if you don't have one you will then be automatically set up for an amazing.com account with any working email address.]
iPhone Edge Performance
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I've actually gotten a few search queries looking for more information on Edge performance, so I thought an update might be useful for some people.
Performance on EDGE is extremely variable. Sometimes it's almost as good as WiFi, other times it's barely usable. On balance, however, if you're waiting in line or at a restaurant table, EDGE will give you connectivity that will let you read whatever non-Flash, non-video site you want with ease.
If you compare this to, say, a Blackberry with 3G, it doesn't feel any slower, probably because the more powerful processor makes up for the lower data rate.
The switch between WiFi and Edge is outstandingly simple and transparent, so I would not worry about that.
After finally buying iPhone on August 25th, I think it's the best device I've ever owned. I'd unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone, and definitely suggest it over iPod Touch, because EDGE is extremely useful where there's no WiFi and the ability to make phone calls on only one device instead of carrying a boatload of them around is great.
Hope that helps.
D