"What I like about the iPhone is that it is BETTER than every other phone I've used and it's actually fun to use and navigate. People want to quickly discount eye candy. Think about it. We love eye candy. We love animation. We love video. Otherwise we'd be content just reading text with no pictures, never watching a movie or TV and seeing everything in black and white with no color. We're visual beings. So the iPhone is appealing because it uses and stimulates our sense of touch and sight. I love it when people yell, "it's just a phone!"
Further down in his review, he makes the point that I made, one that I was called a liar for making by someone who shall go nameless because I am no longer addressing directly, who insisted that it was nothing unusual for a phone of the period to get a full Internet experience. What a load of revisionist TWADDLE that person claimed as truth when I knew very well he was full of it!
"After all I don't think any other phone (at least not any that I've seen) offer a full blown web browsing experience on a tiny screen. The implementation of Safari itself on the iPhone is well done! However, there are some flaws to this strategy. Most cell phone web browsers use WAP. WAP is a way for website designers to design a low bandwidth simple version of their sites. This works well on mobile devices. However, it's true you don't get the "full page" experience. Seeing that the iPhone doesn't support 3g and uses AT&T's Edge network instead, your pages could load painfully slow. Most commercial websites detect a WAP browser and automatically direct you to a lower bandwidth version of the site without all the frills. Since the iPhone uses a full version of Safari, that won't happen automatically. So you're going to get the regular site with all the graphics, etc. "
This person's claim that no one is referring to the multitouch sensors is completely specious. The Gizmodo review that is linked in the comments is a good example (emphasis is mine):
Like every other journalist will tell you, its multitouch UI, browser and iPod are all pants-worthy. . . .. . .I have spent many long minutes fingering the LCD, enthralled by multitouch's effortless ability to zoom into photos and scroll through long lists. It makes the 3.5-inch screen exponentially more useful than any 480 x 320 pixel LCD should be. What can Microsoft do with multitouch? They can put it in a friggin' $10k table for the Sheraton and T-Mobile. I love the buttonless design, and even if the keyboard is not as effective as a hardware model, it can be damn fast. While many tech luminaries have said they'd wanted to defenestrate the iPhone after struggling with its ghost QWERTY, people have been running at 35-40 WPM three days in. Safari on the iPhone is the best browser ever seen on a mobile, with or without Flash, because it actually renders everything "as it should".
So much for that person's assertions that multitouch is NOT even referred to in the reviews. It was, glowingly, just not his misnomer for the functionality.
You forgot to post a link to the long rambling blog post that you are calling a review. If anyone is patient enough to read a very very long piece of streaming consciousness from someone who apparently was never taught how to form a paragraph... then here is the link: http://terrywhite.com/iphone-review/
I am totally shocked actually, that this was the very best an expert such as yourself was able to come up with. Apple's incredible iPhone marketing team went to a lot of trouble fishing for positive reviews from well known individuals... and this is the best one you could come up with? It is pretty pathetic.
Swordmaker, how much of this review did you actually read? I am pasting some excerpts from the "review" you are citing that seem to contradict most of what you claim about the first iPhone being "revolutionary". Many of the shortcomings the author had with the first iPhone are the same issues that caused me not to purchase one. I can't remember any of these being issues with my PPC-6700 which came out 2 years before and was basically a Swiss Army knife when compared to the limited first iPhone. So again for all those who don't care to wade through a paragraphless monstrosity that Swordmaker has used as an example here are some excerpts:
"I gotta say that I don't love the virtual keyboard. It seems that so far I keep missing the keys on the right side. Nine times out of ten when I try to type an “o”, I hit the “p” instead. So I have to adjust and hit the key a little more to the left. Unlike the Palm, there is no calibration routine. This would be helpful so that the iPhone would know where you're likely to hit the keys.
The virtual keyboard is usable. It does work and I've banged out some emails and web forms on it. It's not as slow as I'm making it sound, but it's not as great as Apple would like us to believe it is either. Your mileage will vary. Apple suggests that after you get used to it you'll be able to type faster with two thumbs.
Since the iPhone is also an iPod it would be nice to have the music go over bluetooth as well. No chance of that currently.
Ringtones This would fall into the area of disappointment category. While the iPhone has 25 different ringtones built-in, they are kind of cheesy. Some are also not loud enough. I was really looking forward to using my own music which is already on the device as my ringtones.
If there was a copy paste feature I could at least email a note to the phone and then copy it into the the notes app. Alas Apple didn't allow for that either. Maybe this app should be called “Virtual Keyboard Practice” instead of notes.
I also get my Vonage voicemail as an attachment that comes in as a .WAV file. The iPhone email app doesn't play those attachments either. The one area that would help the iPhone get adopted more quickly by the business community is Microsoft Exchange Support. Without it, IT departments will not let you use the iPhone to access corporate email because of the security risks. Microsoft does license something called Active Sync. Hopefully Apple will adopt this or some other solution that would work. When this happens the flood gates would open. Until this happens it doesn't matter how great the iPhone is or isn't, the business community will be sitting on the sidelines and buying other smartphones.
Most cell phone web browsers use WAP. WAP is a way for website designers to design a low bandwidth simple version of their sites. This works well on mobile devices. However, it's true you don't get the “full page” experience. Seeing that the iPhone doesn't support 3g and uses AT&T's Edge network instead, your pages could load painfully slow. Most commercial websites detect a WAP browser and automatically direct you to a lower bandwidth version of the site without all the frills. Since the iPhone uses a full version of Safari, that won't happen automatically.
Over 98% of the computers on the internet today have the Flash player. This means that content developers can feel pretty assured that if they design a site that incorporates Flash, their content will be seen. Not having Flash or even Flash Lite on the iPhone is a serious drawback.
So it floors me and others that they didn't include this on the iPhone. The first thing my youngest daughter went to do when she grabbed my iPhone out of my hand, was to text her friend. I had to tell her, that's not going to work because SMS by default is only from cell phone to cell phone. She handed it back to me and walked away.
They think texting first, voice second. We can't talk about SMS without talking about MMS. MMS is multimedia messaging. This is real handy when you snap a photo and want to immediately send the photo to a friend's phone. I've done this a lot. For whatever reason, Apple hasn't included MMS on the iPhone. Yes, you can snap a photo, but you have to email the photo to the person you want to send it to and most cell phones are NOT set up to receive email. This is just wrong! Sure it would be nice if everyone had an iPhone, then it would be a non-issue because you could just email to your friend's iPhone. However, that just isn't the world we live in and it never will be. Apple admittedly only “hopes” to capture 1% of the cell phone market. So they know that most will not have iPhones.
Wi-Fi I believe that the iPhone has a bug in it when it comes to logging on to a WEP encrypted Wi-Fi network. Neither my iPhone nor my wife's iPhone would log onto our home network via the network password. Also note that my home network is using Apple's own AirPort Base Stations. So it's not a 3rd party vendor compatibility issue.
I'm surprised that it doesn't support 802.11n. Not that it needs to as there would be no speed advantage for surfing the web. However, if you had an 802.11n ONLY network, the iPhone wouldn't even see it.
AT&T is the provider for years to come on the iPhone. It's no secret that this was an unpopular decision to many. Clearly Apple would have sold many more iPhones if they were on more carriers. Most of my east coast buddies HATE AT&T because the service is so poor in their area. The funny thing is that while I never hear any say they love their phone, I do hear people say that they love Verizon all the time. I have Verizon as a carrier for my data card (EVDO) and the service has been great.
EDGE Edge is AT&T's 2.5g wireless data network. This network sometimes makes you crave dial-up speeds. It can be extremely slow. So needless to say I couldn't believe Apple would put their new internet device on this network and not take advantage of AT&Ts 3g network. Apple claims that the iPhone would have to be bigger and battery life would suffer if it were 3g. That may be true, however if the iPhone has any hope for adoption outside the US, 3g is a must
I would have run my favorite speedtest on Speakeasy.net, oh but wait, that requires Flash.
I was in the car with my wife and asked her to call the restaurant on her iPhone. She didn't have them in her contacts, but I did. I then realized that there is no way for me to send, beam or get the contact to her. You should at least be able to email a contact. How about bluetooth transfers? Nope, nadda.
Another example of where the iPhone could be smarter: I got an email from a buddy that contained his iPhone number. Great! I wanted to add it to his contact. Oh wait! There's no copy/paste function. There's no way to even save an email as a note. So I had to keep repeating the phone number to myself until I could get to his contact info to add it in manually.
Nevertheless, these features are missing today and some of them are key and make me scratch my head as to why they are not there now?
3g support – This was almost a deal breaker for me. Thankfully it has Wi-Fi.
Flash support – C’mon Apple, talk with Adobe and get this done. Steve, I hear you have a cool new phone in your pocket! The number is 408.536.3993 in case you forgot it.
Video recorder – Actually it was someone else that pointed this out. I didn't really think about the fact that there is no video recorder on the iPhone. Even my Treo has one. Seeing how Apple is all hip and cool when it comes to movies, music, podcasts and more, you'd think they'd let you record and send your own little video clips. Perhaps this was going to be too painful over EDGE.
Voice recorder – I don't use one, but many of you do! There is no voice recorder either. Since the iPhone has a built-in microphone it seems like it would be very easy to add this in via software.
MMS support – Doh! You can see that great shot when you get home honey. DUN – Dial-up Networking. This would allow you to use your iPhone as a Bluetooth wireless modem to your Mac Or PC laptop. Umm, Apple, you've been supporting this on other phones for years. Why not your own? Is it the EDGE thing again? I see. iPod games – Apple you sold me some cool $5 games for my iPod with video, but you won't let me play them on my $600 iPhone. Not sure why?
iTunes ringtones – This is another one for the “Doh!” category. I'm sure this one will come because there is money to be made. Besides, the ringtones on the iPhone are so lame that you'll want to buy or make your own as soon as they make this feature available. So maybe this was done intentionally to build up demand. I feel like I have all this music already on the device and it's being held hostage.
Removable Battery – This one doesn't bother me as much as it does others. I guess because I've gotten GREAT battery life out of all my iPods and have never had to have a battery replaced. However, from a convenience standpoint it would be nice to have two batteries for those long flights when I want to watch content on the iPhone and play games, oh wait, scratch that last part. Once I land, I could then pop in a second battery and be ready to get back to work.
Is the iPhone perfect or even close? Absolutely not, I’ve got a whole laundry list of things that I would like to see improved/added
In the comment section of his “Do I still like my iphone” blog post
arti ortega • 8 years ago
My biggest complaint is the camera & lack of flash. Just saw a friends Droid & loved the camera. My question to terry is, is a new iphone coming out this year? What can you tell us about it?\nTHX
Mei • 8 years ago
Sadly, I will be dropping my Iphone this year. I got it shortly after it first came out. I just don't get enough service and have checked with AT&T many times. I need something that is reliable and will get my emails to me everytime and on time. I see happy people using the newer Iphone and I think this one may work better than the first ones that came out like mine.
I hope you all have better luck with your Iphone and coverage than I did. I guess living in a remote area like —— Los Angeles,CA in a little known area called Malibu is just too small for AT&T.
FormerLoyalAppleCustomer • 9 years ago
I have always been a loyal Apple customer, but will never purchase another Apple product again....
N. Courtney • 9 years ago
I find it odd that Apple charges so much for a phone, and still locks you into a contract. When the industry started subsidizing the phones using the a backward retail model to begin with, it was just a matter of time that in the minds of the consumer the phone had no real value since it was being offered for a low price or for free, the retailers buy the phones for more than what they're sold, they make back their money from the carrier as long as the customer keeps the service active.
People who buy iPhones or even the iPod want to show off, it's still a communications device, and they're are a lot of communications devices that play music, have a timer, alarm clock etc. As with iPod, I have MP3 player, that also plays movies, and i don't have to keep them on the device, I can move the video to any computer of my choice something you can do with Apple products. they control the product and it's content, but some people are happy having other people control things for them, I on the other hand feel if I buy it I should be able to do whatever I want with the product and it's content as long as it's legal, on my terms not the ones dictated by Apple.
Unlike Adam, I'll pass on taking a bite from the apple. :)
This is one more example of you despicably changing the words of others to mislead readers. I said, “one thing that is missing in nearly all the reviews from the time period when the first iPhone was released is any mention of the “multitouch sensor”. I reached this conclusion after going through dozens of reviews from the time period. And I stand by it, even in the first “review” that you used as an example there is no mention.
who insisted that it was nothing unusual for a phone of the period to get a full Internet experience.
My Windows Mobile phone that came out 2 years before your precious iPhone was able to view full internet pages not just wap pages and was also capable of playing flash if you downloaded a capable browser. So I am not sure what point you are trying to make other than unleashing a load of meaningless insults. You apparently have completely lost your ability to make a meaningful point.
by someone who shall go nameless because I am no longer addressing directly.
That just makes me feel so bad coming from someone who said repeatedly that he would not respond on this thread any longer. Somehow I misunderstood what you meant. Obviously this conversation will go on as long as I choose for it to.
I have an MP3 player, that also plays movies, and I don't have to keep them on the device, I can move the video to any computer of my choice something you can't do with Apple products. they control the product and it's content, but some people are happy having other people control things for them, I on the other hand feel if I buy it I should be able to do whatever I want with the product and it's content as long as it's legal, on my terms not the ones dictated by Apple.
I also have a “MP4 Player” which I purchased slightly before the iPhone came out which had removable storage and was capable of playing a wide variety of music and video files. It also could play video games and had other features as well. The screen was quite a bit larger than phones of the day. It was some type of Chinese device that had a lot of eccentricities but it was a capable device that was more inexpensive than a name brand “MP3 player”
I was trying to find it so I could post a few pictures of it. I wouldn't claim that it looked like the iPhone or had the iPhone’s build quality, but it was shiny, black, had a 4.3” screen I believe with large icons, was thin and was rectangular with round corners. I bought it simply to have an inexpensive media player and entertainment device with a decent sized screen that would play videos that I downloaded when away from home.
I never did end up using it very much and haven't seen it for years. My wife probably gave it to the Goodwill. But the first iPhone did reminded me of it when it came out. I thought it was funny that Apple appeared to be copying some of the features of devices that the Chinese were releasing to compete with the iPod and those little hand held Nintendo games. It seemed like the worm had turned and legitimate manufacturers were copying the same companies who made nearly exact copies of their devices.