How do you like your iPhone?
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There is no doubt the Apple iPhone offers one of the most fun, sexiest, intuitive, and easy to use interfaces ever seen on a mobile device. But, is it really worth getting? Let’s get into that a little later. Right now here are the problems I am noticing on the device and I’m wondering if any of you are experiencing these issues too. Mind you all in all I activated 5 iPhones and we compared a lot of them, so the list below applies generally to every handset, not a malfunctioning one unless noted.
- When talking on the phone loudly, you can hear your voice "distorting".
I secretly kind of wish the iPhone was on the "Can you hear me now" network. Almost. - Yahoo!’s "push" email really does not work well, and definitely is not "push". Can’t we get some Exchange love here? Sure it’s supposedly coming soon, but can’t a guy just sync his darn contacts and all that fun business stuff?
- Please for the love of everything holy, can we get a "Reply-To" field so we change the reply address?
- The SMS and email alerts are so quiet that I can barely hear them in a quiet room. Really disappointing, with no way to increase that volume.
- This happened on one of the iPhones, but not really on my current one, yet I thought I’d mention it anyway…When the device is "sleeping" you sometimes miss calls. This is because the network indicator will show 1 bar, or "No Service", then when you unlock it, the bars jump up.
- The first iPhone I got would let me use all the functions of the phone, except it would not let me activate it in iTunes. Precisely the exact opposite of what is supposed to happen. A long call to tech support yielded no results and I ended up returning it. When connected to iTunes, instead of the activation screen, it would let me see the iPhone tab, copy music, sync contacts, etc. All the things you are able to do when the phone is activated.
- There are so many issues with the email program. For instance, you can’t mark all of them as "Read", you also can’t delete more than one at a time. To add insult to injury, there isn’t an "Empty Trash" option. Look forward to deleting all those emails you just deleted painstakingly one by one, again.
- The activation system is not at all setup for AT&T "legacy" customers. It just tells you that more information is required, and leaves you to die in pain waiting. What we ended up doing is migrating the "Blue" account to an "Orange" account, cancelled the pending activation, and went through again. That time it worked. AT&T reps in stores for the most part know this, and that is why they ask questions, but in all honestly most of the phones are being sold at Apple stores.
- My battery life is definitely suspect.
All in all, I personally love the phone. Shortcomings aside, it really is easy to use, and enables the user to get things done. Assuming that’s not real, heavy, hardcore email. The lack of a file system doesn’t bother me that much, but saving pictures to memory from emails, or the web would have been nice. And the whole "Web 2.0" applications talk, really sucks. Except for JiveTalk, but I’m not supposed to mention that. Maybe you guys have trouble using some applications that were designed for the iPhone like the IM program or whatever. When you scroll, the whole window scrolls and you can’t see more than one page, right? Wrong. Just use two fingers to scroll, exactly like a MacBook baby! That is about it. Again, I’d love to know what everyone thinks of the device, and what, if any, issues your having. On a side note, one of the reasons why AT&T stores got so few units, and were trumped by Apple stores, is because of the commission. AT&T reps make money when you activate an iPhone. What happens at the Apple store? Nothing. That whole commision goes right to Apple and AT&T. So genius. Hit us up!
UPDATE: Meebo.com officially works now. They added a "Go" button!
The iphone is a game changer. It will get better.
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I had nothing but problems, 24 hour activation, and then internet and sms problems, battery life lasts barely from morning to evening with meidum usage. speakerphone is horribly quiet. this is not a business device or blackberry killer at all. it is simply an eye candy device with a very nice interface
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Personally I love my iPhone. In fact, I’d argue that it’s better than what I thought it would be after reading the reviews, etc.
Does it have shortcomings? Sure, but none of them are deal-breakers (at least for me) and the advantages of the device far, far outweigh the nits. My biggest issue is w/AT&T’s coverage.
At the end of the day, the next-gen iPhone will sort a ton of these things out and, I would imagine, provide a good amount of new bits.
The bottom-line is that I can’t name another company/product that entered a new industry and changed the rules. There are likely some out there, but I can’t think of them right now.
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if you’ve got some extras, you can throw one my way… :]
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its software will evolve! 3G will magically unlock a la Macbook. Typing on mine now! It will be and is already in a class of its own
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My battery life last from morning and is dead by the end of the night when im playing with it moderately throughout the day.
It’s most likely because I have it on the highest brightness, which I’d rather have a brighter screen and charge it at night so it’s not that big of a deal.
Remember people this is just V 1.0 firmware I am positive a lot (if not most) issues will be addressed.
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This is not a business phone and Apple did not plan it to be one. Phones suck at doing music compared to an iPod. This is not a phone first and foremost. This is the best iPod ever built with a cellular radio in it. I love it!!!
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Thanks BG. You helped me make my mind up and I am positively not switching from my bb.
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carbon430, the blackberry has definitely changed the industry!!!! its waay better than the iphone hands down. if you compare the capabilities of each, the blackberry would definitely take the cake.
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blackberry is its own industry. iphone is changing the cellphone industry.
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I wouldnt mind checking out the iphone to see what all the fuss is about, but unfortunately i dont know anyone stupid enough to buy it with all the reported problems/issues.
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The iPhone is a great gadget. The phone portion of the gadget sucks and sucks big time. I don’t recommend purchasing the 8 Gig version of the phone until Apple fixes the volume problem. If you want a gadget this is it. If you want a phone buy a real phone. You must turn the volume to max with the speaker on to hear the voice of the person on the other line. My wife and I experience this problem starting with the first call. You can definitely experience it by calling someone from the AT&T store.
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Did anyone notice that not all the iPhone boxes are open in the picture? Yes my warped mind is hoping that somehow BG will have another blind drawing for a iPhone like th BB Curve. Heck it is the only way I can get one. Cant afford the $600. Oh well. The phone looks sweet and I agree with everyone that Apple will continue to upgrade this iPod until it is perfect. Sad about the battery considering all the press about the changes weeks before the release.
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iphone is a dope device, but with that being said…
i’m keeping my nano and BB on me and leaving the iphone with the wifee until exchange is working on it!
it’s gonna get much better closer to when leopard comes out.
remember this is a trojan horse to get all you PC heads to buy a mac.
expect some leopard only features/integration on the phone that will make you want to switch, it’s not like that’s a bad thing!
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People pick on the EDGE coverage that AT&T (Cingular) provides because of speed. My family and I drove from Phoenix to Spirit Lake Iowa on the main interstate highways and off the beat highways this weekend. The EDGE coverage was superb; for the speed I was able to access and surf the internet using Safari “At Will” albeit the slow speed. 3G is great when you are in a “great” coverage area. Beyond that forget it. I hope that AT&T will upgrade their existing EDGE network to handle up to 1Mbps. Correct me if I am wrong, but Ericsson release a upgrade package for the EDGE network this year.
The battery life on my wife and my phone was great. We got around 5 hours of usages with all the surfing, contact editing, photos, and music on the road. Thank goodness for the battery charger.
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BG, I agree 100%!!! I am in love with the iPhone, but the issues you list hit the nail right on the head for improvements. The most honest and practical “gripe list” of all the reviews out there that i have read so far.
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The iphone is a new class of device tragets “consumers” that doesn’t and will probably never read this blog. This device may have been the original goal of “ipod”, the “phone” part in the name is to make it easier to market.
iphone is not for everyone. Yes, you can telnet and ssh on a blackberry, but all consumer cares are ease of moving their music, photo, contact, and may be answer email and surf the Web occasionally. That’s way the ipod has been a success. Not everyone cares the specs, they just want their music player to work and move there CD collection to a computer without knowing the technology behind all the different music file format.
I know so many treo users that never sync the phone to their computer, the terminology “smartphone” is a oxymoron for them. Consumers that use blackberry have no idea there is a BES in corporate that really pull email and other data to the bb.
This is a 1.0 device, we all know there will be firmware update all the time, but you know what, no one will need to know how to update their firmware because it will be done automatically via itune. Have you try to do that to a Nokia device?
Speaking of using itune to interface with the iphone, that’s another marketing hook, so you will be syncing to the iphone and browser and may be buy more DRM content.
Now imagine in 6 months comparing a hsdpa/gps iphone with HTC P4550 “Kaiser” with WinMO 6, which one will a consumer buy if they are the same price? That’s like in the old days comparing a ipod mini to a iriver or creative mp3 player, we all know what the consumer decided.
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I love my iphone so far. Yes I agree with all the shortcomings and they need to be addressed. I too had activation problems and my visual voicemail doesnt work. I still think its an amazing device and look forward to it getting better with updates.
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Im loving my iphone and am typing this on it right now. Its not perfect YET but its a work in progress. I had no activation issues but are having some with the email program crashing but I’m sure apple will fix this all in due time. Patience is a virtue and this phone will be even better once firmware updates start coming out. To everyone who has one enjoy it, to everyone that doesn’t, buy one you won’t be sorry give it time everything takes time.
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I like mine because it got me 50 bucks on ebay
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I have a question. Has anyone tried to tether their iphone to a laptop yet?
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JJLO you are WRONG like hell the iPhone will change the game because if that’s a game changer then my blackjack is 6 worlds away from that p.o.s in a beautiful rainforest with beautiful girls in bikinis surrounding it where the iPhone is its own transvestite in a bikini. SH you are right about the eye candy part but the interface is still bad. BG you forgot to mention the lagging and randomly closing google maps application and how you can’t delete recent calls or anything one by one. O and the keyboard doesn’t work at all unless you use one finger, two thumbs is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of the question.
And again the iPod on there is genius and I would camp out in front of an APPLE store to get one. (if it ever reaches real iPod format)
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I am with T-Mo and this article…critique says to me that no matter how flashy of a phone and/ price that alone can’t beat great coverage… I am going back to Verizon
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Why is A&At become so… meh
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I agree with 1-5,7,9 of the shortcomings of the iPhone mentioned, with a few other tidbits
My complaints:
1. User Interface in the iPod and other areas should allow for horizontal swiping to go forward and back between screens. I’m amazed you can’t do this, because it would be awesome. Perhaps apple left it out because the screen navigation would get too squirly, but still it would be great to flip through songs, albums, etc with the same motion.
2. No cut, copy and paste. I got an email with a fedex tracking number and there was no way for me to copy the number and paste it into the fedex website. Felt like a deadend.
3. Lack of games. I was just at the doctors office and had nothing to do. Blackberry has brick breaker and winmo has solitaire.
4. 3G speeds. I know this has been criticized over and over again, but Safari on the iphone is hands down the best browsing experience ever on a handheld and makes both opera mobile and ie mobile seem absolutely stone age. The lack of 3G though makes browsing painful, which is too bad because imo the safari browser on the iphone is the best and most innovative feature.
5. Flash support. Okay, the safari browser could also support flash and java. Especially flash for casual browsing.
6. 3rd party applications. This is a mixed one for me, because on my old winmo 6, I loved that I could hack it, but hated that I had to reboot my phone constantly when an application would crash. Imagine windows 98 on your mobile phone. Sort of fun in a hackable way, but not so fun when you needed to get things done. Web apps though are not the solution.
All in all though, it is the best phone I’ve ever owned. Maybe not 600 bones good, but still the best phone I’ve had. The emerging smartphone market has been a hodge podge thus far with mixed experiences for me. The iPhone makes me believe again that I’ll be able to do everything on the go and with the added enjoyment of great build aesthetics and a super cool interface. I could hand this phone to my mom and she would think it was cool and easy to use. Can’t say the same for winmo 6, palm or s60.
That said, I can’t wait for the next software update and the inevitable 3G upgrade…
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