iPhone: the good, the bad, the beautiful

by Sylvano Lucchetti

It's fascinating sitting on a park bench checking email on the iPhone: to be offered the option to hook into an open Wi-Fi network that just happens to be nearby and thus avoiding any telephony costs. Finally, my days of GPRS reliance have ended, without having to just rely on 3G.

Owning an iPhone after years of operating with dated mobile phone devices is a major pleasure. But making that final decision to buy into the iPhone was not easy.

I spent a fair time reading up on various phones. It was obvious that the Nokia N series phones, the HTC range and even the Blackberry devices were all very impressive machines with features and capabilities that were not available on the iPhone. For some time I was swinging heavily to the idea of an N95, then a salesman convinced me that the HTC Diamond was the true saviour. But then my mind would again decide that the N95 was the better option - that is, until I learnt that the even better N96 was due for release... And what about the google phone that was coming? Oh, the pain.

So anyway, I would walk away from a yet another store more confused and more uneasy about the whole phone choice experience. I would think that my humble Samsung X640 clam shell could probably serve me well enough for at least a few more months.

But all the while, the iPhone was patiently waiting while I explored every other phone option, knowing that eventually I would decide to pick it up and check out what all the fuss was about. And I did.

And I was hooked.

You see, I only read reviews on the iPhone and consciously avoided them during my in-store visits. I had to be very sure that I understood what else was available and that I wasn't just being enticed by extremely seductive marketing. It had to be marriage for better or worse.

I remained unconcerned that the iPhone had a low mega pixel camera, no flash, no video function and no zoom. It's a convenience camera after all, and I have another camera for my more serious requirements.

Why have a camera anyway, some have said, since you can't MMS them with an iPhone anyway. True, but you can email them, which for me is preferable.

And unlike many phones now, it isn't bundled with an FM radio. Can you believe it? My word! I will be forced to use it's iPod functionality to listen to my own selection of music, podcasts and videos. Oh how will I survive without commercials and silly announcers?

But let's get technical. Its limited blue tooth functionality cops a lot of flak. Though in my hands, this would actually become a zero blue tooth functionality as I've never had it and there's no way I'm sticking one of those things in my ear. And anyway, it has Wi-Fi.

But there are even more serious issues.

The iPhone gets slammed about battery life to such a degree that if you followed the advice on how to extend battery life, you would shut it down completely, return it to the box and pull it out every Christmas morning to recreate the joy of getting it. And it's a bit of bull anyway if you read up about it.

Apple's anal control of the operating and file systems means that you can't upload files via web forms, and there is limited or no support for things like Flash, Java and stuff.

There's no cut and paste functionality.

You need to reboot the phone every couple of days to flush it for some application memory leaks that leads to some application crashes. But the reboot does fix it.

After all this, I still bought into the iPhone.

And I will tell you why.

It's a touch screen.

As far as I am concerned, this is the future. This also meant that the HTC models were the only real other option at present, until the other phone companies release their catch-up models. The Blackberry, for example, is scheduled to release a very innovative touch screen device this Christmas - you'll actually feel the screen depress beneath your fingers! Which is kind of sick, because it's really for people to wean off the fact there is no physical key pad.

The iPhone's screen pad is very quick to use and you don't have to have a form factor polluted with a fixed key pad.

The iPhone's got a bloody big screen.

You know what I mean?

3G and Wi-Fi
This model iPhone is 3G, it has Wi-Fi and of course can fall back onto the GPRS protocol when needed.

With the number of Wi-Fi hot spots about, or your home Wi-Fi, you can really pump through some data without worrying about hitting your plan limits. And as I know from my old clam shell device, when 3G is flaky or if you turn off 3G when surfing web sites optimised for mobile phones, GPRS is actually more than adequate anyway.

Applications
Games, utilities and every kind of thing is being created for the iPhone. Many are free, many more are a dollar or two, some are more expensive.

It's really sweet browsing in the Apps store and downloading stuff. You can download applications via 3G, Wi-Fi, or connected to your main computer.

And the phone itself is just an application under a screen. To have a thing that is specifically designed to be updated over time when hooked into your main computer just makes sense.

It's beautiful.
The form over function debate is not so straight forward when you deal with a device like the iPhone. Like the Nintendo DS lite or the regular iPod, you discover the way in which form creates and enhances function.

Its flat, it's sleek and it's pure screen.