My friend Vincent from my primary school days wrote this rousing note on Facebook reviewing the iPhone after using it for a little more than a week. It’s one of the most thorough personal reviews of our beloved “Jesus Phone” to date (in my biased opinion). I’m reposting it here with his permission so that those of you who visit our blog can get an honest, outside take on the iPhone from a user’s perspective. Please check out Vincent’s website and his blog for other articles on various subjects including travel and food.
Vincent’s Article:
I was using the iPhone for a week, and I guess I can give some comments on this Invention of the Year 2007 (by Times Magazine) now. I have been using this system for a year since I got an iPod Touch, and I am pretty familiar with how this system works.
Mac OS on iPhone is definitely one of the best systems I have used so far on mobile devices. I won’t go into the details of the features and functions this Apple phone has, and you can visit Apple.com/iPhone for more information. Here, I will tell you more about the good and bad things about it, so that you know more other than what Apple and other magazines say in the usability aspects.
Smoothest System, to use and to jailbreak
Seriously some people said that the system was pretty hard to control, and I have no idea why. With that few buttons and gestures to control the phone, I don’t know what the difficult part is. Some other people said that it was easy to use, but Mac computers were not. That further baffled me. They are the same system and take the same approach in interface design, how come people feel different on the two systems? I just don’t understand.
Anyway, I took less than 90 minutes to set up the phone and also jailbreak it. I installed many useful programs and turned it back to a phone that I can accept. I mean, iPhone actually missed quite some functions, and some people were complaining about all these important programs including MMS and video capturing. I got all of them working for me now. While I would call them stupid, I also want to say that if you use iPhone, you need to spend some time on it and explore, and learn how to take advantage of the system. If you don’t bother to spend time, or you expect it to be like other phones with everything installed so that you don’t need to worry, then you shouldn’t have bought this iPhone.
Missing Pieces
One of the major things missing form iPhone is definitely the copy-and-paste function, but reports found that Firmware 2.2 Beta sent by Apple to developers already embedded with some kind of copy-and-paste framework, together with Finder and Spotlight things. If that is true, the coming final v2.2 will turn iPhone into the real mobile computer platform.
Another thing that most people complain about is Safari. It just crashes suddenly when you are surfing the web. Apple addressed this in a report once, saying that it was caused by overloading of scripts in a web page. No matter what they tried to defend, it is a serious bug. I can’t bear the fact that this iPhone system has a Windows-like piece of software.
Also, after installing like 15 apps on my iPhone, the system starts to lag a little bit. Maybe it happens when you have themes loaded into it through Winterboard, but it sounds like it can be easily dragged down in speed by the apps. I guess Apple has to look into this seriously. If you use iPhone, you also need to bear the speed. Don’t expect your contact list springs up like instantly, nor should you expect that the SMS can come up in 2 seconds. You just have to slow down your biological clock.
Stupid Plans with Stupid Apps
Carrier plans definitely give people headaches before owning this little gadget. Without the Internet, iPhone is nothing but an iPod only. However, many service providers has already set up different traps for you to go into, so that while you enjoy your surfing, they get the most out of your wallet.
I don’t know why some apps need to connect to the Internet when you open them, but still you have to be very careful. Some free apps have ads and so unknowingly you connect to the Internet and start the counter. Of course you can also turn on the airplane mode but that would be lame to do so when you are on the train or on the street.
Best Part of the Apple
So what is the advantages of using the iPhone? For me, it is to complete my Apple series on the desk. Okay, I am just joking, but seriously, if you are using iCal, Address Book and other Apple software or computers, iPhone will go seamlessly with your daily routine. You may be thinking that other PDA or smart phones already do the same job but what is best is that, like Mac OS X on Macintosh, it is the environment and interface that make your life easily and prettier. With finger gestures controlling all the apps like slideshows and music, you feel like manipulating data and digital information. The Interface is so easy to understand, and that means a lot.
Of course, the animations and translucent panels are very attractive. I am a graphic and interface designer, and when I see the name, titles, information panels and buttons slide up on my iPhone when someone is calling, I feel good. It is just cool shit. It feels like being in some high-tech and futuristic movies. That’s something no phones and gadgets so far can do. Even PSP only has a pretty interface, but not a wow one.
Another thing is the keyboard. While people complain about this kind of touchpad keyboard to be too sensitive or hard to hit the keys, they don’t realize that this keyboard is one of the best inventions. Just because your fingers are bigger than any peanuts, this keyboard is designed so that it guesses what you want to input. It suggests corrections which can be taken with just spacebar, so that you can just type and apply without selecting yes or no. I type so fast that I usually type the messages 40% wrong, but it corrects everything for me and leaves no mistake in the end. Isn’t that so great? That’s why I don’t have a problem now to actually write blogs on the iPhone.
Learn to Appreciate, not just at the iPhone
I have to say, if you want to use iPhone, you must appreciate all the design and details it possesses. But then you may say, it becomes an attitude, a lifestyle and passion to design. Yes it does. I believe that this world seriously needs us to appreciate life more. We tend to miss so much detail and we take many things for granted. You can buy the iPhone because you are rich or because many others have it already, but then you are actually wasting your money. You may not care, but you ARE wasting money. You buy the iPhone because you appreciate its design including its accelerator and proximity sensor. You like the interface because you love all the animations and panel designs. Now that really means it when you say I like it.
Too many people around have it just because they want to, and that’s it. They don’t know that you can double-click the home button to get shortcuts, and they don’t know that you can slide right to delete something. They don’t even know the term jailbreaking. If you are this ignorant to own a phone, to me it is just a pure laughing stock. Or should I say, I feel sad that so many people become slaves of vanity, and even more sad for the designers who spent so much time to create these beautiful things.
So if you have iPhone and you realize now that you know so little, don’t worry. Try to explore more about your gadget by testing it and reading articles about it. Learn how to appreciate, and learn how to look into details. Remember, it is really about an attitude to life, not just mere ownership of a phone.
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