[IxDA Discuss] iPhone - review

[Todd Zaki Warfel]

83rd in line at the Apple store in KOP and I had two phones in hand  
in about 20 minutes after the line started moving. Apple really had  
their game on. Buy your phone(s), then continue through the store to  
purchase accessories. That way they can get people their phones as  
quickly as possible and move the line.

Initial impressions:
-> Activation was really quick. I had two phones activated with  
numbers and working in under 10 minutes from the privacy of my own home.

-> Thinner than I expected. It's actually smaller than my 60GB and  
80GB iPod videos. It's a little taller, but thinner.

-> The ads don't do the UI justice. It's really slick. Motion is  
seamless. And the resolution is incredible.

-> The keyboard took about 2 minutes for me to get used to. Now I'm  
flying along pretty quickly. I can't type as fast as I can on a  
normal keyboard, but I can type a lot faster than I did on my Samsung  
t589 series (slim candy bar phone). My wife is a Blackberry user and  
it's taking her a little longer to get used to it - couple hours  
probably.

-> A couple of clever things about the keyboard. Audio feedback. The  
keys magnify as you move over them (you have to be on top of the  
screen for this). And when you're surfing the web, there's no space  
bar. You can't type spaces in URLs, so they just eliminate it and  
instead give you a handy little .com button. Very clever - contextual  
keyboard.

-> EDGE network isn't bad. It's no WiFi, but it's not bad. YouTube on  
EDGE is lower quality than using the WiFi.

-> The wireless network mode is really clever. When it senses you're  
near a WiFi spot, it comes up on screen and asks you if you want to  
join it - just like a Mac. In the future, it just remembers that  
network and when it's in range, it automatically hops over to that  
instead of using EDGE for downloading email, stocks, Google Maps, or  
surfing the Internet.

-> Syncing worked flawlessly. I manually selected a few playlists,  
photo albums, and a list of people from my Address Book. It synced  
them up in a few minutes (about 2GB worth).

-> One of the greatest things about Syncing and the iPhone - you can  
unplug it anytime you want, even mid-sync. There's no "Ooops! You  
disconnected a device..." message. It just knows. Finally.

-> Zooming in/out, panning, and scrolling take a bout 2 seconds to  
learn. Scrolling is backwards from how you use a mouse, but way more  
intuitive. You simply throw the screen into the direction you want to  
move.

-> Google Maps is great on the phone as well. And getting directions  
works well. I haven't tried the GPS out yet.

On the downside:
-> The screen shows fingerprints real bad. I'm going to get a  
protective film for mine. They run $14.99 for two.

-> The battery life is good for about 2 days when you're getting  
email, calling, texting, surfing YouTube, and the Web on the iPhone.  
So, not bad, but not stellar either.

Things they need to fix, or do in upcoming models:
-> I want to be able to select the little WiFi/network icon in the  
upper left corner of the screen to change networks. In every  
neighborhood I'm in, there are a number of open networks. Typically I  
just use my own, but...


Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
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Contact Info
Voice:	(215) 825-7423
Email:	todd at messagefirst.com
AIM:	twarfel at mac.com
Blog:	http://toddwarfel.com
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