Sunday, July 08, 2007
I've been using the iPhone for over a week now and I'll say it's pretty much the greatest gadget I've ever owned. Software wise, it's nearly perfect. I've never seen a first gen product executed so well (I mean, except for Final Cut Pro, of course :).) Here are my favorite features:
1. Voicemail
Apple has been advertising "Visual Voicemail" but I didn't realize how great it would be until I used it. Personally I don't care about random access voicemail; I don't get enough voicemail for that to be useful. What I do love is hearing my messages instantly when I hit play. No more computer voice, "You have 2 messages....First meesages from 6, 5, 0, 7, 9, 9...sent at 7...59....pm...." ARGH!!! Just play the damn message!
Not only can you play your messages on your phone easily through visual voicemail, but you use the iPhone screen and interface to setup your voicemail pin and personal greeting. You *never* have you call your voicemail and deal with voice prompts.
2. The Keyboard
There was a lot of concern that the keyboard would suck. I was worried about that as well. But any iPhone owner can tell you it's great. When I demo it to people, they are blwon away at how I can wail on the keys with two thumbs and make no mistakes.
They keyboard's autocorrection is very smart. The dictionary learns what you type. And it's prefilled with Apple words (iPhone), profanity (this is fucking cool), and all the names from your address book (hi, Nikhil).
3. Safari
Yes, it's a real browser on a phone (no flash though). But there's more to it than that. When you double click on a section of a website, Safari doesn't just zoom in some fixed amount (say, 150%). It actually knows the layout of the webpage (the width of the tables, say) and it zooms in to exactly the section you double clicked on. So if you are reading a column of text, it will zoom so that text fits perfectly.
Double tap on a photo and the photo will fill the screen horizontally. Rotate your iPhone and Safari knows which photo it was zoomed in on, and it adjusts the zoom amount so that photo continues to fill the width of the screen. Awesome!
You can view movie trailers by going to apple.com/trailers/iphone. Each QT movie gets a small play button on it. When you hit play, the movie takes over the whole screen. Nice. When you zoom in and out of the webpage, the play button doesn't get bigger or smaller (that would be dumb). Instead the button changes size as appropriate. I think this is showing the resolution independence needed for iPhone's 160ppi screen (this is a feature of Leopard)
4. Ring/Silent switch on the side of the phone
So simple and so so great. You don't have to look at your phone or even pull it out of your pocket to switch it to silent. You get feedback so you know you went from ring to silent. I once had a phone that made a confirmation sound when you put it into silent. How stupid is that?
5. General multi-touch features
Pinching to zoom is cool. Flicking through lists is unbelievable. The way it slows down over time and the rubberbanding at the end of the lists is great. Now I feel like the scrolling on my mac should do the same.
6. AT&T registration
It took me less than 10 minutes to sign up via iTunes, port of my number, and sync all my info
7. Apple Bluetooth headset
You just place it on the dock next to your iPhone to charge it AND PAIR IT to the phone.
8. Hardware design
All the way down at number 8? Well, it's cool, but the software is what makes the product so much better than the competition. In any case, the hardware is gorgeous, thin, feels great in your hand. The metal bezel, Apple logo, all incredible.
But is it tough? Glass screen is pretty much scratch proof. Check out this video at pc world. iPhone screen tests
The iPhone release last Friday was a lot of fun. There were thousands of people in line across the country ready to put down $600 on something THEY HAD NEVER SEEN NOR TOUCHED. That shows what the Apple brand has become. Just before 6pm there was a countdown that could be heard throughout the shopping mall I was in. People were lined up at all the railings on the higher floors looking down. It was a very exciting day for Apple.
1. Voicemail
Apple has been advertising "Visual Voicemail" but I didn't realize how great it would be until I used it. Personally I don't care about random access voicemail; I don't get enough voicemail for that to be useful. What I do love is hearing my messages instantly when I hit play. No more computer voice, "You have 2 messages....First meesages from 6, 5, 0, 7, 9, 9...sent at 7...59....pm...." ARGH!!! Just play the damn message!
Not only can you play your messages on your phone easily through visual voicemail, but you use the iPhone screen and interface to setup your voicemail pin and personal greeting. You *never* have you call your voicemail and deal with voice prompts.
2. The Keyboard
There was a lot of concern that the keyboard would suck. I was worried about that as well. But any iPhone owner can tell you it's great. When I demo it to people, they are blwon away at how I can wail on the keys with two thumbs and make no mistakes.
They keyboard's autocorrection is very smart. The dictionary learns what you type. And it's prefilled with Apple words (iPhone), profanity (this is fucking cool), and all the names from your address book (hi, Nikhil).
3. Safari
Yes, it's a real browser on a phone (no flash though). But there's more to it than that. When you double click on a section of a website, Safari doesn't just zoom in some fixed amount (say, 150%). It actually knows the layout of the webpage (the width of the tables, say) and it zooms in to exactly the section you double clicked on. So if you are reading a column of text, it will zoom so that text fits perfectly.
Double tap on a photo and the photo will fill the screen horizontally. Rotate your iPhone and Safari knows which photo it was zoomed in on, and it adjusts the zoom amount so that photo continues to fill the width of the screen. Awesome!
You can view movie trailers by going to apple.com/trailers/iphone. Each QT movie gets a small play button on it. When you hit play, the movie takes over the whole screen. Nice. When you zoom in and out of the webpage, the play button doesn't get bigger or smaller (that would be dumb). Instead the button changes size as appropriate. I think this is showing the resolution independence needed for iPhone's 160ppi screen (this is a feature of Leopard)
4. Ring/Silent switch on the side of the phone
So simple and so so great. You don't have to look at your phone or even pull it out of your pocket to switch it to silent. You get feedback so you know you went from ring to silent. I once had a phone that made a confirmation sound when you put it into silent. How stupid is that?
5. General multi-touch features
Pinching to zoom is cool. Flicking through lists is unbelievable. The way it slows down over time and the rubberbanding at the end of the lists is great. Now I feel like the scrolling on my mac should do the same.
6. AT&T registration
It took me less than 10 minutes to sign up via iTunes, port of my number, and sync all my info
7. Apple Bluetooth headset
You just place it on the dock next to your iPhone to charge it AND PAIR IT to the phone.
8. Hardware design
All the way down at number 8? Well, it's cool, but the software is what makes the product so much better than the competition. In any case, the hardware is gorgeous, thin, feels great in your hand. The metal bezel, Apple logo, all incredible.
But is it tough? Glass screen is pretty much scratch proof. Check out this video at pc world. iPhone screen tests
The iPhone release last Friday was a lot of fun. There were thousands of people in line across the country ready to put down $600 on something THEY HAD NEVER SEEN NOR TOUCHED. That shows what the Apple brand has become. Just before 6pm there was a countdown that could be heard throughout the shopping mall I was in. People were lined up at all the railings on the higher floors looking down. It was a very exciting day for Apple.