iPhone Impressions and Pictures
April 3
Well, after 3 years of rumors, and over 4 hours of waiting and roasting in the hot sun dehydrating (couldn't the AT&T store have had some water for the 60+ people baking outside of their store on Monroe street?), I got my iPhone. Having successfully dodged AT&T's attempts to upsell me on services that I neither wanted, or needed, I headed home to unpack the phone.
If you would like to see some pictures taken during the unpacking process you can find them here:
http://homepage.mac.com/chamady/PhotoAlbum36.html
The iPhone uses iTunes for setup and activation. The entire process was very clearly laid out, and straightforward. The only hang up that I experienced occurred during the activation process. After attempting to activate the phone at 8 PM, I got an error message in iTunes that my account could take up to 24 hours to activate. Another message then said that I would receive an email when the account was ready to activate the iPhone. I went to bed at 1 AM and still hadn't received that email. At 8 AM, I woke up and had the good news emails from both AT&T and Apple. I reconnected my iPhone and in under 5 minutes everything was good to go. In hindsight, I am attributing these issues to the fact that Apple and AT&T sold and activated over half a million phones in 3 days!
See:
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/03/iphone.breaks.att.record/
Click the link below for access to AT&T's iPhone information page that contains plan pricing:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iPhone.jsp
Having watched the iPhone commercials and videos for some time, I had felt that if the iPhone lived up to those representations, Apple would have a successful product. So far everything that we have seen in any of the online videos is identical to my experience. For this reason, I believe that the iPhone will be a phenomenal success.
See:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html
Some points:
I really enjoy the keyboard. In order to experience the keyboard in the way in which Apple intended, the user should learn to trust the iPhone to correct mistyped words. Once the user learns to just press the spacebar after typing words, regardless of the mistakes, the speed at which you can type is greatly increased.
The multitouch interface is simply amazing. You absolutely have to experience it for yourself. Resizing pictures or the web browser by pinching your fingers together, or drawing them open is a pleasure producing event that I can't quite articulate into words. Go to an AT&T store and ask for a demo.
The iPod functionality on the iPhone is absolutely incredible. The new form factor of the phone and the screen size are exactly what portable video needed. I am amazed by the quality of both iTunes videos and the videos that you can download from Google's YouTube service. The iPod cover flow feature is exceptionally smooth and the quality of the album art is stunning. I can see Apple releasing a new iPod using this form factor in the coming months just in time for the Christmas season.
Data access over the Edge network seems to be a bit faster than a dialup connection. I've been using it now for 4 days and it seems just fine for SMS messaging, emailing and light web browsing. If you are going to be doing heavy data transfers like YouTube and Google Maps, you probably want to be on Wi-Fi. Speaking of Wi-Fi, while I am able to easily connect to the new Apple access points, I can't seem to negotiate a successful connection to the older D-Link access points that we will soon be replacing at CCHS. I didn't try to change any router settings so this may be a small glitch that can easily be overcome. UPDATE- I was able to set a static IP address on the iPhone and successfully connect to a D-Link wireless router. DHCP seems broken however.
My impressions of the AT&T network so far have been surprisingly good. ***UPDATE BELOW I had heard horror stories both online and from friends that I would have terrible reception and bad signal availability. This hasn't been my experience at all. In fact, our family just took a trip to Devil's Lake outside of Adrian, Michigan. While there, my wife was not able to get a signal on her phone (Verizon service), while I was able to successfully use my iPhone (AT&T).
The nicest part of this phone is the overall user experience. While using previous cell phones, I don't think that I ever learned how to use more than 5% of their features. In the first 4 days that I have had this phone, I think that I have mastered about 95% of its current feature set. Apple has truly created a cell phone with the ease of use of a Macintosh computer.
Speaking of features, here is a wish list of mine. I would like to see a way to copy/paste text between the applications. I would also like to be able to get the pictures taken on my phone onto my computer. UPDATE- It turns out that, unlike all other data, you don't use iTunes to sync photos from the iPhone to your computer. Open up iPhoto and the application will see your iPhone as a camera. This will allow you to quickly import any pictures into your computer that you have taken using your iPhone's built in camera. Awesome!
While the SMS program works well for quickly chatting with friends, you have to switch over to email if you want to send them a picture. An MMS program would fill this need nicely.
It would also be nice to be able to upload photos to web services via the Safari browser. There is no way to browse the file system of the iPhone.
Being able to use any song in your iTunes music collection as a ringtone is another feature that I think would be a welcome addition.
Lastly, in order to match the features of other high end cell phones, Apple needs to allow users to capture full motion video on the iPhone.
If I had to rate the iPhone, I would give it a 9.5 out of 10. Once Apple fixes some of the minor details mentioned above, I predict that they will quickly capture marketshare in the cell phone industry becoming the premiere consumer platform for home computing, multimedia content sales and delivery, as well as the leading vendor of portable media devices and cell phones.
If you would like to post questions, comments or feedback, feel free to do so at my blog that you can find here.
If you want even more detailed information, check out Engadget's review here:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/03/iphone-review/
***UPDATE- Indoor coverage in some buildings has been pretty weak. I've dropped calls while driving in my car also. I contacted AT&T and they sent me a form letter informing me that many things contribute to quality of service such as the weather. I guess the other day (gorgeous weather....not a cloud in the sky) when I was driving home from work and I dropped calls they have a good excuse. In my opinion, they need better QOS. Funny thing is, they must feel that way as well. See:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/08/27/atandt-dropping-fewest-dropped-calls-claim/
****FINAL UPDATE- AT&T tech support re-configured my iPhone's receiver remotely and dramatically improved the signal strength of my iPhone. I still drop calls, but not nearly as often as I did prior to their tech support.
Chris Hamady
If you would like to see some pictures taken during the unpacking process you can find them here:
http://homepage.mac.com/chamady/PhotoAlbum36.html
The iPhone uses iTunes for setup and activation. The entire process was very clearly laid out, and straightforward. The only hang up that I experienced occurred during the activation process. After attempting to activate the phone at 8 PM, I got an error message in iTunes that my account could take up to 24 hours to activate. Another message then said that I would receive an email when the account was ready to activate the iPhone. I went to bed at 1 AM and still hadn't received that email. At 8 AM, I woke up and had the good news emails from both AT&T and Apple. I reconnected my iPhone and in under 5 minutes everything was good to go. In hindsight, I am attributing these issues to the fact that Apple and AT&T sold and activated over half a million phones in 3 days!
See:
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/03/iphone.breaks.att.record/
Click the link below for access to AT&T's iPhone information page that contains plan pricing:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iPhone.jsp
Having watched the iPhone commercials and videos for some time, I had felt that if the iPhone lived up to those representations, Apple would have a successful product. So far everything that we have seen in any of the online videos is identical to my experience. For this reason, I believe that the iPhone will be a phenomenal success.
See:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html
Some points:
I really enjoy the keyboard. In order to experience the keyboard in the way in which Apple intended, the user should learn to trust the iPhone to correct mistyped words. Once the user learns to just press the spacebar after typing words, regardless of the mistakes, the speed at which you can type is greatly increased.
The multitouch interface is simply amazing. You absolutely have to experience it for yourself. Resizing pictures or the web browser by pinching your fingers together, or drawing them open is a pleasure producing event that I can't quite articulate into words. Go to an AT&T store and ask for a demo.
The iPod functionality on the iPhone is absolutely incredible. The new form factor of the phone and the screen size are exactly what portable video needed. I am amazed by the quality of both iTunes videos and the videos that you can download from Google's YouTube service. The iPod cover flow feature is exceptionally smooth and the quality of the album art is stunning. I can see Apple releasing a new iPod using this form factor in the coming months just in time for the Christmas season.
Data access over the Edge network seems to be a bit faster than a dialup connection. I've been using it now for 4 days and it seems just fine for SMS messaging, emailing and light web browsing. If you are going to be doing heavy data transfers like YouTube and Google Maps, you probably want to be on Wi-Fi. Speaking of Wi-Fi, while I am able to easily connect to the new Apple access points, I can't seem to negotiate a successful connection to the older D-Link access points that we will soon be replacing at CCHS. I didn't try to change any router settings so this may be a small glitch that can easily be overcome. UPDATE- I was able to set a static IP address on the iPhone and successfully connect to a D-Link wireless router. DHCP seems broken however.
My impressions of the AT&T network so far have been surprisingly good. ***UPDATE BELOW I had heard horror stories both online and from friends that I would have terrible reception and bad signal availability. This hasn't been my experience at all. In fact, our family just took a trip to Devil's Lake outside of Adrian, Michigan. While there, my wife was not able to get a signal on her phone (Verizon service), while I was able to successfully use my iPhone (AT&T).
The nicest part of this phone is the overall user experience. While using previous cell phones, I don't think that I ever learned how to use more than 5% of their features. In the first 4 days that I have had this phone, I think that I have mastered about 95% of its current feature set. Apple has truly created a cell phone with the ease of use of a Macintosh computer.
Speaking of features, here is a wish list of mine. I would like to see a way to copy/paste text between the applications. I would also like to be able to get the pictures taken on my phone onto my computer. UPDATE- It turns out that, unlike all other data, you don't use iTunes to sync photos from the iPhone to your computer. Open up iPhoto and the application will see your iPhone as a camera. This will allow you to quickly import any pictures into your computer that you have taken using your iPhone's built in camera. Awesome!
While the SMS program works well for quickly chatting with friends, you have to switch over to email if you want to send them a picture. An MMS program would fill this need nicely.
It would also be nice to be able to upload photos to web services via the Safari browser. There is no way to browse the file system of the iPhone.
Being able to use any song in your iTunes music collection as a ringtone is another feature that I think would be a welcome addition.
Lastly, in order to match the features of other high end cell phones, Apple needs to allow users to capture full motion video on the iPhone.
If I had to rate the iPhone, I would give it a 9.5 out of 10. Once Apple fixes some of the minor details mentioned above, I predict that they will quickly capture marketshare in the cell phone industry becoming the premiere consumer platform for home computing, multimedia content sales and delivery, as well as the leading vendor of portable media devices and cell phones.
If you would like to post questions, comments or feedback, feel free to do so at my blog that you can find here.
If you want even more detailed information, check out Engadget's review here:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/03/iphone-review/
***UPDATE- Indoor coverage in some buildings has been pretty weak. I've dropped calls while driving in my car also. I contacted AT&T and they sent me a form letter informing me that many things contribute to quality of service such as the weather. I guess the other day (gorgeous weather....not a cloud in the sky) when I was driving home from work and I dropped calls they have a good excuse. In my opinion, they need better QOS. Funny thing is, they must feel that way as well. See:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/08/27/atandt-dropping-fewest-dropped-calls-claim/
****FINAL UPDATE- AT&T tech support re-configured my iPhone's receiver remotely and dramatically improved the signal strength of my iPhone. I still drop calls, but not nearly as often as I did prior to their tech support.
Chris Hamady