My thoughts on the iPhone

It was announced at Macworld in January, and since then, its been a never ending rollercoaster of rumours, gossip, pictures, and fake ads and info. But what do I think of the iPhone?

My opinion hasn’t changed much. I have some extra thoughts now (having heard about the N95) and some features I would like to see.

Personally, I think it will be an excellent product for already Apple fans (Me, and other recently met Apple fans). It will hopefully welcome a new way of looking at mobile phones, and hopefully prompt some clever thinking from other manufacturers.

1. Touch screen – I’m interested to try this out really. Being more of a texter, I am curious how it will feel typing with a few fingers. Often design and shape can make this easy or hard. Also, other so called “touch screens” seem more like buttonless buttons, where there is no physical separation, but still specific areas that work as buttons. They don’t seem dynamic. A true touch screen device will push this technology into other areas.

2. Full HTML browsing. A lot of people asked “what about flash or ajax?” I don’t care so much about this, although flash would be good for Revver, Jumpcut and other video players, not Youtube. I would just like to get away from horrible WAP browsing. Reduced eBay is awful, and most sites don’t render well so scrolling is a nightmare. I would like to read the Evil Genius Chronicles with ease please.

3. Google Maps – Now I can get these already on my Noka 6280 and N70, but the ease of viewing with pinching and dragging seems so much easier, and more how Google Maps works on a normal computer.

4. Visual Voicemail – Great idea. I would love that. If I can access my voicemail in random order, I can avoid all those messages left by phones ringing in pockets, or from someone I want to avoid. If I can see who its from, how long the message is, and playback at will, I’ll take that phone please. One handy thing here is local storage of voicemail. Lets say you’re travelling, and keep going out of cell service, if my phone downloads the voicemail while I have service, I can listen to later, and deal with, without the trouble of losing signal mid call. Woo-hoo!

5. SMS – I’ve seen the chat SMS feature on the Treo, and want a version for my N70. But the iPhone has it built in. I like this idea, would save me coming out of messages to look at what I’m replying to. And its pretty. insert emoticon.

I have concerns though, mainly about the UK model.

Now this will have to be different I think. UK phones are often branded to hell, and locked by SIM card to a network. Now Apple won’t allow branding, thats for sure. If they did, I would really reconsider purchasing one. They also have to choose networks carefully. There are 5 main providers. 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. 3 deal with only 3G networks, which is good because it provides high speed data transfer services. They infact market themselves entirely on this, with MobileTV, and videocalling a big deal.
The other networks are slowly picking up 3G as a good service. Personally I wouldn’t buy a phone now (baring iPhone of course) without 3G included.
I heard rumblings of Vodafone getting the contact over here, as they have good coverage, and are present in Europe as well. Apple, if you’re reading, DON’T! Please don’t. Go with T-Mobile. And here’s why.
The iPhone includes Wi-fi and is the main source of use for web browsing and Google Maps, and the other features that will use it. T-Mobile has a huge Wifi presence in the UK. They’re Hotspots are in almost every Starbucks, many hotels, public places, service stations, all over the place. All you have to do is put out a special package, which includes unlimited Wifi or cell-based wireless data service (like EDGE). I’m there. If I can walk into Starbucks for lunch, get out my iPhone and check my emails, view some web pages, for free, at high speeds, I’m sold. No other network can provide this service.

So what features are missing from the so far annouced iPhone?
1. GPS. You’ve got maps, Google Maps application can chart directions. It would be a great addition (although possible putting TomTom and others up as rivals)
2. Front Camera. Thinking Wifi, thinking Skype, thinking video chat, or even just video calling. It should still be there.
3. Java support – I ned my java apps. Gmail mainly. And some games.. for fun
4. Bluetooth Modem – No Wifi? Use your phones data plan to get online at a slower speed.

Some final things to ponder
1. Removable Battery – Why? If its the same type as the iPod, I don’t need to change it. If I can take it to an Apple Store and replace it when its overused, for a small fee, I will.
2. Sim card – If there is no removable battery, where does a Sim card go? UK phones depend on these.
3. Bluetooth – Can I sync via bluetooth? I may not want to sync my music, but what about my contacts, calendar and mail?
4. Notes – Can I scribble notes with my finger? In stead of typing? Or draw a pretty picture? Perhaps even send that by bluetooth.
5. Output – I can listen to my songs, use the bluetooth headset (will it be an extra) but can I hook up my iPod AV cable and play movies and show photos back on my TV?
6. SMS – I really like the idea of showing threaded SMS messages. Lovely. But can I turn that off? In case I just wanna view them like a normal inbox? I hope so, I’d like the option.
7. Keypad – Can I switch between a QWERTY (why was that so hard to type?) keyboard and a normal phone one? Again, nice for the option.

Well thats all I can think about for now. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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