Apple held an event recently to discuss the upcoming (summer) iPhone 3.0 OS. I actually wrote this right after the fact, but as I mentioned earlier, some personal issues came up that delayed me from posting it. But… better late than never! Here’s some thoughts and impressions.

Of course, everyone had their wish lists of what they wanted to see, and well, I have to say… it looks like Apple is really going to deliver. Here’s the main goods:

System-wide Copy and Paste (text and photos)
MMS for photos, vcards, audio
SMS forwarding
Landscape keyboard in major apps
System-wide Spotlight Search
App Store subscriptions (i.e. subscribe to magazine apps)
In App purchases (i.e. buy a weapon in a FPS)
Google maps-within-apps
Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation in App Store (but not with Google Maps app)
Push Notification Service for badges, alerts messages, sounds
Peer-2-peer service using Bonjour and Bluetooth for interaction and data exchange
Access to Dock port for Apps to work with accessories
Voice recorder
Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
Audio/Video tags
Live streaming
CalDAV Calendars
Calendar subscriptions
Improved Stocks widget, landscape mode for details
YouTube Account login
YouTube Subscriptions
YouTube Ratings
iTunes login
iTunes account creation
Encrypted profiles
WiFi Auto Login
Call log
LDAP (directory services)
Shake to shuffle music (like iPod nano)
VPN on-demand
EAP SIM
Proxy Support
OTA Profiles
Revoke Certificates
Exchange ActiveSync Policies
Notes sync
Media Scruber
Parental controls for TV, Movies, Apps
Languages: More languages, better keyboards
Anti-Phishing in Safari

And some more stuff that is either not clear or just little tweaks.

Basically, Apple kicked some butt with the announcement. They added almost every feature people have been asking about. There are a couple missing – video recording and categories/folders/more organization options were high on people’s lists. And one thing they announced sounds like a terrible, terrible idea. But overall? They kicked butt.

Bad news first: The new subscription-based application pricing/in app “shopping”. This one really, really scares me. For now, you buy an app, that’s it, you’ve got it. But now developers can charge for “subscriptions.” Updates are free right now; will they suddenly cost money? Will the app not work at all if you don’t subscribe/re-subscribe?

I see potential here for good; for example, MLB already charges yearly for its app, which I’m OK with, if you’re willing to pay; it’s only five bucks and by all accounts, is pretty awesome. Five bucks a year for full broadcast streaming, video highlights, etc.? That works. And now, you can simply re-subscribe, without having to delete and re-download it. Makes total sense. In addition, with something like Kindle (not in Canada, OF COURSE) you can now potentially buy books directly in the app instead of buying them on amazon.com and syncing them.

This also makes sense with the announcement of GPS apps in the app store; I don’t think most people mind paying a $25 yearly fee for updated GPS maps, for example.

But the problem is, as we all know, Apple exercise absolutely zero control over the apps or the pricing in the store. These developers will be able to charge whatever the hell they want, as often as they want, for whatever they want, and Apple won’t police it. $10 a month? $25 a month? Weekly!? Hopefully the market will dictate the prices and people won’t pay those ridiculous sums… but you know it’s going to happen.

And on the other end of that extreme example, you will see some serious nickel-and-diming going on. I really think you will see egregious abuse by developers. Charging every couple weeks, and for every update. For tiny little things. Making a 99 cent suddenly a $10 app because the 99 cent app arrives with limited functionality, and you have to pay to get the rest of the full features. Even during the Apple speech, “charging for additional levels of a game” is mentioned? Really? Fuck that, if I buy a game, I want the whole game! That’s pure BS. I mean imagine if you bought the iPhone but the headphone cord was 8 inches long? And you had to pay for every inch you wanted it to be longer? It’s exactly the same thing – you’re getting an incomplete product that you will be forced to pay more up front to fully use.

And how much do you want to bet that developers will “update” their current apps to remove features, that you will now have to pay to get? It will happen. And good luck figuring out in advance if an app is going to rip you off or not! And how easy will it be to “cancel” a subscription? Is it an automatic charge? That’s hardly fair since there are no refunds.

I am really worried about this, and honestly, I’m surprised there isn’t more outrage on the Web about it. Seems everyone is so happy about cut-copy-paste they didn’t even notice that Apple just gave developers a new way to rip us off, and coincidentally, didn’t address any of the issues people already have with the app store. This is going to be horrible; it will completely destroy the app store as we know it. And no, I’m not kidding.

BUT… on to the good news!

Cut-copy-paste is #1, no doubt, and the demo they showed, it looks like it works really well. Honestly I haven’t missed it THAT much, but, I have a feeling I will now be much more comfortable writing e-mails and blog entries on the phone once it’s available.

MMS? Well, everyone wants it, and although I haven’t ever used it (and thus not missed it) the idea sounds good (especially since you can send your map location to someone – THAT’s cool). BUT… big, big, big BUT - you can damn well bet that Rogers will charge up the ass for it. I believe on other phones, it’s currently 25 cents per message, but I guarantee they will find a way to rip off the iPhone users. Like $20 for 500. And no other option. That’s if they support it at all – Rogers has been screwing iPhone customers since day one, so don’t be surprised if they find a way to block MMS on the phone. So while I love the idea, and am 100% thrilled that Apple has finally responded, I live in the shadow of Rogers, and am leery of my being able to take advantage.

Stereo Bluetooth, on the other hand? THAT sounds great. Although my wallet may fear the cost of a set of good Bluetooth headphones, I love the idea of having an integrated wireless headset solution. Or a wireless set of speakers. I’m also curious to see the “accessory controls” that might be possible. But yeah. I want a wireless set of headphones with handsfree. Want want want. Ooh, will Apple make a headset that has click-button worked into it somewhere? That’d be awesome.

Search. Nice idea, and I know people requested it. If I was “on the go” a lot more than I am, I’d be more excited about this, but as it is, I’m not usually too far from my PC so it’s not a big deal to search in Outlook or Gmail or whatever. Still cool though, and I can see some use for searching for apps or music.

Multiple photo send, and landscape typing. Ah, finally. ‘Nuff said.

Push notification. Need to see how this works before I have anything to say about it, because I’m really not clear on it. Is it telling me that when I get an e-mail, I’ll see a notice on-screen – like a text message? Will it tell me the sender/subject? Will it show me the notification on the unlock screen, or just when its “on”? I personally don’t see as large a need for this as some people, and will probably leave it “off” if it saves battery life, but I am very happy that Apple has responded to consumer demand for it. It’s also not clear if Push notifications will require extra costs (Apple says they’re handling it themselves over a third-party server, taking burden off carriers, so I hope not; but again, if Rogers can find a way, they WILL charge for it.)

Maps within Apps and GPS. Love the idea of the Maps within Apps, as I hate it when I’m using AroundMe, I find what I want, then click on the map and realize it’s not actually as close as I want… then I have to relaunch AroundMe and search again.

As for the GPS… I’m concerned. First of all, no GPS developer can use the inherent Maps app – they have to use their own, thanks to the licensing rights. Since the Maps app is awesome, I feel anyone else’s will fall short. Second, again the subscription based pricing scares me. How much are developers going to charge? And you know, since there’s no refunds, what, you’re gonna pay your $25, find out the maps suck, then oh well, you’re screwed? And will anyone make one with Canadian maps?

Voice memo recording: Another requested feature, with limited use, but still good to see.

Phone-to-phone communication: Really interested to see how this works. Might revolutionize the gaming experience. Might not be worth anything at all.

As for the rest, most seem minor to me and my needs (and I’m even not sure what they all mean). But as you can see, just from the list alone, Apple is delivering a ton of stuff this summer. I’m really pleased with the announcement overall (I just hope to get a little more info on the App pricing issue).

Edit: Apparently you can now also delete individual text messages (as opposed to whole conversations). I’ve been looking for this for a while. Nice job, Apple.

Tags: Apple iPhone, iPhone 3.0

I haven’t written about my iPhone for a while, but I still have it, still love it, use it more and more all the time. It’s officially replaced three devices for me - iPod, cell phone, and satellite radio, which I canceled shortly after getting the iPhone.

Apple has also done a great job improving the phone in recent months, and Google has done a great job supporting the platform. Even Microsoft finally got its act together and allowed basic POP mail syncing for Hotmail/Live mail, meaning you can get your Hotmail messages on the phone. Although, it’s not full integration - you only get your inbox, no folder management; however, the added side benefit is that because of the POP access, I can now forward my hotmail messages to Gmail and get them all in my handily synced Gmail inbox. Awesome.

Google has also introduced sync for its calenders and contacts. Now, you may remember me syncing my calendars with Nuevasync some months back; this is the same deal, its just an official Google recognized method. In a way I feel bad for Nuevasync because there isn’t really a reason to use their service anymore; but for a long time, they were the only ones who offered it, for free, and they supported it heavily. From what I’ve read they are introducing new features that hopefully will keep their users with them, but for me, with my single calendar (which isn’t even that busy, a sad reflection on my life to be sure), I don’t need much - just basic syncing - and I don’t think anyone can blame me for choosing the “official” service over another option when both are free. But I do owe Nuevasync thanks for being there for the past six months!

I do have my complaints about the phone, of course. There are the basic nagging things that most iPhone users bitch about - like no cut-and-paste - and frustration with the sheer amount of apps in the app store and the enigmatic approval process. Can we please get rid of the 91 “fart” applications now in the store? It’s become impossible to sort the good apps from the crapps. My method now is to browse my favourite apple-related blogs and see if they review anything that interests me. I rarely ever browse the app store anymore without a “recommendation” from a blog.

But, my biggest complaint, something that is frustrating me more and more on almost a daily basis… are the geographic restrictions placed on apps and content. Not that this is Apple’s or the iPhone’s fault, but it has become a huge issue (and I do feel that, as a (the?) worldwide leader in providing online content, Apple could take a leadership role here).

In the last couple weeks, take a look at the insanity that has cropped up:

• CBS released their tv.com app to offer previews and even some streaming episodes of various TV shows. Only in the United States, of course - if you’re in Canada or anywhere else, you can’t download the app, and even if you do manage to get the free app, it reads your location and tells you it can’t show the videos. I mean, these are FREE. So how is anyone losing any revenue here? I just don’t get it. Even the previews. Heaven forbid you see commercials for TV shows outside of the United States… which you can still watch for free on TV!
• Amazon released an app for their Kindle service, giving iPhone users access to the world’s biggest collection of e-books - books that you purchase from Amazon. But only if you’re in the United States, of course. I mean, clearly, we’d have world chaos if people outside of the USA started to buy books! I mean, what if they actually read them? I know for a fact no book publisher wants anyone to buy or read their books.
• Warner Bros. released the Watchmen Motion Comics on iTunes a couple months back… only in the States. Of course, unlike TV.com, they at least know how to play tease, by including previews and links in the official Watchmen App in the app store - in Canada. Sigh, whatever, at least the DVD and Blu-Ray, with a digital copy, came out last week. Oh but wait… the digital copy is windows-only. What!? Perhaps because the series is already available in iTunes? That makes sense. I can clearly see why WB wouldn’t want anyone in Canada with a Mac or an iPod or iPhone to watch this. I mean, it’s only the highest-selling graphic novel of all time and they only have a $100-million movie coming out. Wouldn’t want to generate any interest in it or anything.
• Speaking of Watchmen, you know that first trailer, with that cool Smashing Pumpkins song playing overtop? I decided I’d like to hear that whole song. Googled “Smashing Pumpkins Watchmen” to get the name of the song - The Beginning is the End is the Beginning - and found out that after the trailer launched, it almost instantly became the highest-selling Pumpkins song on iTunes. So naturally I went straight to iTunes to get it. But hey, guess what? It’s only on iTunes in the United States! Of course it is.

In a matter of days, I was locked out of four things because I happen to live in Canada. And of course, there are plenty of other cool apps like Pandora radio and Loopt that have long been US-only.

Doesn’t anyone else find this to be INSANE? I mean, it’s the 21st century, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be knocking down these borders, instead of building them back up?

In the two Watchmen-related cases, naturally, I was forced to acquire less-than-legal copies. It’s not a lost sale for WB on the Motion Comics since I still bought the Blu-Ray, but somebody didn’t get my 99 cents for that Pumpkins song!! Unfortunately that punishes the artist as well, when they probably had no idea that the record company or Apple or whoever decided on its non-international-availability.

And that is the crux of the problem, really - who to blame? Everyone passes the buck. It’s the government regulations. It’s the publishers. It’s the creators, it’s the advertisers, it’s Santa Claus.

It’s so mind-bogglingly inconsistent, too. I mean, why can I buy the Watchmen DVD the same day as someone in the States, but cannot buy the motion comic on iTunes? I can buy the graphic novel, see the movie, etc., all on the same day as my southern neighbours. But watch it on my iPhone? Nope, no way, that would end the world. And I mean, I’m not even asking for free shit… I’m willing to pay for it!! (In fact, I DID pay for it! Fuckers.)

Same with these TV shows. I can watch Heroes the same time as anyone in the States. I can buy the DVD the same day it comes out. But I can’t buy the episodes from iTunes!? I can almost, sort of, understand why I can’t stream them for free, because of the advertising. But again… I’m willing to pay for it! Please, take my money! Why are they cutting off this potential market, a market, by the way - Canada - that has the highest percentage of broadband access in the world?

The problem here seems to be the CRTC, but what the CRTC does is protect business interests, as opposed to the interests of Canadian citizens. That’s not what they say, of course; their mandate, according their Web site, is this: “The CRTC’s mandate is to ensure that both the broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public.”

But in fact the opposite is true; it actually ensures that the Canadian public supports the broadcasting and telecommunications systems, by denying us access to other options.

This also sticks out:

“In broadcasting, the CRTC ensures that all Canadians have access to a wide variety of high-quality Canadian programming as well as access to employment opportunities in the broadcasting system. Programming in the Canadian broadcasting system should reflect Canadian creativity and talent, our bilingual nature, our multicultural diversity and the special place of aboriginal peoples in our society.”

Well, that sounds good to me. That sounds like it backs up the mandate - that not does it make sure the broadcasters serve us, but also that they serve us with quality stuff, that reflects our country.

But again, the opposite is true. Instead of “ensuring we have access to a wide variety of… programming,” it actually LIMITS our access - to anything else. Memo: it’s not variety if you give us one thing while denying another!

Hey, CRTC, and all you “Canadian content providers” that are restricting - or refusing to broker deals for - online media: Wake up. It’s a new fucking world out there (actually it isn’t, it’s been this way for a decade, but I’ll allow that you’re a little slow). So stop FORCING specific things on us. Give us ALL OF IT, and let us choose. I don’t want American content or Canadian content or Japanese content… I want GOOD content. I don’t CARE where it’s from, because in the 21st century, it does not fucking matter one fucking iota where it’s from or who created it. iTunes exists and succeeds for one simple reason - it puts the power of choice in the hands of the consumer. Same with TV on DVD, and TiVos and DVRs. We don’t want to buy an album of 12 songs when there’s only one we know we want. We don’t want to watch TV when the TV networks say we should.

We, the consumer, get to choose what we want to entertain us. Not you. We do. And if you try and tell us otherwise… guess what, we’ll find a way around. We will. Give us the content we want, in affordable, easy-to-manage ways, and we’ll pay for it. Restrict us, we’ll pirate it.

We want what we want on our own terms, and we will get it. It’s simply the way the consumer market is today. So get with it, already.

___

UPDATE: ARGH! Not 10 minutes after I post this, I’m looking for another song - Bounce, by Danko Jones - and like the Pumpkins song, it’s available in the US iTunes store, but not in Canada.

This is the most mind numbing example of all, of course, since DANKO JONES IS A CANADIAN BAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will now light myself on fire.

Tags: CRTC, iPhone

I still love my iPhone. Got my first bill, didn’t love that, but hey. Comes with the territory.

The iPhone itself, and the applications available, continue to amaze me. I’m constantly surprised and pleasantly so by how much I can do with it. As long as I’ve got that thing with me, there’s always something to do. It’s the ultimate boredom cure, if nothing else!

Here’s a brief rundown of some applications I’ve enjoyed recently.

Tetris ($7.99)
The only app I’ve paid for recently. At $7.99, also the most expensive app I’ve bought! Hard to say if it’s worth it. I love Tetris, and this is a lot of fun. Problem is, the small screen and touch controls make it impossible on the higher difficulty levels. Once you get to level 9, you’re toast. It’s definitely a good diversion for a few minutes, though. One thing I’d like to see in an update is the music from the original Gameboy Tetris!

FS5 Hockey (Free)
This is an air hockey app, and it’s very much like real air hockey - 9 out of 10 goals are scored on random funky bounces. It’s good fun, my only complaint being that, since you have to have your finger on your “player,” it often gets in the way of your view! But it’s a minor frustration. I recommend this one.

FourFree (Free)
I guess Connect Four is trademarked, but that’s essentially what this is. Who doesn’t love Connect Four? It plays exactly like the classic game, red and black pieces, get four in a row, beautiful simplicity. It’s got a two-player mode or you can play against the computer, on medium, easy or hard. What else is there to say? If you like Connect Four, you can’t go wrong.

MarbleMash (Free)
This is another one of those Labyrinth-type games that uses the accelerometer; you “tilt” the iPhone to get a marble rolling through a maze, and try not to lose it in any of the holes. It’s fun, but hard, and not something you can easily play if you’re on the bus or something.

ESPN Cameraman (Free)
This is a fun game where you look at two sports-related pictures and spot the differences between them, and it’s not always easy. It’s got the classic NFL Primetime music which is a great touch. One complaint, when you don’t get all the answers, it just moves you to the next picture and doesn’t tell you what you missed! Another complaint is there’s only 70 pictures; I’ve already come across a couple doubles. Hopefully they’ll release more moving forward! There’s even online leaderboards if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Lots of potential for this one.

Phone Aid (Free)
This free (for now) app gives you basic first aid tips, including CPR and choking. Hopefully it’s the sort of thing you never have to use, but it sure could come in handy in an emergency. Also handy to have on hand when playing sports or anything else where an ankle sprain or nosebleed might happen. Definitely a good app to keep somewhere on the phone, because hey, you never know.

Say Who (Free)
This is a voice recognition dialer. It works VERY well, I must admit; I was shocked. You don’t have to record names or anything - it hears your voice, “reads” your contact list, and calls from there. It also hears numbers. Only problem is it takes a long time to load and to process; I guess there isn’t much that can be done, but the thing is, in that time, I could have opened the contacts and found the number myself. Plus you need to keep your finger on the phone while speaking, so it’s not exactly a car-safe, hands-free solution. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, and as I say, even though it’s a step slow, it works - a very impressive piece of technology.

WeDict and Dictionaire (both free)
Two dictionary apps that I’ve downloaded. Neither has blown me away; I mean, both do the job perfectly well but neither has a particularly nice interface or any frills. I guess you gotta buy one of the other dictionaries for that, but they run as much as $30 - no thanks! Honestly, I don’t have that much use for a dictionary application; it’s just nice to have one handy.

Units (Free)
Like the dictionary there are pay apps that convert units of measure (though they generally run a dollar or two). This one isn’t as slick as some of those pay ones, but it works perfectly well, and gives you multiple measurements any time you enter one. It does length, volume, pretty much anything I can imagine. It does currency too, although, I’m not sure where it gets the exchange rates from or how often they’re updated. I’ll have to look into that.

So that’s what’s been keeping my attention on the iPhone recently. Of course, Sportacular still gets a lot of attention from me, probably even more soon with the NBA season starting up. I also dig ESPN.com’s mobile Safari site, specifically, the fantasy section, which allows me to keep track of my fantasy football team in realtime. Facebook’s recently updated their application and it’s now a lot smoother, though the news feed still bugs out frequently, displaying some things and not others, and not always being up to date.

Finally, one last one is not actually an iPhone app, but a Web service application. It’s called Nuevasync.

What Nuevasync does is syncs your calendar, over-the-air, without you having to plug your phone in and sync through iTunes.

Now, if you’re running your mail and calendar through Exchange, you can already do this, but unless you’re a business user, you’re probably not. Or you may not want to sync your work calendar to your personal phone. Or maybe you just like the Google calendar better.

Whatever the case, Nuevasync syncs your Google calendar and iPhone calendar, and it does it VERY well. You have to sign up on the Nuevasync Web site, and give them permission to sync the Google calendar; then they walk you through how to set up the sync on your phone. (There’s also a great article explaining the process found here.)

Then presto! Anytime you add an item to your Google Calendar, within seconds it’s on your phone calendar. And vice versa! Honestly, I don’t know that I understand how this all works, but it does.

Nuevasync can also sync your contacts from Google, though I didn’t use this feature, because I don’t like the way Google manages contacts; I’ll just continue to manage mine from Windows or the iPhone itself and sync manually. I don’t add new contacts often anyway, so I don’t need real-time contact syncing.

But the real-time calendar syncing… I don’t know, I guess this has been available on smart phones using exchange for a long time now, but I’d never really seen it in action, and it kinda blew my mind. Yeah, I’m easily impressed, I guess. Whatever, I love it.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a way to sync your Google calendar to the iPhone, check out Nuevasync. The Web site and blog is pretty informative. And, you know… it’s free! Hopefully it stays that way, I don’t know how they’re making money, but they sure have my thanks for this great little service.

As an aside, I really wish Google would put some more effort into making Gmail and the Google Calendar look a little nicer - a little more modern and stylish. I appreciate Google’s stripped-out design sense when it comes to searching, but I think there’s a lot more they could do with the actual Web apps. The look and feel of Gmail and the calendar is just so… blah. It’s almost amateur-y. I really wish they’d put something together with a more professional design sense.

I know, they work very well, and they’re free, so I shouldn’t complain. But even if they allowed some user-designed templates, different colours, fonts, that sort of thing… that would be a big step up.

Alas. It is what it is, I guess.

So, yes, it’s been six weeks, and I still love the iPhone. It’s not perfect, and I do have some “wish list” items that I will post next week, but for the most part, it’s still one of the most amazing pieces of technology I’ve ever seen.

Tags: iPhone, iPhone Applications

So, after 10 days, is this device - that I pined over for more than a month, that I am paying an arm and a leg for - worth it?

An emphatic YES after week one. Let’s break it down and see what’s what.

Phone and iPod
So, these are the two items this one device replaces for me, and one of the main reasons I wanted the phone - so I only had to carry one device instead of two.

I’ll admit it hasn’t made me use it as a phone any more than I normally would (which is to say, hardly at all). And I’ve used it as an iPod exactly the same amount as I normally would (a couple of hours every day). It’s the beauty of having them both in one that makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.

The phone itself is crisp and clear, which is something I was concerned about - after all, what the hell does apple know about making a phone? But the quality is great.

And the iPod is far superior to my Nano; I absolutely love it. I mentioned before about the shuffling playlists/songs right from the top of each list, as opposed to having to go back to settings - I can’t even tell you what a difference this makes, as I have several playlists I like to play in order and several I like on random. It’s a small thing, but het.

Another small touch, I also really like seeing all the album art so nice and clearly.

While I have no quantifiable way of proving this and it may just be my enthusiasm fro the device, but I do believe the iPhone sounds better than my 2nd-gen Nano too. Whether it’s the headphones or the iPod itself, I am hearing softer “background” instruments and sounds I never heard on the Nano.

Speaking of the headphones, how great are they? Specifically, the click button/microphone? Wicked idea. I’ll admit a volume control would be nice, but the ability to pause/play, skip songs, answer/decline calls, etc., without having to take the phone out of my pocket, wake it up, etc. is huge. It’s another brilliantly simple design decision from Apple.

Data
On the data side of things, I’ve probably used it way too much. I have no doubt this will ease up a bit as the novelty of it wears off and I get into some routines about checking e-mail and Facebook etc. I find myself playing with it a lot and surfing the Web even though I’m never far from a computer. (Still, in 10 days I’ve used less than 100MB. I can’t imagine ever reaching 6GB!)

Safari works perfectly well, and though I’ve heard of people experiencing crashes, it hasn’t done so on me yet (knock on wood).

The 3G network has been uniformly fast, and always available. I’m sure living in Toronto helps, we’ll see how fast it is next time I go to Niagara Falls or something.

E-mail
Being able to get e-mail on my phone was a huge part of my desire to own an iPhone, and so far, I love the e-mail application. I’ve probably used it more than anything else except the iPod.

Of course I had to switch from Hotmail to Gmail, which necessitated logging in to a lot of web sites and updating my address. Then, it took me a while to get Gmail set up correctly and synced with Outlook; very nice of Google to bury the correct IMAP settings (and the fact that IMAP is the preferred method over POP3) nice and deep in the back alleys of their support pages. Sigh.

But it’s working now and it’s great on the phone (yet a little slow sending/receiving in Outlook 2007, oddly enough). It’s quick and smooth and I’m even getting the hang of the keyboard; I actually enjoy e-mailing on it.

Still can’t get Gmail to work through Outlook, Outlook Express, or Live Mail at all here at work. We must have the desired POP3/IMAP/SMTP ports blocked on our firewall. Sigh. Nothing’s ever perfect, eh?

Oh, and on the phone interface, I do wish I could collapse that Gmail folder! I don’t need to see all those background folders while my “real” folders fall off below the scroll. Sigh.

Other installed Apps

As for the other things that come pre-installed:

Maps - we made extensive use of the maps/GPS function going to a wedding last Saturday night. I’ve heard some complaints that it doesn’t work very well, and if you’re driving alone, I’d agree - since it doesn’t have voice prompts and trying to read it while driving would likely be deadly - but if you’ve got someone to read the prompts for you, it works great. The maps were accurate and the GPS follows you quickly and smoothly. I don’t know what people are complaining about! Of course were up in Vaughan, I’ll have to test it downtown sometime and see if the buildings interfere.

Weather - I’ve used this a lot, surprisingly! It’s only mildly more convenient than surfing to a news page or turning on the TV, but still, it’s appealing to get it in the palm of your hand! And the interface is pretty.

Stocks - no interest here, and I really wish I could delete the icon! Sigh.

SMS - works perfectly well, although I’m not sure I love the “conversation” layout your texts take. Each text sent/received by a single contact is added to one long stream - and you only have the option of deleting every text from that steam or saving every text.

I don’t need to keep all the texts that say “OK” or “be there in 10 minutes.” But someone might text me with an important number or address that I want to hang on to. And I might send a contact a text 10 days after I sent the previous one, but the iPhone still thinks it’s part of the same “conversation” More sorting/storage options would be nice! Still, other than that, it works just fine.

Contacts - one of my favourite parts of the phone. I love having my phone and e-mail contacts integrated, and synced with my computer! It’s the little things, you know.

Calendar - I’ve never used a planner on a regular basis, but I am trying to take advantage of everything this device has to offer. So far, I have actually been using this, and syncing it with Outlook; it works great, we’ll just have to see if I have enough need of a planner to keep using it.

Photos and Camera - sure, 2 megapixel with no flash isn’t great, but you know what, it’s not bad either! And I didn’t buy the thing for a camera. Both the photo organization and camera are perfectly useful. The screen obviously displays photos really well, and using photo-caller-ID on such a big screen is great (it never made much sense before when on a tiny phone screen, you could barely make the picture out anyway!).

Notes, calculator, clock - haven’t had much use of these yet. Especially the clock - it’s got a freakin’ clock on the top! Bit of a waste of an icon - I’d rather see the clock and weather integrated.

YouTube - haven’t used much Youtube either, but I’ve tried it and it works just fine. Perhaps I’ll get more into the viral video thing now that I’ve got access to it!

App Store and iTunes - I haven’t actually purchased anything from iTunes directly through the phone yet, but I’ve used the App store and it works perfectly well… if you’ve got the time to sort through the thousands of apps. Which leads us to…

Downloadable Applications
Let’s just say it outright - there’s a lot of crap out there in the App store, for sure, and finding the good ones can be a challenge. But here’s notes on a few I’ve discovered:

Facebook - I’m not a huge Facebook user, but since I can’t use it at work, I figured I might use it more now that I can get it on the iPhone. All you can really do is update your status, write on walls and upload photos, but that’s basically what Facebook was in the beginning so that should be enough.

But, I’m a little disappointed in the proprietary Facebook app. It looks nice, but for some reason, it won’t load all my friends’ profile pictures! I also don’t like how the news feed carries only status updates.

If you check Facebook through Safari, it loads up great, and of course you can use it in landscape. You get news feed items as well as status updates, and all the profile pics work fine.

The application has better photo support, though! Frustrating - I’d much prefer to use only one, but each does something better than the other! What was I saying about nothing being perfect… right.

Sportacular and The Score Mobile - Both are sports/scores updaters. The Score has a much nicer interface (and I do like The Score as a station, in general!), but Sportacular offers way more information, with news updates, and more leagues. Both are free, though.

Shazam - Mentioned this one before, and it’s still a killer “check this out!” app to show your friends, but ultimately, the opportunities to use it aren’t plentiful. Still, you never know when you’ll hear a song you simply must own, whether it’s in a movie or at a bar or whatever, and it’s free, so why not?

iWik and Wikipanion - A pair of Wikipedia viewers, that purport to optimize Wikipedia better than Safari.  Both can be used in landscape and portrait and Wikipanion supports pinch-zooming. I find I prefer the interface of iWik, but both are than using Safari to access Wikipedia directly, in which the wiki layout is just too small. And if it’s possible, Wikipedia is even more useful on mobile than it is on PC! Any time someone asks one of these “did you ever wonder…” questions, you’ve got the answer!

Google  - The Google app is a little better than Google on Safari simply because you have more local search options. It’s great to type in “Swiss Chalet,” hit Local, and get directions on the maps app to the closest one.

Koi Pond  - It’s a $0.99 fish pond. Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds, but it’s just so damn cool! It’s got some nice soothing pond sounds, the fish move around (and swim away when you “splash” the screen), you can even feed them! It’s so dumb. Yet so cool. Definitely a “show off my new toy” app.

WordPress - As mentioned the other day, this works really well and is another in the line of “it blows my mind what this thing can do” apps. But as I also said the other day, I can’t see myself using it all that much - I’m just too wordy in my blog posts (like this 2,500 word opus!).

Games  - There’s way too many to go into detail, but Sol Free Solitaire, ClassicBreak Lite, 21 Pro Blackjack, Sudoku, and Pegjump are all free games I’ve downloaded and kept. They all pass the time adequately.

I may suck it up and pay the $7.99 for Tetris. Who doesn’t love Tetris?

 

Basically, as you can see from the list above, there’s a lot that you can do with this little device. And I’ve just scratched the surface, I think.

There are a couple of issues with the iPhone, most of which have been covered elsewhere, but I’ll mention my experiences with them.

Battery life
It’s definitely not long-lasting. I grant that for everything the phone does, you have to expect that it’s going to drain the battery. I get that. What’s frustrating is Apple’s policy of not letting you replace the battery. Like the iPod, the battery is kept hidden away in “void my warranty land” if you attempt to take it out.

So what that means is, if it dies, you can’t just go to Future Shop, buy a new one, and swap it in. You have to send your phone to Apple. That’s right. You have to live without your phone for a week. And it costs $100! And it wipes all the data off your phone! I’m sorry, that’s bloody ridiculous. You don’t even have the option of taking it in to the Apple store, or at least, that’s not an option given on the Web site. What a joke.

Now, hopefully, you’ll never actually NEED to flat-out replace the battery. It’s total life-span should last through the life of the phone, and if it’s faulty, chances are it’ll die before your one-year warranty expires.

Where it really irks though, is not having a backup. Again, this thing sucks battery life pretty quickly; if it didn’t, this wouldn’t be a big issue, but one forgotten charge, and you might be outta luck. If you could have a backup charged and handy at all times, this wouldn’t be an issue, but you can’t, so you gotta be super-diligent about charging.

It would also suck if you were camping or taking a long flight, or being anywhere for an extended period, without a power source - no matter how diligent you are there’s some places you just can’t plug in! Again, keeping a charged backup around would be handy.

Thankfully, for me, I don’t anticipate being in such a situation often and I’m near enough to various power sources (home, work, car) that I don’t ever have an excuse for not charging. I may need to buy an extra USB/power cable for work though.

Crashing/freezing

The other well-documented problem has been somewhat frequent crashing or freezing. Yesterday was the first time I’ve experienced anything crashing - when checking the football scores in Sportacular. I guess I just wanted too much info too fast and it crashed! Other than that it’s been fine; I suspect that I got in at the right time, when software 2.1 was released. They seem to have worked out a lot of the kinks! (Knock on wood.)

In conclusion…

I love this device. I’m so glad I bought it, and especially glad we got a good deal on the voice plan. If I were paying the full price of Rogers’ advertised plans, I probably wouldn’t be glowing about it so much, because practically speaking, it wouldn’t be worth it. But at almost $30 less per month, it is worth it - worth every penny.

Tags: iPhone