iPhone

I wasn’t planning to do an iPhone post, but clearly folks want to talk to me about it. I’ve had no fewer than 15 IMs, 2 phone calls and even an e-mail from my folks asking what I think about it. 🙂

I read the live keynote coverage on MacNN, then I watched the keynote video last night. Watching the video actually changed my opinion of the device a little bit – there are some salient details that were not well covered by the write-ups I read.

I’ve used a bunch of mobile devices over the years, so I’ve got a fairly good idea of what I like and what I don’t. The iPhone is interesting to me more as a concept and a direction than as something I’d want to buy. To be honest, I really have no interest in getting one right now, but I understand why others would feel differently.

Note: I’m trying to reserve judgement on some of this stuff until I can actually play with the thing. Some thoughts:

  • The iPod stuff is great, really great. Especially the widescreen video.
  • I’ve never used a “good” touchscreen interface. Jobs says that Apple has created a better touchscreen and I think that’s probably true. The trackpads on Apple laptops are fantastic, on Windows they suck horribly.
  • Yahoo! Mail supporting IMAP is awesome!
  • Physical buttons are really nice, they mean you don’t have to stare at the screen so much. Dialing on Windows Mobile touchscreen phones is a disaster.
  • Eric covers the need for a physical keyboard too

    Im sticking with my Blackberry. My mobile device has to do e-mail effectively, and a touchscreen device isnt going to cut it when composing an e-mail to someone.

  • Jobs is actually really slow at typing to compose mail in the video – there’s a reason that 90% of the stuff shown dealt with existing data. I don’t think this device is really designed for capturing input (like a BlackBerry).
  • Touchscreens get dirty and scratched. I’ve actually liked not having a touchscreen since I switched from the Treo to the BlackBerry.
  • The other Eric nails a few things that were obvious to me, but that I hadn’t seen written elsewhere. Namely, that Widgets in general and Dashcode in particular make a lot more sense now. Especially since the phone development sounds like it’s been going on for years.
  • Based on my experience to date, I don’t actually want a “real” browser on my mobile device most of the time. Especially on an Edge connection. On a WiFi connection, a full mini-browser (like the Nokia tablet) isn’t bad. The BlackBerry browser on my 870* series has been the best mobile browser I’ve used.
  • Letting “normal” folks have a full mobile mail internet device experience with needing to be tech savvy to set it up is a pretty awesome prospect.
  • Brent talks about the coolness factor, I’d say that prior to this the closest to a non-bobo phone was the RAZR.
  • Om talks about the iPhone signaling the end of the PC era. I don’t think PC’s are going anywhere anytime soon, but this is probably the first time many folks are seeing a mobile device like this and thinking about what it could replace for them. He also points out the difference between Apple’s mobile device and Microsoft’s devices.
  • Arbitrary access to voice-mail is quite awesome. I hope other carriers/phone manufacturers jump on board here.
  • Cingular only is a real bummer. Not just because their service is so expensive, but also because their coverage at my house is rather poor.
  • Steve thinks the device is too expensive, Aldo thinks it’s a bargin.
  • Edge instead of UTMS is a real shame. The rich internet connectivity stuff ain’t going to work so well on a slow pipe.
  • I think I’m more likely to buy a next-gen video ipod than an iPhone.
  • Also, it’s important to remember this is a 1.0 device, it will get smaller, cheaper, better battery life, etc.

The comments are open. 🙂