Monday Musings: iPhone

I thought about saving the iPhone for use as Thursday’s inspiration, but I suspected that I’d probably make some of you gag. So, I’m going to blather on about the wonderful iPhone today.

I fought buying an iPhone for quite a long time. When it first came out on June 29th, 2007 (which I can remember very specifically because it’s exactly one week after we got Gryphon), I was able to talk myself out of it because it lacked 3G. When the iPhone 3G launched earlier this year (which I can’t recall the date), I was able to talk myself out of it beacuse of the increased price of the data plan. Apple has also been fairly hard on iPhone developers, which as a developer myself, made it easy to be angry at them. I told myself I’d hold out for an Android phone.

Then, the G1 finally came out, and after many pictures and reviews and whatnot, I decided that it just wasn’t for me. Apple also finally lifted the non-disclosure agreement surrounding iPhone development (although the rules for what goes and what doesn’t in the app store are still somewhat mystical).

Something snapped in me, and I decided I really wanted to get an iPhone. It was all I could talk about for a couple of days, and then I finally bought it on October 24th. I’m paying a bit more per month now (including both my plan as well as Lisa’s, as she also has an iPhone now), but after having had it for just over a week, I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

It’s not nearly as open as I’d like it to be, and not quite as developer-friendly as it could be, but even with all that in play, I’m still so immensely pleased with the experience. I’ll try not to drool too much as I write here. Let me hit a few of the bullets of things I like.

• The developer concerns: As voiced above, developing for the iPhone is… somewhat odd. I can’t install my own software without a $99 developer’s license (assuming I don’t jailbreak it), and I have no way of telling if my software will be accepted to the App Store until it’s fully complete, meaning that if it doesn’t make it in, I wasted my time. However, considering the applications I have in mind, I think I’ll make it in, if and when I get to them.
• The look and feel of the device: It feels solid but not too heavy. The glass front is totally smooth and looks amazing. Even when it has a bit of fingerprints and smudges and such, the light shines through and it really looks great. In order to keep it clean, I find myself washing my hands more, which is an amusing side benefit.
• Connectivity pretty much anywhere: Only once have I had connection problems, and it was short-lived. I also think it was due to the building I was in, and it’s not somewhere I’ll frequently find myself (as I was doing early voting). Having the Internet pretty much anywhere has been nice. I find that I’m reading more of Twitter and such, but doing so in what would have normally been wasted time.
• Convergence: I’ve tried carrying around an iPod and a notepad alongside my cell phone in the past, but eventually the bulk of having so much on me at one time got to be too much. Now, I have one device that works well for taking notes, for listening to music, watching videos, and even handles phone calls fairly well. I’m just now starting to use Mail on it as well, which is kind of nice, since I don’t need to reply to most email that I receive. On top of that, it acts as a GPS, so I don’t really need to carry that around if I were to, say, go geocaching.
• The App Store: I realize it’s not unique, but having the app store is very nice. It’s one centralized location for all sorts of interesting software. There’s a lot of noise, for sure, but there’s also a lot of great software, and most of the stuff I care to have is free. A lot of services like Evernote and Facebook offer up free software, and as evidenced in a prior post, there’s also a WordPress application. I find myself more willing to use Twitter and Facebook more frequently now, simply because the iPhone versions make it easy.
• Sync: I’m a Mac user by night (currently Windows .NET developer by day), and so I already have a vested interest in a lot of Apple applications, like iTunes and iPhoto. I’ve wanted to use programs like iCal and Address Book more, but they never worked with my phone, and they do now. I realize the iPhone is going to have a notable edge here, but there’s still something to be said for being able to use software I love with my device of choice.

I’m sure I could say a lot more here. To be fair, let’s list a few things I don’t like.

• Photograph quality: The two megapixel camera is okay, but it’s still definitely a cell phone camera. I’d say it’s on par with my old cell phone, but it’s still not great. It’s good enough, though.
• No video recording: My Samsung Sync recorded video. Not much, and not for long durations, but on occasion, it was nice to be able to snap video instead of a picture. I know there are ways to record video if I jailbreak the phone and install some other software, but, I’m not so keen on doing that yet. There’s rumors of proper video recording coming soon, so I’m going to hold out hope.
• No MMS: My Samsung Sync also used to do multimedia messages — well, usually. It didn’t always work. However, no support at all in the iPhone just seems very, very odd to me.

All of that being said, though, the sheer joy and functionality I get out of using the iPhone outweighs the negatives. It makes most activities more fun. I enjoy being able to keep up on Facebook on the go, and uploading pictures is incredibly easy — same with Twitter too, thanks to Twitterific. I’m still looking for a solid Flickr upload application, although I can always lean on the email gateway if nothing else — and I may have to start doing more of that. I mean, I need to be able to more quickly share photos like these in as many channels as possible.

Inquisitive Lily is inquisitive

I think that’s a good point to wrap up for today. I’m looking forward to my first Tubesday.