Think the iPhone is really the greatest thing since sliced cheese? I have a story that will make you think again even if you have one of these gadgets as you probably do not know what you are missing.
Originally I bought my iPhone in Feb-08 to build web pages that were just for them. I was using a Motorola Razr V3C that I had used 3 years previous to this $500 purchase and two year contract and still use it as it still out features the iPhone.
Some of you may not know what you are missing as many that I talk to do not even understand or know of half the features of the phone so before I talk about the current 3Gs iPhone, lets just show my history of Me AT&T and Apple.
One of the first problems I had was that before buying the iPhone, I downloaded and read the user manual so I would be sure how to operate. Most of what the manual was telling me was not functional such as being able to re-organize my icons. A call to Apple led me to this just two weeks after I bought the phone… I needed to update the firmware in the phone. So I was told what to do but I could not yet do it as the firmware was not released yet. I did ask if they were in the habit of releasing a user manual a month before the update ??? no reply.
In using the phone the first most enjoyable features that I took for granted on my 3 year old V3C Razr was to assign no ring-tone to those pesty folks who always call with nothing to say. They can use voicemail. I also used this to not have interruptions from solicitation calls but most important, I could not assign “no ring-tone” to blocked calls. No can-do with iPhone.
At the same time I have a bunch of dates on the calendar in my Razr that are once a month but follow the order of once a month on the first Tues of the month or the 3rd Friday of the month. Can’t do this on a iPhone but my Razr had been doing it for me for years.
I could not forward a text message, attach a photo to a text message or most of the stuff that I could not only do with my 3 year old V3C Razr but even the cheapest of phones enjoyed. What a marvel of modern technology….. I’m not getting.
So with these two and several other complaints like being tethered the same only one computer to interact with it, (hard to take your computer with you when out of town most often just to interact with it) complaints to Apple and they seemed interested but in the successive 5 updates, the only one they cured was breaking the one computer tether.
The most important additional problem I had was my local carrier data speed was as terrible as I have seen. My data services were taking 3 to 4 times longer than they advertised. A call to Apple (since they hold exclusive contract to AT&T) and then to AT&T led me to…. oh… everyone knew the edge network would not work right…. so I asked that I am not looking for fabulous speed, just want it to work most of the time and no worse than half the rated speed.
AT&T suggested I get the NEW and revised iPhone 3G. Now wait a minute… I just bought this thing and in a month you tell me that if I want it to work as you said I need to buy a new one????? My next statement shocked the customer service rep as I told her (after much studying before) I have no 3G service in my area so how was that going to help me?
At this point, forget about the features I was missing, I just want service I was paying for.
My sister thinks my iPhone was pretty cool and bought the new 3G and as I already knew, no 3G service.
In the last few months the data service has been so bad, I rarely am able to search for let alone watch youtube videos, send a photo via email and if it does go through, it takes over 7 minutes.
I would suggest to any potential buyer while in their store and testing these phones to test the network speed and if you are going to test that speed, turn off the wi-fi that is built in to the phone as each of the offices has a wi-fi unit tied directly to the Internet and speed that way is great. Of course you will not get that when you walk out of the office and they do not tell you while testing that it is using local wi-fi Internet but you would soon learn that edge/3g speed is not nearly the same even if it works right. This is what led me to running down the street to find a open wi-fi connection when I had to rely on the phone data. The iPhone will automatically seek wi-fi network if funtion is on (is by default) and use it over Edge or 3G network as it is faster if available. I think this leaves you open to a future hack but time will tell on this.
Whats new…
First the 3.0 software – Finally, you can forward a text message. Something even the low tech phones have been able to do for years. New default app Sound recorder is ok but can not record within a phone call that would be handy when getting details spoken to fast for me to write down without forgetting something. Probably a legal issue in some states. Nothing added to the calendar to allow me to sched a alarm for first tues of month as I have done for years on my V3C. Still undelivered promise of MMS or picture insertion in text messages. Perhaps this fall?
The iPhone 3G S
Well to make you/me feel even worse, buying a piece of tech toy for $500 only to find a month later you can buy a better one for $200 less then to go just over a year to find a even better one for $100 less again makes you not want to buy anything except maybe a Google G1S phone where the platform or OS it rides on is universally open so anyone can write a app for it and distribute it anywhere on the web without being tied to a single computer or website to add that additional functionality.
But on the bright side the new iPhone 3G S is a marvel probably only created from the competition of the Goggle G1 and having downloaded the developers package for a check of the fundamentals, I would say much more should be possible in the near future when folks start writing the code for it. Most appealing to me was the ability to write code to interface hardware control through the phone. That is the ability to acquire data through the interface port and send data out through the same means you might effectively control just about anything you can imagine. Data ACK And Control is one of my specialties. I see that Nike has a package for it to help you work-out via plug-in shake sensor you place in your shoe/sock.
The new iPhone also sports a 3mp camera and video capture.` and finally caught up with voice features of the four year old Motorola V3C that I always used while driving.
For me, I can not warrant more funds to a device until my AT&T network is functioning as the phone will not do any better no matter how newer the version so its just a bunch more toys that I will regret I cant use. I am in process with tech support to help them verify fixes for the local network. Gee, if those others who had problems would have only called last year, or called at all, I may have enjoyed this a bit more along the way.
AT&T Has a long way to go to deliver the goods that their exclusive contract with Apple requires. I only wished the iPhone worked on CDMA networks and Alltel had not been gobbled up by Verizon. So it seems that AT&T has a monopoly on GSM networks and Verizon on CDMA networks and with these exclusive contracts, only the consumer can draw the short straw !
Gee… this kinda stuff was not legal a few years ago, what happened ?
In any case if you like to use features and the phone I would say be prepared to spend as much time servicing the phone as it will you ! Updating iTunes and the iPhone on a broadband connection that you must have if you buy one, takes enough time by itself. Apple seems to insist on using a weird menu system within their software that is very hard to understand outside of mp3’s and I never have got used to it. Its funny I can manage mp3’s but not video’s or pictures with the same ease. Your PC needs to have a twice the hard drive space for the media as it makes copies of all files converted in Apple’s format (aac & mov etc) that you do not see. I will not be buying the new 3G S until AT&T can make my 2g Edge work correctly as it would be pointless. And if you do not already have 3G service in your area, do not believe the promise that a sales rep (trying to make a sale) might give you that it is coming soon as I have listened to that one for a year and probably will not have it when my contract expires. They make their spiff when they sell it to you and you will be spending hours on the phone (not with sales rep) without conclusion when it does not happen. Something about gadgets that make folks forget about the fundamentals.
Enjoy!