Xmas iPhone?

[Officer Dibble]

Is there anyone like myself who got an iPhone this Xmas? I can't resist a tasty gadget, so I nipped down to the phone shop just before Xmas and got myself tooled up.

So, what's it like? Well, to touch it hold it and play with it in the shop is to want it. It's a shinny lozenge of glass, plastic and mock chrome, the same size, though only about half the thickness, of my Sony Ericsson 990. It's got a weight and mass about it that unusually denotes a quality piece of kit. Switch it on and you are confronted by the most perfectly rendered icons you're likely to see on any electronic consumer device. Then you start playing with it, tapping the touch screen interface, checking out the features, sending a text, sending an e-mail, making a call or playing a song. You then realize with a shock that you have only just picked this gadget up and are using it without referring to a tiresome instruction book! And that really is what the iPhone is all about - usability.

My Sony Ericsson has every conceivable feature on it, but the fucking thing is virtually unusable, due to a quirky, overly complex menu system. And if you do manage to find your way through the menu maze to access the feature you want, you invariably forget how you got there and find that you can't get out! You end up switching the phone off just to reboot it and start again! So, t'fuck with that.

But Apple are masters of ergonomics, usability and design. Their philosophy is that everything should be plug and play, be fun to use, and look great while your at it. In that I feel they have succeed with the iPhone. There are detractors of course. The say it's only got a 2 mega pixel camera - but so what? If you want to take photos you buy a Nikon. The camera facility is only there for those rare occasions when an alien spacecraft alights in front of your car on that lonely rural back road. Needless to say, I have never had recourse to use my SE 990 camera.

Another quibble is the price - but it's an established fact that quality gear, cutting edge technology and the like, cost more dough. So is this just sour grapes?

Of course some areas of the iPhone's spec don't seem to match up to those of the competition on paper, and I'm sure these will be addressed in iPhone 2. But in other areas of interface and usability the iPhone is years ahead. It's the only device I can think of that puts the Internet, the real computer Internet, in your pocket. Pages load and scroll just like they do on your PC. You just open and pinch you fingers together on the screen to zoom in and out - just like on 'Minority Report'. Yes, it's that advanced.

Even if there are criticisms that can be leveled at the iPhone Apple have done a magnificent job. I thought their efforts deserved support, backing and recognition, which is why I singed up. Hopefully, my little contribution will help take Apple Computer forward to produce ever more usable and wondrous gadgets.




Officer Dibble - No connection to Apple other than being a satisfied punter.

[colonel]

Officer Dibble wrote:


>
> Another quibble is the price .....

It's a quibble from Dibble!

[Sam Slater]

I was tempted, but not on O2. Apart from Three, O2 must be the worst provider out there. Yes, I can get it unlocked, but it's an expensive piece of kit to void the warranty on the first day.

Secondly, wi-fi is expensive in the UK, within cafes, pubs and libraries, which means using wap, and the iPhone doesn't have 3g yet.

If the iPhone 2 lets me use it on Orange, wi-fi access in public places becomes more widespread, and cheaper, then I'll give it ago because you can't deny that it's a decent bit of kit.

[Officer Dibble]

"It's a quibble from Dibble!"

Chortle, chortle...



Officer Dibble

[Officer Dibble]

"Secondly, wi-fi is expensive in the UK, within cafes, pubs and libraries, which means using wap, and the iPhone doesn't have 3g yet."

Wi-fi access with unlimited data transfer is all included in the monthly subscription (35 quid), so long as you access it via your own home network or via one of the thousands of 'Cloud' Wi-Fi hot spots around the country.




Officer Dibble

[Welshman]

Apologies for going slightly off the subject but I'm about to get my first MacBook. Hope I'm as happy with that as you are with your iPhone. Apple do seem to know what they are doing with operating systems, user interfaces etc.

[Lizard]

Sorry Dibbs I have to disagree, its built like a house brick, looks like a house brick, and behaves like one. No way of sending MMS or recieving them, only 2g connection unless your at home and using your own wiffy, and no GPS that you can install and run tom tom with, you can only use google pissy maps with no voice direction etc. I'll wait for version two and see what thats like-- out in June, slimmer and smaller etc, Actually the new 02 xda orbit 2 is looking the part, windows based, fast processor, gps, wifi, new 3G, and a shed load more plus you can install tom tom on it no problem, read this and weep..

I,ll give you a pony for the iphone, come on you know it makes sense, its just a doorstop with a screen..

btw Happy new year, may it be chav free.

[Officer Dibble]

"I,ll give you a pony for the iphone, come on you know it makes sense, its just a doorstop with a screen.."

Put that wad away, Liz, and save it for a pallet of Darjeeling. I'm not selling. My iPhone is one cushty piece of kit - even if it doesn?t boast GPS.

I think you're missing the point a bit, though. What you are buying into here is the iPhone?s revolutionary interface and usability. And let's not forget that you're also getting a top spec widescreen video iPod thrown in, too.





Officer Dibble

[Officer Dibble]

"Hope I'm as happy with that as you are with your iPhone. Apple do seem to know what they are doing with operating systems, user interfaces etc."

Apple's user interfaces are beautifully resolved and second to none. The Windows interface looks shabby and amateurish in comparison. Computing the Mac way is a far more pleasant experience - I know, I have both Mac and PC in my office. Those of whom I?ve turned onto Apple Mac have since thanked me - as having been the best move they've made. I don't know of anyone who has gone back to PC after experiencing a contemporary Mac.

Regarding the Mac Book: Rumors are rife that at there will be a new, ultra thin, laptop boasting flash memory announced at Apple's Frisco show (the biggest event in the Apple calendar) within the next two weeks.




Officer Dibble

[Deuce Bigolo]

I'll see your review and raise you a demonstration


































It might be true in another 100 years