OK, I give in: a little bit about the durn iPhone after all...
I am not sure if I'll get one, I work from home so I don't use mobile devices very much. But I'm always interested in significant developments in technology.
Steven Levy has written one of my favorite books about the tech industry: "Insanely Great", about the development of the Mac. His book about the iPod is also very good. So I paid attention to his review in particular. He was laptop-less for a couple of days and so had a chance to give his review sample of the iPhone a good workout. Quote:
"During my travels and airport delays, I was able to keep up with my e-mail, negotiate my way around the downtown, get tips on the city from an old friend whose number I don’t normally have handy, check the weather conditions in New York and D.C., monitor baseball scores and blogs, listen to an early Neil Young concert and amuse myself with silly YouTube videos and an episode of “Weeds,” all on a single charge before the battery ran down. Now, just about all those things could have been done by devices that are already out on the market. But considering I’d had the iPhone for just a day, and never taken a glance at a manual, it was an impressive introduction. In contrast, I’ve had a Motorola handset for two years and am still baffled at its weird approach to Web browsing and messaging. What’s more, with the exception of learning to type on the iPhone, which requires some concentration, doing all those things on that five-ounce device was fun, in the same way that switching from an old command-line interface to the Macintosh graphical user interface in the mid-1980s was a kick."
People do say the screen keyboard does take some used to. But remarkably, Walt Mossberg says after a week's practice he can use it as fast as the Palm Treo he has had for years.
3 comments:
I'm not a mobile user either, but when you watch the iPhone commercial that ran on Late Night it just seems so incredibly versatile device that I just might have to take the plunge.
Well as an early adopter of many mobile devices the problems that stopped me from using anything more than a phone remain.
One, the battery life is not even a day. Two the internet connect is painfully slow. In time, this will be fixed, but today, life is too short to sit staring at a 2.5 X 3 inch monitor when there are so many lovely and interesting people at the airport, bus stop, or wherever you are. :o)
I chanced to be in the mall at about 6:30 last night. The line to the Apple store was about three blocks long. It seemed a good natured crowd. I can't understand wanting to line up for something when in a week or two things will be much calmer. It's not even like it's a November release of a new gaming platform and doting grandparents line up for spoilt grand kids Christmas gifts.
Still having an LG VX9800 which has GPS navigation, web capability, and can store a three full length movies on it's flash in watchable quality on a 2 1/4" I can see the appeal of the iPhone, but not until mine fails.
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