I guess I should just let this out. In the middle of October, with the help of esteemed friend and partner-in-crime Shawn Medero, I concocted a plan. I sent Shawn some money, he purchased an iPhone and USPS took care of the details of flinging it across the globe. I faux-activated, jailbreaked and unlocked the device using the 1.1.1 firmware, and it’s been working spendidly ever since.
There is a long list of things it doesn’t do - sending or receiving MMS messages, any form of Bluetooth incantation that doesn’t involve getting the audio to a headset or a car, the revered 3G network (UMTS), officially support other carriers or applications. And you know what?
I don’t care.
That’s not an “I don’t care because the rest of the experience is so neat”, it’s just an “I don’t care”. Honestly - I don’t. Any iPhone review that doesn’t detail the incredible dynamics of the iPhone is not a review of the iPhone, it is a pissing contest of the iPhone’s technical capabilities.
Because, you see, the iPhone’s UI flows. Empirical evidence suggests that complete and utter delight and awe is the reasonable reply from a normal human holding the iPhone for the first time, exploring its menus, using the device. People who are normally technically unimpressed, incapable or gloriously old-school have all responded the same way. You just can’t help being smitten.
The iPhone strikes the perfect balance between being showy and being useful. Amputees have been known to be able to count the number of animations that are entirely without function on their fingers. The list rubber-banding. The tilting. The instant feedback. Everything is there for a reason, and the reason also happens to be the same everywhere: if this happened to be a physical, well-designed object, what would it do?
Another point may be the iPhone’s biggest legacy of all: the finger as a designing unit in the interface instead of the stylus. Using a stylus affords you precision to do pinpointing. However, a stylus is an acquired taste and an acquired skill. When you use a stylus phone or PDA without a stylus, you can sometimes get by using your fingernails, but it is a frustrating experience. The model assumes precision.
Why do we need precision anyway? Well, turns out, we have a lot of choices, so we have to stuff them all somewhere. And if you want a small device, you’ll want a small screen, thus a small resolution, thus a small tap area, thus styluses.
Well, screw that. iPhone delivers a UI founded on those infamous words - “who wants a stylus?” - and when I say delivers, I do mean it. Your fingers never feel like they get in the way, you almost never have trouble tapping anything (notable exceptions are small links in Safari, but you can zoom in) and it feels way more natural. Yes, the screen gets dirty. Suck it up. It is worth it, by a mile.
(Sidebar: In late June, I had a conversation with John Gruber about how he was going to stomach touching a screen to navigate a device. Said John: “Well, you just have to bite the bullet. Maybe just buy a cheeseburger and smear it all over the screen to start with, just to break the seal.” If Gruber can convert, anyone can do it.)
All this talk about the user interface may make some people think I’m covering up functionality. Not so. The phone is the best phone I’ve ever used. Favorites are a double-Home-button-press away, the call management is marvelous and the SMS app does to text messaging what Gmail did to webmail.
The general consensus seems to be that half of the rest of the applications are great; the weird thing is just that a different half is mentioned each time. Mail is okay, as are Stocks, Calendar (although a Week view is needed), Calculator and Clock. Weather consistently shows temperatures about 18°C too low, which is curious - and no, it’s not a case of a Fahrenheit setting (whatever data I’m handed when using Fahrenheit shows as the °C converted) and it’s reproducible all the time in all cities. iTunes is infectious (I’ve bought three songs, all iTunes Plus, natch). Photos is a small miracle, and YouTube is still pretty oddball, even if it’s fun.
Google Maps deserves its own paragraph. I’ve long been a fan of Google Maps in any setting, and I too have gasped at Jeff Han twisting and turning the Californian coastline. Navigation of a 2D space and quickly moving to the right zoom level is exactly what multi-touch is good at, and applying these concepts to a map is sort of a perfect storm. Google Maps delivers, and after seeing friends play with the phone for a few moments, I am convinced that the static, rustling dead tree edition is going to be looking for a new gig within twenty years.
Safari is wonderful. I am sure that there’s an algorithm at work somewhere, but somehow certain text is scaled bigger than other text, which works wonders most of the time, and zooming and tilting does it for you the rest of the time. That tabs are afforded at all is respectable, and the rendering has no problem giving the various Opera versions I’ve tried a run for their money - this really is the full WebKit at work, even though it’s not also the full Adobe Flash and so on.
Because this is a phone, I’ve also been able to really come to terms with carrying a music library around me. I own an iPod, but its usage requires packing another thing, including headphones, which has precluded its more frequent excursions. Driving, on the other hand, with the iPhone blaring, say, Supreme from the safe confines of the nearest dashboard alcove is a perfectly reasonable experience. I’m not a great audiophile, and I don’t like high volumes, but the quality can certainly be said to be good enough.
Basically, I’m stoked. The iPhone is wonderful. It’s not perfect, but it is wonderful. I’ve had it since October 24th, and while the “it’s new so I have to constantly use it” sheen has worn off, few cracks have appeared in the façade.
The closest to a serious software bug I’ve had was earlier today when it figured, I think, that it was in headphone mode and would only sound off in speaker mode when on a call. Plugging in and unplugging the bundled headset fixed it.
The battery life is perfectly acceptable for something that can do all this; regular usage takes me through about three days until you get the 20% battery warning, and I once tried to use it constantly after this, and it took all evening to completely drain the battery. Music playback is engineered to use a different, more power-efficient chip and hardly sips battery juice at all - a wise choice by Apple, and a must for any music player that still has to be a phone.
Scratches? The chrome frame isn’t pristine, but no scuff marks on the glass, and nothing on the back that can’t be wiped off or solved by improved personal hygiene or reduced sawdust acquaintance.
Overall score? A perfect ten? No. Parts of the experience attain perfect ten status, but not all of it - 9 will have to do.
At the end of the day, it’s clear that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and friends have to rethink their products. It’s not that Apple wins by looks. There are more aesthetically pleasing phones in smaller form factors. The problem is simply that of phones working a certain way. Applications on a phone have been a case of scrolling lists and accepting downloading certificates; Apple brings this around a whole new way. The main screen is the menu screen. All that you can use is laid bare, the easy dial is obviously marked and favorites are an appreciated idea.
It’s obvious that your Sony Ericsson T610 or Z800i, or your Nokia 3330 or 6210 (or any of the repackaged, marginally updated models offered by all makers) doesn’t work like an iPhone. What may not be readily apparent is that not even something newer like an HTC Touch works like an iPhone. What’s most beautiful about the iPhone is not its surface or the look of its UI, but the way you get around it, and that’s something that could change everything.
I think the point about the iPhone / iPod touch being so smooth because they mimic physics / nature is an important one. I am certainly a person to appreciate such naturality.
Yet I wonder whether a less natural way of using things (by which I most certainly don’t mean a stylus) might not be even better. Possibly not as awe-inspiring, but more efficient to use. Has research been done on that?
By http://supersnowman.livejournal.com/ · 2007.11.11 02:30
Well as one who definitely isn’t buying one because of the ‘long list of things it doesn’t do - sending or receiving MMS messages, any form of Bluetooth incantation that doesn’t involve getting the audio to a headset or a car, the revered 3G network (UMTS)’ I just wanted to put forward another POV.
It’s not just a features pissing contest.
I use my phone every single day as a 3G/GPRS bluetooth modem from my Mac. I have a 2 hour commute, and being able to ’svn up’ across the mobile network at decent speeds is wonderful.. I think it’s one of those things that if you’ve never been able to do it, you maybe don’t understand, but once you can, you never want to go back.
WiFi on a phone is pointless for me as my laptop is always with me. If there’s WiFI, I use my laptop. If there’s no WiFi I rely on the cell network to get my laptop online.
Im usually an Apple fanboy…and I want to want one, but it fails to meet the basic usage scenario of a phone for me., and I think that’s a crying shame,
By alancfrancis · 2007.11.11 09:42
You’re so right about the flow. I got mine at Regent Street on Friday afternoon (8th in the queue) and it’s been a joy so far.
Like when you’re listening to music and a call comes in, instead of stopping dead, the music fades out. And to answer the call? Click the microphone thingy on the headphones. One click, and you’re talking to your buddy. Beautiful.
And all this at version 1.1.2. Imagine what it’ll be like in a year. I’m hoping Spam Sieve will get ported once the SDK is out.
By pauldwaite · 2007.11.11 15:22
Alan: I’ve relied on 3G communications for part of the year for two years now, but I’m doing it from a USB modem, which is way easier on the battery and overall lifetime. I’m not deprived of this experience, but in this particular case, it’s probably a wiser choice to go with a USB, PC Card or ExpressCard addon.
That said, what I meant by feature pissing contest is that while functionality is important, not all functionality is as important for everyone. If a phone comes out that works really well and doesn’t have every feature, deriding it as irrelevant as so many people have just because it misses some features is missing the point.
Not opting to choose the model yourself because you use the feature is of course a different choice altogether. But this is just an integral point of deciding which phone you’ll get, a process in which you eliminate *every other phone* - it’s the sort of mandated feature check list comparison that’s featured everywhere as an argument for why it simply won’t do as a phone in 2007 that I think is bogus. How about a phone that’s actually pleasing and easier to use? Doesn’t that bring home any points?
And really, like Paul says, imagine what the iPhone will look like in a while. Everything but 3G support in my list could be added by software upgrades.
By Jesper · 2007.11.11 22:03
Jesper: Thanks for the response. I think I’m just defensive as I don’t want to get lumped in with the Slashdotters and ThinkSecreters that are just bitching about things like 3G for the sake of bitching.
On the subject of the laptop-addon, MacBook has no card slot, which ruled that out for me… I hadn’t considered a USB option, but I think paying 35 quid a month to O2 for the iPhone, PLUS x quid a month to oragne for the laptop would be prohibitively galling. I don’t need a data connection on my phone, aside from the laptop angle, so if I did get a USB modem, I’d be looking a super-cheap PAYG phone deal :-)
Ah well, hopefully Apple will fix this in V2 or V3 so I can open my wallet like I’m itching to do. :-)
By alancfrancis · 2007.11.12 13:35
Right, but since you get unlimited data from O2, you can just grab a standalone USB modem and transfer the SIM cards since you can’t receive calls concurrently anyway.
On second thought, sharing SIM cards is a fiddly deal. You don’t want to mess with paper clips and small trays on a train ride, so scratch that. 3G modems and included data plans are comparatively cheap in Sweden; many people can (and some have) replace their home ISP entirely, much like people are abandoning landlines for cell phones. I guess that was what I meant.
I still think (and know from experience) that heavy 3G use on a mobile phone tends to wear the battery down pretty hard. Maybe if you’d tether it to the laptop with a USB cable so it could draw power from that, it’d be a better deal.
By Jesper · 2007.11.12 18:58