08 January 2008

an iPhone review


I admit it. I am a gadget freak. When the Matrix movie featured this Nokia phone with a sliding keypad cover, I got myself the closest thing: a Nokia 7110. And I had to wait for 3 months for my order to come in. When the first ever Nokia phone with polyphonic tones came out (the 7650), I lined up for one. When Siemens came up with a small phone that can display 7 lines of text, I got one for myself. And I also went through the gaming console phase.

Those were my gadget freak days. When I got married, priorities changed. I skipped PSP, the WII, the iPods. Rather than buying something for myself, I'd rather get something for my wife or son. And - dare I say it? - I was ready to settle for a phone with just SMS and call features!

And then came the online video of Steve Jobs' launching of the iPhone. I watched mesmerized. I simply got to have it! The last couple of months was enamoured with looking for an iPhone. I practically gave up on it and left the searching to my good buddy Harry.

And he finally found one! One morning he dropped it off my room. I took one look at it and felt that I really didn't want such a phone, even if it was going to be my holiday present for myself. But I decided to just take a little peep into what it can do...

Whoops, look at what we have here. I brought home the Powerbook! Hmm... let's see what will happen if I sync it with iTunes...

I spent the next few hours transferring photos, songs, and music videos, and configuring the device for my preferences. So much for losing my gadget freakness! I spent a couple of nights converting a couple of movie favorites into iPhone format. I was hooked.

So how is the iPhone like?
As an iPod, it's simply amazing. I love the coverflow which enables you to visually flick through your album and song selections. I love the huge screen and the crisp images! I love the music output.

As a WiFi device, I love it. The pages load and display nicely. Controls are so easy to use!

The camera captures really nice images even in low light conditions. Which I cant say the same for the Nokia N80, with its 3Mpixel camera. And you get the entire screen as your viewfinder when you take photos! Nice.

The interface is so simple you don't need a manual to familiarize yourself with it.

As a phone...
It's a cinch to make calls! And you get a full screen photo of the person you're talking to. And the screen turns off when you press it to your ear.

As an SMS device, that's where most of my expectations fall short. In a country where we send and receive SMS and MMS like we have meals 5 times a day, the features of the iPhone fall short. Imagine, you cannot forward messages! The horror! And you cannot send a single message to multiple recipients! Unspeakable!

Typing your messages also takes a lot of getting used to. Of course, we send more messages in Filipino than English but the dictionary kept substituting words. In fairness, the dictionary is also trying to learn some of the Filipino terms but typing can be frustrating sometimes. I thus try to send messages in English, which the dictionary is built for, and that's where I can see the dictionary working out. You don't have to accurately press on the right letters; the dictionary will help you get the right words in.

But still... I wonder why they didn't at least include message forwarding and sending to multiple recipients. It's as if the developers or the beta testers have never tried SMS and MMS before.

Darn.

So right now, I find myself smiling when I use the iPod features and surf on it, but get frustrated at times when I send text messages. It's a love-hate relationship.

Jan 09 update:
A colleague who also has an iphone dropped by my place awhile ago. He took a look at my phone and wondered how come I did not have some features which his phone has. Such as sending to multiple recipients and forwarding messages. Whaaaaatttt! And installing games and applications. WHAAAATTTT!!! My phone is running version 1.1.1 and his is running version 1.1.2. So I thought it was a matter of upgrading the version. I googled for upgrade procedures and found this one at Finance Manila. But it called for a PC and I had a PowerPC Mac so while contemplating on that, I came across the fact that I had to have a file called Oktoprep in order to start the upgrade process. I didn't have this in my Installer section so I googled for this file and landed on tuaw.com which provided for an instant jailbreak procedure which will allow you to install applications on your iPhone! Nice! So I wifi'ed my way to jailbreakme.com and soon I was installing eBooks, Dictionaries, and games on the iPhone! And then my colleague also instructed me to install WeTool so I can forward messages and send to multiple recipients. I was able to go to the iPhonesTalk site and got the WeTool app. And now I can do the SMS functions I wanted to do! Wow! Thanks guys!

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:12 am

    Hehehe.. I've been struggling to find a nice Blackberry myself. Never been hooked on the iPhone. I thought it was nice looking at all but the reviews of it turned me off.

    Do you know any Blackberry retailers there? I'm still aching to find a nice model.

    They must redesign an iPhone to accommodate the unique Filipino needs no? hehehe

    A Prosperous 2008 watson! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not sure where you can get a Blackberry, but be sure you don't get Blackberry Thumb Syndrome! Thanks Alternati!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:21 am

    Treo rules!

    My sister was bugging me to get an iphone. Am addicted to chat thread messaging (so I can monitor sms exchanges for business and personal matters) so I opted to stay with my trusty Treo 650.

    Waiting for Iphone's next release. They should fix the inadequacies by then.

    Will you be coming up for the Panagbenga?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Insider! When is the Panagbenga this year? Well hopefully with the elections over, it won't be politically smeared. Surely the majority of those politicians who turned the parade into their own agenda has learned the hard lesson.

    If only they made the texting feature more flexible, then the iPhone would have been a really marvelous phone. But as an iPod it's amazing.

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  5. naks naman sir nick!!!! ang sosyal ng dating. naka-iphone ka na. i too am guilty of being a gadget freak. natetempt ako bumili nung relo na pwedeng ibluetooth sa phone para yun ang gagamitin mo pag may tumatawag (parang si michael sa knight rider) and makikita mo din kung may nagtext! astig. pero mejo mahal kasi eh. siguro tiba tiba kayo sa bonus ngayon jan sa trends no kaya ang daming niyong andarush?!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ayayay! ganda ng iphone.
    gadget freak din ako dati pagdating sa mobile phones. ngayon i settle for the n6300.

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  7. Chu: Ano yung andarush? May bago ka nanamang term. Shiznit. Hehehe! Yung pinambayad ko sa iPhone, pinahirapan ko ng matagal, courtesy of the pahigpitan este paluwagan. hehehe!

    jho: Once a gadget freak, always a gadget freak. hehe

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  8. i don't know what's with iPhone, but i am not very keen on having one, or maybe i am just loyal to nokia OR i don't have money to buy one? hahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi sir nick...

    Andarush...from the root word ANDA = Moolah :P hahahahaha...

    Ang too much ng review, wa ako ma say... Majorna :P

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice review, Watson. Very informative. Thank you very much. Actually, I had this gadget in mind but I had to backtrack from the idea for financial reason. For now, I'm a bit satisfied for my Asus phone (my gf returned it back to me after I lost my phone to thieves) when its mobile video or mp3. No wi-fi and no internet - well, I really don't surf while on the move.

    Off-topic naman tayo:
    S2IS is a good camera - that's if you don't own an SLR. It has the look and feel of an SLR minus the barrel twist. It also has the advantage over an SLR: like movie recording, LCD viewing, lightweight, less bulky, etc.
    Since you were asking for my opinion about your plan of buying a lens assembly for it, first let me ask you how is your "emotional" connection with that camera. If you intend to use it for a productive number of years ahead, you may go ahead and buy those lens. That will be useful. But if you intend to upgrade to an SLR so soon, I suggest you better start saving for that project than buying an extended lens for your S2IS. In my humble opinion, any of the two is worth it. After all, it's not all about the camera but about the one who is using it.
    Think about it, trust your judgment and good luck ;)

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  11. arrrggghhh you lucky lucky dawwwggg! i sooo drool over iphones... they are not only purty, they can do so much. reading your review just convinced me further.

    some day, one day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Zherwin: Ewan ko ba... parang nahihirapan na tuloy ako gumamit ng keypad ng ibang phones. Gusto ko touch screen. hehe

    Follen: ayos ba? hehe

    Dodong: Actually meron yung wife ko naman ng Asus eee-PC. Really nice. Eye-catcher sya. Will blog about it next time.

    Svelte: kakaiba talaga ang phone na ito. It's really revolutionary inspite of some shortcomings. It's a glimpse of what could be in the future for phones.

    ReplyDelete

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