The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype
That's funny stuff. The word Most equates to annihilation in some people's minds. What do those same minds interpret these words from the same article? (bold and color enhanced for the reading impaired)
Thereโs no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You canโt install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser canโt handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos.
The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted (samples are here). But it canโt capture video. And you canโt send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.
Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges. Eventually, youโll have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement, much as you do now with an iPod, for a fee.
Then thereโs the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.
Two things make the job tolerable. First, some very smart software offers to complete words for you, and, when you tap the wrong letter, figures out what word you intended. In both cases, tapping the Space bar accepts its suggestion.
Second, the instructional leaflet encourages you to โtrustโ the keyboard (or, as a product manager jokingly put it, to โuse the Forceโ). It sounds like new-age baloney, but it works; once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably.
Even so, text entry is not the iPhoneโs strong suit. The BlackBerry wonโt be going away anytime soon.
The bigger problem is the AT&T network. In a Consumer Reports study, AT&Tโs signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizonโs slogan is, โCan you hear me now?โ AT&Tโs should be, โIโm losing you.โ
Then thereโs the Internet problem. When youโre in a Wi-Fi hot spot, going online is fast and satisfying.
But otherwise, you have to use AT&Tโs ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Timesโs home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo, two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.
These drawbacks may be deal-killers for some people. On the other hand, both the iPhone and its network will improve. Apple points out that unlike other cellphones, this one can and will be enhanced with free software updates. Thatโs good, because I encountered a couple of tiny bugs and one freeze. (Thereโs also a tantalizing empty space for a row of new icons on the Home screen.) A future iPhone model will be able to exploit AT&Tโs newer, much faster data network, which is now available in 160 cities.
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So I guess you have to buy 2 of them. One to have when you mail the one in to have the battery replaced (for a fee...those crafty folks at apple) and use both at the same time to cut your browsing and loading time in half? Two minutes for Yahoo?
Damn, if I'm not there in 5 seconds I'm gone.
Can ya hear me now?
