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Sunday, July 1, 2007
I was going to hold off on any details about my thoughts on the iPhone until I used it for a few more days, but Shane has gone out and told everyone that I did a review, so now I’m forced to give something. 
Regular readers of SvenOnTech will know that at first, I was very let down by the lack of features such as 3G data network support, no Exchange Direct Push, and no true third-party developer support. As time drew closer to the release of the phone, I started to warm to the iPhone. Finally, the 29th of June came and I wanted one. I lined up at a Manteca AT&T store (still with its Cingular sign out front) and three hours later, I had one. I was stoked!
First, let me tell you what led me to change my mind on getting one. I have been a Windows Mobile user all the way back to Windows CE. Yes, when it was black-and-white and actually had a Start menu on it. I’ve seen it grow and I’ve seen it fail. Over and over again, fail. The stability of the pocket operating system has never been one to feel secure with. I guess that’s why a back up application was the first thing I installed with each device I purchased. But the nagging thing was the applications I use daily on the Pocket PC that I needed to have were absent in every way from the iPhone. I looked to get HTC’s latest device from AT&T and I was close to purchasing it. VERY close. But my current HTC device, the XV 6700 kept dying on me. I finally got so fed up with it, I realized an unreliable device with a ton of features was not better than one with less features that was very reliable. So I held out for the iPhone.
How do I know the iPhone is more reliable? I don’t. But based on historical evidence of Apple hardware, I’m fairly confident the iPhone in it’s premiere form is far more superior than Microsoft’s decade of trial. I have a Rev. A MacBook Pro and have no issues with it. I have had talked to others with first run Apple hardware and have heard the same. Since the iPhone is based on OS X, I know that’s stable enough in its five year run. I have more confidence in Apple than I ever have had in Microsoft.
Another issue I should bring up is the fact of service. I left Verizon for AT&T. I LOVE Verizon. It has the best signal I have seen. I have been everywhere from Chico, California to Tucson, Arizona and everywhere in-between. I never had a dead phone. Ever. Too bad Verizon passed on the iPhone as it would have been the perfect combo.
Lining up for the iPhone was great. Like the days of lining up for the Smashing Pumpkins or Summer Jam while in college. This time, I brought my family (my wife showed up just in time to get in the store with us) and we waited nearly three hours to be luck 19. I got it. Boy, was I excited! Even the kids where into it! What an event. (See my Flikr album for some pix.)
Okay, the phone. How is it? Well in a nutshell, this skeptic is impressed. I figured the Exchange mail would be the most bitter pill to swallow but guess what I found in the Mail settings of the phone? An Exchange button! While it’s not pure Exchange but rather an insecure IMAP connection, it does the job. In fact, it does the job better than my XV6700 did! One of the ongoing problems I had with it was the constant disabling of Direct Push by itself for some reason. When it was working and grabbing mail as it came, the XV6700 wouldn’t notify me of new mail. The iPhone can be set to automatically retrieve mail every 15 minutes and when there’s something new in my Inbox, the familiar Mail.app new mail sound chimes along with a quick vibrate of the iPhone. I was so not use to this feature working that I kept pulling out my iPhone all through church thinking I had a phone call!
Now all isn’t well with the IMAP/Exchange trade-off. I only see my Inbox and sub-folders of the Inbox as well as my Outbox. I’m not sure if I have to force it to sync my other 100 plus folders or if it’s only going to see the Inbox related ones. In truth, it’s not a biggy as I can move stuff around on my Mac later. But it would be nice to lessen the administrative load when returning to the office.
I have noticed the ringer volume is pretty low. The speaker is on the bottom of the phone and when it’s placed in my Belkin belt-clip case, the fabric and speaker position being away from me both deaden the sound of the ringtone. Thankfully the vibrate works well.
Alarm notifications, such as new mail and SMS, are indicated with a single burst of sound (not customizable) and one quick vibrate. That’s it. If you don’t react to the indicator immediately, you’ll soon forget about it until the next indicator is tripped. Bad for busy people who can’t yank the iPhone out to check what they are being notified of. This needs to be fixed.
Non-linear voicemail, or Visual Voicemail as Apple calls it, is pretty trick, though slow. See, the actual message is downloaded to your phone. So, it must transfer via the slower EDGE network. The longer the message, the longer the download. When I tested the feature and left a message from a landline phone, a 21 second message took nearly two minutes to appear on my phone after I hung up from my landline phone. The sound quality is good. If somehow youmail could tap into this, this would be the perfect voicemail system. Creating your outgoing message is done speaking to your iPhone (ala speakerphone mode) and then the phone sends it up to AT&T servers. This works much better than doing it like a phone call. The quality is excellent and there is no delay for the tone since you’re not removing the phone from your ear to find the pound key to end the message. Again, upload is fairly slow of the outgoing message, but you only have to do this once (if you’re not one of those, “Today is
Scratch or smudge? Much has been made about the glass face of the iPhone. Really, it comes down to you choosing which you’d rather have. I’m anal about my gadgets and stuff and I go nuts on smudges. I’m constantly wiping the phone clean on a my pants or shirt but you know what, I’d rather have the smudges than scratches. The glass screen makes everything look sharp and clear on this phone. When I show pictures of videos on it, “Oooh” and “Wooow” is the immediate response. Dress to impress, people. Smudges are easily fixed, scratches aren’t.
Another complaint I’ve read is the camera and lack of video. For me, I don’t care about video so that’s not a complaint of mine. As to the camera, dang, try using the XV6700 for a year and then use this and you’ll be impressed with the results. I am. Sure, not stellar snap shots, especially with movement from the subject, but all things holding still, these pictures are very nice. Good color and great sharpness. Again, this is phone with PDA first and foremost to me. The camera is a bonus. I ain’t crying.
Bluetooth. Yup, another whine on the Internet. It basically only supports Hands Free Profile. Nothing else. No file transfer and no tethering for modem use. But since the iPhone can’t be used for external storage, what good is file transfer (though vCard sharing would be nice) and excuse me, but did I really read someone complaining about the lack of modem use? Dude, this is EDGE. Slooooow stuff. You do not want this as your modem! Get an ExpressCard EV-DO modem from Verizon.
As for connecting to a headset or car, this baby is on it! My XV6700 struggled to connect to my Alpine iDA-X001 (review forthcoming) and nothing would display on the head unit from the phone other than the Caller ID (phone number only) after I answered the call. With the iPhone, I can connect to the Alpine in less than a second and can see my Missed Calls, Dialed Calls, Received Calls, Phone Book and even pre-programmed numbers (from the iPhones AT&T Services setting) such as Check My Balance. When I make a call from the iPhone direct and I am in my truck, it shows a list of options for the call with the default action indicated by a speaker icon. In this case, the Alpine shows as default but I can choose the iPhone ear piece or speakerphone with a simple press of a soft-button. Very sweet!
Lastly in my “quick” review is the phone audio quality. Mossberg said it was “good” and I would disagree. I think it’s very good. Not excellent, but very good. I can turn up the ear piece so loud that it really does hurt my ear. Outside of most Motorolas I’ve used, no other phone is ever loud enough for these high school rock concert going kids ear. I am pleased enough with the audio quality that it’s not a complaint of mine at all. The speaker phone is alright but if you’re in an area where there is much background noise, pull out the white ear buds.
In truth, there is a ton of stuff to talk about this phone. I wanted to hit on some things I haven’t seen anywhere else and I hope that this information is helpful for fence sitters. I think with the rumored iPhone updates and such, this phone is only going to get better and better and widen the gap further and further between Nokia, Blackberry, and Microsoft as the months progress on. It’s going to be a hot summer, folks!
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:06
Rather unfair to claim that the iPhone IMAP is less secure than Exchange MAPI. That’s bogus – they’re both “insecure” (sic). Now….if the iPhone supported a VPN that would make things different.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:39
I have tried and tried to figure out how to configure the iPhone with my Exchange Server email. Is the fact that it is Exchange Server 2k2 the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
As for the phone, I love it. Have had no problems besides the volume issues, both ringers and speaker phone, you mention.
July 3rd, 2007 at 20:36
Your writing style is difficult to read, and the iphone just still isn’t there yet. Touchscreen isn’t very responsive, and UI not ‘that’ intuitive.
July 3rd, 2007 at 23:25
I am starting to want one now. My friend Jason says he has friends writing apps for the iPhone already. Sweet.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:32
I think you’ll like it Shane going in knowing the limitations like I did. Once that API is released and other minor fixes applied, this will be THE phone. Period.
As to Jason’s friends writing “apps”, it’s merely Web 2.0 sites. There is no way to get programs on an iPhone without an SDK right now. I am writing one for Fuel Tracking for my business.
July 4th, 2007 at 10:04
Hey MJ, I fully agree with you. Exchange MAPI is much more secure than IMAP. I was just pointing out that IMAP is not secure.
The iPhone DOES support VPN, by the way.
July 4th, 2007 at 18:02
Scott, make sure your Exchange server has IMAP enabled. This is the ONLY way to make the iPhone connect to an Exchange server. Make sure this is enabled for you.
In your Mail settings, choose the EXCHANGE button (not the IMAP) and enter the servers name (secure.exchange.com for example) and enter your user name (may differ from your e-mail address) and password. Repeat this for the SMTP field with smtp.exchange.com as most likely what you’ll enter. It may require user name and password, too.