Mike Fisher (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mfisher) wrote,@ 2007-06-30 18:20:00 |
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iPhone
I went out to the Apple Store today to check out the iPhone. It was everything that I'd dreamed it would be. The on-screen keyboard was not a whole lot less user-friendly than the chiclet-like keyboard on the Treo I use (though not quite as nice as the wide-bodied Blackberry devices like the the 7200 series). I felt that its responsiveness was much better than either the Palm-based or Windows-based Treos I've used or Windows Mobile 5 PDAs.
I did tests with Google Reader (it chooses the mobile edition) and found that it was much nicer than the Treo or iPAQ use because of the ability to fit tremendously more text on the screen.
I configured it to use my work email server for inbound mail--it was pleasant, but I was unable to configure it to check email on a more frequent basis than 15 minute intervals, so I would not be pleased with it for an on-call type of device.
I disabled the WiFi and tried to guess how unpleasant it would be to use as a data device over the EDGE service. I did not find it to be significantly worse than the Treo's data service (which is much faster) but I think that's because the Windows Mobile 5 Internet Explorer appears to render HTML/CSS very slowly--the iPhone does a much better job.
I did not buy it today because my Verizon contract goes until September, but I had a hard time walking away from it. I think that I will be switching--Verizon does not offer comparably-priced Blackberry data plans (by my read, Verizon would cost $20/month more than AT&T; Verizon does not seem to have a consumer-priced data plan). The only question is when.
Update: More about the keyboard. I forgot to mention that I did have trouble with the "two-thumbs" method of typing. I got a lot of Ps rather than Os. The workaround that I adopted while I was playing was generally to use my left thumb for the left side of the keyboard and my right index finger for the right side of the keyboard. I did generally hit the modifier key (change the keyboard template from alpha to numeric/symbol) with my index finger, even though it's on the left side.
I went out to the Apple Store today to check out the iPhone. It was everything that I'd dreamed it would be. The on-screen keyboard was not a whole lot less user-friendly than the chiclet-like keyboard on the Treo I use (though not quite as nice as the wide-bodied Blackberry devices like the the 7200 series). I felt that its responsiveness was much better than either the Palm-based or Windows-based Treos I've used or Windows Mobile 5 PDAs.
I did tests with Google Reader (it chooses the mobile edition) and found that it was much nicer than the Treo or iPAQ use because of the ability to fit tremendously more text on the screen.
I configured it to use my work email server for inbound mail--it was pleasant, but I was unable to configure it to check email on a more frequent basis than 15 minute intervals, so I would not be pleased with it for an on-call type of device.
I disabled the WiFi and tried to guess how unpleasant it would be to use as a data device over the EDGE service. I did not find it to be significantly worse than the Treo's data service (which is much faster) but I think that's because the Windows Mobile 5 Internet Explorer appears to render HTML/CSS very slowly--the iPhone does a much better job.
I did not buy it today because my Verizon contract goes until September, but I had a hard time walking away from it. I think that I will be switching--Verizon does not offer comparably-priced Blackberry data plans (by my read, Verizon would cost $20/month more than AT&T; Verizon does not seem to have a consumer-priced data plan). The only question is when.
Update: More about the keyboard. I forgot to mention that I did have trouble with the "two-thumbs" method of typing. I got a lot of Ps rather than Os. The workaround that I adopted while I was playing was generally to use my left thumb for the left side of the keyboard and my right index finger for the right side of the keyboard. I did generally hit the modifier key (change the keyboard template from alpha to numeric/symbol) with my index finger, even though it's on the left side.
