Spring Break
Inspector Gadget iPhone
Although the Apple super-phone has been popular, that doesn't mean the company has achieved technological perfection just yet.
By: Romy Misra
Issue date: 9/8/08 Section: Features
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The price:
The iPhone comes in two price ranges: $200 and $300.
The 'wow' factors:
The iPhone is a lethal combination of an iPod, a phone, a camera and a mini-WiFi Internet browser into one idiot-proof device. The iPhone is a benchmark in bringing the iPod and phone technology together seamlessly.
For many, it is literally love at first sight. The first thing that captures one's attention about the iPhone is its sleek and sophisticated design.
The other thing about the iPod is the innovative user interface. There were touch screens before, but the graceful ease of operating an iPhone screen is unparalleled.
It is possible to watch videos on YouTube on a screen larger than a video iPod's, chat instant messenger-style, use predictive text just like a regular cell phone and manage e-mails as effortlessly as on a desktop monitor (complete with the attachments and images). It supports e-mail from popular servers including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail and AOL. The web browser Safari displays actual web pages (unlike other phones) and it even has an intuitive Google Map GPS application that makes getting lost less of a viable excuse these days.
In addition, the iPhone is pretty durable (though refraining from dropping it is probably still a good idea).
The weaknesses:
Quite a bit of the criticism the iPhone has been receiving is uncalled for and stems out of the fact that people are expecting too much. However, there are a few genuine problems.
"It drops many calls when you are in the 3G network," said graduate student Stefan Garrad, an iPhone owner. "Another major problem would be poor battery life."
These are complaints that are justified when buying an expensive phone, such as the expectation for "five-bar service" whenever and wherever. There seems to be something left to be desired in the length of battery power. It can sometimes last you for little more than 12 hours (depending on the amount of data transfer you engage in.) A removable battery would have been ingenious, but who knows-maybe with round 3?
Other problems include the inability to download songs from iTunes directly to the phone (a feature improved with the iPhone 2.0). Also, there are no games in the first-generation iPhone, but in the 2.0 version, games are supported through the Applications store online.
Last but not least, the virtual keyboard might pose a problem for those with large fingers.
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