iPhone Musings

Spent a good chunk of the day reading the iPhone reviews (alas, I don't get a complementary copy to review it myself) and it's been an "interesting" read.

Since the Philippines is a country that uses SMS heavily, I've been acquainted with the dictionary function of mobile phones (and they aren't exactly a dictionary as much as "predictive text" programs). So when reviewers explain on "trusting" the iPhone or "using the Force" when it comes to typing, been there done that.

There was also the comment with regards to the camera that the targets needs to be motionless and in a well-lit area. I think most of the 2 megapixel phone/cameras suffer from that problem as well, so that's not a penalty against them.

I was surprised that for a hybrid phone media player, you can't use mp3's as ring tones.

The lack of MMS and voice dialing should be disconcerting, but I don't really use those features either way so it's up to you whether to count it against Apple or not (so do you actually send MMS pictures to friends or actually use voice dial?).

Perhaps my greatest fear in my iPhone prediction was true--network stability/efficiency. And unfortunately, AT&T isn't that so surfing on the iPhone ain't that smooth unless you're in a WiFi hotspot.

Oh, and that 4 GB and 8 GB capacity? Everyone seemed to have forgotten how much space the OS would occupy. Apparently 700 MB, so you're easily down to 3 GB or 7 GB respectively.

Anyway, here's what I like and don't like about the iPhone:

Like:

• It looks pretty!
• Apparently it really is scratch resistant.
• If anything, you'd get the iPhone for its long battery life.
• I can view PDFs, Word and Excel files.* (Hello eBooks!)
• I can surf the Net at WiFi hotspots.**

*Can't edit them though.
**Unfortunately no Flash or Java.

Dislike:

• It's too expensive. Get a PS3 while you're at it.
  
• Average voice quality.
• Lack of third party applications.
• Can't use SIM cards! (Goodbye Philippine market.)