iPhone users? So how is it?

[Jon Liu]

So, now that you guys have had extensive usage of your new toys, how do you guys like them? What do you like most? What do you wish they'll improve upon? What issues do you guys have?

[Wondermonkey]

Well, I've only had it less than a month, and here's what I got so far:

Jumped from Sprint to AT&T/Cingular. Never been out of range yet, never had a dropped call. Surfing the internet on EDGE is hit or miss. Most places I'm hitting 200-225 kbps, but even then, if you go to picture heavy pages it takes forever to load. But, it automatically joins wi-fi when you're near it, or asks you if you want it to join it. Princeton, where I spend most of my time when not at work, is all wi-fi, so it's a pleasure to surf walking around downtown.

Plus, walking around NYC, you're always in contact with wi-fi, regardless of where you are. Checking your mail on EDGE is fine, that's actually really quick, and posting to the boards is super fast, but Flickr and stuff is slower.

Visual Voicemail is the shit, not having to call your voicemail to hear it is killer.

SMS texting is the shit as well because it all works, and looks, like iChat.

Google Maps is speedy and useful. I use it all the time.

Works flawlessly with your iCal, Mail, and Safari bookmarks.

Screen does not scratch worth a damn, but if your hands are really greasy expect to wipe it down with the cleaning cloth on a regular basis.

Screen turns off when you put it up to your head, big plus, and comes back on when you take it away. Auto brightness, etc etc.

The only thing I wish it had that I didn't was iChat, but there are pictures of it out there, so I think Software 1.1 will bring that. We already got an iTunes update for it, so it's got to be close (you know how the mac software updates work).

So far, I love the hell out of it. Oh yeah, and when your calls come in, your music fades out and you can answer the call from the button on the headphones, and then when the call is over, double click the same button twice to go back to your tunes.

Shit. Yeah.

[Wondermonkey]

Oh yeah, and the wallpapers look hot as shit on this thing:

Flickr Photo "Calling the Folks" by wondermonkey2k

Flickr Photo "The force is strong in this one" by wondermonkey2k

Flickr Photo "PGL on the iPhone" by wondermonkey2k

[namehater]

how is the system speed of the phone in general, i dont know much about the iphone, does it have a scheduler or any type of time management program? my wife just got the tmobile wing which seemed to me kinda like a iphone knockoff, but that phone is like running a Pentium 2 computer again, we are returning it tho, maybe if iphone is that great it would be worth switching carriers for us

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by namehater

how is the system speed of the phone in general, i dont know much about the iphone, does it have a scheduler or any type of time management program? my wife just got the tmobile wing which seemed to me kinda like a iphone knockoff, but that phone is like running a Pentium 2 computer again, we are returning it tho, maybe if iphone is that great it would be worth switching carriers for us

It depends on what you're used to. It runs the fastest browser on the fastest operating system (Safari on OSX) so if you've ever used a mac it's that fast.

Everything is done in iTunes, all your syncing. You sync your icals (or outlook calendars as the case may be) and you specify in iTunes where you want the appointments you create to go, as in, which calendar on your computer should they be added to.







Also, I have to say, scrolling through your songs by album art makes you feel like you're back a jukebox, it's really really intuitive.








Here's the calendar:

[Jon Liu]

Thanks, Wonder!

As part of datenight, my wife humored me and we went to our local Cingular store just to check out the iPhone.

Holy. Man I love that phone! We spent about 20 minutes just playing with all the features and man is it intuitive! I'm sure there are some quirks, but of all the smart phones that I've experienced, none of them left me with a feeling such as that one.

My wife actually was surprised how much she really liked it.

I think both of us loved the Google Maps the most. She loves Google Earth and having that basically at your fingertips and also the traffic update, freakin genius!!

Too bad we're T-Mobile Customers, though...

[MadBryan]

Why torment yourself Jon? You'd have been better off not even touching one

[Jon Liu]

Haha, you are correct, sir!

[Wondermonkey]

Yeah, stay out of the stores. We were going in just for one and I just had to bring Danger with me. We walked out with two. Goddamn Danger! But, we met this husband and wife writer pair for the NY Times and we're getting together in August, so it was a bonding experience too.

My biggest surprise was that the commercials for it are real. It works that fast, and that seamlessly.

[Jon Liu]

Yeah, it was amazing to see how smooth everything was! I love the Cover Flow Feature of the iPhone! I really look forward to that in Leopard, when that arrives.

It was definitely a surprise to see how quickly programs and whatnot, came up. I remember with my HP IPaq PDA/Phone, programs took more time than one would hope to open. Not to mention, some of the animations were pretty ghetto.

That's another thing about that iPhone that I love. EVERYTHING was so beautiful on it! Screen was so vibrant and my wife commented when we were watching the clip of The Italian Job on it, that it looked good!

Fortunately, I don't think I'd ever have the problem of walking out of the store with two, like you did, Wonder, my wife hates ATT with a passion, even Cingular she hates, too. Now that they are combined, her hatred for that company just doubled... So no matter how awesome a product, she likely will not patronize them.

[MadBryan]

Check this out guys http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...motebuddy.html I heard about it on a podcast this morning and haven't really looked at it to closely but it sounds cool enough

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by MadBryan

Check this out guys http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...motebuddy.html I heard about it on a podcast this morning and haven't really looked at it to closely but it sounds cool enough

Hmmm, very cool. I have never heard of this before either. So basically it turns your iPhone into a remote for your mac? Very neat. Nice find!

[KEEZY]

Why do people hate AT&T so much? Just curious!

[Peench]

Not to Keezy this thread, but Keezy asked...

Originally Posted by KEEZY

Why do people hate AT&T so much? Just curious!

Because they are lying, cheating bastards. Two reasons:

1) They have at least twice now switched my calling plans to something more expensive without providing notice, without my knowledge and without my consent. Once when they were my long distance carrier years ago and more recently when they bought up my local telephone provider.

2) The government broke up the Bells years ago. AT&T is simply putting it all back together under their name. Then they can be the only provider out there and change everyone to a higher priced calling plan to boost their profits.
~~

I had a chance to play with an iPhone while at E3 also. It worked very well, had some amazing features and was generally awesome. It was all it seemed cracked up to be!

[Jon Liu]

Okay, so I was able to convince my friend who is going out of country for a month to let me use his iPhone. So I'll get to extensively test it out myself. If it works okay, maybe I'll end up buying one. I think my contract with T-Mobile is up, so if I did end up switching, then I would be able to make the move pretty painlessly.

I'll decide in a month, based on if the service and signals are okay enough in my area, and such.

If it's absolute poo-poo, then that'll make my decision easy.

Either way, I'll be stopping by his place later today to start testing!

[MadBryan]

I heard on TWIT it'll work for a month outta the country (but you probably don't want your friend to know that)