Mobile Phone Blog iPhone Review - Revolutionary

I begin the review with this: The iPhone is the hands-down, bonified, 100% legit, coolest gadget ever. I had high expectations for the device, and they were exceeded. Apple has done it again, and all the mac addicts out there will be happy with this first addition. And let me stress this: this is the first edition.* The iPhone lacks numerous features that many people are already complaining about as 'show stoppers'. Get over it, the software will improve, the hardware will improve, and it will evolve into the greatest hand held platform this world has ever seen. Come on, OSX in our pockets people.

*Does anyone remember the first iPod!!! it was a brick, black and white text, and the click wheel was loud and lousy. Now, iPods are slick machines that everyone loves, but it took 5 generations and 7 years to get there. It feels like everyone forgot this...

My PROS

• Start with the 'LOCK' feature to get a feel of the touchscreen, it is wicked awesome. It is used in all the applications, in different ways. My favorite so far is the photo gallery, where you can slide your finger over an image to move back and forth between images.
• Using the touchscreen to navigate: brilliant, just brilliant. In a single moment, Apple has erased the pain of using tiny little buttons to navigate a hand held device, which is definitely one of the main drawbacks of using a hand held device as a primary means of typing instrument. This is a significant point.
  
• The iPod functionality: WOW. WOW. WOW.
  
• Movies and TV shows, in landscape, are like HD quality.
• when you turn the phone 90 degrees, it turns into landscape in many applications like iPod, photo gallery and Safari, giving the user a large surface to enjoy
  
• Syncing could not be easier...it really could not. If you are any type of iTunes and iPod user, its a snap. If you have never used either, its still a snap.
• EMAIL application works very well, as does SAFARI.
• Built in speakers are a nice touch. Obviously for speakerphone they are needed, but they work well with iTunes
• Weather, clock, timer, alarm, maps and stock prices at your fingertips, very handy, and very well presented
  
• The overall interface detail is so smooth, its like butter
• Vibrant LCD, sweet looking icons
  
• Text is made crystal clear in emails and web browsing
  
• Visual voicemail is unique and very interesting, allowing you to see a list of who left messages and more. This is actually a really nice feature, and very one of a kind
  
• The phone uses the same connection type as the ipods...I was worried they would give us a new type of connection. but, not so. all the extra usb cables I have will work just fine. This also means the phone will plug into your car audio system like an iPod.

The list of things I like is long, and I highly recommend getting your hands on an iPhone to truly understand what a breakthrough device it is. Or read any of the hundreds of blog entries on the subject. The entry at Cult of Mac is good, or head over to Technorati for more.

Though far from perfect, the iPhone is exponentially better than any other device I have handled.

I do want to show my list of cons, and these are limited to the features that the phone should have:

1. No A2DP - meaning, no streaming bluetooth audio, no hooking up a sweet set of cans that you can use for tunes and phone calls (without a dongle handing from your hip). This is the one item I am most disappointed about. I cannot hook up a bluetooth stereo headset to enjoy the tunes and take calls...I do not know enough about the tech to know if a software upgrade will fix this, but that would be nice.
2. No JAVA or FLASH - means, no gaming!!! no flash madness!!!
3. Though I find NO official info on this, it appears that you cannot use your own music as ringtones. As far as I can tell, the only thing you can do is PURCHASE ringtones from the iTunes store, after you have purchased a song. So, you pay for a song, then pay again for the same song to be a ringtone. I cannot find any official info on making an iTune song a ringtone. Odd.
   
4. No high speed 3G network...now, I knew this all along. But you use the device on a WiFi network, and its sweet. On EDGE, its a little worse than OK, now that we are all broadband junkies.
5. No flash for the camera
   

Bottom line: go get an iPhone, or least head down to an Apple store or ATT store and play around with it, take it through its paces. You will quickly discover its genius. And you will be buying each generation of the iPhone, get your bank accounts ready.

Read More...

[Source: Mobile Phone Blog]