I hate the iPhone. Just isn't something I like. Almost everyone in my immediate family has one, but I can't stand 'em.
The initial things I felt the iPhone was marketed for was the touchscreen, accelerometers, web browser, multimedia capabilities, and last but not least, to serve as a decent cell phone. In my experience using it, it really doesn't do any of those things well.
I can't type using the screen with any rapid success. I miss keys, I hit extra buttons, the words suggested often aren't what I want, and for some reason however I touch the screen makes it fill in the word anyways, half the time, etc, etc. A lot of the time, the basic "zoom" has some trouble, or it lags upon the touch, so you wind up zooming too far. Problems like that just annoy me. I've heard various degrees of success with utilizing the touch screen, but most people merely say "I've gotten better at it," then as I watch, they continue to struggle. When my dad sends a text, he tries to spell things properly and doesn't proofread his message. The end result is that I feel as though I've received a message from an eight-year old child.
You've got accelerometers, which just don't function very well. I'm judging this solely on the phone's capability to rotate the screen, which is often inconsistent. I've picked it up, and done a 90 degree rotation without the screen changing, or have seen it actual perform a 90 degree rotation in the opposite direction. What I've found is that the best way to make the screen turn how you wish it is to add 180 degrees to the way you've oriented the device, and just work on the opposite side. Annoying, again.
There's not much wrong with the web-browser, though having too many pages can slow down the phone and such. The biggest issue is the "touch-to-click, but also touch-to-scroll" concept. It doesn't work for me. I'll often try to scroll, and sites that have large buttons, like ESPN.com's scoreboard pages, don't really function all that well. Still, this is the best feature of the iPhone, and is the one thing I enjoy, as the web-browser does function well in almost all other areas. I'd say it's an annoying issue, but overall, this is the one thing I'd give passing marks to.
As far as multimedia goes, it's really not a good device. I was under the impression, originally, that the iPhone was meant to combine your iPod and your phone into one. Truth is, it's got such miserable memory and such poor battery life that if you're expecting to use it for media capabilities, it'll fill up quick and die fast, so there's very little versatility. Oh, and what about that headset port? Good luck plugging in any random set of headphones without a converter. Too bad they didn't place a standard jack on the device. It has a nice size screen for movies, though.
You certainly can't forget utilizing the iPhone as a phone, can you? Afterall, it's in its name, isn't it? Yes, it is. This is the biggest issue, and likely an issue I'd have with other "smart phones," too. Shape. The iPhone isn't shaped like a phone. It's not built like a phone. It doesn't pick up your voice when you press it to your ear. You can't hear it when you speak into the receiver. It just doesn't work well. Half of nearly every conversation I've had with the iPhone has consisted of attempting to line the speaker up with my ear so I can actually hear, and then losing the position when I shift the phone some to speak into it. Maybe it's not really an issue with the iPhone, maybe it truly had something to do with service. Of course, AT&T's coverage with the iPhone is so terrible that it's difficult to hold a clear conversation from beginning to end in just about anywhere I've used the phone. It just has been a lot of trouble, and really isn't worth it to me.
Now, then, of course I know apps have recently come into the picture, but to be honest, apps are independent of the phone, and exist on all of them. In some cases, they're good. In some cases, they're basically internet browser shortcuts that take up a lot of physical memory on a device that doesn't have nearly enough to begin with. In some cases, they're just for little fun jokes, and in similar cases, they're just terrible. Apple does control the flow of apps, as competitors like Google have struggled to get things through, I've read, but all in all, apps really aren't a selling point to me on a in the "smart" category, because you can get them elsewhere on all the other smart phones. Maybe not the same ones, but if there's a market for a smart phone app, one will appear sooner or later, so you won't miss much until then. Or you can write your own and sell it, or something. Either way, you win about as much as owning an iPhone wins with apps.
So that's my reasoning as to why I really don't like it. I feel it doesn't work well, and that if I need more experience than about two or three hour's time total to get a hand's on feeling, I just don't want to waste that time.
For what it's worth, I'm even glad that Pale didn't get the phone. That's right, I wouldn't wish it on my enemies, it's that bad.
Topic: Thinking about getting an iPhone... coverage question... (Read 5426 times)
