You mean you DON’T HAVE AN iPHONE?!?

It’s been 2 weeks exactly since the (semi) worldwide launch of the iPhone 3G, and the reviews are in. Simply put, people like it. A lot. The gotta-have-it factor is off the scale, with people scrambling all over town to get one, lest The Jobs should hear of their dissention and become enraged. But is it really worth all the hype? Is it really the “God Phone” everyone’s been waiting for? Well I’ve had mine for exactly 2 weeks now, and I can tell you, the answer to that question is a resounding “meh”.Don’t get me wrong: you would have to pry my iphone from my cold, dead hands and I doubt I would trade it for any device available now on the market (or even soon-to-be). I live in MacLand; I have 2 at home and one at work, and I like it when all my devices can talk to each other out of the box and I can basically just sit there like a goofy-grinning idiot and just go “wooooooowww…”, which is the iPhone’s core benefit. But insofar as its claims to be the ultimate mobile solution, it’s severely lacking in many departments.So now that the dust has settled and the fanatacism has kinda-sorta died down, let’s take a somewhat more objective look at the mighty iPhone, and see if it really is the device for you.THE GOOD:

• THE DESIGN. There’s no doubt about it: The iPhone is slick. Minimalism at its finest, the thing just looks sexy. The new curved back feels great and looks super-sharp. Some people believe the plastic back cheapens it, but I personally disagree…in fact, I kinda fel that way about the aluminum version. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of preference for style, but in terms of function, the plastic back does reportedly increase signal strength while at the same time feeling more comfortable in the hand. But regardless, it is, in MY opinion, the best looking phone on the market.

• THE SCREEN & SPEAKERS. The screen is HOT. At 480×320 @ 3.5 inches, it’s certainly not the highest resolution screen on a handheld device…that honour may well belong to the HTC Diamond…but that doesn’t detract from the fact this it’s still big and beautiful and that watching videos on it is an absolute pleasure. As for the built-in speakers, they’re so loud and clear that when I was in a car with some friends last night watching an SCTV download, with the phone on the dash, none of us had any trouble making out any of the dialogue, even if it did sound a little “tinny”. Still, the media devices are excellent, there’s no doubt.
• THE APP STORE. This is so cool. I didn’t think I’d dig the App Store, available through iTunes, but it turns out I use it constantly. Via the App Store you can download new applications for your phone, created by 3rd parties via the Apple iPhone Software Developer’s Kit, and watch as they auto-install, all thrugh a 1-click system. While a majority of the applications come with a cost, a huge amount of freeware is available. Many are timewasters like PhoneSaber, which uses your phone’s accellerometer to transform your iPhone into a pcoket-sized Light Saber, but there are also fantastically useful apps like Remote, which allows you to control your iTunes library over WiFi. My fave is Truveo, which scrapes not only iTunes, but ALL iPhone-compatible video sites, effectively making the quality-crushing YouTube app obsolete. Best of all, these apps work for the iPod Touch, too.
• CALL QUALITY. It’s superb. There’s nothing else to say except it is likely the best call quality I’ve ever experienced on a mobile phone to date. A close second is the HTC Touch, but IMHO, it blows the BB Pearl out of the water.
• VISUAL VOICEMAIL. This, also, is SO cool. VVM works by downloading your voicemail directly to your phone, allowing you to play them back without accessing wither your Data or Cellular network. The playback works like you’re listening to an MP3, including back, forward, play/pause buttons, volume, and even a scrubber so you can manually track through your message. Best of all, and in an unusually un-evil move by Rogers Wireless, VVM is included in any plan-upgrade, and again, does NOT count towards your data or minutes to use. I don’t know how I got along without it 🙂
• THE LITTLE HEADPHONE REMOTE. My biggest beef with the iPod Touch, and subsequently the iPhone, has always been that you can’t operate them blind. Anyone who rides a bike through the city or doesn’t like to pull their iPhone out on the subway to skip songs knows that one of the benefits of an iPod Classic (or Nano) is you can keep it in your pocket and operate the clickwheel, or beyond that, drop $40 on the Apple remote and have full control. How happy was I to open up my iPhone 3G and discover the Headphone remote. For those who don;t know, it’s a tiny .75″ X .125″ plastic bob on the headphone wire that also serves as your microphone when on a call. When listening to the iPod, click once to pause and double-click to skip tracks. Volume is controlled by physical buttons on the side of the iPhone itself which are easy enough to feel around for in your back pocket. Awesome.

THE BAD:

• COPY AND PASTE. It doesn’t exist. How a device so advanced can not include such simple functionality is beyond me. C&P is the most basic of functions, and IIRC, there is NO other “smartphone” on the market that doesn’t support it. But perhaps that’s because the iPhone isn’t really a “smartphone”. More on that later. (EDIT: C&P may very well be coming to the iPhone sooner than later.)
• CAMERA. I’m actually surprised they never bothered to upgrade the camera in the iPhone. At 2mp, it’s hardly what you’d call “cutting edge”. During the day, it does take nice sharp images at 600×800, but as soon as dusk sets, or if you’ve gone inside, you’d be better off drawing a picture or describing the scene in detail. Its low-light performance is terrible, and the iPhone’s lack of a built-in flash doesn’t help. Add to that that the camera does not record video, and you’ve got a pretty weak feature, at best.

• LACK OF MMS. Even with its weak camera, the ability to send a snapshot via MMS would have been a very welcome feature. You DO have the ability to send media via E-mail, as the iPhone’s MAIL client works basically as it does on a desktop machine, but that’s pretty cold beans for anyone trying to send a message to another mobile user. This is another one of those features that seems to be getting more and more standard, so again, I have to think that the decision to exclude it is an oversight on Apple’s part. (Or is it part of a calculated worldwide plot?…no, it’s an oversight.)

• MP4 PLAYBACK ONLY. No .AVI. No DIVX. No nothing, unleess it’s an .MP4 (or in a .MOV container). This is severely limiting, as it means that any media I download has to be the Apple standard in order for it to work on my GodPhone. Of course, there are many ways to convert files to an MP4 format, all of them easy, but until someone comes up with an app that will allow me to view all major media types on the iPhone, it will remain severely limited in that department. (Hint, hint, Perian.)

• NO FLASH. Lack of flash support is actually relatively common on Smartphones, but still, not having it built into the browser hardly puts “The internet in your pocket”. It’s doubly confounding when combined with the next beef I’ve got:

• NO OTA PODCASTS. You’d think that a device with iTunes baked right and a 3G Internet Connection AND WiFi would allow you to download your Podcasts directly to your handset, but for some reason, it doesn’t. This is baffling, as one of the core reasons (for me, anyway) to have unlimited data is to be able to use it, and DLing podcasts and other media on the go would certainly take advantage of that. I have no idea if Apple is hoping Podcasters will write their own Apps to DL the podcast THAT way…which would actually be extremely cool…or if they’re just trying too hard to fight the DRM fight, or if they’ve struck some kind of deal with phone providers to limit the amount of data people can effectively use in a month. I’ve got no research on the subject. I just know it sucks.

• SINGLE-MACHINE SYNC. Quite possibly the biggest PITA with the iPhone is that, unlike my old G5 iPod, I can NOT load up my iPhone with music and videos at home, get to work, plug my iPhone into my work computer, and listen to/view its content. Unlike the Podcast issue there is no doubt on this one: Apple is DEFINITELY trying to fight the DRM fight with this practice. With my G5 iPod, as long as I have “Manually manage music” selected, I can listen (and add) to my on-device music library via iTunes to my heart’s content. Depriving me of that feature is almost as frustrating as taking away my ability to use the iPhone as a portable harddrive, a non-feature that is actually causing me some real grief.

• GIMPED BLUETOOTH. You know that nice expensive bluetooth headphone set you bought a while back because you hate hate HATE having wires coming out of your pockets at all times? Find a spot on the shelf for ’em ‘cuz they ain’t doin you no good here. the iPhone’s Bluetooth is severely restricted so as to only function with Bluetooth Phone Headsets like the Jawbone or the Apple Bluetooth Headset. It’s so limited that I get the feeling that, if this law didn’t exist, the iPhone could have possibly shipped with no Bluetooth at all.

• BATTERY. Apple promises about 5 hours of talk/internet time, 7 hours of video, and 300 (:O) hours of standby time. There’s gotta be something in the water in Cupertino, because that’s just simply not the case. If I’m surfing constantly, I might get 3 or 4 hours out of my phone, provided none of that surfing is to Truveo or no one calls me. No doubt about it…the battery is just not very good. I highly recommend a travel charger.

• ENTERPRISE SUPPORT/MOBILE ME. IF Mobile Me ever starts working, then I’ll look into it. Until then, I’ll just point out that if your company uses Exchange, AOL, Yahoo or Gmail, then you should be fine. If you company uses, say, Lotus, then you’re screwed. While it WILL work, it will take a complete restructuring on the part of the IT department to make it work. It’s unweildy and unnecessary, considering other Smartphone makers like RIM design their phones specifically for these types of e-mail servers.

THE UGLY:

• ROGERS. Rogers almost had a mutiny on its hands when it launched its pricing for the iPhone 3G, but earned a small reprive when they came out with a fair data plan at the 11th hour, surely to bump up their launch-day figures. Of course, this particular data plan is a limited time only offer, and unless they change the practice, August 31 is the last day you’ll be able to get a fair Smartphone plan from Rogers. Which is fine, because the Samsung Instinct will be available by then anyway, with its $10 unlimited data plan intact. So to Ted, I say: Good luck.

• MOBILE ME. Amidst server issues and billing issues and just plain not-working issues, MobileMe has seen a very rocky beginning. It just doesn’t look very solid. Combine that with the fact that it costs an additional $99/year on TOP of whatever you paid for your iPhone and monthly service package, and for me it’s just not an appetizing option. It may well be a good business solution (if it ever gets working right), but I see it as a minor benefit, at best.

• ACCESSORIES. Apple has some of the most gifted designers in the world working for them. You’d think that SOME of that talent would trickle down to the people making the products that protect the devices. Beyond that, you would hope that older accessories you’d already bought for previous Apple products woudl still work, like the afore-mentioned Apple Radio Remote, maybe the best Apple accessory for the iPod, ever. Sadly, we have no remote, no radio, and are generally stuck with gray rubber/silicone sleeves that hold dirt like a MoFo and generally make the device look grungy and horrible. There are, of course, exceptions, and some people have gotten really creative…I kinda like this fancy number, and this will look great on your Beamer’s dash while dropping your kid off at Prep School…but seriously. Seriously.

• “SMARTPHONE” MARKETING. The iPhone is a fancy phone that can do a lot of cool stuff really really well, but a Smartphone it ain’t. THIS is a Smartphone. (and likely, so will this be.) It does everything the iPhone can do, and infinitely more. Nearly all of the things I mention in “THE BAD” are non issues with this device. And yet, I bought an iPhone anyway, because at the end of the day, I just plain wanted it. No one who owns an iPhone should operate under the false impression that it’s a “Smartphone”, and if you’re like me, the only reason you called it that is because you never owned a smartphone before. When it comes to universal features and customizability, iPhone < Smartphone. There is, indeed, a difference. The other difference is, I like my iPhone more, limitations and all 🙂

• APPLE’S ORWELLIAN OMNIPRESENCE. When you buy a Blackberry, that’s it. You own it. You can download and install whatever you want on it. There are no limitations. Same goes for an HTC, a PALM, and the vast majority of other handhelds (particularly if they run Windows Mobile). But not the iPhone. When you buy an iPhone, you agree that the only thing you’ll install on it is what Apple says you can. You agree that the only music you listen to is iTunes music. You agree that the only way to manage it is with Apple software. And you agree, with a smile, to abide by all of Apple’s rules if you want to stay a part of the Apple family. It’s actually pretty brutal. If any other company in the world tried something so similarly invasive, no one would buy into it. Apparently, Apple’s Kool-Aid is quite strong. It obviously worked on me.

So there it is…my one-person essay on the pros and cons of iPhone ownership. At the end of the day, I love my iPhone and I’m glad I bought it, but I am very cognisant of its limitations and make no excuses for them. For me, it’s just a plain-ass cool phone that does a lot of awesome stuff. And that’s exactly what I wanted.And I wouldn’t want to disappoint Mr. Jobs.