Initial iPhone impressions

Steve McCabe (apparently) - 01:48pm Jul 2, 2007 PST
via email

Well, they're out at last. And what an impression they've made. I was on my
way home from Tampa on Friday afternoon at around half past two, and I
thought I'd stop in at the Apple Store, where I used to work. Already there
was a queue outside the shop of around a couple of dozen, and then as many
more outside the mall. I went home.

The next afternoon, I dragged my wife over to the mall so we could have a
look. We barely got into the shop ‹ I remember working in the Apple Store on
Black Friday and Christmas Eve of 2005, shortly after the video iPods were
released, but I don't ever remember seeing the place that busy. But we
managed to get some quality minutes with the iPhones, and we were duly
impressed. We went home.

And at home, we rehashed what we'd seen. And what we'd liked ‹ which was
plenty. Out came the trusty MacBook Pro, and on the MBP I whipped out a
spreadsheet which spelled out quite clearly to my wife how we could, after
all, afford an iPhone each, even with the rather usurious cancellation fees
we'd have to pay T-Mobile. She bit. And so I went back to Tampa.

I got there at around twenty to nine on Saturday evening; the crowds had
barely abated. The staff appeared to be in constant motion, bringing box
after box of what seemed to be an endless supply of iPhones. The shop was as
busy as it had been shortly after lunch. I snagged my two iPhones and a
hot-pink case for the wife (the black leather holster I'd seen earlier had
sold out). I went home.

Our phones came in rather spanking black bags made of stout card, with
colour printing and silver gilting, this in stark contrast to the naff
plastic shopping bags that AT&T were handing out their (allegedly) very
limited supply in. The packaging, as can be seen across the interweb, is
really quite well done, as one would expect from Apple.

The setup was trivially easy. My wife went first; we connected the phone to
her Power Mac, and iTunes duly launched. We were walked through the steps
for transferring her phone number from T-Mobile, and the process went off
without a hitch. Then we did mine, and by the time we'd finished setting my
new toy up, my wife had received a text message on her phone telling her
that the transfer was complete. Within about a quarter of an hour, we could
both make and receive calls.

Since then, we've both synched our iPhones with our Macs, putting our
contacts on ‹ the contacts viewer is *so* far ahead of any other phone we've
ever seen, including the RAZRs we've just migrated from, that this alone
might just make it worth the price. Our home Airport network (802.11n) works
a treat, with both phones finding it without any problems. We've since
discovered that the EDGE connection is adequate, but far from brilliant, at
least here in Clearwater, but I don't know that we'll rely on it that much.
Sound quality through headphones is exactly what you'd expect an iPod to be,
and while you'd never actually want to listen for terribly long this way,
the built-in speaker (for speakerphone purposes, really) actually plays
music.

Phone sound quality is similarly fine, either through the phone itself or
via the headphones (although hearing my wife's voice in *both* ears on the
phone was a tiny bit odd). The speakerphone is a touch weak, but it's
usable, I suppose.

The YouTube feature has to be the biggest gimmick of all. I've pushed the
button once, just to see what it does, but I doubt that I'll be pushing it
very often ‹ but then, I've never been the hugest YouTube fan anyway.

The keyboard is OK ‹ I'm typing this on my MBP, because I don't know I'd
want to write this much on the 'phone, but I believe that I could write
reasonably long emails and notes if I had to.

The screen, of course, is gorgeous. Photos from my computer are brilliant
and sharp, although the built-in camera (the second biggest gimmick) is,
well, a phone camera.

I've read criticisms about such things as no voice dialling, but I don't
really miss that (although that *really* is a personal preference ‹ I know a
lot of people wanted it). I do wish that Apple had built GPS into the iPhone
‹ and yes, I know that it's my own fault for being an early adopter, that
it'll have it by Christmas ‹ but, again, I can live without it, and I dare
say it would have bumped the price up considerably.

Overall, I'm glad I got my iPhone. I'm still not *entirely* sure that it's
really worth the money I paid for them, but right now I'm enjoying it. It's
an exceptionally well-designed and functional piece of kit, and it's
certainly set the new standard for personal electronics.

Anyone else got one?

Steve