So I issued my account closure request to AT&T regarding my iphone. I got until midnight September 2nd to use it, and no early termination fee.
Here's my basic review.
It's cool. It's fun to play with, all the little gesture things such as flicking and pinching are interesting uses of the multitouch screen, and all the flashy animations make it look all the more cool. While all you Core Animation developers haven't fixed my desktop bug, the iPhone proves your library's worth.
Ease of use is big here. It's not hard to learn how to go from feature to feature as it's laid out reasonably well. Sometimes I do hit the wrong button, but it makes it obvious to see what I actually did so I know what that was in the future.
Visual voicemail, while it failed to load as quickly as I expected once, (chalk that up to having to download a voice file over EDGE) was a improvement over traditional voicemail. Essentially, it's using the data connection to download all your voicemails as your phone sits in your pocket. It's email with voice attachments, as opposed to normal voice mail. Nifty.
Safari's limited to a few tabs, but as I use it, it's not bad for the form factor. I typically used it to look up stuff on google, read slashdot, or check google mail. Oh, one thing about Safari and Gmail. Use the mobile interface at http://m.gmail.com. It's easier. Less overhead, more responsiveness. There doesn't seem to be a easy way to spawn tabs from a page's links, or at least not that I noticed.
I've had one app, crash. Springboard. The thing that you use to launch programs with. It stopped accepting touchpad response, but I know the phone still worked as I responded to the physical buttons. The touchpad still worked fine on the unlock screen, so it looked to me as an app crash. Overall, not bad for what I presume to be a beta of Leopard.
Downsides:
While flashy and cool, I was concerned about typing. Text messaging with threads/chat boxes is nice. But typing was inaccurate for me. No tactile feedback is the main issue. I estimate that I'm 3x more likely to cause a typo on the iPhone compared to my e815, and 2x more likely to mistype the backspace. On the e815, mistyping the backspace was rarely hitting the wrong key as opposed to just pressing it for too long. The iPhone, however, treats very slight hesitation or borderline misses as multiple presses of the backspace.
Granted, using the keyboard in landscape mode is probably much better. I've used it a few times this way. It's not the natural way of holding a phone.
Other main issue. GSM is no good for me. After using IS-95/1xRTT/CDMA, I've become accustomed to a higher voice quality and a signal that doesn't drop as easily. Any current AT&T, T-Mobile, and other GSM provider's customers won't know the difference as the audiopath within the iPhone is pretty good. But the actual call doesn't sound as good to me as one on Sprint/Verizon.
And finally. I hate the prolific use of dhtml/JS/AJAX. 'nuf said.
Overall, it's not bad for a first generation Apple product, and as a phone it does quite well. Having an iPod and internet browser built in is nice too. It isn't a computer replacement though, and without a binary SDK, it can't be. But I'd recommend it as a product in the event that somebody wanted a phone that can do a little more than the normal handset, but still valued ease of use.
Dude.... so, I wake up this morning to see a squirrel in my house.
A squirrel. Then *poof*. 'tis gone.
I thought I was hallucinating because I was so tired from yesterday. So I go take a shower, thinking that, "man, I just gotta be exhausted."
Afterwards, I kicked the sofa for good measure and a squirrel dashed off to the dining room.
Dammit.
Anyways, after opening both the front and back door, I chased it around the living room, where it decided to try to jump out of a window. A window that cannot be opened. Eventually, it left the living room and I can only hope it went out the back door.
But yeah, I *assume* it went out the door. I don't actually know. I didn't hear anything as I ate breakfast, so I'm just hoping I don't find a bunch of rabid squirrel crap when I get home.
In the past couple of months, so many people are moving.
Vicky moved to Sacramento.
Cindy & Chris moved to Pittsburgh.
Nancy moved to Boston.
Karen's essentially moved to New York.
Selena & Nader moved to Chicago.
Andy moved to Japan.
Ava's returning to Canada.
Brian's moved down to LA.
Cathy's moved to San Diego.
And these are all the ones I can name in a row, I'm sure I'm missing a few already. I guess this means there's a lot of places I should visit now?
As a continuation of my geeky/eco-friendly hobbies, I've gone from fixing iPods and Playstations to Nintendo DS's.
I bought off a guy a large stock of broken Nintendo DS's, DS Lites, and Gameboy Advance SP units. The price seemed pretty good to me, but I need to fix and sell off a bunch of them to break even.
So, if you've got a broken DS and would like to get it fixed, or would like to buy one... lemme know.
I'm also logging some of my repair notes at a wiki I put up at unborkit.com .
So I got my free iPhone from work last Wednesday and activated it today.
Too bad the pay-as-you-go plan thing doesn't work anymore. Typing in all 9's or all 0's just gets rejected and you have to call in.
I get 30 days to cancel this if I don't feel like keeping the service, so I got a new number too. I figure it's probably better if I do it like this and have my normal phone forward it over as I try this thing out.
First thing I did was try a call. Since I didn't have my address book imported yet, this proved more difficult than I expected because typing on a flat screen doesn't feel right to me. Anyhow after typing in what I thought was Tim's phone number, and waiting some 20-odd rings, I noticed I mistyped it and tried again.
Calls sound clear, but a little low in volume. I figure that can be changed somehow.