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Picking Up Where We Left Up

My AT&T service is still far worse than Verizon ever was. Next…

Tell Me About The iPhone Already

In part one of my series about my recent iPhone purchase I talked about my less than favorable experience with AT&T thus far. In part 2, I had full intentions of filling this section with the blissful experience that one would expect when owning such a ground breaking mobile device. However, I’m learning a valuable lesson: It’s still a piece of technology, and sometimes, technology fails.

Let me start by saying that I am a huge Apple Fan Boy. Friends at work laugh when they see my work-issued PC sporting a fancy Apple wallpaper or when they spot my iPhone, iPod nano, and MacBook Pro sitting next to me. Also let me reiterate that the Apple iPhone is indeed the best damn phone that I’ve ever had. How could it not be? It makes phone calls, surfs the Internet, checks my email, and even let’s me listen to Blue October on my commute to work.

The Good

Let’s start with what the iPhone does amazingly well. Thirty minutes after owning the iPhone I put it in my pocket and went about my business. Not because I was bored with my new toy, but because I already understood how to use it. The interface on the iPhone is so intuitive that you just get it. I didn’t need to spend countless hours diving into the 30 different menu options like I did on my old Motorola RAZR. Instead, I changed my background, downloaded my contacts, took a few photos, surfed the web, and went about my day.

The Camera: The camera on this thing is pretty amazing. My old Motorola RAZR camera was great too, that is if you loved that foggy “can’t make out a thing…is that the Lock Ness Monster in a tutu” type of shot. The picture to the right is from a recent trip to the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. I forgot my Canon Digital Rebel at home, but found that the iPhone pinched hit nicely.

Google Maps: I was very disappointed that the iPhone didn’t come with GPS capabilities, but after using Google Maps a couple of times I don’t care. Every phone should have this. Heading to the airport? Want to see what the traffic will look like? Map your trip, turn on the traffic feature and BOOM…it looks like the 405 is jammed and you need to take an alternate route! I use this application at least once a week.

Application Integration: While we’re on the subject of Google Maps, let’s talk about integration. You’re searching for restaurants in your area on Google Maps, find one that sounds appetizing, click on the phone number, and in seconds you’re calling the restaurant to make dinner date reservations for 2 at 8 o’ clock. Looking for a florist online to get flowers for that dinner date? A quick search on Google tells you that the florist down the street has a beautiful bouquet available and you decide to call them. Just click on their phone number at the bottom of the page and pretty soon you’ve ordered a dozen long stemmed roses for someone special.

The long and the short of it is that all of the apps that came pre-installed on the iPhone are integrated amazingly well and do exactly what I would expect them to do. Does Apple do it any other way?

There are several more amazing features built into the iPhone, but in the interest of not writing a small novel on the device I’ll just name some that have already been written about again and again:

• Screen Resolution-It’s crisp and vibrant.
• Visual Voicemail-I never want to use regular voicemail again.
• Safari Browser-I love Safari, and now that I can take it anywhere…wow!
• SMS Text Messaging-I love the conversation-like interface.
• Wi-Fi iTunes-Sometimes I just can’t wait until I get home to buy a song.

The Bad

There are only a couple of things about the iPhone that I dislike, but each is important enough to mention:

iTunes Ringtones: Apple, let me make sure I’m clear on this. I legally buy a song through the iTunes store, and see a nice little bell icon next to it. That’s you informing me that I can make it into a ringtone. Cool. Right? Yeah, but to do so I need to shell out another $0.99. Thanks, but no thanks.

Browser Crashing: While I love the Safari browser, I have occasional issues where my mini-Internet browsing experience is brought to a grinding halt for some unknown reason. It’s annoying to say the least.

iPod Controls: The click-wheel on the previous generation of the iPod was the cat’s meow. While driving on the open highway I could easily find my favorite cruising song and play it in seconds. The touch interface, while so very fun to play with, is not nearly as practical and I can see it causing an accident or two if it hasn’t already.

I did just recently discover a feature that makes changing songs while driving much easier though. When your iPhone is locked just double-click the home button and at the top of the screen you’ll see previous, next, play, and volume controls right underneath the time. Pretty nifty.

The Ugly

I kept my iPhone well-protected for the first few weeks. Like a paranoid new father, I bought it everything I could to protect it from harm. My iPhone sports a screen protector and incase protective cover to help maintain the pristine condition that it arrived in, however, neither helped to prevent my current problem.

Somehow the volume down button on the side of my phone has stopped responding. It wouldn’t be so bad if it just stopped working, instead now it has a mind of it’s own. At any given moment, the volume button will activate and turn down my ringer, the volume of my music, or the voice of the caller on the other end of the phone. This is a huge inconvenience and I’m betting that it will need to be shipped back to Apple for service.

Now I understand that there is a lot of technology packed into the little form factor shell, but I would have hoped that I would get more than a little over 30 days of joyful service. Hell, my Motorola RAZR lasted for 1.5 years before the center button disappeared one night and magically reappeared the next morning glued to my face.

Part 3

The last part of this series will discuss the service that I receive when I try to get my iPhone fixed. I’m sure hoping that the genius bar at my nearest Apple store can pull off some sort of miracle. I don’t want to ship my brand new baby back to the factory. Wish me luck!