A Second Stumble

I run Windows XP SP2 on my laptop for exactly these reasons. Even then, it was clear that Apple’s compatibility testing for Windows was a second thought. I run Windows Vista x64 for security reasons. On my Windows XP SP2 machine, I have DEP enabled for all applications.

This was an exercise in futility. Each time I’d try to sync my iPhone, I’d get a DEP alert and the application would crash. First it was AppleMobileDeviceHelper, then AppleMobileBackup, then MDCrashReportTool, then YahooSync… Only after providing exemptions for this software did things actually work. What this means, though, is that Apple’s iPhone driver isn’t adhering to today’s standard coding conventions.

Thunderbirds are Go

Despite what has been said about AT&T and iTunes activation, I had little trouble getting my iPhone up and running. For me, it was as simple as the Quicktime video had promised. With my AT&T and iTunes account information in hand, and it took me less than 3 minutes from start to finish.

So how is it?

Page:: ( 4 / 7 )

When it comes to mechanical engineering and attention to design, it’s easy to see why Apple garners so much hype. The curves of the iPhone fit well in your hand and the minimalist approach to the buttons works perfectly. There are only five buttons on the unit. A sleep/power button, a volume rocker, a switch to go into vibrate, and the home button. Some have complained about the recessed headphone socket (which makes it harder to use your own headphones but provides added protection to the connector), but if I had to nitpick, I’d say that home button has just about half a millimeter too much travel. Of course, it’s saying something when my main complaint about the build quality is half a millimeter, that’s saying something. The iPhone has a single monaural speaker which is one of the best I’ve heard. It works well both as a speakerphone and when sharing music or a YouTube video with a group of people.

Visually, the iPhone also does a great job. Everything is typeset in Helvetica Neue – it’s not really Arial nor is it Myriad (what Apple uses most of the time nowadays). The result is that everything is very easy to work with and read. The screen is very sharp and is viewable with polarized sunglasses (although when you have the screen turned to landscape mode, there are some rainbow effects from the capacitance sensors. For unclear reasons, the popular clownfish/anemone wallpaper did not make it to the final unit.

You can easily multitask and the operating system feels exceptionally responsive. Scrolling through emails and haven’t seen a dropped frame. There’s tons of eye-candy. Deleting email messages even uses the OS X Genie Effect to twist and distort the page. The photo slideshow can do a 3-D cube transition between images. The beauty of all of this is that there’s no penalty for these effects. The iPhone subjectively runs as smoothly and quickly as a Blackberry or Windows Media device that doesn’t have these transitions.

The iPhone is an interface that HCI gurus will be talking about for a long time. All you need to do is to watch the 20 minute intro to iPhone video you’re set. Visibility? Yeah – it’s there. For the most part, It’s pretty easy to figure out what’s what. I know exactly what the iPhone is doing and what I can do with the iPhone. (The less obvious stuff like pinching/expanding have been so hyped up that no explanation is needed). The feedback is incredible. I have never used an operating system with such incredible feedback. The limiting factor always seems to be the user rather than the iPhone – the animations never seem to drop a frame and never seem to be laggy. The sensitivity of the touch screen is perfect. The physical, cultural, and logical constraints and mapping are all intuitive which is a long way of saying that all of the icons and buttons make sense, you don’t have to memorize complex key commands to do what you want to do. There are certainly minor improvements that can be made from a usability standpoint, but the iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, it’s stunning.

As a phone

Page:: ( 5 / 7 )

Sound quality is clear when used as a handset, as a hands-free setup, and even as a speakerphone although the iPhone definitely is optimized for use with the headphones. The contact list works as advertised, allowing quick and easy access to your contacts. It can synchronize with the usual Outlook/Entourage software but also with the Yahoo Address Book. The iPhone lacks voice dialing support which makes Bluetooth headsets and in-car connectivity less useful. Without one-touch quick dialing, it’s impossible to use this phone to make outgoing calls while driving. Bluetooth is also severely crippled in this first revision of the iPhone software. Other than BT headsets, I was not successfully able to pair the iPhone with other devices. The iPhone also lacks custom ringtones, although this is rumored to be added in the near future. There is no one-touch speed dialing feature, but you can have a list of favorite contacts.

[image]

As a SmartPhone

The definition of a Smartphone is loose. Everyone seems to agree that a Treo, Windows Mobile device, and Blackberry with push email are smartphones. But what about all of those phones running Symbian OS without push email? Or phones like the 3 year old Sony-Ericsson Z600 which could run Java applications and allow you to download POP email via GPRS even if it were being displayed on a 128x160 screen? Is the smartphone just a phone with a big screen? One with a keyboard? One that can access the internet? Rather than struggle with the definition, I’ll just go over the basics.

Personal Information Management runs well enough. The calendar does not synchronize with Yahoo! or Google yet, but it will sync with Yahoo! Contacts. When using Outlook to sync, the iPhone won’t recognize groups, however it does work with iCal and Apple Address Book. Like most modern PIM utilities, the iPhone is capable of storing multiple email addresses per contact. Email support also remains basic. The iPhone supports Yahoo! push-email, but not MS Exchange push email at this time.

The real magic of the iPhone is its full-fledged web browser. In the end, Safari will be the true killer app of the iPhone. For all the hype that the iPhone has received, the ability to carry the Internet in your pocket is the real deal. There have certainly been other phones with web browsers, PDAs with Pocket Internet Explorer, ultramobile PC’s running full desktop operating systems, and phones with high-speed HSPDA support. What makes the iPhone special is that you don’t need to go to special “designed for mobile devices” webpages or struggle with difficult to navigate websites. It’s not connectivity that makes the iPhone a game-changing product, it’s how it uses that connectivity.

It’s the actual implementation, ranging from the anti-aliasing of images and small text to the 6 hours of battery life. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player to be released – it was the first MP3 player to be released with an exceptional balance of battery life, ease of use, and price. That’s the same thing that the iPhone brings to the table.

Yes, there are ultra-mobile PCs, but those don’t have the same battery life that the iPhone offers and they’re *too* big to truly be pocketable. There are SmartPhones with HSPDA allowing high-speed media downloads, even streaming TV shows, but even applications like Opera Mini rely on a modified Internet. With the iPhone, you’re not carrying WAPedia in your pocket – you have WikiPedia. You have Google. You have Digg. You have everything. With the iPhone, you can check Craigslist any time of the day, spike an eBay auction from anywhere in the world, and check up on your Facebook friends. That’s the power of the iPhone that remains untapped. Why should a physician carry a PDA with ePocrates (a list of pharmaceutical dosing information) when you can look up the same info on the Internet?

Along the same lines, the iPhone adopts Windows Mobile’s concept of there’s no such thing as closing an application. You just switch as you need to and when you come back to Safari, you’ll start where you last left off. With PocketPC, this usually ended up slowing down the PDA and users were forced to run third-party “force-quite” applications such as WisBAR. With the iPhone, this isn’t a problem at all. Whether it’s due to a better algorithm, or the simple fact that the iPhone gets the benefit of several generations of newer technology and more memory, I don’t know.

The integrated stocks and weather applications are straightforward and get the job done. The Google Maps application is exceptional and even on EDGE, the caching ends up providing a very pleasant experience. Like the desktop version of Google Maps, you can drag/slide the map around with real-time interaction as opposed to the “see next screen” approach of other smartphones. Where the iPhone stumbles is this paradigm of everything-web-2.0. While you the iPhone can read PDF, Word, and Excel attachments in email, you cannot copy a PDF to your iPhone or save it for later use.

As an iPod

Page:: ( 6 / 7 )

My first impressions of the iPhone’s sound quality were negative. Although the radio interference did not seem to be a significant problem, the audio was always veiled whether using the included iPhone earbuds or running it via the dock’s line-out to my audiophile home setup (Primare A20 MkII and Polk LSi9). Despite the beautiful interface, this was almost a deal breaker for me. At first, I thought it was just level matching the line-out of the iPhone to the headphone out of my 5.5G iPod, but there was still something off. Fortunately, I discovered that the iPhone had “Sound Check” enabled by default. Disabling this feature improved the sound quality significantly, and my initial impressions with high-bitrate AAC and a few lossless tracks suggest that the iPhone and iPod 5.5G are close enough in sound quality where it’s not a deal breaker.

[image]

Rush Job

Mac Columnist/Blogger, John Gruber, describes the iPhone well: 95% amazing, 5% maddening.

The iPhone is proof that graphics are important. Everything the iPhone does can be done with another device – only the iPhone does it with more style and user feedback. To be blunt, the user interface is so brilliant that it’s easy to look over the other flaws. It may not be revolutionary, but it is certainly as evolutionary as the WASD+mouselook paradigm. Even with the lack of traditional tools such as voice dialing, the iPhone is still a pleasure to use. The human-computer-interaction is that good.

Nonetheless, the iPhone certainly feels rushed. The lack of music ringtones or even the ability to set a calendar alert to a different tone than an incoming call is a obvious oversight. Part of the problem is that the iPhone was developed in complete secrecy. While this prevents competitors from stealing ideas, it also means that all of the beta-testing was done internally at Apple. Knowing this, it’s no surprise that Windows are encountering a number of issues ranging from limited Outlook calendar synchronization to 64-bit and Data Execute Prevention compatibility issues. Likewise, because Apple was developing the product in complete secrecy, they were unable to get the feedback from someone outside the “Apple Reality Distortion Field.”

As good as the iPhone is, there are certain elements that are so intuitive that it becomes painful to see those features missing. The virtual keyboard works well for standard text, but entering passwords on a website can be difficult, especially when it’s a random collection of letters and numbers. While the Safari web browser allows you to browse multiple pages at once, it doesn’t allow you to remember passwords.

Google Maps on the iPhone has no peer at the moment. It does everything the TV commercial claims it can do. But consider this scenario:

Friend: “Hey, can you email directions to the restaurant again?”
Me: “Sure, I can do it from my iPhone.”

Closing Thoughts

Page:: ( 7 / 7 )

The iPhone is the best fashion phone on the market. It’s no surprise that the majority of customers at the AT&T store I was waiting at were driving luxury cars. In contrast to the D&G RAZR, Juicy Couture Sidekick II, or LRG Sidekick III which are gaudy and garish, the iPhone adopts a philosophy of understated elegance more along the lines of the LG Prada, Gumetal PEBL, and Vertu lineup. Moreover, the iPhone’s style is universally appealing to both men and women as opposed to the makeup-compact appearance of the Bang and Olufsen/Samsung or Panasonic phones which in themselves can be tawdry by form-factor alone. Compared to other fashion phones, the iPhone completely outclasses them in terms of functionality. The B&O phone only has a 3 hour *advertised* talk time, the LG Prada requires users to text with a T9 input (i.e. a numberpad), and the D&G RAZR doesn’t even have EDGE to begin with. Add the iPhone’s excellent iPod music support, Google Maps functionality, and web browser support and it becomes a no-brainer decision. Fashion is about personality though, and this is where Apple’s lack of user-uploaded ringtones is an issue.

As a smartphone, the iPhone breaks the rules of tradition. There isn’t a better MP3 player on the market when it comes to the user interface or that the iPhone sold out in most Apple stores in California. This is better than the Zune, better than the iPod, and is better than anything Creative Labs, iRiver, or Archos has ever put out. 8GB of space isn’t enough for your entire music collection – but it’s certainly enough for a long trip or vacation. When it comes to email, the iPhone is does a great job with the visual presentation. The email application and top-notch anti-aliasing make reading emails on the iPhone a pleasure. Currently, the iPhone does not support Microsoft Exchange Server Push email, but there are rumors that this is to change and Yahoo IMAP push email is already implemented. Compared to other smartphones, battery life for the iPhone is also very good. It is certainly important to recharge your battery to maximum capacity (it will show up as being fully charged in the Settings menu) since the battery bar can appear full even though the phone isn’t fully charged. A lot has been said about the lack of 3G/HSPDA support. This is certainly something that Apple will need to address in the future revisions of the iPhone. You can be certain, however, that the purchasers of the iPhone-as-fashion-phone will also be the first to get the iPhone 2.0-as-fashion-phone.

At $600, the iPhone 8GB is hardly the smart choice for the value proposition. It is a luxury product along the lines of an Aston Martin V8. It’s practical enough to be a daily driver and carries enough performance to satisfy driving enthusiasts, and yet the appeal is in the style and benefits of ownership. Just because a Vishnu 335i or Evo IX can outrun and outhaul the AMV8 doesn’t mean that the AMV8 is pointless (come on Alan, you know damn well if you can swing for the AM V8 you have absolutely no right to do so until you save up for the Vantage -ed.)

There is no question that Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market will have long-term consequences for Motorola, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, LG and Samsung. As flawed as the iPhone is today, it represents a vision that is ahead of the competition on many different levels. If the iPhone was sold with the usual promotional kickbacks, it would be closer to a $200phone. At that price, Apple would be unable to keep the phone in stock. When cost is the only limiting factor, the competition should worry. As software improvements to the OS add new features and subsequent generations of the iPhone drive the price down and feature set up, the iPhone will be increasingly attractive. When you add the economies of scale and negotiation power brought by Apple’s iPod line, it’s easy to see why competing manufacturers will need to worry.

These are first first-impressions. Look for a more detailed analysis in the near future.