Reviews written by callisto9

I used to have this game on my little Sony Ericsson screen and loved it then. Now that it's on the iPhone, it's even better! The graphics and colors are outstanding and very pleasing to the eye. The sounds are nice (though you can turn them off), too.

In Platinum Solitaire, there are six casinos and each casino has the same six card games: Solitaire, Golf (not the sport), Pyramid, Freecell, Yukon and Spider. To get into other casinos, you have to earn so much money. Each solitaire game has ratings for jackpot, success %, payout and difficulty. There are help files for how to play each game as well.

You can bet on each game and open new casinos, or play in quick mode and access all the casinos. Either way, gameplay is fun, the cards are easy to select and the sounds and graphics are nice and crisp. If you love Solitaire, you'll love this game.

No complaints here! Very enjoyable to play.

after hating the commercials and all the obnoxious iphone whores in the online world, i finally bought an iphone. i knew a lot about this phone before i bought it as i'm a self-confirmed cellphone junkie. despite not having any interest in one for several months, my interest was finally piqued when my tax refund came in and my last college loan was paid off. the hype about the iphone has finally died down, so walking into the at&t store and getting one was simple and easy. plus, it's iowa - i haven't even seen anyone in this area with one. of course the sales rep tried to sell me some accessories and even tried to give me the "well, it's your $400 phone" fear-inducing statement, but i've carried expensive phones for years and i like my phones nekkid. i may opt for a BSE (best skins ever) for the back of the phone and a sleeve, but i'm not going to shove this gorgeous phone into some rubber sleeve or mini suitcase to protect it.



upon deciding i finally wanted the iphone, i knew i was in for some ribbing from my boyfriend. we'd been giggling about the commercials and making fun of pretentious iphone owners for months. so i knew what was in store for me when i bought it. however, mike is very good at predicting my buying behaviour and he called it within two days. a day or so after him saying "you're going to buy a new cellphone in the next month" i quietly went to the at&t store in the middle of the morning on a workday and bought one.



i've had the thing for a few days now and i've learned a lot. i've done a lot of reading, posted a few things on the cellphone forum i belong to and asked some questions. though my review seems a bit premature, i believe it's fair. i hope you think so, too.



things i really like (PROS):



1) the screen/actual phone design. seriously, the screen is gorgeous. the iphone is one of the most gorgeous cell phones i've seen. ever. i'm an admitted cell phone junkie and while each person's eye for what they consider sharp-looking in a cell phone varies, i think most people agree the iphone is one fabulous-looking phone. it's got a nice weight to it and a very sturdy feeling design. there are only a few buttons, and despite being a button lover, i find i'm ok with an almost-entirely touch-based phone. and i really do like buttons. a lot.



2) the OS. i've not dealt with anything apple/mac much, but i know people have always touted that macs "just work". the OS on the iphone is very easy to use and uncomplicated. it's logical, it's pretty, and it works well. i've never found myself lost on the iphone or not remembering where something was. the interface is gorgeous and using it is fun, and dare i say, pretty.



3) SMS. text messaging is now prettier than ever! i really like the threaded text messages on the iphone. it reads like an actual conversation. not much else to say about it except that it's pretty cool.



4) ipod interface. never owned an ipod, but the ipod interface on the iphone is quite a bit different than the structure on an actual ipod . flicking through albums is neat and like the rest of the phone's features, it works great. the sound even comes out of speakers on the phone as well as through headphones.



5) the internets. i've never had the full-fledged internet on a phone before. it's kinda nice. well, when you're on wi-fi, that is. the internet on the iphone is pretty cool. using your finger(s) to scroll, zoom in and navigate is pretty neat. you can have multiple pages open too and flick your way between them.



6) gmail access. setting up and checking your email (gmail, yahoo, etc.) is super easy and works wonderfully. your email can be checked periodically and the of emails you have will show up on your springboard (home page). the email is intuitive and easy to use, like everything else on the iphone.



7) calendar/contacts. i really like the contacts part of the iphone. you can actually sync it with your windows contacts and the yahoo! address book, if you like. the iphone also syncs with your outlook calendar, which was a must-have for me. i like to have my calendar with me at all times. it syncs well, too. no complaints here.



8) wi-fi. finally, an at&t phone with wi-fi! the iphone picks up and connects to wi-fi networks quickly and easily. you'd better hope you're on wi-fi, too, for at&t's EDGE network is painfully slow (remember dial-up?).



things i miss/don't like (CONS):



1) picture messaging. when you've had it for years, you do tend to miss it when it's gone. i've been sending picture messages (MMS) for a long time now and having it gone really sucks. granted, you can always email the pic via gmail (which works well), but it's not the same. it's not as "instant". luckily, my boyfriend has a windows mobile phone, so he can check his email on it and he's the one i send pic messages to most anyway.



2) custom ringtones. i had a handful of really fun ringtones that either mike made or i downloaded, and you can't use custom ringtones on the iphone. at least not yet. i really loved having "fucksticks" as my ringtone for mike. the iphone does come with about 20 or so ringtones, but none of them are that exciting. i just read something the other day about now being able to purchase ringtones from itunes $2 each), but yeah, i'm not paying for ringtones. there is a program for getting ringtones on to your iphone, but it's $15 and gets "broken" every time apple sends out a new release of their software. not the best solution, imo.



3) you just can't get "in" this phone. what i mean by that is that you can't plug it in and poke your way around it's file structure. you can get to the photos (via windows explorer) and that's it. no dumping a bunch of ringtone files on the phone, no file structure i can mess with, no drag and drop, no copy and paste. this is my biggest gripe of the phone, really. it's just not customizable. you can't load programs onto it and everything that goes on to the iphone must get there from itunes. itunes and the iphone are locked down pretty tight, too. you can't help but feel restricted when using the iphone and itunes; it's either the apple way or no way at all (for those of us non-hackers). for many people that might be fine, but for those of us who are curious and like to "get under the hood" so to speak, the iphone disappoints. now, if all you've ever used is apple products, you might be used to and comfortable with this.



this might be where i get my first glimpse into the world of apple. since all i've ever dealt with is windows and non-apple programs, i've been used to having everything i want, customizing the crap out of my computers and having 10 options for just about anything i want to do on a windows OS. windows vista (XP) and windows mobile, while not pretty and always easy to use, are very flexible. you can do just about anything with them. this is not the case with the iphone.



since mike has a windows mobile cell phone, i'm very familar with what it can and can't do. though the iphone is NOT a smartphone or even a pda-phone, you'd think that a $400 phone could be a bit more, er...flexible? here's just a quick list of things that a regular cellphone or windows mobile phone can do that an iphone can't:



* install programs. this is a biggie. see 4 for additional info.

* copy and paste.

* connect via usb and access the phone's file structure.

* send ringtones from the web to your phone.

* email a photo found on the web to someone.



4) web apps. a very small handful of them are ok, but they are all...on the web. which means they are not natively installed on your phone. they aren't "yours" so to speak. this ties in with the whole "no third-party" apps thing you hear so much about, but there are promises of that changing soon. what this means for now is this: you can't install anything on your iphone. you can access little programs on the web (and even make an icon for them on your springboard), but you can't put any applications on this phone, period. unless you "jailbreak" it. more about that later. and if you're trying to use a web app on at&t's EDGE network, good luck. it's painfully slow and not even worth bothering with.



oh, and most of the web apps have advertising on the bottom of the page. of course on apple's site, you don't see that.



not so great, but i'll deal with it/get used to to it:



1) the camera. no camera controls. none. take a picture. that's it. however, for a 2MP cam with no flash or AF or anything, it takes pretty decent photos. i'm impressed.

2) no themes. my sony ericsson had themes and some of them were kinda cool. but since the iphone is so freaking gorgeous, i think i'll be ok. ;)

3) the 3.5mm jack is recessed into the iphone so many headphone jacks don't fit properly. you can get an adapter, but what a pain! so far the only thing i can plug into my iphone's 3.5mm jack are the iphone headphones and they hurt!



what really annoys the crap out of me is this: the constant bickering, shots and general pissing contests about cell phones. i'm a member of a large cell phone forum (howardforums) and people are always fighting about their phones - especially so with the iphone. it's the phone people love to hate and love to brag about. i even hated it for awhile. well, hated the commercials anyway. but many people want to compare the iphone to every other phone in the world (especially smartphones), and it's in a class of its own, in a way. now, that's not bragging, it just is what it is. the iphone isn't a smartphone/PDA phone and it isn't a regular cellphone either. it's kinda in the middle somewhere. i kind of see it as an entertainment/fluff phone, for now. there's so much you CAN'T do with an iphone and some of it is mind-boggling.



how you feel about the iphone is going to depend largely on what you had before it. it'll also depend on what you want out of a phone. many people who have never even used the phone have already sworn it off and many others lust after it though they've never even touched one. i have to admit, before buying one, i was sure it was an overhyped piece of fluff. well, in some ways it is. but frankly, i'm sick and tired of the debates, the battles, the love and the hate of this phone. try it for yourself (if you want) and then make your assessment. then enjoy it or sell it. but for the love of all things technical, let's move forward and away from the pissing contest that is cellphone debating.



when it comes to cell phones, you have to figure out what's right for YOU and YOU only. the iphone is not for business users. but that being said, if you want it, buy it. if you hate it, don't buy it. it's really that simple. i wanted one of my own so i could objectively decide if it was for me by using it and not by listening to the 1,000 people tell me it sucks or it's the best phone ever. depending on what you want out of a phone, it's a little of both. there are some things that are really lacking on the iphone (see above) and what blows people away is that these things are available on every free phone in america. i mean really, no picture messages?!?!?!



there's always the option of jailbreaking your iphone and opening up its possibilities. i am sure i could do it as i'm pretty tech savvy and follow directions well. that being said, many a smart people have screwed up their iphones by attempting these things. but when i see what COULD be done with the iphone (NES emulators, themes, custom ringtones), i drool a little. there's been promises of an SDK around feb. of this year, so even though i've had the iphone only a few days, i'm eagerly awaiting that release to see what it brings.



i'm sure i'll be keeping the iphone, as i'm excited to see its possibilities in the upcoming months. that being said, there are many disappointments for me with this phone. once i realized i couldn't install anything on the phone itself and my only options for applications were web apps, my heart sunk a little. but i have hope. this is apple's chance to make me a believer.