Reviews written by Shoey

First a little history, I've been a long time Windows Mobile smartphone user, before that Palm user and have used Blackberries for work. My phone is aging and I needed a new device. I didn't want to get another Windows Mobile device at least not until Microsoft gets up to speed with Windows Mobile 7. With that said and all the hype surronding the iPhone, I decided to pick one up, figured I couldn't go wrong since my cell provider in Canada gives virtual dollars for cell usage that can be redeemed towards new headsets so managed to pick up a 16 Gig black for $30 Canadian! Can't beat that!

With that said, these comments come from my experience in comparison with other "Smartphone" devices but so far I'm not very impressed, if I was going from a regular phone to the iPhone 3G I'd probably say this is the best thing since sliced bread but after eating better food, it's hard to go back to just bread! The iPhone can best be described as an MP3 player with a phone, catagorizing it as a smartphone can best be summed up with "iPhone, the worlds dumbest smartphone!"

On the plus side, compared to Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile, this is the best GUI on a phone hands down! The OS is rock solid and it's an absolute dream to use! The screen is absolutely beautiful and a pleasure to work with even outdoors in direct sunlight. Compared to my Windows Mobile device which I can barely see with one hand providing shade, the iPhone is perfectly viewable in the same sunny enviroment! Also compared to my WinMo device which uses a resistive touch screen, I can't stress enough how much better a capacitive touch screen is!

Accessing the internet with the 3G iPhone is the best experience I've every had. The web browser is fast and very easy to use! It pretty much loads every page I've tried so far in a very useable way, though I've had issues accessing companies OWA site.

16 Gig storage, can't say anything more than that! It's just awesome. If you're a Windows user, I can say I've noticed much improvements with the new version of iTunes. Another plus is the ability to run 3rd party applications, this was one of the things prevented me from considering the first generation iPhone. The second thing is Activesync compatible push email, I'm really happy they included that feature as I can't live without it anymore.

On the negative side, it's a little big for a phone, not that it's bad but I wish it was a little smaller in the height area and not as wide. The thickness is perfect though, just wish it was smaller.

So far I find the battery life to be really bad especially with 3G. Kind of funny, all the hype surronding 3G and I turned it off to get some extra battery life. I thought my Windows Mobile device was pretty bad for battery but I was really surprised to find that the iPhone was just as bad if not worse! I always heard it was very good. I don't know if it's just the first couple of charges but hopefully it will improve. Speaking of battery life, it really is silly that you can't easily remove the battery, what is Apple thinking! I use my devices heavily and charge at least once a day if not more. Batteries don't last forever and I end up replacing my batteries once a year, they're still good but they stop holding a charge long enough. I also have a spare battery for situations where I know I won't have access to a charger and can easily replace it. Not happy about this.

The GPS seems to work as good as my other devices but it really is silly that they didn't update their software to support voice guided drive by instructions or included a different program. Yesterday I had to go somewhere and tried navigating with the iPhone, ended up pulling out the old WinMo device to use TomTom. Was thinking of selling it but now thinking of keeping it in the car as a GPS unit. Someone told me that developers cannot write voice guided GPS software for the iPhone due to Apple's agreement. I can't believe this and hope it's not true, that would just be silly. I heard TomTom was going to release a version for the iPhone, I really hope this is true or at least someone releases a GPS program with voice guided drive by instructions!

So far I'm not impressed with the apps in the app store, most are useless or gimicky but I know it's just a matter of time before I start seeing some useful programs to replace programs I've been using.

Now to that "iPhone, the worlds dumbest smartphone!" comment I made earlier. The device is missing too many basic features out of the box! Things that you can even find in the cheapest model dumb phones! Where is MMS, where is voice dialing, copy and paste??? Ability to run multiple programs at once? A 3G device without video calling? Would have been nice to have out of the box solutions to edit files, I miss that, maybe they should have an iPhone version of OpenOffice

The keyboard on the iPhone is nice and I really like the way it corrects words, it's needed because the keyboard is too small to type out long emails or notes fast and maintain accuracy at high speeds. I really hope alternate keyboards can be written and easily used and someone writes one. I'd really like to see Cootek's TouchPal keyboard written for the iPhone, it's the best touch keyboard I've ever used!

These are just a few things I've had issues with so far, I'm going to stick with it and hope for improvements in these negative points I've made. BTW, one thing I absolutely hate, why oh why Apple do you have to make everything proprietary. I'm talking the charge connector. Every device I use has a mini-usb connector, makes it really simple to have one charger in the car for all my devices, makes it even simpler to go anywhere and charge my device. It's so easy to say, do you have the cable you connect your digital camera to your computer and then just connect your device. But the 3G iPhone, noooo, carry a cable or you're screwed. Well then, everyone has a 3G iPhone now right!

So if you are one of the few people who hasn't picked up a 3G iPhone and are thinking of getting one here's what I say.

If you're a dumb phone user and you can adjust to carrying a larger device, you're going to probably love it but you'll hate the battery life!

If you're a BlackBerry user, you'll hate the keyboard if you type long emails and you'll definately hate the battery life.

If you're a WinMo user, you're going to love the GUI and touch screen but you're going to have a hard time dealing with all the limitations and finding alternatives to the software you use.

If you're an mp3 user who wants to get an mp3 player that can make some phone calls and be able to access the internet occasionally, you're going to think this is the best thing since sliced bread.