Apple iPhone

Reviews: Electronics

Digital Cameras | PDAs | Communications

Apple iPhone

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Jul. 8, 2007

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User Experience - Widgets and Other Features

The calendar application syncs with iCal on the Mac and Outlook on the PC. It is convenient to have your calendar on the phone, although I find that I am not that busy of a person to necessitate using a calendar for my personal life. And the calendar doesn't sync with my work groupware solution (Lotus Notes).

The pictures and camera widgets worked well together, however the camera is just that, it doesn't take any video. The pictures widget works nicely, organizing pictures into rolls similar to iPhoto.

YouTube was a nice addition, though I would strongly suggest you view it over WiFi, because EDGE just doesn't have enough bandwidth to provide a good looking video in a reasonable amount of time. You can view videos over EDGE in a reasonable amount of time, but the quality is not that good.

Stocks allow you to pick a list of stocks to track. Very simple, just type in the symbol or company name and add it to the list. You get the current price and the up or down delta, along with a graph of the price over various time periods.

Maps is a very nice application; it provides standard Google Map functionality (map, satellite views), driving directions between two addresses, and traffic conditions (which varies on a city-to-city basis). The lack of GPS makes the driving directions static however, with no capability to reroute if you miss a turn.

Weather is informative, but it doesn't display any NWS weather alerts or warnings, which would be a nice addition. You can choose multiple cities to monitor weather for. I did notice some bad weather data but that was Yahoo's fault, not Apple's.

The clock is a world clock, where you can add multiple locations and view them in a list. The notes application just allows you to type in short notes to yourself; it doesn't do any voice recording and you have to type using the keyboard on screen. You can have multiple pages however, and the pages note what time you wrote them.

The iPhone comes with a special "Airplane Mode," which will cease all RF communication from the device, turning it into a video iPod for the duration of the flight. This is required because FCC and FAA rules require that cell phones and other devices that emit RF signals be turned off and stowed for the duration of the flight, from pushback (unless otherwise permitted by the pilot or flight attendant, and even then only up until preparation for take off) to landing.

However in the future, this might not be the case. Many airlines, including JetBlue are researching and have issued RFPs (request for proposal) for allowing WiFi systems on aircraft during flight. This wouldn't work with the iPhone however, as putting the phone into Airplane Mode shuts off both the cell phone and WiFi. Hopefully if this comes to fruition, Apple will release an update that allows just the cell phone portion of the radio to be turned off and allow WiFi to continue communication.

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Page 11 of 14

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Line
Page 3: What's In the Box & First Looks
Page 4: Plans and Activation
Page 5: User Experience - Interface
Page 6: User Experience - Battery Life
Page 7: User Experience - the Keyboard
Page 8: User Experience - Widescreen iPod
Page 9: User Experience - Mobile Phone and Text Messaging
Page 10: User Experience - Internet and Email
Page 11: User Experience - Widgets and Other Features
Page 12: AT&T's Network - From Fine Edge to Broken Edge
Page 13: Missing Features
Page 14: Conclusion

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:05 pm

Instead of buying another apple cable, I bought a car charger that included both a USB>Mini USB that works with my camera and will charge a blackberry, and a USB>Dock connector cable. Both cables AND the cigarette lighter dohicky were the same $20 as just the cable, AND they were black. I even bought it at the Apple store. It was made by Griffin, I am sure others do it.
Eytan

2 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:53 pm

Some more comments - Yahoo provides free push email, and will sync your address book up to Yahoo - a great feature and a way to get address book syncing between machines without paying the .mac tax.

As for the battery issue, a full charge cycle is a full discharge/charge, which I have had 2 so far. After the 350-450 FULL cycles you are at 80% of your battery.

As a longtime iPod owner, the battery has never been an issue for me. My hope is that by the time I need a battery replacement (2 years down the line or more) an after market of doing the installs will exist - and while it will not be 35 like it is now for the iPod, it will be a cheaper $50 or so then Apple's 80+, and by then the battery capacities will be higher. I think we need to wait and give the battery grief when the battery deserves grief, when problems start...

3 - Posted by Kurtis on July 9, 2007 - 7:37 pm

Thanks for the comments, ebernet. And welcome to TheTechLounge forums. :)

BTW, regarding battery life, I think it's a valid concern, considering that the brand new battery under heavy use only lasts a single day. 2 days tops for moderate-heavy use. My treo650 used to go for a week before I'd have to charge it, and after a year and a half or so, now it dies in 2 days. Of course, mine is easily replaceable, but the point is that if it has such short battery life NEW, any decrease in that battery life is going to be a big issue down the road, and that is inevitable.

4 - Posted by ynYmpmTbMbfl on December 3, 2007 - 9:57 pm

IXiMcB post, Thanks. That’s Ben. a super ,

5 - Posted by Max Slowik on December 3, 2007 - 11:02 pm

snorkt.

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