Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Apple iPhone Review

Another great feature of the iPhone is actually not a feature at all. Hacking it. Installer.app is awesome. I'm running the old firmware, and of course these days there is the Apple App store. There are still major advantages to jailbreaking your iphone. Jailbraking is not unlocking. A first gen iphone can be software unlocked to work on other GSM carriers. An iPhone 3G cannot! This is a big reason to go with the classic iPhone. However, they can both be jailbroken. Jailbreaking is the hack of the BSD subsystem allowing you to execute code and add applications without going through the app store, and it's great. Installer (or Cydia on the 2.0 firmware) is easy to use to install all sorts of apps. Ones with real usability like themes that apple will never let you do though the app store. My iphone is themed with the Tiger wallpaper and it looks a lot better than just a black screen with icons. It's also nice to have an iPhone so I don't get charged for firmware upgrades like the iPod Touch (they say it's because of Sarbanes-Oxley but who knows).

Not all is perfect in the iphone world though. There are some annoying things. A lot I've already mentioned like the headphones port and coverflow. You can't use it as a hard drive anymore :( It does get a little warm when talking on the phone. Not uncomfortable, but noticeable. And it does get face juice all over it so it looks smeary even to the point where it can't tell where you are touching anymore. One time I tried to call Alison but it thought I touched somewhere else and called my dad. Then I couldn't press "End call" and ended up talking to him for a bit. Not that I don't like talking to my dad or anything, but I was trying to call Alison back after a dropped call. It was...inconvenient. Battery life is decent. It will not go more than two days with normal use. Period. I charge it every night with no problem when I'm at home but when I fly I don't take a charger with me for the overnights. (Just one more thing to forget and leave somewhere.) Turning the brightness down and using it sparingly will give me about two days with an hour or two of calls thrown in. Not too bad considering all it offers.

And, ITS EASY TO LOSE. Oh god this deserves a paragraph of its own. About a week ago I left my iphone sitting on the seat of the hotel van that drives us to the airport in Alexandria, LA. I remember because I was posting about Adam's RSS feeds and then it was gone. All of the above paragraphs were lost to me! I didn't even realize until I got back to Dallas and wanted to check my voicemail and texts. (couldnt while roaming on a,t, and t). I was freaking out because I thought I lost all my contacts (since I wouldn't be able to retrieve my sim card to put back in the PEBL) and of course the monetary value there. Later I remembered that my contacts are synced with my laptop now (actually a good thing once I realized). Anyways I contacted the crew that was staying there the next night and they found it right on the seat where I left it. I used up a lot of good karma there so I have to be good for a while :D

So in conclusion I am really happy I got the iPhone. Losing it made me realize just how much I have come to rely on it in a short amount of time. It may not have features that work for everyone, but if you like the ipod and don't need business tools like a blackberry, I really do believe the iphone is the way to go. Hopefully one day they won't be AT and T specific by the time I want another one. If I do lose this one it will only get harder and harder to find the classic ones. Of course they will probably be able to software unlock the 3G sometime. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this review as much I enjoyed writing it, which is to say, misery loves company...heh :D

Name:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Submit the word you see below: