iPhone Pros and Cons

Pros

Living with it so far is just what I'd hoped - easy access to e-mail, pix, stocks, weather, etc. etc. I've used almost everything on the main panel except the Notes (which is a matter of time) and YouTube (which won't get many clicks). If there is a way to move the icons, I haven't noticed it yet, but no biggie. My old phones made it so hard to get to any things like a calculator, maps, stock, etc. that I pretty much never used them.

Love how it capitalizes addresses, cities, states, etc. automatically. I was so tired of capitalizing the "C" in "NC" on the WM6 Blackjack

The visual voicemail and the whole phone interface are great. Just as easy as they look.


Cons
Battery life is pretty much a day if you're messing with it at all. I'm going to have to get used to carrying the data cable so I can charge from USB, or get a new one to run around with.

I wish there were some other way to get pictures on the thing other than iTunes, especially since my pictures are mainly on my ThinkPad. My wife and daughter use the iMac for their iPods, etc., so that creates an issue. As it turns out, I can install a copy of iTunes on the ThinkPad and just use it for pix - which means I won't be able to do that on the Mac. Ah well.

The bottom part of the case seems warm with continued use.

I'm still feeling very gentle and nervous about it. I'm going to hate the first scratch...

I'll update this a bit later...

iPhone Arrives and the Journey Begins...

So....after over a week of waiting and a fairly disappointing experience with AT&T in terms of how well they managed my order for the iPhone, it has finally arrived. To get ahead of myself, I'll say that I already love it. It is pretty quickly becoming a device I live with, as opposed to just a phone or an iPod.

As for AT&T, two days after I ordered the phone (and was told 3-5 days) I recieved an e-mail with an order confirmation and a link to check my order status. Since it had been a while, I figured it was safe to click and check.

After filling in the order number from the e-mail and my wireless number, it gave me an error saying it couldn't find my order. Then it offered to check using my billing zip code and mobile number. No dice.

I gave it a day and tried again. Nada. I called the automated number associated with the order status, and it was having nothing to do with me. The next day it gave me a tracking number!! Unfortunately, it turned out to be for the GoPhone SIMM I'd bought for my wife a month earlier...

So I called AT&T customer service. They can't see that information. I called the store, and they pretty much said you have to wait until you get your call telling you it is there. I'd heard on line that a number of folks who'd ordered the same say I did already had their phones. Net: It was chaos.

If it sounds like I was a little frenetic about the order, it was mainly a matter of how utterly devoid of information at every turn and a frustration about it. I pretty much expected to wait a week or so for the phone, but I was mainly just amazed at how bad the communication was - AT&T would have done better to never send the e-mail, create the link or offer the phone number. The link only worked when my phone was shipped, and it arrived the next day. I was promptly called by the store, and the delivery experience was painless and fast.

I took pictures to detail the out-of-box experience with the phone as well as the Piel Frama case I ordered. Since I get to do some of this at work, the details are interesting.

Nice, small box, which makes flying these things over from China possible and makes container shipping really cheap per device. Smart.

Here are a few more pix of the unboxing.









The Piel Frama case arrived today, and while I'm really pleased with the quality and size of it, it does seem a half-step down from what I've seen in the past from Vaja. Unfortunately, they haven't come up with a horizontal pounch, so I've gone a different direction. Unboxing of the Piel Frama case:









The look of the case is great - very understated and subtle. The leather feels great, and it feels very sturdy as well. So tomorrow I start my first day with the complete setup.

I'll come back with some praises and beefs next time...

SouthEast SharkFest 2008

Below is my "Thank You" post on Roadfly to the organizers and attendees of SouthEast SharkFest 2008. I wanted something from my love of E24's and the folks I've met through SharkFest to be included on my first official day of blogging:

"Part of the whole SharkFest experience has always been a long road to and from the event, usually starting alone, but meeting up with the gang on the way in (Ooops Barrel!), and rolling out in a pack for the long ride home.

This year was a little different - I drove only a short way (~100 miles). I drove in without a pack, but with a late registrant who probably didn't realize how many words he'd have to deal with in less than 90 minutes (my wife scolded me for not warning him). I didn't really wash or prepare my car, and sort of rolled into the event. I got to talk to a lot more people, both new and old. A number of folks I've been waiting to meet for quite a while were there for the first time, and it made it seem like the first SharkFest for me in a lot of ways.

What didn't change was the sense afterward that we're all part of something really good. Nat and Kai pour their heart into the event, and it was really inspirational to see people like JT, Andrew, Chris Gregor and so many others who devoted so much of their time at the event to making the event happen. Having helped in previous years, it is a really gratifying thing, but you do sacrifice some of the experience - my hat is off to everyone who pitched in so much, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I'm pretty sure that goes for everyone who came. The cars, as always, were great - I love the variety and the love that keeps them alive. It was great to see SESF folks helping each other with the various things that go wrong with these twenty-something year-old cars. As always for me, breakfast was a big highlight. It is a lot of fun, and I'm already looking forward to scouting the next one.

I was really excited to see so many new faces. Jeff's enthusiasm for his first SESF was contagious, and Wolfie is a car with great stories. I love the shiny ones, but the coolest cars, shiny or not, are the ones with stories. I'm also really loving the trend of folks bringing their spouses and kids - it says we're doing it right.

There are a lot of folks who I get to see every year who just plain make me smile. We've got a diverse (and very interesting) crowd, and I'm grateful to know them (and I hope they know who they are). If you're looking for examples of what good things can come from the internet, SESF and all the people I count among my friends from it are great ones to start with. If I have a regret, it is that I never get to connect with as many folks as I'd like to, and rarely for as long as I'd like to when I do. I guess that is one of the reasons I look forward to the even so much - no matter what, I know my biggest problem will be the wealth of good company. It really feels like an extended family.

So...as much as I find it tough to think the next SharkFest will top the last, it always does. I just wanted to thank all of you, the organizers, volunteers and attendees, for a great SharkFest experience. It was a really great and fun time!

2009 doesn't seem so far away!"



My Picassa Web Album of SouthEast SharkFest 2008 is here.

The iPhone

Well, considering I'm mainly a car-guy, it seems a little strange to start my Blog with the iPhone,
but it is the thing most in my mind at the moment.

My wife "gave" me one for Father's Day, and I have to admit I'm looking forward to it. I couldn't quite be tempted to one with the first generation. Edge speed just wasn't enough for me, and while I've REALLY wanted an iPod for some time, the last thing I want is another gadget in my pocket. With not only 3G speed but GPS capability, I'm sold, and will be part of the masses next Friday (July, 11).

I'm really laughing at most of the press coverage, since it mainly seems to compare iPhone v2 to iPhone v1, which isn't nearly enough. Comparing it to the 3G BlackJack or the newest 3G BlackBerries would be more fair in terms of subsidized cost and rate plans, not to mention day to day living.

Lack of 3G made iPhone v1 more of an iPod with phone capability (that is a little extreme, but let's go with it). The web browsing on the go was painful with Edge and lack of GPS limited real exploitation of web-enabled location services. Fine. It was still a milestone product, and by far the best iPod ever when announced.

iPhone v2 with 3G and GPS (and the really interesting WiFi access point location capability) put it way out in front of pocket computing and communication. No other phone will do as much as easily as the 2nd gen. iPhone (there are phones that do more, but at a huge cost in ease of use).

When you compare iPhone to any WM6 phone in terms of 3G plan rates and overall cost, it is still the best deal going. All these press guys who aren't used to covering SmartPhones need to compare iPhone v2 to a higher-end BlackBerry or the Samsung 3G for data plan and phone cost with subsidies. They make it sound like Apple is hiding the cost of the phone. Yup - just like every other smartphone provider AT&T, Verizon, etc. has. In fact, I'm guessing the whole activation process and change of model was driven by AT&T and the whole jailbreak phenomenon as anything. AT&T needed this device to follow the more traditional model.

Anyway, here's my personal take on the gripes from YahooTech and Forbes:

Cost - as mentioned, highly consistent with other smart phones and data plans. No issues for me here.

No Flash - A nice to have at best. Sacrificed for battery life, I'm guessing.

No Replaceable Batteries - Something I'd like to have, but I find I pretty much keep the same battery in my current BlackJack and charge every other day or so. I'm guessing my iPhone will be the same.

Video Recording - A nice to have. I've used it only a handful of times, and never thought the results were worth much.

No Cut-And-Paste - If I have it in my WM6 BlackJack, I've never used it. No worries

No Multimedia Messaging - don't care.

No Voice Dialing - seems like something they'd have, and a bit of a hit, but not a huge issue for me. I've never used it, but is an attractive feature.

No 32GB option - ?? How many smartphones have 32GB of internal storage? This seems like a bit of a stretch. I'm guessing this was sacrificed to space required for the battery and additional guts for phone function.

Here are three I don't see much in the press:
No microSD support: I'd really like to have the ability to put a MicroSD card in this thing, but with 16GB on board, I'll probably be OK.

No Stereo BT support - This is the biggest hit. How can the worlds best portable music player not support stereo BT? I don't think the quality and price of these is great yet, so I'm not sure I'd get one anyway, but ???

Plastic Back Cover - if the back is pretty scratch resistant, I don't care much, but I've seen some folks complain about the switch from a metal back. I'm guessing this was for several reasons, maybe even all three (in my order of importance/likelihood):
-----1 - Radio transparency. 3G wireless and the lack of an external antennae stalk probably required a back cover that is transparent to radio waves for good signal performance.
-----2 - Weight - stuffing all the battery they can in this thing probably prompted them to look for ways to shave weight to keep v2 close to the v1 weight. Moving to a plastic back probably helped.
-----3 - Cost - Plastic $ < $$ Metal

All this nitpicking really seems to miss the point. My BlackJack is a really capable device. I've upgraded it to WM6. It has a huge range of features...but it is really hard to do things like look at the pictures on the device, it is a terrible MP3 player, you have to drill down through menus for EVERYTHING - even the Explorer browser is buried 3 clicks from the Start menu.

The iPhone obliterates the ease of use equation and brings some genuinely new things to phones like visual voicemail (you can see a list of your voicemails and pick which ones to listen to). It has much more seamless integration between e-mail, pictures, etc. It is an extremely easy phone, it is by far the best phone to browse on (flash support is a gap...), photos are an integral part of the phone, mail is seamless, even things like stock tracking and weather are easy to access. Whoever designed the iPhone clearly had the gadget/widget world in mind, and understood what the Wii means to interacting with technology. Add to that the fact that it is the best iPod ever and you've got a winner.

Anyway, I'm a big fan at this point, and I'll be with the masses on Friday. Since getting one and putting it on eBay will be really hard under the new activation model, I'm thinking (and hoping) the lines won't be *quite* as bad as they were for iPhone v1.

So that is it for now - interesting to see where this will lead...