iPhone Review – One Month Later

Jan 16 2008

A little over a month ago I broke down and bought myself an iPhone, and then wrote about it here. Well, now I’ve had the phone for a little over a month and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this amazing little device: I LOVE IT!

First, I’m not very tech-savvy when it comes to figuring out new gadgets. But the iPhone was different because I didn’t have to read the instructions until about a week later (and even then, it was just to glance at them). The iPhone is very intuitive, to say the least.

Secondly, the iPhone is an excellent reading device. I actually like reading articles on my iPhone more than my laptop computer. Scrolling down the text has a very natural feel to it, more akin to turning a page in a book, but somehow still different. In fact, if I had a choice between reading an ebook on my iPhone or my Sony Reader, I’d chose my iPhone without even thinking about it. Which brings me to my next point…

My biggest disappointment with the iPhone is that it’s not well suited for reading PDFs, or any other ebook format for that matter. I’m hoping when Apple opens up the gates to third-party apps next month, that someone out there will create an easy-to-use ebook reader for the iPhone.

Overall, however, I couldn’t be happier. But just so you don’t think I’m the type of guy that loves anything Apple throws my way, here is a short "wish list" for the iPhone, to make it even better:

- GPS capable. I get lost easily and have a hard time finding my way to new places. GPS on the iPhone would be a dream come true. Apple is getting closer when it released updated firmware yesterday and included "virtual GPS." This basically means that the iPhone uses either your wi-fi connection or nearby cell towers to determine your location. I’ve tried it in three different areas so far and it does a pretty good job. But it’s a far cry from the turn-by-turn directions and pinpoint accuracy many GPS devices are capable of.

- Larger keyboard. Maybe I just have big fingers. Right now, I can only use an index finger to type on the cool keyboard the iPhone features. Even though I can type surprisingly fast with my index finger, it’d be nice to be able to use my two thumbs – much like Crackberry addicts…uh I mean…users do.

- More memory. 8gb just doesn’t seem like enough these days. But I guess that’s why I have my 30gb iPod!

The above gripes are still pretty minor, and I knew about these limitations well before I purchased the phone, so don’t think I’m complaining about being ripped-off or anything. The iPhone isn’t for everyone, I’m not going to lie. It’s not a workhorse like some other smartphones are. Nevertheless, it has still simplified my life greatly and it even makes the business of blogging easier (many of your comments have been previewed and published via the iPhone).

Maybe in another six months or so I’ll post another review and give my impressions then. We’ll see. I make no promises.

2 Responses

The Safari browser on the iPhone does a good job of displaying PDFs; at least as good, I’d guess, as any third party app that might become available in the future. The problem is how to access the PDF from your browser. If it’s online, this isn’t a problem but there’s no straightforward way to copy a PDF onto your iPhone. You can’t, for example, sync it using iTunes. If the PDF isn’t too large, you could make use of a hack that involves encoding it as a bookmark. It’s a bit of a kludge, though.

Art Kavanagh 1/20/2008 11:38 am
Thank you for your comment!
You are right, the Safari browser does display PDFs very well. I emailed myself an ebook and I was surprised at the quality on the iPhone.
For the iPhone to be a true ebook reader, it needs to be able to store PDFs directly onto the iPhone and bookmark the page where I left off (who wants to scroll through 200 pages?).
Hopefully with the SDK being released in February someone will solve these issues.
Thanks again!
Brad

Brad 1/20/2008 12:47 pm