Well, in a word: “Wow.” If that’s enough for you, you can stop reading.
Oh, you want more details. Okay!
First, the bad news: The TAP plan is not available yet, so us early adopters of the iPhone 3G have had to pick the standard plans, which start at $69.99 per month, plus text messaging for extra. They should get that ironed out in due time, though. Various reports on the internet indicate that the TAP (text accessibility plan for deaf/hh folks) will be anywhere between $30 to $40 per month.
On with the mini review (I will skip over things that are standard iPhone fare and only focus on things that are either new or new to me):
Applications
- Email works great. Added 2 Gmail accounts and some other accounts easily. It’s not “push” email, though — for “push” email you have to either have access to an ActiveSync-enabled Microsoft Exchange server or use Apple’s Mobile Me service ($99/year). Push means the messages are sent to your device immediately like Blackberries or Sidekicks. The iPhone “checks” your email like a desktop email application every 15 minutes (configurable).
- The camera makes beautiful images.
- App Store (downloading applications, both paid and free) is OUTSTANDING. Downloaded AIM, Facebook, Bank of America, Flickr, Google, a game (Monkey Ball, $9.99) and Yelp applications right off the bat. They all worked great
- AIM deserves a special mention since we’d all use that a lot — Works great, fast, easy to navigate and communicate with folks. Note: when you exit AIM it quits the app. All iPhone apps have this behavior to keep speeds high, no applications are left “running” in the background. Front most application always has all the iPhone resources.
Speeds
- 3G is a nice speed boost over the EDGE connections on Blackberrys and Sidekicks. Everything internet-related is a lot snappier. Affects battery life though.
- GPS acquisition speed is a bit slow, have to be patient. But it works great, you can easily find where you are on the map. What’ll be more interesting is how applications from the App Store integrate GPS for location-aware services. For example, finding what friends are nearby.
General Advice
Get it. If you want the best phone/communication device out there…get the iPhone. The only downside that affects me a little bit is the lack of free push email. But I’m sure that’ll be remedied soon enough. In the meantime the combo of the iPhone and Mobile Me kicks the pants off of any Blackberry service out there, and compares favorably to the Sidekick’s online email access/device combination.
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25 Comments
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Great comments. Would love to get one but there is one glaring downfall. The advantage of Blackberry over the IPhone is that you can access your work email through the Blackberry Enterprise Server. This is what you are referring to by “Push email.” Most Federal agencies have it and as a Fed, it enhances my productivity away from my desk.
On another note, I feel bad for the folks that rushed to get the first generation IPhone a couple years ago. They paid big bucks for a phone that has been trumped by a better model.
Good points Kevin — The iPhone works with Exchange servers now and should work at most companies now, using ActiveSync. I’d venture that it would work at many Federal agencies as well! However, I don’t know how secure it is compared to Blackberries.
Kevin:
I for one who was the first waited in line for the first gen iPhone. And looking back, i never regretted the moment when plunged down for it. So I’m telling you here, that the whole experience with this iPhone was well worth it, and I’m sure the rest first gen iPhone owners would agree with me.
Granted, 3G is nice to have, but I’d rather have something with longer standby time without having 3G draining my battery like a firetruck hose. also 1st gen owners will enjoy the benefits of new 3G iPhone OS by upgrading to 2.0 for free. it feels like a new phone all over again.
TAP has been announced 50.00 - starting monday.
http://www.deafmac.org/blog/?p=203
not enough clyde’s source. We need to have proof the source for new TAP.
Doesn’t Yahoo have push e-mail? I thought Yahoo was the only one to have push e-mail when iPhone 1.0 came out last year.
yahoo’s push email is ok… u have to upgrade it to a paid account to get push. free accounts does not get pushed.
Go ahead and call them. deafmac.org’s information is always reliable as they do not post without checking the sources.
When the AppStore have TBS games like Civilization or Warlords, call me. Until then, I’m sticking with the Blackberry.
I’m sticking with a blackberry.
Several reasons why:
ATT upped the price. you’re actually paying 240 dollars more long term than you are with the old phone. Yet it’s a little cheaper, you’re paying for the difference with your monthly service.
STILL 8 or 16 gb iphone in memory size? a new iPod can hold up to 160 gb of music and other stuff.
STILL can’t replace the battery.
STILL no cut and paste feature?
TXT messaging is not part of the new plan. Be ready to pay up if you use it.
Folks, save your money. Get a blackberry from Sprint. 179 dollars. their data plan blows away att’s rates. Not to mention, sprint has better network coverage. Sure, 3G is nice from ATT, but the coverage is really flaky. chances are you’ll be bouncing between the 3G and GPRS network. Hence, you’re not going to get the speeds as advertised wherever you go. (check the 3g coverage map)
Maybe Apple is a leader with new innovative designs, but I’ll wait for either the new Blackberry Thunder (touch phone with tactile/haptic force feedback) or the Google Android, but for now, my curve, which probably has better coverage, a longer lasting battery (in which i can swap out in less than 10 seconds), and not having to worry about a 200 dollar price drop shortly after it’s released. :D
cheers!
Another reason to purchase a Blackberry is hearing aid compatibility - the Curve has decent M/T ratings.
I know the original iPhone was NOT hearing aid compatible and HLAA lodged a complaint with the FCC over this. I have scoured the web for information indicating whether the iPhone 3G is hearing aid compatible and what the M/T ratings are, but haven’t been able to find out anything - even on Apple’s website.
Does anyone know? Bobby - is there a M/T rating on the iPhone 3G box?
In case anyone is interested in learning more about the M/T ratings, here’s a link. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consume.....eless.html
Its not hearing aid compatible. Apparently the FCC let Apple slide.. and stated that they don’t have to make it compatible.
http://www.phonescoop.com
On the contrary, I can hear the iPhone 3G quite well through my hearing aid set at telecoil. Don’t notice any noise. I have a profound hearing loss and wear one of the strongest analog hearing aids around. You need to go to an ATT store and try it out. Positioning the phone is critical and you’ll need to experiment to find the “sweet spot”.
yeah, and i wonder why my job still suck, i still can’t afford a house, the gas price is still rising!! food here still taste like ****, DC metro just never improves, bush is still ****ing things up, and our soldiers are still in Iraq.
i agree with you life just sucks with out the iPhone.
I had blackberry curve and hate it. I switched to iPhone 3G.. Wow, I should get first iPhone long time ago. I was doubt about iphone since everyone telling me that BB is better. Guess what y ou all guys are wrong! Do not listen to “Just Me”
Hence his/her “just me” handle.
Let me put it this way, women can use the IPhone as a substitute for something else if they put it in their pockets!
I agree with you. I used my father’s owned Blackberry. it is not amazing for me because I got hurt my hands and some of suck feature , like limited features. everyone said BB is better that is part of impossible!
as other devices are best product mean which do you want. Iphone and Iphone 3G are nothing different. 90% people don’t use it cut copy to paste. that is true because I asked some people got iphone or 3G iphone
How is the vibration issue with iphone 3g? does it have better vibration alert because with the original iphone was one simple chirp!.
I don’t get it. The hype about the iPhones, I mean.
One important thing that would make such devices a perfect fit for the deaf are decent video capture and video conferencing capabilities. I mean, over 3G you can actually hold sign language conversations on the go, and this capability is widely used in Europe, especially Sweden and Denmark.
Similarly, videos of deaf events, captured spontaneously, are a very cool thing and very popular.
Sadly, this is where the iPhone 3G falls flat on its face. No video capture, and no front-mounted camera, so videoconferencing is not possible, either. (Unless you want to implement the not-quite-serious suggestion over at http://gizmodo.com/5015395/app.....g-kit-zomg …)
If it is data, 3G, GPS, and multimedia you want, why not head over to Nokia? The N95 8GB, N82, and E90, among others, are all kickass devices that give the iPhone a run for the money, and the 3rd party software selection is amazing. Plus, you can replace the battery without sending the phone in to Apple. Oh, and you do not have to pay the Apple tax either, and can choose a standard data plan.
About the only thing where the iPhone really is better than the Nokias (or other phones with a comparable feature set) is in the user interface department.
um.. i was a long time ex-nokia owner since 1999, and it wasnt hard for me to switch over from Nokia to iPhone. another important key on iPhone is the software integration with your computer, just plug in and sync, no endless issues to mess with.
as for the 3G/Video, the 3G network in US isn’t up to par comparing to else where, have you tried watching videos on 3G? i did, and it was unbelievably crappy, would apple build video conference app on iphone when 3G network isnt capable to do so? i think we already have answer to that.
As for the software, point taken, although I have not seen any issues with recent versions of Nokia’s PC suite.
I think I should remind you that the 3G iPhone is being launched worldwide, not just in the USA. Not having video conferencing capabilities is somewhat of a joke to people living in areas with decent 3G coverage. The USA are not even the largest mobile market in the world, so it makes little sense for Apple to cater to the lowest common denominator.
Irrespective of network coverage, it is still difficult to understand why the iPhone cannot even record decent video. This is really something that is very useful especially to deaf people on the road, and a feature offered by nearly every mid-range to high-end mobile phone. The Nokias that are comparable in price to the iPhone, for instance, can record 640×480 at 30 fps in amazingly good quality.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is overall a good phone, and the touch screen interface was revolutionary at the time of its introduction. But it is not the best mobile phone/communication device out there, contrary to what the review claims. It does not even come close.
What Hui said. I have tested video chat over WIFI on the Nokia 810 and it, in a word, sucked. So video chat over 3G networks is not quite there. For one thing, none of these devices will use a video codec optimized for motion (sign language). They typically use a codec optimized for voice/semi static images.
Second, “3rd party software selection amazing?” The iPhone App Store has hundreds of apps already on launch day, and many more to come soon. And it’s pretty easy to develop your own.
I’ll grant you one point though — video on the iPhone — why the heck not? It would be nice to be able to record video. A jailbroken iPhone can, I’m sure there’ll be apps that enable this soon enough…
3G video chat is widely used by the deaf in Europe. What else can I say.
Symbian has been around a lot longer than the iPhone, and has attracted lots of development, both native and Java-based. So, yes, the selection of applications out there that you can find with a little searching is amazing.
I am not interested in a “religious war” where everyone fervently argues why his or her choice of mobile is supposed to be the coolest. The iPhone is a good phone, but nothing more. Every mobile phone comes with its own limitations and tradeoffs, and your mileage may vary as to what you find acceptable and what you require of a phone.
I am a Mac fan but I have to admit, I’m very disappointed with iPhone 2. I do not own one and here’s why.
*AIM will disconnect when you switch application or put the phone to sleep.
*Cannot use email or aim in landscape mode.
*8 and 16 GB? What the heck? The new iTouch (iPod) comes with 32 GB and they’re basically the same thing.
*Push email is BS.
*No video chat.
I’m sticking with my BlackBerry even though I hate it. There are rumors that the iPhone will be most effective this September.