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"Glossy Apple has a sour taste for corporate use." on by ski-coach
Pros: Slick user interface ... on the skin. Just don't look to the core.
You can find the nearest Starbucks using the map application.
Great graphic detail when browsing.
Flips between 3G and Wireless on the fly, but you can't tell it which you wantCons: iPhone has some cool tools that Apple-heads will love to show you ... like finding the nearest Starbucks. But corporate users will be wanting for REAL productivity basics that have been available on other smartphones for years (Palm, Blackberry).
Summary: 1) Single level "springboard" (home screen), so you can't organize your applications into sub-folders or categories. It is like only having the ?ALL? option on a Palm Treo
2) Email is very limited in capability. For example, there is no ability to "select all" within an email folder, so cleaning out SPAM folder is a tedious task. Nor can you search your emails in any way. Email does not synchronize with Outlook (only contacts and calendar).
3) Contacts can only be displayed by name, not by company;
4) Can not search for contacts with the keyboard, so if you have a lot of contacts, you have to scroll through your address book until you find it
4) Can't move applications to large memory block (phone is partitioned)
5) When browsing, can't set zoom level and stay there. You have to keep zooming in/out as pages change
6) Battery life is dismal when you actually use the phone for anything, and the battery is soldered to the phone, so replacement is a major task and there is no possibility of having a spare battery to swap
7) There is no slot for external memory (Micro SD)
8) No video or voice recorder and there is no zoom (or any other controls) for the camera
9) Volume on speaker phone is so low it can't be used
10) Glossy surface and rounded shape means that it scratches almost immediately, so you're going to get a cover anyway. Apple could have saved us all the time and effort by adhering to "function over form" adage
11) Typing on the touch screen keyboard is inconsistent and a stylus (or long finger nails) can't be used because of technology utilized
12) No snooze option for calendar events
13) Only one application can be open at a time, so if the phone rings, you lose whatever you were in, such as creation of a calendar event
14) No JAVA/Flash so you lose out on a lot of web content -
"The Worst Cell Phone Ever" on by aviadstark
Pros: Stylish, 16GB, cheaper than previous model, lots of cool features - love the GPS
Cons: It's gotta be the worst cell phone i have ever had! Has Apple forgotten POP3?
Summary: I think people seem to forget that when they purchase a device like this they forget it's supposed to do one thing first and then everything else - it's a phone first and then it supposed to do all the fun stuff that we love so much.
Apple has produce here the worst cell phone on the planet - dropped calls, inconsistent reception, constant crashing, improper button pressing, slow 3G network if available at all and so forth. The connectivity on this unit just plain ol' sucks.
I can compare cos I had the 4GB version before it and stupidly so i decided to upgrade it - What a mistake that was. I can't have normal phone conversations, reception fades in and out with no consistency, overall I have much poorer reception than what I had before (the phone just does not have reception in my basement now whereas it did before. Wi Fi is not what it used to be and so forth.
I don't understand also why Apple is waiting so long to fix these issues with so many complaints already. I've warned some of my friends to not buy the unit until Apple fixes these quirks - some listened and some have joined and learned the sad truth at their own expense.
I use this iPhone 3G for business and it can't do what I need it do first - be a freakin' phone!!! Then it can't do what my old Treo (4 years old) could easily do and connect simply to my POP3 accounts.
I won't take away from some of the cool features like apps (which I had on my 1st Gen iPhone), and the GPS (will someone provide us with something better than Google Maps). And by the way - Google Maps based GPS crashes all the time.
Steve Jobs promised me twice the speed on 3G - when i do get 3G which rarely happens it's the same speed as my old edge network.
I have friends oversees who share videos like they do popcorn at the movies yet I can't imagine sharing any video let alone being able to share photos (take cery long to email attachments!
Anyway - I'll stop my *******' and whining here cos it won't help anyway - i just had to take my frustration out. I've been an avid MAC guy for 12 years and hope apple doesn't put out additional crappy products like this NEW and IMPROVED iPhone - Buyers Beware!!! -
"Intuitive and improved, yet still somewhat lacking" on by LilRedRooster
Pros: 3G speeds, Safari's mobile browsing, excellent touchscreen interactions, brilliant glass display, new software and app store
Cons: Still lacking multimedia messaging, shorter battery life, still lacking landscape keyboarding outside of internet browsing
Summary: I upgraded to the iPhone 3G after having used the previous iPhone, obviously for the 3G service, since the area in which I live is 3G rich, and the upgrade in speed would be quite beneficial for me. I had upgraded the software on my old phone for a bit before switching (I wasn't inclined to wait in line for hours and instead was satisfied to place an order and wait for a bit over a week), so I had a chance to compare the phones in that respect as well, and wasn't horribly disappointed with the results. I’ll just list what I liked and didn’t like, but really, I absolutely love my iPhone, despite some of its shortcomings; it’s a very fun, reliable, innovative, and amazingly interactive phone, and it’s still unbeatable in the market.
The Pros:
-The 3G network speeds. Fast downloads, especially for internet pages and YouTube videos. Safari also seems improved, with more reliable page loads, and new ability to save images right from the internet, simply by tapping and holding over the image, and then saving.
-Louder, noticeably clearer call quality.
-Lower price. Current iPhone users are offered the two-year contract price for upgrading, which isn’t perfect, but more acceptable than the full price.
-New software, with new application store. Plenty of awesome applications, many free, and easily downloadable from computer or phone, with updates often and still conveniently through iTunes.
-New design, with tapered edges and flush headphone jack. Personal preference, maybe, but it’s still very sleek, even if it does scream "Apple" with just one look.
-Brilliant, large, glass (much better feel than plastic touch-screens), with reliable and excellent touch-screen interactions (the pinching, swiping, scrolling, and push functions are marvelously intuitive); no other phone on the market can match it.
-The new ability to use other functions during a call by hitting the home button; I can even text while on a call, which is a vast improvement over the first software.
-Push Yahoo! email. There is also a set-up for corporate email, Gmail, AOL, but the push email for Yahoo! is a fantastic improvement.
-The MP3 player didn’t change, but it didn’t have to, because it’s simply fantastic, still.
-Google maps with GPS. It’s not turn-by-turn, but it’s still quite convenient and very user-friendly.
The Cons:
-Shorter battery life; it doesn’t go any longer than a day on a full charge. With the heavier data load, it’s understandable, and many other smart-phones have similar problems. The sticky point is the fact that you have to replace the battery through Apple, still. That’s just plain inconvenient, especially if you want to go out of town for a weekend and not worry about a charge; having an extra battery available for purchase definitely wouldn't kill Apple.
-Still only landscape keyboarding while browsing the internet. That gets surprisingly annoying, especially while texting, since the phone feels intuitively more comfortable while typing while in landscape mode, and is much more spacious.
-Still lacking multimedia messaging. Most other phones, even bottom-of-the bin free ones offered, have it; Apple is just plain stubborn for leaving it out, yet again.
-Text messaging sometimes flakes out and doesn’t send, or freezes, even after repeated attempts. For the most part, it’s reliable, but still.
-Sounds sometimes flake, especially the text messaging or email notifications. They still vibrate, and the default sound will return after restarting the phone, and it’s really just more annoying than anything else.
-Camera still lacks flash, zoom, and other basic functions. Zoom, honestly, is the big stickler for me.
-3G service sometimes simply disappears, though that hasn’t happened nearly often enough to be a big problem. AT&T doesn’t have the most reliable network in that respect, anyway, so it might not be completely Apple’s problem.
-Still lacks any sort of document creating or editing programs. Business wise, that is just ridiculous, especially considering that Apple is trying to attract business users. Having a version of Windows Mobile would be so much more convenient, and would open up the market considerably.
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