Jonzee.com

Well What do I think about the iPhone now that I had a few weeks with it? Lets start from the beginning. I explained the other day on how I got the iPhone (almost for free). After all that was done, I went to a local AT&T store and picked it up. Got home and connected it to my PC. It launched iTunes and directed me to the activation page. I already have a AT&T plan so nothing there changed, just turned my month to month plan into a 2 year plan.

It took a few hours before my phone was activated, but once it was, I was excited to figure out how everything works. The first thing on my mind was the need for some type of screen protector, I can easily see it getting scratched up or covered with fingerprints.

How do I like using the iPhone?

The iPhone is really a great device, I now had the opportunity to experience all of the greatness that I have been reading about. As a phone, I really like using it. Connecting to my Jawbone Headset was very easy and it works a lot better with the iPhone than it did with my Treo. The call quality is decent, not the best Ive heard but its in the upper category sound quality from my experiences. The signal is good, but I have had more problems getting a good signal is certain places than I did with my Treo. Using the touch screen to make calls work surprisingly well, actually all of the touch features work a lot better than I thought they would.  Ive always ignored my voicemail because I hate the whole process of retrieving messages, but the iPhones Visual voicemail pretty much allows me to use voicemail like I should (I know Im bad).

What about the iPod functionality?

Ive never owned an iPod. I know many of you will think Im crazy, but I really, really hate using iTunes. I think iTunes is a messy piece of software. Its buggy, its cluttered, and its just crazy to use when you are looking for things that arent on the top 10 or front page of a category. That feeling hasnt changed with the iPhone. Even worse, you have to use iTunes to sync everything, so now Im married to iTunes. Other than that, I do think the iPod portion of the phone works pretty well. Ive only used it so far to watch video podcast but I love it. The built in external speaker is great. For as much as I would need an external speaker, the one on the iPhone is perfect.

The iPhone is "Barely" a Smartphone

This was my concern about the iPhone, How "smart" is the "smart phone" portion of this phone. I have to say, Email is probably the best Ive seen on a phone (Ive never used a Blackberry). When it comes to viewing and writing email. There are some minor things I wish it had…like "mark all read" or better yet. some kind of way that I can password protect the email portion so that anyone that picks up my email cant go through and read my email.

I absolutely love the browser, no complaints there.

I now check the weather about 5 or 6 times a day, when I use to never pay attention to the weather. Ive also watched more Youtube videos in the past few week than I ever have. Everything Ive talked about so far is great, and makes the iPhone a "decent" device. The slick looks and touch screen really set it off. After a few days of owning the iPhone, I felt like I wanted more.

• I want to delete individual missed or recent calls, theres only an option to delete them all or none.
• I don’t want my text messages to display on the screen as I get them, just a notification.
• Why are there no games on this phone?
• Why cant I send or receive picture messages (I never knew I would miss that as much untill I got the iPhone)
• why cant I password protect photos?
• Why cant I manage photo folders from within my iPhone?
• Why does it not record video?
• Why cant I not play videos I get in email.

See what I mean? theres a lot of little things that just urks me consistently when using this phone. Not enough to make me quit using it, but enough to where I get frustrated. Also, Apple really need to hurry up with the 3rd party apps, cause to be honest. The iPhone is a pretty boring phone after you get over the coolness.

Ok, What about the Touch Screen?

Typing on the touchscreen was another concern of mine and I will admit, I have gotten somewhat use to using the touch screen. I can sent out quick little text messages now with little effort. Text messages, making calls and general interface use is where it ends though. Typing web pages, emails, and searching, whether its at a web page or using the Youtube app always makes me wish I had a real keypad (Qwerty of coarse). Apple did a good job with the touch interface, but I want buttons. It took about 15 minutes to get connected to my WiFi at home, trying to type my routers WiFi password (I use the GRC perfect password).

When I was making the decision on a new phone. My choices were the iPhone or the Blackberry curve. I really like the iPhone but there hasn’t been one day that I didn’t think maybe I should’ve got the Blackberry.