The iPhone: a review

[Feynman]

Here's a review of the most over-hyped and overrated device of all time.



Screen
The screen is actually very beautiful. Text is sharp, images are clear, and the only downside is how goddamn dirty and smudgy it gets after every contact with your face, fingers, and genitals. The smudges aren't really noticeable when the it's on, so it's more of a worry for those paranoid neatfreaks. Of course, to help me sleep at night, I bought myself a nice screen protector that actually doesn't smudge the screen (yes, it's on right now).

Exterior
The pictures display the iPhone very well, and I'm sure you've seen pictures of it. But let me tell you, the thing is very thin. Very thin. It has a beautifully curvy shape, but actually holding it and putting it up to your face for a conversation with your mother feels like you put a DVD-case up to your face. Also, drop it, and you lose a piece of you. The damn thing's back scratches and dents.



Safari
Possibly one of the greatest mobile web browsers I've ever seen. It shows you the internet like the internet should look. Pinch in to zoom out, pinch out to zoom in, double-tap to fix the width, and tap to click a link. You can keep several tabs, bookmarks, and even add your favorite sites to the homescreen so if you check a site very often--you can tap the icon on your homescreen and it will take you straight to it. It works great over a good Wi-Fi connection, but you may find yourself waiting much longer for a page to load over AT&T's data network (EDGE). I've only been able to get a 300KB/s over EDGE, but I've developed patience for the thing.

iPod
The iPod capabilities are that of a real iPod's, but even better, as you can flick your fingers across a list of your songs or view them album-by-album in CoverFlow when holding the thing horizontally. You get iPod-style playback quality, video support (and let me tell you--videos look great on that screen), podcast-support (who the hell uses this?), and "CoverFlow". If you need an iPod, the iPhone's got the perfect iPod for you right inside it.



Mail
Possibly the greatest way to check your mail. But nothing really special. Setting up email accounts is very easy, and you can view the emails the same way you'd view a webpage.

Calender, clock, weather, stocks, etc...
The extra little applications are okay. The calender is really beautiful and works great for what its for, the clock is like a standard mobile phone's clock application (but with a great interface) with a word clock, a stop-watch, a countdown timer, and alarms. The weather application uses Yahoo weather reminiscent to the weather widget on a Mac, beautifully--but not very in-depth. Occasionally, you'll find yourself wondering what the hell that little picture is supposed to mean, rain? Snow? Sleet? Hail? Giant mini-vans? And the stocks application is just there to use space, as I'm sure no one cares about how well companies are doing.



Text messages
The interface for text messages is really nice as the messages are set up like an instant messaging conversation, but I really don't use it much. I find AT&T's text messaging plans to be too expensive.

Battery
The battery will survive enough for you to slide by, but after extensive use over EDGE, you'll notice the battery depletes really fast. It also gets really hot after using the internet non-stop after a while.

Maps
This is the greatest application on this phone. Safari may be great, but who doesn't love a map of the whole world in their pocket? It's the real Google Maps. There's even a nifty little feature that tries to tell you where you are, but it doesn't really work... it's just a silly imitation of GPS using cell phone tower triangulation and Wi-Fi hotspots.



The OS
The iPhone probably has the greatest-looking operating system ever. But under that sexy exterior is some real technology, some real untapped technology. After Apple allows third party applications to be installed on the thing, you can install some really nice things. A piano, a chat application, shitloads of games, and other useless-but-fun shit.

I give it a 9/10 for doing most of my bidding so seductively.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

[NOA_Haunted]

Text reviews suck.

[Pele]

ITT Bassir jerks to a phone.

[V]

I will have one once my tax return money comes through. 

[KonohaShinobi]

A+++, would read again.

[Feynman]

Text reviews suck.

oh

[YPrrrr]

ITT Bassir jerks to a phone.

"Here's a review of the most over-hyped and overrated device of all time."

Doesn't sound like it

[V]

"Here's a review of the most over-hyped and overrated device of all time."

Doesn't sound like it

yet he gives it a 9/10. 

quite contradictory, if i say so myself.

[Pele]

"Here's a review of the most over-hyped and overrated device of all time."

Doesn't sound like it

did you read it?

[KonohaShinobi]

yet he gives it a 9/10. 

quite contradictory, if i say so myself.

It lived up to the hype according to him.

[Feynman]

It lived up to the hype according to him.

It lived it up, and more... once the goddamn SDK releases.

[KonohaShinobi]

It lived it up, and more... once the goddamn SDK releases.

What is SDK?

[V]

What is SDK?

software development kit

[Feynman]

What is SDK?

Software development kit. When that is released to the developers, we can begin to install applications natively, without jailbreaking.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/devcenter/third_party_apps.php

It's due this month.

[KonohaShinobi]

Software development kit. When that is released to the developers, we can begin to install applications natively, without jailbreaking.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/devcenter/third_party_apps.php

It's due this month.

oh.