My iPhone Observations

After one week of having an iPhone, here are some of my observations.

The iPhone is not a phone. I’ve made a few voice calls on it, but I hardly use it as a phone. Mobile access to data has been my playing ground.

The iPhone App Store changes everything. Adding new applications keeps expanding the role and usefulness of the iPhone. The App Store is also available over the cell service so you can access it at anytime. Initially, I thought you had to download iPhone apps to your computer then sync your iPhone to install the apps. Nope. You can directly install apps over the air.

Location, location, location. With a built-in GPS pinpointing your location, many apps take advantage of this and correlate your location with your data. Google Maps has that neato fly in sequence showing where you are. Services like loopt.com show the locations of your friends. Even Twitter tweets can be mapped to your location.

MobileMe sync. This actually works. When I first got my iPhone, I had a busy day and didn’t get a chance to sync it with my Mac. Yet, all my contacts were already there! This info was pushed to my phone in the background by the MobileMe service.

Battery life. The first day, I was constantly on the iPhone, pulling in data over Wi-Fi or the 3G network. This ran down my battery by the end of the day. I can see charging the iPhone daily or at least every other day.

Wi-Fi access. I like the way the iPhone finds Wi-Fi networks and prompts you to join these networks. Going Wi-Fi saves battery life and gets better speeds than 3G. When you return to a location where you previously joined its Wi-Fi network, the iPhone automatically switches over without needing to ask you.

No iPhone unboxing jollies at AT&T. I don’t know about you, but opening up and unboxing an Apple product is always an experience. Weird, but true with the Internet littered with Apple “unboxing” pictures and videos. Getting an iPhone from AT&T robs you of that experience however. Since you need to now activate the phone upon purchase, the iPhone box must be opened at the store (both at AT&T and Apple). While the Apple Stores let you unbox your iPhone, at AT&T, the sales clerk disrobes your iPhone for you. 🙁

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