Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
The Sights and Sounds
How does the device rate as a phone? As a media player? Call quality is nothing special. Calls sound like, well, cell phone calls. But the speaker phone - easily accessed, like everything else - works unusually well.
Music playback is brilliant – whether you’re listening through headphones or in the open air. And you can’t argue with the look of photos and videos - as long as they're of decent quality to begin with.
I must admit that, once I had my iPhone up and running, the first thing I visited was YouTube, the iPhone “mystery app” that wasn't announced until early last week. In some ways, YouTube videos look even better on the phone’s 3.5in screen than they do on the average PC display. There’s a certain immediacy you don’t get on the desktop.
The first screen - pre-activation
The Snafus
The flipside is that I still haven't gotten through an entire YouTube video without it stalling on me. Performance was dreadful over AT&T's wide-area Edge network, and I still had problems over local-area Wi-Fi - though I've yet to determine why; there should be plenty of bandwidth.
Loading standard web pages wasn’t a problem with Wi-Fi, but it certainly was with Edge. I’ve used my iPhone for half an evening, and already, I wish it had faster wireless access. I’m also wishing it had a better camera. Even in good light, its two-megapixel shooter is dreadful.
My other big complaint concerns email. Accessing my Gmail account took no more than a few minutes - in addition to entering my user name and password, all I had to do was log on via my desktop and set up my account for POP download - but the phone ended up tossing all my mail into a single container. Received messages. Sent messages. Everything.
These complaints aren’t going away, and as I continue to use this thing, I’m sure that others will crop up. El Reg Associate Editor Andrew Orlowski says you can never draw conclusions about a phone unless you’ve used it for at least a month. He even predicts that users will grow weary of all that screen touching and call out for more hardware buttons. We’ll keep you updated...
Next page: Key specs
COMMENTS
How could anyone buy these things.
I couldn't buy one of these. It's the price. No matter how good it is. I try not to make a habit of carrying around anything worth over £400.
How may people will be walking along the high street texting away (full focus on the screen as theres no buttons) and suddenly someone whips it out of your hands and is running off in the other direction as fast as they can.
I can't think of anything more expensive that you have to have with you all the time.
You may as well wair a shirt with "ROB ME!" in bright red letters.
ignorant comments
mr. anonymous,
all the people i showed the phone to were my friends who are professionals (read: have money). no one ever balked at the cost of the phone or the fact that the phone is "2.5G." Why? because the typical 3G phone is cumbersome at best to do anything worthwhile online and they are at or near the iphone's price range (treo, n95, 8800 even my slvr was $300). plus $635 isn't that much to spend on a phone. i spent far more in '91 for my pioneer 3 watt car phone ($1200) not including the $300 installation and the $400-$1000 a month in service charges. cuz back then, there were no calling plans. it was $.50/min peak, $.25/min off peak.
so please don't belittle something you know nothing about. that wasn't the point of this thread. people have some good questions. however you:
a. weren't there.
b. you obviously have no experience using the product.
c. you don't place value on UI design
d. haven't noticed it's the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history.
and lastly:
e. so bravely post anonymously.
please don't just post irrelevant statements. guess what? you don't have to buy an iphone. stick with whatever you have. i promise, i won't laugh at you. go back to WoW.
peace.
btw, (20th Century poster) i'm not from LA. but i do know many people there...heh.
20th Century...
"rubbish! buttons are so 20th century"
"melonade!"
pierrenorman - you're not from LA perchance?
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