Walt Mossberg / AllThingsD

- “it mostly keeps its promises.”
- “more capable version of an already excellent device”
- Battery drained much more quickly using 3G
- Greatly improved audio, much louder speaker
- Data speeds 3-5x faster than original iPhone
- Better voice coverage with 3G. “At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage.”

Edward Baig / USA Today

- “iPhone 3G: The Sequel, is worth the wait.”
- Still no recording video, no stereo bluetooth or voice dialing
- Supports PowerPoint attachments; mass move or delete multiple e-mail messages
- 10-30 seconds to load popular websites on 3G.
- GPS was very accurate
- Speaker sounded better for both speakerphone and music.
- “started receiving low battery warnings toward the end of a busy work day; I found myself charging the device overnight, the same as with the older iPhone.”

David Pogue / NYTimes

- Sound is much improved. “In fact, few cellphones sound this good.”
- Feels better in your hand due to the curved back
- “According to Apple, the iPhone’s G.P.S. antenna is much too small to emulate the turn-by-turn navigation of a G.P.S. unit for a vehicle, for example.”
- No voice dialing, video recording, copy/paste, memory card slot, Bluetooth stereo, MMS
- “the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone.”

via http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/08/first-iphone-3g-reviews-mossberg-baig-and-pogue/

Posted on July 9th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews, 3G iPhone | No Comments »

Apple’s iPhone will be brought to India, Singapore, Australia, and the Philippines, as well as other six countries later this year.Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has declared today that the iPhone via SingTel will probably be available on the Airtel network in India. SingTel also claimed to have signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel and Globe Telecom with Apple to this effect.

Posted on May 12th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone News, iPhone Plan, iPhone Reviews, iPhone Cases | No Comments »

It has been nearly a year since Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage at Macworld San Francisco and devoted nearly his entire speech to the introduction of the iPhone. Since then, it has become a favorite addition to our MacRumors Editors’, as well as 5 million other users’ pockets. Looking back, what are some of our favorite things about the iPhone? What are some things that we still hope are coming?

iPhone Loves
One of the things that sets the iPhone apart from every other phone is its multi-touch interface, which makes using the iPhone so intuitive. I still impress friends with the ability to pinch photos, and still think its fun to to do myself. Of course, getting those photos, movies, and music onto the phone is a snap… All you have to do is plug it into its dock and it syncs. The ease of which this happens really can’t be understated.

Bringing a full-featured web browser onto a mobile device was a smart move by Apple. Safari is by far the best mobile internet experience I’ve had. Mind you, it has its limitations, but it’s the best out there.

Of course, what Apple hasn’t done, the development community has done in the way of hacking the iPhone into allowing native 3rd party development. I now can’t live without my “jailbroken” iPhone and its assortment of games and utilities.

iPhone Wants: Software
What the development community has done through hacks, Apple has promised to provide via an SDK this coming year. However, I officially make my plea to Apple to make this SDK free to developers so that we can continue to see the kind of viral development that the iPhone has seen.

While I love the iPhone’s OS, Apple does have some refining to do. For one, the lack of copy and paste ability continues to be a very real hindrance towards the productivity of the device. Also, voice dialing remains absent, a feature which is key to using the iPhone safely while driving.

iPhone Wants: Hardware
Any hardware upgrades would require replacing the current iPhone or perhaps the development of a 3rd party dongle, but some of the more sought-after hardware revisions include the inclusion of GPS (3rd party dongle in development?), 3G, and the elimination of the recessed headphone jack.

Of course, any (partial) list like this is completely subjective. What do you want to see out of the iPhone in this next year? We are waiting.

via http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/

Posted on January 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews | No Comments »

From the moment Apple announced its iPhone at Macworld 2007, the tech world hasn’t stopped asking questions. Because Apple has kept many iPhone details under wraps until very recently, we’ve been forced to speculate. Until now. Is the iPhone pretty? Absolutely. Is it easy to use? Certainly. Does it live up to the stratospheric hype? Not so much. Don’t get us wrong, the iPhone is a lovely device with a sleek interface, top-notch music and video features, and innovative design touches. The touch screen is easier to use than we expected, and the multimedia performs well. But a host of missing features, a dependency on a sluggish EDGE network, and variable call quality–it is a phone after all–left us wanting more. For those reasons, the iPhone is noteworthy not for what it does, but how it does it. If you want an iPhone badly, you probably already have one. But because you’ll have to sign an iPhone-specific two-year contract with AT&T to activate your iPhone after you’ve already shelled out $499 for the 4GB iPhone or $599 for the 8GB model, we suggest you wait until the phone comes down in price and the network improves. Hopefully, both will happen soon.

Design
On with the review: the iPhone boasts a brilliant display, trim profile, and clean lines (no external antenna of course), and its lack of buttons puts it in a design class that even the LG Prada and the HTC Touch can’t match. You’ll win envious looks on the street toting the iPhone, and we’re sure that would be true even if the phone hadn’t received as much media attention as it has. We knew that it measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.46 inch deep, but it still felt smaller than we expected when we finally held it. In comparison, it’s about as tall and as wide as a Palm Treo 755p, but it manages to be thinner than even the trend-setting Motorola Razr. It fits comfortably in the hand and when held to the ear, and its 4.8 ounces give it a solid, if perhaps weighty, feel. We also like that the display is glass rather than plastic.

Display
The iPhone’s display is the handset’s design showpiece and is noteworthy for not only what it shows, but also how you use it. We’ll start off with its design. At a generous 3.5 inches, the display takes full advantage of the phone’s size, while its 480×320 pixel resolution (160 dots per inch) translates into brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements.

Menus
In true Apple style, the iPhone’s menu interface is attractive, intuitive, and easy to use. In the main menu, a series of colored icons call out the main functions. Icons for the phone menu, the mail folder, the Safari Web browser, and the iPod player sit at the bottom of the screen, while other features such as the camera, the calendar, and the settings are displayed above. It’s easy to find all features, and we like that essential features aren’t buried under random menus. Fluid animation takes you between different functions, and you can zip around rather quickly.

Much has been made of the iPhone’s touch screen, and rightfully so. Though the Apple handset is not the first cell phone to rely solely on a touch screen, it is the first phone to get so much attention and come with so many expectations. Depending on what you’re doing, the touch screen serves as your dialpad, your keyboard, your Safari browser, and your music and video player. Like many others, we were skeptical of how effectively the touch screen would handle all those functions.

Touch screen
Fortunately, we can report that on the whole, the touch screen and software interface are easier to use than expected. What’s more, we didn’t miss a stylus in the least. Despite a lack of tactile feedback on the keypad, we had no trouble tapping our fingers to activate functions and interact with the main menu. As with any touch screen, the display attracts its share of smudges, but they never distracted us from what we were viewing. The onscreen dialpad took little acclimation, and even the onscreen keyboard fared rather well. Tapping out messages was relatively quick, and we could tap the correct letter, even with big fingers. The integrated correction software helped minimize errors by suggesting words ahead of time. It was accurate for the most part.

The Apple iPhone features a virtual QWERTY keyboard.

Still, the interface and keyboard have a long way to go to achieve greatness. For starters, when typing an e-mail or text message the keyboard is displayed only when you hold the iPhone vertically. As a result, we could only type comfortably with one finger, which cut down on our typing speed. Using two hands is possible, but we found it pretty crowded to type with both thumbs while holding the iPhone at the same time. What’s more, basic punctuation such as periods or commas lives in a secondary keyboard–annoying. If you’re a frequent texter or an e-mail maven, we suggest a test-drive first.

We also found it somewhat tedious to scroll through long lists, such as the phone book or music playlists. Flicking your finger in an up or down motion will move you partway through a list, but you can’t move directly to the bottom or top by swiping and holding your finger. On the other hand, the letters of the alphabet are displayed on the right side of the screen. By pressing a letter you can go directly to any songs or contacts beginning with that letter. But the lack of buttons requires a lot of tapping to move about the interface. For example, the Talk and End buttons are only displayed when the phone is in call mode. And since there are no dedicated Talk and End buttons, you must use a few taps to find these features. That also means you cannot just start dialing a number; you must open the dialpad first, which adds clicks to the process. The same goes for the music player: since there are no external buttons, you must call up the player interface to control your tunes. For some people, the switching back and forth may be a nonissue. But for mutlitaskers, it can grow wearisome.

Criticisms aside, the iPhone display is remarkable for its multitouch technology, which allows you to move your finger in a variety of ways to manipulate what’s on the screen. When in a message, you can magnify the text by pressing and holding over a selected area. And as long as you don’t lift your finger, you can move your “magnifying glass” around the text. You can zoom in by pinching your fingers apart; to zoom out you just do the opposite. In the Web browser, you can move around the Web page by sliding your finger, or you can zoom in by a double tap. And when looking at your message list, you can delete items by swiping your finger from left to right across the message. At that point, a Delete button will appear.

Thanks to the handset’s accelerometer (a fancy word for motion sensor), the iPhone’s display orientation will adjust automatically when you flip the iPhone on its side while using the music and video players and the Internet browser. Also, a proximity sensor turns off the display automatically when you lift the iPhone to your ear for a conversation. All three are very cool.

Exterior features
The iPhone’s only hardware menu button is set directly below the display. It takes you instantly back to the home screen no matter what application you’re using. The single button is nice to have, since it saves you a series of menu taps if you’re buried in a secondary menu. On the top of the iPhone is a multifunction button for controlling calls and the phone’s power. If a call comes in at an inopportune time, just press the button once to silence the ringer, or press it twice to send the call to voice mail. Otherwise, you can use this top control to put the phone asleep and wake it up again. You can turn the iPhone off by pressing and holding the button.

The Apple iPhone speakers are located at the bottom of the phone.

Located on the left spine are a volume rocker and a nifty ringer mute switch, something all cell phones should have and which is a popular feature of Palm Treos. On the bottom end, you’ll find a pair of speakers and the jack for the syncing dock and the charger cord. Unfortunately, the headset jack on the top end is deeply recessed, which means you will need an adapter for any headphones with a chubby plug. Is this customer-friendly? No.

Unfortunately, the Phone does not have a battery that a user can replace. That means you have to send the iPhone to Apple to replace the battery after it’s spent (Apple is estimating one battery will keep its full strength for 400 charges–probably about three years’ worth of use). The cost of the replacement is $79 plus $6.95 shipping. No, you don’t really need a removable battery in a cell phone, but like many things missing on the iPhone, it would be nice to have, especially for such an expensive phone. And just what are you supposed to without a cell phone during the replacement period? Contrary to earlier reports, the SIM card is removable via a small drawer on the top of the iPhone, but other AT&T SIM cards will not work in the iPhone. That’s especially troubling, as it completely defeats the biggest advantage of using a GSM phone with a SIM card. Some people have multiple phones and like to change the SIM card between their different handsets. Also, you can’t use the SIM card to import contact information from another handset.

Features
The iPhone’s phone book is limited only by the phone’s available memory. Each contact holds eight phone numbers; e-mail, Web site, and street addresses; a job title and department; a nickname; a birthday; and notes. You can’t save callers to groups, but you can store your preferred friends to a favorites menu for easy access. You can assign contacts a photo for caller ID and assign them one of 25 polyphonic ringtones. We should note, however, that there’s no voice dialing and you can’t use MP3 files as ringtones. Other basic features include an alarm clock, a calculator, a world clock, a stopwatch, a timer and a notepad. There’s a vibrate mode but it’s a tad light.

The calendar offers day and month views, and you can use the calendar as an event reminder or a to-do list as well. The interface is clean and simple, though inputting new appointments involves a lot of tapping. There’s no Week view, however. We were able to sync our Outlook contacts and calendar and our Yahoo! e-mail address book with no problems.

Bluetooth and wireless
The iPhone offers a full range of wireless functionality with support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The Wi-Fi compatibility is especially welcome, and a feature that’s absent on far too many smart phones. When you’re browsing the Web, the iPhone automatically searches for the nearest Internet hot spot. Bluetooth 2.0 is also on board, which delivers faster transmission and a longer range than Bluetooth 1.2. You can use Bluetooth for voice calls, but you don’t get an A2dP stereo Bluetooth profile–another item that’s not necessary but would be nice to have.

Though Apple CEO Steve Jobs has explained the iPhone’s lack of 3G support by saying the chipsets take up too much room and drain too much battery, we’d like the option anyway. Yes, the Wi-Fi network is great when you can get it, but AT&T’s EDGE network just doesn’t cut it for all other surfing. EDGE Web browsing is so slow, it almost ruins the pretty Web interface. More on this in the Performance section.

Messaging and e-mail
For your messaging needs, the iPhone offers text messaging and e-mail. As on many smart phones, a text message thread is displayed as one long conversation–a useful arrangement that allows you to pick which messages you’d like to answer. If you use another function while messaging, you can return to pick up that message where you left off. We just don’t understand, however, why Apple doesn’t include multimedia messaging. Sure, you can use e-mail to send photos, but without multimedia messaging you can’t send photos to other cell phones–pretty much the entire point of a camera phone.

The iPhone’s e-mail menu includes integrated support for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Mac accounts. You can set up the phone to receive messages from other IMAP4 and POP3 systems, but you’ll need to sweet-talk your IT department into syncing with your corporate exchange server. It’s rumored that Apple will update the iPhone to support ActiveSync but Apple hasn’t confirmed that as of this writing. You can read–but not edit–PDF, JPEG, Word, and Excel documents. Worse: you can’t cut and paste text when composing messages.

iPhone’s iPod
Sandwiched between all the iPhone’s features lives Apple’s most amazing iPod yet. The display, interface, video quality, audio quality–all of it is meticulously refined and beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s trapped within a device that will cost you more than $1,000 a year just to own. CNET recently reviewed a Rolls-Royce that had a top-notch umbrella hidden inside its passenger door. Buying the iPhone for its iPod feature is a lot like buying that Rolls-Royce for its umbrella. Regardless, the iPhone is an exciting glimpse into what Apple hopefully has planned for its sixth-generation iPod. Apple has redeemed itself following the Motorola Rokr E1 debacle.

The Apple iPhone’s music player lets you view album art.

On paper, the iPhone’s iPod doesn’t offer any features not already on a fifth-generation iPod: podcasts, videos, music, and playlists are all here, and content management with iTunes is identical. The difference rests entirely in the iPhone’s interface. We’ve used other MP3 players that use touch interfaces, such as the Archos 704, iRiver Clix and Cowon D2, but the iPhone’s unique integration of multitouch technology and a graphic user interface put it in a category all its own.

From an iPod perspective, Apple’s biggest triumph with the iPhone is the fact that it has returned album artwork back into the music experience in a way that goes beyond a token thumbnail graphic. Physically flipping through your music collection in the iPhone’s Cover Flow mode really brings back the visceral feel of digging through a CD or record bin. It’s a tough feeling to quantify, but the real music lovers out there will appreciate how well the iPhone reconnects their digital music to a form that is both visually and physically more vivid. Even iTunes users who may already be jaded about using the Cover Flow mode on their personal computer will be surprised at how the experience is changed by using the iPhone’s intuitive touch screen.

Truth be told, there is one feature that is new to the iPhone’s iPod–the integrated speaker. While the iPhone’s speaker sounds thin and is prone to distortion, it works in a pinch for sharing a song with a friend. Apple was also smart enough to manage its speaker volume independent of the headphone volume, so if you’re listening to the speaker full-blast and then decide to plug in your headphones, you won’t be deafened.

The bad news is that the iPhone’s iPod leaves out the ability to manually manage the transfer of music and video content. Unlike any previous iPod, the iPhone does not allow an option for manually dragging and dropping content from an iTunes library directly to the iPhone device icon. Instead, the iPhone strictly uses defined library syncing options for collecting and syncing content from your iTunes library to the device. This should work out fine for most people, but for a device with limited memory the inability to manually manage content seems like a misstep. Our 8GB iPhone was already a quarter full after only a few hours of testing, giving us the impression that users will need to be vigilant at grooming their iPhone library. An external memory card slot is another one of those “nice to have” features.

The iPhone’s music sound quality seems right in line with our experience using the 5G iPod. All the same EQ presets are available, only now they are found on the iPhone’s main Settings tab. The included iPhone earbuds did a passable job for casual listening in a quiet environment. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s recessed headphone jack prevented us from using many of the test headphones we’re familiar with. We were just barely able to squeeze the plug of our Etymotic ER6i earphones into the jack to do the comparison.

Watching video on the iPhone is not quite as luxurious as a Creative Zen Vision: W or Archos 504, but its wide screen and bright contrast beat the fifth-generation iPod by a mile. As with previous iPods, video playback is automatically bookmarked so that playback resumes where you left off. And because the iPhone is a phone, it includes an airplane mode that will keep the music player activated while turning off the call transmitter.

The Apple iPhone’s video player really takes advantage of its wide screen.

Safari browser
The Safari browser really sets the iPhone apart from the cell phone crowd. Rather than trudging through stripped-down WAP pages with limited text and graphics, the browser displays Web pages in their true form. It’s a completely and surprisingly satisfying experience to see real Web pages on a screen of this size. Our only regret is that the browser does not support Flash or Java. To pan around a page, just swipe your finger across the display, and the page moves accordingly. Tap your finger on a link to open a new page and double-tap your finger to zoom in and zoom back out. You can use the arrows on the bottom of the display to move back and forth, while a multifunction button at the bottom of the display lets you open new pages and flick among them.

The Apple iPhone comes with the Safari Web browser.

Google search is the iPhone’s default search tool, but you can use Yahoo search as well. When searching for information or typing URLs, you use the onscreen keyboard. It’s just like typing an e-mail except that the spacebar is replaced with Web-appropriate language like “.com” and a slash. That’s a nice touch.

Thanks to the accelerometer, you can tip the phone on its side for a more comfortable landscape view. It doesn’t matter which direction you rotate the phone, as it will work either way. It’s also nice that the onscreen keyboard appears in landscape mode when using the browser. Most Web pages looked great on the screen, but visually busy pages like CNN.com can be too crowded. And because you can zoom in only a set amount, some text can still be too small to read clearly. You can store bookmarks and sync your favorite pages from your PC, but it works only for Internet Explorer and not Firefox.

YouTube
You can activate the iPhone’s integrated YouTube player straight from the main menu via a colored icon. Videos are organized using many of the same criteria as on the YouTube site, including Featured Clips, Most Viewed, Top Rated, and Most Recent. You can read the information attached to a video, such as the date posted and the poster’s name, but you can’t read comments. It doesn’t appear, however, that the YouTube connection updates in real time. We uploaded a video of our own, and it didn’t show up until a few hours later.

The Apple iPhone has a built-in Google Maps application.

Widgets
The iPhone doesn’t have integrated GPS, but it does have a widget for accessing Google Maps. You can get turn-by-turn directions between two points, with traffic information. We tried mapping routes from CNET’s offices to various places. The directions were accurate. But with no GPS, the iPhone can’t tell you where you are, so you’ll have to figure out that yourself. Also, the lack of audio instructions will limit its usability while driving. The map interacts well with the calling functions; you can find a point of interest and ring it in just a few taps. We also like that you can get the Google satellite view.

Additional widgets point to stock information and weather reports. You can program your own tickers and get information like a share gain or loss and see the chart of a share price over time. The weather function gives you a six-day forecast for your choice of cities. For more options, there is already a selection of third-party iPhone apps. No games are included on the handset

Visual voice mail
One of the most intriguing features on the iPhone is the much-touted visual voice mail. iPhone’s voice mail works much like a text-message folder in that it displays the caller’s name or phone number and the time. What’s even more fantastic, however, is that you can listen to the message instantly by pressing the individual message–you don’t have to call your voice mail first.

The Apple iPhone has a 2-megapixel camera on the back.

Camera
The iPhone’s 2-megapixel camera offers a spiffy interface with a graphic that resembles a camera shutter. You’re offered no camera editing options, which we didn’t expect. That means you can’t change the resolution, choose a color or quality setting, or select a night mode. There’s no flash either, and with no self-portrait mirror, those vanity shots are going to be tricky. The camera performed well in our tests, however. iPhone Photo quality was excellent with rich, bright colors and distinct object outlines. White looked a bit too soft, but we approve overall. On the downside, you can’t shoot your own video, which is disappointing on a phone at this price.

As we said earlier, the photo menu is attractive and easy to use, particularly due to the pinching motion. You can also flip between photos by swiping your finger across the display. When selecting a photo, you’re given the option of assigning it to a contact, using it as wallpaper, or e-mailing it to a friend.

Call quality
We tested the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Apple iPhone in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was good for the most part, but it wasn’t dependable. Though voices sounded natural, the volume was often too low, and the microphone has a sensitive sweet spot. When we moved the phone away from our ears ever so slightly, the volume diminished noticeably and we had to move the phone back to just the right place to hear clearly. The volume wasn’t so bad that we weren’t able to hear a friend who was in a crowded bar, but it just could be better. The speakerphone was also too quiet though conversations weren’t too muffled.

CNET users have also reported volume problems, and a few people we called said they heard a slight background hiss. We didn’t hear the hiss on our end, but more than one of our friends said they noticed it. Automated calling systems were able to understand us, but only if we were in a quiet room. On the whole, the call quality stayed the same in most environments.

Browser speed
Our first test with the Safari browser was over CNET’s internal Wi-Fi network. Web pages loaded in 5 to 10 seconds, though sites with heavy graphics took longer. It was a smooth experience overall, though it not quite as zippy as we had hoped. We thought that could be due to CNET’s network, but it seemed to be more or less the standard. Pages took about the same time to load on a home network and just a couple seconds longer in a cafe. When not using Wi-Fi, you’re stuck with AT&T’s EDGE network, which is just too slow to render the lovely Safari interface enjoyably. With speeds in the 50-to-90Kbps range, it reminded us of a dial-up browser. In other words, it’s pretty intolerable. CNET Labs tested the speed of the EDGE network against the Wi-Fi connection by comparing repeated results of the download time for a 9.4MB file. After two days of testing, EDGE resulted in an average download time of 15 minutes, 41 seconds for the file; Wi-Fi on average required a mere 1 minute, 11 seconds. In the end, our test results indicate that the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection is 13 times faster than using EDGE, although results will vary depending on location. We can only hope Apple adds 3G soon, especially since AT&T has a robust UMTS/HSDPA network.

Activation
Activation was easy using iTunes 7.3. Our computer recognized the iPhone right away, and the activation system started automatically. After a few prompts, it asked us if we wanted to automatically sync contacts from Yahoo and Windows mail and contacts from Outlook. It also asked us to if we wanted to sync Internet bookmarks but, as we said earlier, it won’t import Firefox bookmarks. The integration with AT&T’s account service is also seamless. We were able to select a plan and indicate whether we were a current AT&T customer. It even asked us if we wanted to port a current cell phone number. In all, it’s much better experience than dealing with AT&T.

It’s important to note that the iPhone is little more than an expensive paperweight until it’s activated. You can make emergency calls, but you can’t use any other functions, including the iPod music player. What’s worse, if you cancel your AT&T contract, the iPhone becomes a paperweight again.

Battery life
The Apple has a rated iPhone battery life of 8 hours talk time, 24 hours of music playback, 7 hours of video playback, and 6 hours on Internet use. The promised standby time is 10.4 days. When we tested the iPhone with the Wi-Fi function turned off, we got about 7 hours, 45 minutes of talk time. When we tested it with the Wi-Fi activated, we came away with 4 hours less. Video time, however, clocked in at an impressive 7.3 hours. Music-only time was also satisfactory. We got 28.4 hours of music playback time on a single charge. Just keep in mind that it’s rare you’ll be using just one feature for hours on end. As such, your battery life will vary widely as you switch between functions. Large color screens such as the one on the iPhone tend to be battery drainers, so you’ll most likely need to charge your handset every couple of days. According to the FCC, the iPhone has a digital SAR rating of 0.974 watts per kilogram.

Posted on July 31st, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews | 1 Comment »

More and more iPhone reviews are beginning to appear across the web. We will highlight reviews of interest here.

NY Times: David Pogue
- “so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese.”
- After walking around with the iPhone unprotected for 2 weeks, no marks on it. Glass smudges are easily wiped off.
- 700 megabytes is occupied by the phone’s software
- Making calls can be a 6 step process if phone is off.
- Web, Email is superior
- Battery Life Test: 5 hours video, 23 hours audio. Note: did not turn off Wi-Fi and other features as Apple suggests.
- Typing was OK. Difficult at first, but learned to “trust” the keyboard. “The BlackBerry won’t be going away anytime soon.”
- Cites AT&T network as iPhone’s biggest downfall. Cites Consumer Reports survey which ranks AT&T network as last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major US cities.
- AT&T’s EDGE cellular network: “excruciatingly slow”
- Slideshow of photos taken with iPhone
- Video Review

Newsweek: Steven Levy
- bottom line is that the iPhone is a significant leap
- The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge.
- e-mail looks more like you’re working on a computer than a clunky phone
- YouTube videos work great on Wi-Fi, but can display in a lower quality when you’re not at a hotspot and are using AT&T’s EDGE network
- unless I did a lot of video watching or Web browsing, [the battery] could generally last the day
- I’ve been jamming it in my pocket with keyrings, coins and pens, and so far it’s nearly as good as new.

USA Today: Edward Baig
- Apple’s iPhone isn’t perfect, but it’s worthy of the hype
- The revelation is that it’s also comfortable to hold and touch.
- I expected to miss the tactile feel that a physical keyboard provides. I didn’t.
- You can hold a conference call with up to five people.
- No voice recognition or voice dialing
- halfway decent internal speakers for listening if you set the thing down
- iPod games are not compatible with iPhone
- our company tech department raised questions about the security settings Apple required with our Microsoft Exchange servers.
- Battery life didn’t prove to be a big problem in my unscientific tests
- Edward Baig brought his iPhone to CNBC and demoed it live tonight: Video

Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg

largest, highest resolution screen of any smart phone they’ve seen, most internal memory
- Impressive battery life and thin
- Feels solid
- Regarding the touch keyboard: “After five days of use, Walt — who did most of the testing for this review — was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years.”
- Can’t use T-Mobile SIM cards
- Wi-Fi capability doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a fast cellular data capability
- Multitouch: “effective, practical and fun”
- No way to copy/paste text
- Microsoft’s Exchange system support
- Voice call quality was good, but not great
- Can’t record video
- No Adobe Flash support
- Songs can’t be set as ringtones

Posted on June 27th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews | 18 Comments »

The iPhone, as Jobs proudly dubbed the device to thunderous applause ,will be three devices in one: a cell phone, a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, and an Internet communications device. Cingular is the lucky carrier (apparently the companies have patched up their relationship following the Motorola Rokr bust).

We haven’t gotten to hold an iPhone yet, but we’re just as excited as the next person to finally write down our first thoughts, and we won’t sleep until we get our hands on one. Check back near the iPhone’s June release date for our full review.

Availability
As has been widely rumored for months, Cingular (soon to be AT&T) will be the sole iPhone carrier. Both Apple and Cingular stores will sell the phone starting in June. Europe will get it in the fourth quarter, and Asia will have to wait until next year. Finally, the U.S. gets something first!

Good thing we have a few months to save our pennies. The 4GB model will cost $499 with a two-year contract and $599 for the 8GB version (also with a two-year contract). Again, that’s a bit high when compared to other carrier-supported music phones such as the Sony Ericsson W810i, particularly since you’re locked into a iPhone contract with one carrier.

Design
To be successful, an Apple phone has to sport an iconic Apple design–the Rokr’s dull design did it no favors. Fortunately, Apple fulfilled our expectations this time with a smooth design and an innovative interface. Say goodbye to traditional cell phone buttons–this phone is all touch screen, all the time.

With only one hardware control (a “home” key), iPhone’s real estate is dominated by a huge, 3.5-inch display. From what we call tell, the device looks beautiful with a resolution of 320×480x160 pixels per inch (the highest iPod resolution yet, according to Jobs). The videos and photos look great, and we love that the “smart” screen shifts automatically to a landscape orientation when you start to play a video. One giant touch screen controls the phone, and no stylus is needed (”Yuck,” Jobs said). Use your fingers to type messages and e-mails on an onscreen keyboard–Jobs promises onscreen typing will be faster than on a standard smart-phone keypad, but we’ll believe that theory when we actually get a device in our hands. (And speaking of yuck, what about all that finger grease?) But we admit the scrolling feature looks especially promising as Jobs had only to slide his finger across the display.

Of course, such a large display makes for a large phone: the iPhone measures 4.5×2.4×0.46 inches. No, it won’t slide into smaller pockets, but it joins the similarly sized Palm Treo 750and its weight (4.8 ounces) is mostly standard for a handset of this size. Of course, the slim profile is noteworthy as well. We’re a tad surprised Apple has jumped on the thin phone bandwagon, but trim design, after all, is the cell phone trend of the day. As Jobs made clear, iPhone is thinner than both the Motorola Q and the Samsung BlackJack.

Features
Though we’re pleased Apple made it a quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone, we’re disappointed the iPhone’s data support tops out at 2.5G EDGE networks. Considering the multimedia-friendly feature set, the omission of any 3G compatibility is a bit bizarre, particularly since Cingular now offers UMTS and HSDPA.

We wouldn’t normally spend much time on voice mail, but Apple pulled a new trick out of its hat with Visual Voicemail. Rather than forcing you to call your voice mail and waiting to browse through multiple messages to hear the one you want, Visual Voicemail displays all the messages you have in a list, similar to an e-mail in-box. All you have to do is select the message you want and listen away.

It’s tough to truly evaluate the iPhone’s capability as a music and video player without some hands-on experience, but a cursory look at the product shots and details gives us some idea; that, and the fact it’s closely related to the highly rated iPod music player iPod.In short, the iPhone is sure to offer an easy-to-use media playback interface, and the breadth of content offered by iTunes (its compatible service) ensures you’ll never be wanting for music or video files. Of course, the touch-screen interface will take some getting used to for users who are accustomed to the iPod’s Clickwheel.

The iPhone, which will be offered in 4GB and 8GB capacities (flash memory), doesn’t have any restrictions on how much of that memory you choose to fill up with media content–no 100-track limit, as is the case with the Motorola Rokr. The convergence device also takes a step away from its iPod brethren by offering a built-in mic for audio recordings. And unlike most cell phones, the iPhone offers a standard 3.5mm audio jack, which will work with all mainstream stereo headphones. There’s no FM radio but that’s nothing new from Apple.

One thing is for certain: the 3.5-inch wide-screen display is much better for full-length movie viewing than the 5G iPod’s comparatively paltry 2.5-inch screen. And Apple’s new partnership with Paramount really helps to fill out the movie category in iTunes. If there’s anything we have to complain about, it’s that the video player isn’t offered as a standalone device, sans the phone capability, (which is sure to mark up the premium on the price). Of course, if that happens, we’d like to see something above the max 8GB of memory. iTunes content and video load on the phone via a USB computer connection–unfortunately, as far as we know there are no wireless downloads–and the iPhone comes with an iPod connector.

Beyond the music player, the iPhone runs on Mac OS X and promises a 2-megapixel camera, a photo-management tool that rotates the display for landscape photos (like with videos), support for Google Maps, conference calling, a speakerphone, and text and multimedia messaging. We imagine there will be personal organizer applications as well, but Jobs kept mum on such fine details. Connectivity options also look promising with stereo Bluetooth (thankfully), Wi-Fi (a huge plus), POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail, and a Safari Web browser. The free push Yahoo e-mail app looks especially cool since we won’t have to wait for syncing with a PC.

The iPhone also comes with some unique sensors that detect how you’re using the phone and change the display accordingly. A proximity sensor knows when you bring the phone to your ear and then dims the screen and shuts off the touch screen. The ambient light sensor adjusts brightness and saves power, and the accelerometer knows when to switch between landscape and portrait orientation.

Outlook
After months of iPhone speculation, we were sick of the device even before it came out. But now, well, we have to admit it’s quite lovely. The vivid display is especially attractive, and we like the sleek, minimalist design. The touch screen may involve a learning curve, but we’re excited to try it out. The iPod functionality will no doubt draw many, and in particular, we’re glad to see world phone support, the Yahoo e-mail app, stereo Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

On the downside, we were hoping for wireless iTunes music downloads. And it’s too bad Apple stopped short of 3G support. Also, we’re hoping that Apple introduces a standalone touch-screen iPod without the phone element as not everyone will want a convergence device. And here’s the biggest caveat: Phones are only as good as the calls they make, so we’ll have to wait for our final assessment once we get a review product. As for battery life, Apple is promising five hours for calling or video and 16 hours in music mode.

Overall, however, and despite the high price, we predict an iPhone success. The iPhone will garner interest simply because it exists and, as such, has great potential to move music phones into the mainstream. Nokia’s Xpress music phones and Sony Ericsson’s Walkman handsets present a strong challenge on some level, but Samsung’s new Ultra Music probably stands to take the biggest hit if the two devices go head to head.

     An old article from CNET, but I think it’s very useful.

Posted on April 28th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews | No Comments »