The good and the less so

Michael Gartenberg | July 02, 2007, 09:11 AM

Weekend turned busier than I thought so I haven't had a chance to post. Fortunately, it looks like everyone else did so I won't go into super depth but here's a rundown of what I think is good and what's less so in the iPhone.

The interesting part over the weekend was what happened when I took the phone out. At the supermarket, a party and coffee shop, every time I took it out, a crowd gathered and had to see it, which again, is something different as these weren't Apple fans or tech enthusiasts. These days, just having one makes you a mini celebrity. Also, bear in mind that the experience doesn't come down to features but how the features are implemented and the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts (although the parts are really good). Apple has totally changed cell phone UI forever and raised the bar on usability and design.

The Good -

1. iPod has taken a major leap forward in terms of UI (if not in pure functionality). Cover flow is gorgeous as is the ability to seamlessly move between media types. I REALLY want an 80gb or more like 160gb version of this as a standalone device.

2. Google Maps - Sure, you can it for almost every cell phone out there, but there's no version like this one, especially on the giant screen. Totally blows away every other version.

3. Photos - This is the one feature that keeps blowing folks away. The ability to flip through pictures and zoom in and out is amazing. Likewise, the camera doesn't have any settings at all, just point and shoot. It's not going to replace anyone's digital camera but for snapshots, it's just fine.

4. Safari - There's never been a mobile web experience quite like this. Even our somewhat browser finicky homepage loads correctly, with pop-up menus and everything. I had no problem viewing reports in their PDF glory.

5. iPod Eco System - Need to sync, no problem it uses iTunes which while not perfect delivers a better experience than anyone else. Popped it in my Bose Sound Dock and plugged it into my card both worked fine (and even offered to turn on plane mode so as not interfere with the audio quality)

The Less So - Not everything on the iPhone is perfect out of the box. I do think the removeable battery story and 2G are non issues. There are some things I'd like to see improved and the good news, is these are all things that can be delivered by software.

1. Safari - At the moment, as Dave Winer points out, this is not a readers device. It's perfect for browsing information but less so for immersive reading. Too often you need to zoom in and out and fiddle before you can read anything. Even the nytimesriver.com needed some tweaking before it displayed properly. (And that site worked well on just about everything). There's no way to adjust font size or get into a mobile friendly view. When it comes to mobility, document or web fidelity just isn't as important as being able to easily read the content. This isn't hard to fix but it needs to be done.

2. Corporate Email - General pop mail for things like GMail work just fine but if you're used to Exchange and getting all your mail, calendar and contacts wirelessly, this isn't the device for you. Since the Exchange/ActiveSync protocol is available for license by anyone, one hopes Apple does so quickly. IMAP support works OK, but once you get used to Exchange, you don't want to go back.

3. Attachments - Same complaint. You don't preserver document formatting at the expense of being able to read it. Once you zoom in a word document, you need to scroll in four directions to read it. Wrong way to do this. And where is the PowerPoint viewer I might add?

4. Games - Or lack thereof. The phone is an important platform for casual games and there's so many titles that would be perfect for iPhone. Web games won't cut it, developers want to sell these things and consumer want to play them even when there's no network.

5. AT&T - The iPhone is great but I'm not sure how I feel about AT&T. I can do much better in terms of voice and data from T-Mobile for example ($59 gets you 1500 minutes and unlimited data) not to mention using the iPhone on a T-Mo hotspot would be perfect. I like even less that there's no way to use a local SIM when traveling overseas (even AT&T will allow you unlock most of their phones for this purpose). I understand the carrier relationship is important but I'd love to see an un-locked version of the iPhone that I could use on any network with any SIM. I'd even pay more than the current offering price for that feature. I know others would as well.