After having digested Steve Jobs’ keynote on the iPhone as well as the Quicktime demos on Apple.com, I have some impressive geek envy. The iPhone definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of the features, design and more than anything else - the UI.
But I have some questions…
Sensory Response
One of the great things about a physical interface like a keyboard or keypad is touch response - when you press a button, you can feel it depress. This is actually one of things I love most about my SLVR and the modern 4-letter coded Motorola phones: the etched steel keyboards feel good to the touch.
You have to assume that this is lost on any touch screen display. There will be no touch response since you will be tapping on a coated smooth surface. So what will the sensory response on the iPhone be? I can only assume there will be an audio response (i.e. the iPod ‘click’ sound) because having no sensory response in a UI is bad UI.
Battery Life
This has to be worst feature of the device: 5 hours of doing anything but listening to music, in which case the battery life is 16 hours. Does this mean you have to treat the device like a laptop or an UMPCwhatever — unplugged for a few hours but otherwise, connected to a power outlet?
But What About .Mac?
Jobs strolled the Google and Yahoo! CEOs out while demonstrating the compatibility with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. I was shocked that he did not mention .Mac email, iSync, etc. once. Does this mean that .Mac is going away and will play no part in iPhone’s capabilities? I think Leopard can only answer that question.
Personally, I wish Apple would outsource .Mac to someone more capable. I know for a fact that the .Mac development team consists of 2-4 people. Compared to Yahoo! and Google’s behemoth development teams, there is just no way they can keep up with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Flickr, etc.
Hint: I’m dropping .Mac this year unless it does something really fancy with Leopard that I can’t live without.
Just How Exclusive Is Exclusive?
I am a Cingular customer, having been grandfathered in from 5+ years of service with AT&T Wireless. Ironic that after the AT&T/SBC supermerger, Cingular will inevitably become AT&T Wireless — the company they acquired 2-3 years ago. And so it seems that I will have some exclusivity to the use of the iPhone as a Cingular customer.
The question is, not so much for me but most everyone else I know, how long will that exclusive contract last with Cingular. Cingular often times gets the first run with the new hotness of the year (remember the RAZR?) but eventually the device finds its way to other carriers as its popularity increases. There is no doubt that this device will be popular so how long before my T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon friends can join in the fun?
And while we’re on the subject, I’d love to know what Cingular had to do to land that exclusive contract.
Should I Wait For the iPhone nano?
I’ve been a proud owner if an iPod nano for over a year and I wouldn’t trade it for an iPod (video). I love the smaller form factor, the resilience of the newer aluminum nanos and the fact that it has no moving parts. In a sense, it’s an iPod lite.
While dreaming of what the iPhone would be before today, I envisioned a device with typical iPod and very limited mobile phone features: making phone calls and sending text messages. I assumed that Apple would use their clickwheel interface and bypass the need for a keypad by using the same search interface found on an iPod. Obviously this would rely heavily on the need to sync your phone numbers off of your computer but I believe in that solution anyway. I also assumed that Apple might have a leg up on current voice recognition technology which flat out sucks but might be enough to recognize numbers.
Even after seeing the realized iPhone, I still feel there is a space for a simple music/Phone device that does these three things: plays music (like an iPod), send/receive phone calls and send/receive text messages. And nothing more.
I would bet they’re working on such a device. Let’s face it, not all of need our iPods to play video as much as we need our phones to be “smart”. Well, in the case of the iPhone, we may not need it to be that “genius”. And it would certainly extend the battery life.
OS X on the iPhone: Open or Closed Platform?
Most “smartphones” run Palm OS or Windows Mobile which allows developers to create applications to run on those devices. There are plenty of useful applications out there which due to the small audience for each app, doesn’t make sense for the platform/hardware companies to make.
The iPod is not an open platform. Only Apple decides what does/does not happen on the iPod. My fear is that this will be the case for the iPhone. I supposed Apple keeping it closed helps keep a consistent user experience. However, the “widgets” available (Weather, Stock Prices, etc.) are all open for development on OS X and will make the iPhone even more attractive if it allows user-installed widgets.
OK, Blah Blah. Are You Going To Get an iPhone?
Absolutely. The 8GB model, too. iPod nano, consider yourself on notice.
*update: I was so damn excited about the iPhone, I forgot I own a SLVR and not a RAZR.
I was just listening to Cicada - Rollerball