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Walt Mossberg Reviews the iPhone
WSJdpatton writes "Walt Mossberg tested the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the US. His verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is on balance a beautiful and breakthrough hand-held computer. Its software especially sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though the lack of physical buttons can be a hindrance." Digital Daily has a roundup of early iPhone reviews.
David Pogue, New York Times
- "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
Steven Levy, Newsweek
- 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.
Edward Baig, USA Today
- 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
Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal (the submitted article's highlights):
- Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.
- 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
- Apple says it plans to add fea
Doesn't quite seem to match...
"After walking around with the iPhone unprotected for 2 weeks, no marks on it. Glass smudges are easily wiped off."
"I've been jamming it in my pocket with keyrings, coins and pens, and so far it's nearly as good as new."
"I expected to miss the tactile feel that a physical keyboard provides. I didn't."
"Typing was OK. Difficult at first, but learned to "trust" the 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."
"bottom line is that the iPhone is a significant leap"
"The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge."
"Multitouch: 'effective, practical and fun'"
"Feels solid"
"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."
"Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer."
Seems like SIM cannot be changed. Now what is the use of terminating cingular contract? Just end up carrying a 600$ music player that cannot make phone calls? From the article - "But the iPhone has a major drawback: the cellphone network it uses. It only works with AT&T (formerly Cingular), won't come in models that use Verizon or Sprint and can't use the digital cards (called SIM cards) that would allow it to run on T-Mobile's network. So, the phone can be a poor choice unless you are in areas where AT&T's coverage is good. It does work overseas, but only via an AT&T roaming plan."
even worse: no native IM app (you can probably do it through a website, though) and all the service plans are limited to 200 text messages per month (before extra fees kick in).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
200 is a baseline number for all the plans; more (up to unlimited) can be added as desired (for extra $$$).
There are a lot of phones that even have GPS at the hardware level, but it is disabled.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
My Verizon phone does aGPS for E911, and Verizon actually does let you access it... if you bend over for them just more, which I don't, though I did do the free trial and let it expire, so I know it can work.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
The iPhone screen is made of glass not plastic
90% of the US doesn't even have a real 3G network in place yet. My connectivity on 3G with my Windows Mobile device (both on T-Mobile and Cingular) has been no better than GPRS, and I live in the SF Bay Area and travel to other "big name" cities all the time.
While traveling around the world, I definitely love my 3G-capable device. In the US, I hardly see the point. Just something for the spec-sheet geeks to bitch about. Why support something that most people don't have access to, and even those that do can't get up to speed?
90% of the people 90% of the time can't get 3G access speeds, even assuming 100% of cell phone users had data plans, which of course they don't. I think you need to re-assess what "people do 90% of the time."
I'm not going to buy an iPhone, and for all the reasons not to, this is pretty much the most lame.
What is the whole "except if you want to use it with 3rd party headphones or in your car's iPod dock" all about?
It's got a standard 3.5mm minijack headphone port and a standard (for iPod) 30-pin dock connector.
What was the step forward about the iPod? It was Yet Another MP3 Player.
The step forward was about the design and ease of use. Taking the stupid things we just assume are natural hassles with the device and turning them into something easy.
The touch screen and the auto-landscaping stuff look truly innovative. Nevertheless, what Apple has done with the iPhone is the same thing. Take, for example, the process of purchasing a phone. It's always been a huge hassle. Phones aren't great gifts exactly because you have to go through all the setup hassles in the store. Now, with the iPhone, you just go wherever, buy it like anything else, and take it home. Run through a couple of screens in iTunes and you are done. That's a fundamental change in the relationship with the phone.
The minijack headphone port is extremely recessed. So you'll need an adapter for most headphones. The software running on the iPhone isn't the same as the software for the iPod and DOESN'T support stuff like the Alpine in-dash iPod controller.
Actually, right in the Mossberg article:
I believe on engadget they specifically singled out the Alpine deck, but a casual search didn't find anything.
My father is visually impaired and I'm sympathetic to the perspective you raise. However, the only physical button on the front of the iPhone does exactly what you suggest -- returns you to the main screen, and without waiting some random number of seconds. The iPhone interface isn't optimized for the visually impaired, but the interface reference point is established in a method superior to what you suggest.
The higher pixel density of the screen should make the screen somewhat more accessible to those with certain low-vision issues, as compared with other screen based phones. However, phones with physical keypads are probably superior in general for that group. There are interesting technologies in Mac OS X for accessibility. As with other features, those that make sense in a phone-like device will probably migrate to the iPhone as the device matures. Some will take the form of software updates to existing models, others may require new hardware revisions, a voice recognition chip for example.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
The elements of capacitive touchscreens (like the iPhone's) do not require direct contact, and are thus not on the protective lens over all embedded LCD displays, i.e., those in a product and not a raw module. The electrodes are typically laid down on either the front surface of the actual front glass of the display in a fashion no different than that for the circuitry on the rear (inside) of the front glass, or on a separate intermediate layer between the display front glass and the protective lens. The only way you're going to break a capacitive touchscreen is if you first break or remove the protective lens and then damage the surface of the display below it, or kill the sensing circuit with either a conductive liquid (shorting) or an electrostatic discharge that finds a path through the housing (gaps, ungrounded or insufficiently grounded metal, etc.).
"My order takes pride in knowing all that can be known, and most of all the rest..." --Galen
Maybe you already know this, but I believe the RockBox firmware has some features for blind people including some element of voice commands. It can be used on many mp3 players.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
Huh? I have a 5.5G ipod and the headphone port isn't recessed at all - it's perfectly flush with the casing. However, on the iPhone you can see it's sunk in somewhat. If the plug on your headphones is too big (for example, Shure often use pretty fat plugs) it may not fit.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Most electronics companies seem to develop the same old products until Apple comes along and produces a competing product with an elegant design and a streamlined interface. It's not so much that they innovate but that they take the most important features and make easy to use.
That said, if the US market had access to the kinds of phones available in Asia and Europe the impact the iPhone has made would be significantly smaller. There are some great-looking phones in the rest of the world with all kinds of functionality.
And design-wise, I bought a lower-end NEC phone a year and a half ago that has all the same design cues as this iPhone. Black face, metallic bevel, etc. My phone isn't touch screen and it has individual buttons, but the basic styling is similar. My point is that while the iPhone certainly looks very nice, it isn't the pinnacle of design. Again, I've seen phones overseas that are visually more impressive.
I think one of the biggest hindrances to progress in the US mobile phone market has been the service carriers. Verizon, AT&T/Cingular, Sprint and all the others have done nothing but screw the American public in numerous ways.
The good thing about the iPhone is that it should stimulate the mobile phone market and it reminds people of the limitations of the American mobile phone network.