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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
I'm as big an Apple Fanboy as any, but the daily iPhone woodies from the editors is even making ME puke. Please guys, lay off the Kool-Aide!
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
This is a serious question. I know my face tends to be a bit on the oily side and the littlest bit of grime on my fingers will leave a nice blotch on the screen.. I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else mention this for the iphone. It's also a major PITA when I let people borrow my phone, then I have to wipe their face sludge off my phone. the Iphone looks like one giant magnet for grime.
But when I get my hands on that sweet, sweet iPhone, I'm going to literally cry with joy. Lately, I have been unable to sleep. All I can think of is holding it and putting it in my pocket. Truly, Wednesday is going to be the best day of my life. The only problem is I have to find some friends to call on it. It is odd that none of the reviews mentioned how well the device performs in basements, as that is my primary dwelling place.
So, it seems as though those people who have actually *used* it seem to *like* it. Unlike the majority of stories, posts, blogs, etc. etc. we've seen recently.
I've lost track of just how many uninformed iPhone-hater pieces I've seen over the last week. Of course, most of that is just blog-spam, and to get more clicks, you just say something controversial... As always, follow the money - then you can make a more-informed decision as to whether the opinion being espoused is worth anything.
Oh, and always ignore anything Dvorak or Enderle say...
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
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."
More of the same. The more I hear about the iPhone, the more I realize it's completely useless for my purposes. No real expandability, no real messaging applications, no real improvement from even phones such as the sidekick. Add a lack of ability to serve as a data modem and being tied to a crappy provider, and I would have to say no thanks.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Look at what Apple's been releasing, and you can see why he reviews them well. I don't care if you don't like the company, their products have been outstanding over the last couple of years -
As far as I can see, he's called all those pretty well.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Lots of us use touch screen interfaces every day without shedding tears. Why would this be different?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
While Apple may have gotten things mostly right, they'll refine things and any problems will be well documented by the time the second gen rolls around.
While my old flip phone may not be super sexy, it will work until Apple gets all the bugs hammered out. Maybe by Christmas or this time next year I'll have one, but until then.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
> Microsoft's Exchange system support
Doesn't he mean 'lack of...'?
> - Songs can't be set as ringtones
That might work for the US market, but it won't for some others (eg China).
> - Apple says it plans to add fea
Ah, great. I'm sold. My current phone has 'fea', but I had heard the iPhone didn't have it. So, I'm pleased it does, and now I'm definitely going to get one.
Max.
Why is the parent modded insightful?
Like your ear and face are any less greasy. Take out your cell right now and tell me it doesn't have ear crud on it or a face print. Do it! Now wipe your finger across it and tell me it got WORSE. Morons.
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 $$$).
Really?
I assumed Apple avoided Verizon because they're using a receding standard, one that's incompatible with most networks worldwide. But then, I hear a lot of businesses still cling to Microsoft, so who can say?
I'm waiting for the brick-sized, brown MS Phune.
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.
But really, I can't see why not having Flash availabe is much of a drawback. I see it primarily as adware, which is why I have it blocked by default. I suppose it would be nice if one wanted to idle some time away watching YouTube videos, but at $500+? I can't imagine.
The lack of g3 compatability seems to be a big hindrance to a phone that prides itself as not giving you "not the mobile internet, but the real internet". gprs is what, 56k speeds minus the 300ms pings?
I've unlocked my treo 750 phone to take full advantage of cingular's 386kbit/s g3 and occasionally get a speed of around 800kbps download.
While i suppose that the iphone was designed to color co-ordinate with a starbucks cup as you sit and browse the interweb in the coffee shop hotspot, i'll be using my treo with a clunky interface to access the mobile internet (i.e. the list of simple websites designed for gprs and below and the one that i would set the 60.0kbit/s iphone to download if i was away from a hotspot.)
Once again, apple resorts to its age old design technique: stunningly beautifuly, brilliantly intuitive, but about as useful as a 6 year old pc for what 90% of people do 90% of the time.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
From all I've gleaned from being at WWDC, reading the reviews, and sorting through the punditry, the most common negative themes seem to be these:
-The AT&T EDGE network sucks
-The iPhone ignores some key smartphone features (vid capture, SMS/MMS, etc.)
-The price
-No Flash support for browser
-No SDK for third-party developers (boo/hiss!)
Some of the surprises were:
-The battery life is close to the advertised numbers (well, more than expected anyways)
-The virtual keypad is actually useable but it takes a little getting used to "using the Force"
-The multi-touch thing works as advertised
-the Safari web browser lives up to the hype
-The WiFi is actually pretty good
-The iPod part kicks ass (except if you want to use it with 3rd party headphones or in your car's iPod dock)
My own opinion as a "Mac Professional" and Smartphone addict:
-If you want one, wait for rev 2--as you should with all Apple products
-If you don't want an iPhone but like some of the technology, your preferred phone will be getting updates, too
-It will be nice to merge two more devices that go with me everywhere--my smartphone and my iPod.
-The price is a bit high, but I think the market will bear it for now and the price will go down by Q4
-The missing features people are bitching about will come--some of them anyways
-An SDK will appear after Leopard is launched
-The entire market will benefit by the iPhone--and the tech will get cheaper
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
The iPhone screen is made of glass not plastic
E911 has dependencies on the technology used. For GSM operators (like ATT) there are two scenarios. 1. 2G Handsets do not need GPS (or in actuality A-GPS or assisted GPS) since a network based solution can use triangulation using cell signal strength to get an accurate enough position to meet FCC rules for E911. 2. Cell-based triangulation does not work on the 3G (UMTS/WCDMA) network, so the requirement to handset makers is that you need to include a GPS chip for A-GPS (GPS position data is assisted with some network signaling from the cell tower). Unfortunately due to cost / economies of scale you do not see A-GPS in all 3G/UMTS phones yet. The network operators work around this with a temporary 'hack' where you do a handover from 3G to 2G for emergency calls. Within the next year or so you should see just about all 3G phones in US with A-GPS. GPS for location-based services (and not just E911) is another matter and is a function of the device feature set & price point.
I don't expect to have this dirty-finger problem.
You see, I live in Minnesota, so I wear gloves 10 months out of the year!
(On a serious note, can you use these things with gloves on? Inquiring minds want to know.)
The iPhone compensates by being one of the few smart phones that can also use Wi-Fi wireless networks. When you have access to Wi-Fi, the iPhone flies on the Web. Not only that, but the iPhone automatically switches from EDGE to known Wi-Fi networks when it finds them, and pops up a list of new Wi-Fi networks it encounters as you move.
So you can just set it to "linksys" and you won't even need EDGE.
Having watched Mr. Mossberg's video and read his article, I can't help but think of the recent speedy development of Moonlight and how this speed of development doesn't seem to happen on phones. In the US, I fear the phone companies have held too much power over the phones and features we use.
Despite it's Visual Voicemail, media, and enhanced web browsing capabilities, I won't have an iPhone for the foreseeable future as I don't do AT&T. I do hope, however, that the iPhone's new hotness casts a dark shadow on other phone makers who have neither the manpower or focus to develop such features themselves. So, listen you laggard phone makers, you. Build a linux-based CDMA*/GSM phone with a palm-style keyboard and let the community develop some free software for you.
A CDMA-capable Linux phone is something for which I might pay $500. Especially if I could dock it to my monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Oh yeah, Beryl and Synaptic might be nice too.
* I mention CDMA because Trolltech's Greenphone got me a little excited until I learned that it only does GSM so it won't work with my provider.
No. It uses capacitance. You'll need really thin gloves or special gloves with electronics embedded in them.
I started working on a "Mac" when it was called a Lisa. I subsequently owned many (actual) Macs and wrote software for the OS professionally (6.x, 7.x, 8.x). Okay, I'm now a Windows user (got tired of the fight...and frankly, XP is just fine)...so I am not a basher...nor am I a fan boy.
:-) ...and I do...all the time. Games, JVMs, new browsers, whatever I want...from thousands of freeware and commercial titles.
Me? I'm not buying it. Sure, the external looks are great...sexy even...as are the visual bells and whistles in the UI...but features? They just are not there for me. Not even close.
Visual voice mail is neat. I'm sure the iPod also has some other exclusive neat tricks in there...but I have a year-old Treo that does what the iPhone does and more...for $200. Start with the overlap:
- Email
- Web browser
- MP3 player
- Phone
- Addresses
- Videos
- Camera
- Google maps with integrated calling
- SMS
- MS Office compatibility (iPod?)
and a range of other similar functions. Don't bother critiquing the individual Treo apps, because unlike the iPod, I can replace them with other apps. For example, the new version of Opera Mini provides the same means to view an entire web page and zoom in. There are dozens of replacement apps for any one of the above functions.
Now let's look at some core features of the Treo that the iPod lacks:
- Multiple carriers
- High-speed 3G network
- SD card slot...for essentially infinite on-the-go storage for MP3s et al.
- Numerous hard buttons to immediately get to the phone, MP3 player, or another app...and they are all programmable
- Can record video
- Has a GLOBAL find function
- CUT & PASTE (between apps)
- IM
- Tactile sensation on keyboard for typing...or for dialing
and perhaps the most important feature:
I CAN ADD APPLICATIONS TO IT
Yes, Walt claims that he finds the onscreen keyboard to be acceptable...but any Treo user can dial on the screen or on the keypad...and almost everyone I know dials on the keypad when they aren't selecting an existing contact. The actual keyboard and 5-way nav key allow you to use the phone when you aren't staring right at the screen. Yes, we shouldn't dial while we are driving, but we do, and you can do it without looking while using a Treo.
Hey, the iPod raises the bar...by a large amount...and the screen is 50% larger than that of a Palm-based Treo (320x480 instead of 320x320)...but a $600 phone that is not expandable and is only offered by one carrier with a two-year lock-in? One to which you cannot add software (outside of...ahem...AJAX-based apps)? How about one that claims to be a smart phone killer yet lacks basic features like cut & paste and global find? Yes, it has wifi. Great. So do many phones.
No, this is a beauty competition. I applaud apple for getting into the market and raising the bar, but I just cannot see how someone thinks this unit is worth the expense compared to other competing devices. I suppose techno lust is powerful...and form often wins out over function. Me? I'll wait a year or two and see what the next versions can do...and how the competition responds.
Your mileage may vary.
$0.02
"I'm not surprised people like it, actually I'd be more surprised if people didn't like it."
Actually, to me that's the hallmark of successful design: Invoke passion. Make something that some people love and that some people hate and you'll have a market.
Too many companies design by committee and focus groups to the point where the end result is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Others seemingly design by comparison chart, cramming in feature after feature, and often for no more reason than to fill in the blanks.
The later approach also seems to be favored by commentators here on Slashdot. But by walking a mental checklist of missing features, they also miss what it does do. And by all accounts, does to the point of elegance.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I don't own any Apple products, but I've been using touchscreen devices since I bought a Palm Pilot 1000 back in '96. I've owned several smartphones with various OSs on them and have a Windows based touchscreen smartphone now.
I'll cheerfully say every smartphone I've owned has been an annoying piece of crap, mitigated only by being better than having to carry both a PDA and a phone. I'll reserve judgement on the iPhone's annoyance level until I've used one, but I can confidently assert that smeary marks on a touchscreen pales into insignificance compared to many other moronic design decisions foisted on buyers.
Even if I never own an iPhone, I'm very pleased to see Apple competing in the market. Hopefully they'll raise the bar for all smartphones.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
So, how long until the glass touchscreen stops responding to input? Won't the atom thin coating get nicked and break the circuits? Or is it better than that?
Most of the stuff on
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.
No, I don't want an iPhone: I think it's underpowered and overpriced. But the release of the iPhone will hopefully cause other manufacturers to make thinner phones with nicer screens and better user interfaces.
It's the defining characteristic of the iPod, and Apple says the iPhone is "our best iPod yet." So where did that clickwheel go? Good column on this here
More of the same. The more I hear about the iPhone, the more I realize it's completely useless for my purposes
Yes everyone, listen to him! It is useless.
I hate standing in long lines.
You may awaken Saturday with your urges resumed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The sim card can be changed; there is a hole in the top to stick a paper clip and the sim card pops out (the NYTimes review shows this feature). What Mossberg was saying is that the phone is locked to AT&T, so it refuses to accept other sim cards. However, rest assured that hackers will soon unlock the iPhone. Furthermore, Apple has ensured that you don't have to sign a contract to buy the iPhone, so there's no cancellation fee!
Apple has played this well; despite the much lamented exclusivity contract, the only real-world limitation will be that you're limited to GSM providers (which admittedly, in the US, limits you to AT&T or T-Mobile). The only real question is: how will the iPhone's software react to non-AT&T networks? Visual voice mail won't work for sure. iTunes seems pretty integrated with the phone service; how will iTunes react to a non-AT&T service? More hacking might be required.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
I mean sell the phone at the apple stores with out any service whatsoever, like you can with Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, etc, phones.
The iPhone's feature set isn't compatible with all the carriers. The iPhone is laying down a new standard that ATT / Cingular has adopted in order to be the exclusive carrier during the rollout. If the phone sells huge numbers, the other carriers will modify their infrastructure to support the new standard.
What is this new standard? Random-access voicemail. I don't have the money to buy this phone this week, but the new voicemail scheme ALONE is compelling enough for me to buy it if I had the cash. I absolutely hate navigating audio menus burning up my minutes trying to get to the 14th message out of 20. Being able to click on ten messages and delete them without dialing up is hugely attractive to me.
Making the phone compatible with every other carrier as you've suggested would have meant dumping this feature. It would have been too difficult to get all the telcos to change their VM systems to support this feature for an unproven single model of phone.
Reminds me of when the iMac came out and it ONLY supported USB. No serial ports. There were no scanners or printers available for it when it went on sale. Lots of pundits predicted failure for the colorful machine. Then it sold massive units and every peripheral vendor quickly ramped up production of USB devices to be compatible with the #1 selling computer model. Apple forced innovation onto the market in an area that had languished through adherence to legacy technology like serial and parallel.
Apple does have balls to 'do something different,' as you recommend. That's why the phone is only available through one service provider.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
This product is just one in a long series, in a trend to completely overlook the needs of blind users. I have been in the market for MP3 players which could be used by blind people, and the general trend is, the newer the device, the less the chances it can be used. The iPhone continues this trend, and I fear the day when other manufacturers pick up on the novelty.
Just a little addition to my rant: I noticed that even simple changes to the firmware, that would make the interface more suited for blind people, like returning to the initial state of the menus, if no interaction for a minute (or such), is being dropped in newer models, even thought it costs nothing to implement. It's almost as if manufacturers have a requirement to make their electronic gadgets less usable by the blind.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
From the article:So basically it's at least as annoying as using T9 for me, where I constantly have to keep changing between the Finnish, Swedish, and English dictionaries?
I still want one, though...
.: Max Romantschuk
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 he generally writes positive reviews about Apple's products because they're generally good products. Just a hunch. Your conspiracy theory could be true, too.
The iPhone is so hot, my finger is not the appendage I plan on operating it with.
Not the most features, but the ones that are there are well done. Apple is not going after the people that love smart phones, so for most of the Slashdot crowd it is probably a dud, they are going after the people that could do with many of the features of smart phones but hate the ones that already exist.
So, this is all about bringing the features of smart phones to the people that previously would never buy a smart phone due to their clunky nature. By all accounts it is going to be a storming success.
Personally I like the feature set of the iPhone, except the lack of 3G, and I could never justify the cost of it. Do I want it? Hell yes, but I'm going to have to wait for a while. This is obviously part of the Apple plan:
1. Release a sexy phone that lots of people want
2. Make it initially very expensive, so that it becomes a luxury status item.
3. Wait until it is firmly established as THE status item, then start slowly release new versions at cheaper prices making loads of people buy it because they still view it as a status symbol even though everyone can now afford to buy one.
Exactly the same plan as with the iPod.
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.