Yes, I picked up an iPhone. It was inevitable. Ever since I switched to the Apple camp I have been a hopeless fanatic about everything that comes out of Cupertino. I haven't just been a fan, I've been a prophet, having converted dozens of friends and family members to mac users, not to mention literally hundreds of complete strangers while working at CompUSA. I need to tell you all of this so that you understand I have a deep and irrational bias in favor of Apple. That way we don't have to kid ourselves about whether my opinions about the iPhone are worth anything.
I am a pretty forgiving guy when it comes to devices. I appreciate the complexity involved in creating these products and making sure they work properly. Technology is moving so fast that it's important to take a step back and appreciate the rate at which it is all progressing. If you were to go back in time five years with iPhone in hand and present it to me as I sat pecking away at my grayscale Nokia's WAP browser I would have dropped to my knees with tears streaming down my face.
It is simply unfathomable that a gadget like the iPhone exists already. Nay-saying and nitpicking aside, it is very hard to deny that if we had to choose one thing to bring back in time to impress pastfolk with, it would be the iPhone. In fact, that may be why they decided keep it GSM. The reason this phone inspires such awe isn't because it has the most features, the widest selection of apps, or even the fastest connection; the reason it gives us such a geekgasm is because it feels as though it is as part of nature as anything else.
It seems so stupidly simple now that we've all had the chance to experience it, but what all the beefed up smart phones and portable devices out there were missing was a true connection to the physical world. We go through our whole lives expecting physical objects to react a certain way to our touch, only to have those expectations slighted when we interact with a traditional graphical interface. We have been forced to grow accustomed to the rigid world of computers, and our expectations have been far too low for years because of it.
With the iPhone we take a first step into the new age of organic graphical interfaces. We will now expect with impunity that when we flick the screen upward with our finger it will sail past our eyes as it would if the page existed in the real world. Our devices now bear the burden of adapting to us, changing viewing angles and brightness levels without us having to premeditate it.
Apple has set the bar higher than even the Nokia 95 did, which despite all its bells and whistles still feels cold, stiff, and utilitarian next to the iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree with a good number of the complaints about the iPhone that are floating around the web these past few days. For all it is, the iPhone failed to be the perfect device for every person. I have to say however, I am relieved they didn't try to make it so. What Apple seems to do so well is trim fat. While the rest of the industry focuses on the sheer number of features they can fit into a device, Apple focuses on usability. For instance, for the average geek the iPod was frustratingly featureless when it first launched, yet that didn't stop it from becoming a monumental success. Apple's design principles seem insane at times, but yet they have been the reason why Apple continues to grow in popularity.
As far as cell phones go, I have owned a plethora of different devices and have extensive experience using all three of the main mobile OSes - Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm. In fact, I moved to the iPhone from the Treo 700p, and that was on Sprint's high speed network no less. The data rates I thought I would regret giving up, that is until I first picked up the iPhone and flicked the unlock switch open with my finger. Having been cramped in that now comparably tiny Treo screen, gazing upon the iPhone's massive, glossy, and impossibly resolute screen was nothing short of a religious experience. It was as though I had been banging rocks together for years and had suddenly stumbled upon a blowtorch.
Frankly, at that point I could have cared less about the loss of a physical keyboard. If it meant I got to own a device with that screen I would have bought it if it used smoke signals to enter text. Luckily for me though, I am a very forgiving individual when it comes to methods of input - I owned a tablet PC throughout my whole college career, so almost anything is going to work just fine for me. I would consider myself completely acclimated to the iPhone's keyboard and it has only been a matter of days. In fact, this entire review has been written on my iPhone - something I never would have attempted on the Treo.
Most of the grievances I have with the iPhone can and most likely will be sorted out with future software updates. The feature set it has now already exceeded my expectations, so any improvements in the future are icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned. I'm looking forward to the possibility of pages and a spreadsheet application being released, flash support for safari, downloadable widgets, and perhaps even 3rd party apps.
Thanks to this device I'm now able to ditch the iPod the smartphone, the pmp, the Internet tablet, and the need to wear flashy jewelry at all for at least the next couple of months. It truly is the convergence device I have been waiting for all these years and my pockets are thanking me.
