Five More Gripes About My iPhone
In the past week I’ve found myself spending a little too much time after work on my AT&T customer page (now that I’m, regrettably, an AT&T customer) wondering if there’s a handset I’d like more than my iPhone — even if I have to pay to upgrade. (Or, once selected, I might surf to eBay for a new solution…perhaps a Palm Centro?) Not that I actively dislike the iPhone — there’s a lot to like, such as Safari, SMS, iCal integration and visual voicemail — but there’s still some stuff that keeps iPhone from being the killer deal that it really should be.
It’s almost bad enough that it might be worth parting with if something better comes along.
Of course, I probably wouldn’t gripe as much if AT&T’s network didn’t suck so bad in my neighborhood. The fact that 50-75% of the time I can’t use my phone as a phone probably makes me more willing to criticize other features that I could live without. (But, frankly, even when the AT&T signal is good, I still seem to get a lot of drop-out from the iPhone>)
Still, beyond signal and service there are some flaws Apple needs to address. Arguing from the specific to the theoretical, those include:
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iPhone: Not a Great Phone
Yes, it took me forever to finally make the leap to an iPhone but, now that I’ve been up and running with my iPhone for a few weeks, and I’ve got to say that I’m a little underwhelmed. Switching from a Blackberry has been interesting on two fronts.
First, I can totally see why Apple has announced a push strategy that goes along with the Me.com announcement — having to wait for your e-mail to download very much blows when you’re used to just looking down and seeing e-mail on your Blackberry instantly. I’m excited about the Me.com upgrade, since I already pay an arm-and-a-leg for my less-than-useful Mac.com account, but ONLY if the service will transparently allow me to send e-mail from my other accounts — I need it to work like Gmail in the respect that it seems that e-mail is coming from my jacksonfreepress.com account even if I’m using Apple Mail. If not, then it’s straight-up no dice on Me.com, because I can’t answer my work mail using an @me.com address.
Second, my main complaint about the iPhone might just be the carrier — AT&T is simply not as good as Alltel, my previous carrier, in this area. I’ve gone back to the days of hunting around in the room for a signal — something that I haven’t had to think about for years using my Alltel phones, whether regular clamshells or Blackberrys. Ms. D’s Treo is the same way — signal problems are very rare.
Since I’ve gone to the slick, swanky iPhone, I’ve had a LOT of trouble making actual phone calls. In my house, the signal only works well closer to a front window; in our office suite, I’ve found a better signal in the sales cubicles than in my own office. That just ain’t right.
Solution? I’m concerned that I’ll need to quickly make the decision to move to something else — back to Alltel, ideally, with, perhaps a Treo 755p. That’s not my greatest desire, since I like synching contacts and addresses with my iPhone — as a diehard Mac user, even in business, the iPhone excels on that front. Or, I could sit around and wait for AT&T to improve in my area, or I can hold on and hope that the 3G iPhone is better on actually being a phone.
We shall see!
Great Piece on ‘iPhone 2.0′ Dominance
I just stumbled on CounterNotions, where the author has a compelling piece on iPhone 2.0 and whether or not there’s another player in the market that can take it on.
I, personally, am watching this whole iPhone thing closely…although I swore months ago I wouldn’t go in for an iPhone, I ended up buying one one eBay somewhat accidentally (long story, but a I got a great price), but I haven’t yet activated it. Not sure what I was waiting for…but I’m getting closer.
Word of native iChat clients is helping me make that decision; I’m not a huge iChat user, but being able to bring up folks back in the office using iChat has proven very handy when I’ve had the capability in the past. (It was a feature that I found compelling about the T-Mobile SideKick, for instance.) I may be an iPhone user yet…
iPhone Tether for Net Access
I haven’t jumped on the iPhone bandwagon as of yet (mostly because I don’t want to move to AT&T service, given my company already has two mobile providers), but were I to get an iPhone, the ability to tether and use the Internet away from WiFi spots would be key. Just in the past six months I’ve done quite a bit of traveling and too often I’m either out of range of WiFi or the WiFi in a coffeeshop or hotel doesn’t work as advertised.
Check out the instruction here: Tether Your iPhone
Now that I’m running again with a MacBook (after the HP zt3000 died, I went on a quest to buy a new MacBook I’ll blog about later), WiFi reception seems excellent. But I know I’m going to end up in a deadzone here soon, and my Blackberry may not save me. (I’ve not yet tested switching over to Windows via Boot Camp to see if I can get the Blackberry tether to work. I should.)
I’m considering a Treo 700p for its Mac tethering capability (plus, via Alltel, the full data plan is $5 cheaper than the Blackberry for some reason) but will first need to justify the $250 for a used Treo 700p. If, in the interim, I decide instead to make the jump to iPhone (I’m already thinking about an iPhone more than I should, particularly considering the $299 4GB version or $349 for the 8GB Apple Refurb), it’s good to know there’s a tethered iPhone solution.
Palm Intros Foleo ‘Mobile Companion’
Palm Inc. today announced the Foleo, a “mobile companion” designed to work with a Treo.
The Foleo has a 10-inch screen and “full-sized” keyboard for answering e-mail received on your Treo, viewing attachments, surfing websites using the Treo’s Internet connection and viewing photos taken with the Treo.
The device communicates with the Treo via Bluetooth and can use either the phone for an Internet connection or its own built-in WiFi receiver. It’s got Dataviz Documents-to-Go built in, so you can edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents that you receive as attachments via your Treo Versamail account or via other e-mail such as Gmail and Yahoo! mail.
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