Just Another Geek Site

While I still have another day to go to officially call it a full week, it’s close enough for government work…or cellphone use. So I’m going to share my thoughts.

 

I’ll start with some of the things I really like. Coming from various Palm devices, I am thrilled to pieces with the camera on the iPhone. While it can’t replace my Nikon, the pictures it takes are crisp, clear, bright, and big! I know a lot of this depends on what you’re used to, but this is a major improvement for me. And believe it or not, so is the battery life! The battery on my Treo 800w would be down to 25% by 1:00 in my classroom, while the iPhone is probably closer to 60%. (I wish it would tell me exactly, rather than showing me the battery icon!) Either way, it’s still an improvement.

 

Why oh why are calendar alarms so awful? You can’t change the alarm, and one quiet little ding ding isn’t always enough to get your attention. Major flaw, IMO. I knew general PIM management was going to be an obstacle for me, but that weak calendar alarm is a real buzzkill. Contacts? Not so bad. It’s a shame there’s no integration allowed between the contacts/calendar, but that’s not critical for me. I sync my PIM data to Google and have been using Pocket Informant from WebIS for a “prettier” calendar experience…but it still relies on a double database, and a double sync so that the native calendar is responsible for alarms. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

 

If copy/paste doesn’t arrive with the 3.0 update this summer, I will wind up throwing the iPhone against a wall. Seriously. How have you people done without it?!

 

Can we talk apps? Yes, the app store is easy. Super easy. But I want to try before I buy – even when an app is only 99 cents. So yes, I have purchased a few apps. The first one I got was Tweetie – highly recommended by everyone I know on Twitter with an iPhone. It lives up to its reputation. Great interface. Easy to use. I love it. Yesterday I read a review about Tweetstack…which, of course, has no “lite” version. Since I’m still in that honeymoon phase, I bought it. A couple of bucks probably won’t kill me. But it doesn’t live up to the reviews. The TweetDeck integration isn’t there, and the “responsive” developers haven’t gotten back to me yet. When they do, I’ll ask them why all my follows aren’t even listed to include in a new group.

 

The second app I bought was Bejeweled. I paid around $19 for the Palm version. And then because I changed user names when I went to WM, I paid another $19 for the WM version. It has been my favorite game for a lot of years now. And it’s the only game I regularly play. If I don’t play a few levels of Bejeweled right before bed, I just don’t sleep as well. So buying it for $2.99 for the iPhone was, to me, a no-brainer. My God it’s beautiful on the iPhone! Nuff said.

 

Skype is a must have. I can call all my old Sprint friends using Skype, and not get charged for the phone call – providing I’m in WiFi service. (Control freak, AT&T?) The quality is not great, and I don’t recommend it for long calls. It is definitely not as good as on a pc, but it works. And it works consistently!

 

I couldn’t live without Evernote. Well, I could live without it, but I wouldn’t be as functional. Evernote for iPhone is like using Evernote on your pc. If you don’t already use it, you should.

 

I’ve tried a few other free games. I may wind up buying the full version of Cribbage. It’s another old favorite from my youth, and I still enjoy the game. I couldn’t resist Pac-Man Lite either. I was never very good at it, but every now and then it’s good for a laugh. Yesterday I was gifted with Fuzzle. Not quite as much fun as Bejeweled, it could easily be my number two game. It’s addictive, bright, colorful, and challenging.

 

Oh, and then there’s Facebook. I don’t do FB much, but it’s a nice place to store photos, and the FB app makes getting to them quick and easy. That came in handy a few nights ago when I wanted to show a friend a photo and remembered I’d u/l it to FB.

 

I’m going to miss tethering. Then again, I can do almost everything I need to, and the screen is large enough for me. I’m hoping AT&T’s reception is adequate when I go to camp this summer – that’s always the big test. Beyond that, I’m far more pleased than I’d expected when I first started.

 

Oh, and Sprint? The afternoon after my port had completed, they called to tell me the prl update was successful. They are so stupid they couldn’t even tell my number was no longer on their network. That speaks volume for their tech services, don’t you think?

Written by Alli Flowers - Email

May 3rd, 2009 | Tags: iPhone, productivity | Category: Editorials | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed