While at Macworld, I also watched a demo of the new Apple iPhone. Pretty impressive little device! Am looking forward to trying it out in June, when it should be available at Apple and Cingular stores. Would love to replace my Blackberry with a device that has a good MP3 player, video capabilities, and a camera. My main concern about the iPhone is the touchscreen keyboard. Not sure if/how thumbing will work on that, but will just have to try it out in a store to tell, I guess.
Other concerns:
– web browsing via wifi seemed pretty slow during the demo
– am afraid that surfing over Cingular’s EDGE network will be even slower (it’s EDGE, not 3G/HSPDA, boo!)
– push email is only supported for Yahoo email (not sure why they have that constraint; Blackberry.net will push *any* IMAP/POP email to a Blackberry device)
– they did not demo the camera at all, not sure what photo/video quality is like
– and an overall concern: Apple claims that the iPhone runs OS X, but it’s looks like a custom OS written for the phone. Same for Safari — they say the iPhone runs the “same Safari” as any Mac, but it’s clearly a custom phone app. So, this ultimately could be just like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Pocket Internet Explorer. Microsoft’s
mobile offerings were pitched the same way when they were first announced (e.g., “get the Microsoft apps that you’re used to, right in the palm of your hand!”), but in practice have proven to be very unreliable on the Treo 700W with lots of random device freeze-ups and restarts. We’ll just have to see how the iPhone performs after it comes out…
Overall: I’m curious, but am not holding my breath!
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