UPDATE: Life with an Apple iPhone
By Ian Wrigley in Los Angeles
Posted on 4 Jul 2007 at 12:10
Unable to fight the temptation, LA-based Ian Wrigley rushed out and bought an Apple iPhone on the opening weekend. Over the next few weeks, he'll be sharing the reality of life with Apple's swish new phone.
Week 1: First impressions
It's a rare product that works as well in practice as it does in a demo - but the iPhone is just such a beast. Quite simply, it's a spectacular device; no other mobile phone comes close. It's also, as Apple claims, the best iPod the company has ever made, and the web browser puts any other small form factor browser to shame.
It's difficult to describe just how easy - and fun - the iPhone is to use. Scrolling with a flick of the finger immediately feels intuitive and 'just right' - to the point where you find yourself trying to do the same thing on a notebook's trackpad. The 'pinch' gesture to enlarge or reduce an object on the screen works perfectly, and the screen's 160ppi definition means that text is readable even when very small.
Although it's an Apple product, the company has taken pains to make sure that PC users don't feel left out; it will sync your contacts and calendar from Outlook, and your bookmarks from Internet Explorer (though not from Firefox - yet). Everything, including initial activation of the phone, is done via iTunes.
Of course, the iPhone isn't perfect, and some niggles have already become apparent, such as not having a BCC field in emails, and not having a proper To-Do list application. But because its software is upgradeable, that can easily be cured in the future without making the hardware obsolete.
Thus far, is seems that the hype really is almost justified. Let's see how that looks in a week...
Find out what life's like with iPhone rival, HTC Touch, here
Click here for PC Pro's round-up of the first reviews
Related story: iPhones selling at a loss on eBay
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