Linked by David Adams on Tue 5th Aug 2008 21:28 UTC
On August 1 2007, I published an article called "My Month with the iPhone" wherein I examined the iPhone's now well-known advantages and deficiencies and speculated extensively on where Apple was likely to take the phone, development-wise. Now that the new iPhone and the iPhone 2.0 software have been out for a few weeks, and there's been a whole new storm of praise and gripes raging, I thought it would be illuminating for me to re-visit my prognostications and take my lumps.
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Member since:
2005-06-29
It's mostly the "wow" factor I think, though the multitouch -- especially in some games on the iPhone -- is really intuitive. For example, there's a free Mahjongg game that uses nearly every multitouch gesture to control the game board, which makes it much easier to zoom in and focus on a particular part of the board.
That said, I really miss my Treo's hardware keyboard at times; I'm still not as fast on the iPhone even though it has adequate word correction. Also, I'm a touch typist and I type all day at work, so I'm used to using both hands and getting peaks of 90 WPM. with the Treo I could use both thumbs and got about 25-30 WPM on a good day. On the iPhone it's one finger only unless I'm in Safari and landscape mode and even then I only get about 10-12 WPM. The lack of tactile feedback is also a major issue; I find myself constantly looking back and forth from the keyboard to the input area so I can watch where I put my fingers. With the Treo I got good at sliding my thumbs across the keys without even looking, subconsciously counting the dimples just as I do the frets and strings when I play guitar.
Yes, it's a cool toy, and I've just about come to the conclusion that it will never be more than a toy to me. It's just not enough phone for my needs, and while I enjoy the ability to watch video and listen to music wherever I go, there are more durable and less frustrating phones out there that do so with less restrictions on file format to boot. I think I'll end up with a Nokia N-Series phone in the near future, and this bad boy will go on the auction block.