Why the iPhone is still a beta product
Warning: Long Post
I"ve had mine for a week and come from a solid 11 years of usage with mobile phones and more importantly, the last 4 years with so called smart phones. My previous smart phones were the Nokia 6600 and Nokia N80.
So, just to share my experience so far:
Note: Running unlocked iPhone in France with Orange, running Firmware 1.02
Without further ado, I list what I find is lacking with the iPhone:
Design:
1. No place to put a strap. While 90% of the general population doesn't use one, I found it very useful to have even a small strap to make it easy to fetch out a phone in a pocket or just to put around a couple fingers while calling so you ensure that it doesn't slip (or even get stolen)
2. Slippery. The little bastard is slippery if have even slightly sweaty hands. Not good when you're in a disco or its summer or you do sports.
3. The headphone port/jack: It's SO recessed that you can't fit a majority of headphones. I have a pair of $400 e4C Shure in-ear headphones that.. I can't use. The blood boils.
4. Apple headphones are horrible in the ears. After 20 minutes they hurt. Gotten too jaded with the Shures :-/
5. 4GB of internal storage is quite a lot. But still the fact of not having removable kinda bothers me (ability to do a full backup and store it at home for example)
6. The touch screen. Its fantastic. But the jaded California designers forgot something pretty fucking blatant: People wear gloves in winter. The touch screen works only with contact of human skin. Even a fingernail mostly doesn't activate stuff. How in bloody hell am I going to simply ANSWER A PHONE call when its -10 outside and I have gloves on?
Functionality:
Global:
1. No copy/cut & paste
2. Bluetooth: Absolutely worthless, you can ONLY use a hands free bluetooth adapter. No file transfer, sync, fax, modem connectivity.
3. Language support: Only English dictionary/interface for now. I want to see how easy it will be to switch language dictionaries when typing SMSs. I constantly switch between Italian, English, and French every day.
4. Volume: the sounds are SO low. And you can't change the alert sound for SMSs. I always miss them unless I'm listening to the iPod, then there is a momentary interruption and I know something just happened.
5. Vibrate: Not terribly powerful.
6. No ability to use in disk mode
7. No (official) 3rd party software support. It's been hacked to hell, get with the program, make it official already.
8. Re 3rd party support: Perian for iPhone anyone? XViD/DiVX playback? It was done for the AppleTV, could be done for the iPhone, n'est ce pas?
9. NO SEARCH. I have 600+ contacts, plus the emails, plus notes, etc. There's a lot of info. Why no "spotlight" for iPhone?
SMS:
1. You can't create sub folders and save individual SMSs. I used to have at least a couple folders where I would keep certain messages. Whether they were personal, funny, directions, or whatever. It was pretty basic.
2. There is no "message confirmation" function. In all my Nokias you could turn on the function of having delivery reports to ensure that SMSs arrived to destination. This is a fundamental function to have when you're roaming in strange countries where you're not quite sure if your Mobile Operator has an agreement with, say, Borneo Telecom rather than Orangutan Mobile. I had that often where SMSs would go through with one operator but not another while roaming in said strange faraway places. This could be addressed simply by, for example, the message bubble becoming green when its confirmed and remaining greyed out until it is so. I'm not sure if that's the case already, but it would mean that confirmations come through extremely quickly and with the Nokias I had it would take at least 2-10 seconds for a reply.
3. No MMS functionality. The workaround of using email to send pictures to mobile numbers (e.g. [email protected] or [email protected]) is unknown to 99% of the population and just a pain in the ass. I don't send many but there are times where you just have to send one.. or receive one (theres nothing like getting pictures from a drunk friend from a party somewhere faraway)
4. Why can't you turn OFF the auto-correct function?
5. You can't forward sent messages
6. You can't send one message to multiple people at one
Calendar:
1. You call that an ALARM?? You mean to remind me of a meeting with a small, puny little "bleep"? Are you fucking kidding me? I want to be REMINDED and I want you to keep yealling at me until you got my attention and shut you the hell up. I don't want to hear a semi silent electronic fart! Get with it!!
Photos:
1. Why no basic photo editing features? You got a touch screen, let us use it! Ability to use your finger to draw on a picture or even crop it, brighten, colorize, add effects, etc etc. All things that Sony Ericssons and Nokias, Samsungs, etc have had for a long time. I could see this happen relatively soon.
2. I was really expecting to see a Mobile Photobooth function. i.e. distort, warhol effect, pinch, etc etc. They're absolutely hilarious. This was an obvious miss
3. Not sure where to put this complaint (I guess I'll refer to it later), but when you receive an email with an image attachment, WHY can't we save it into our photo gallery? Or even when we browse the web with safari, why can't we save images from the web to our gallery?
4. No uploading to a photo site/blog of our choice (Picasa, Flikr, not even .Mac?)
Camera:
1. No zoom. Digital zoom sucks, but let us choose to take sucky pics or not, mmkay?
2. No resolution prefs
3. No presets (night, sports, etc..)
4. Where in bloody hell is MOVIE function? Come on, even the first mobile phones with cameras (4-5 years ago) had movie taking abilities.
YouTube:
1. Too bad I can't log into my account and save to favorites or whatnot.
Stocks
1. No foreign stock exchanges supported (come on already, wheres the Euronext, CAC, TSE, etc?)
Maps
1. Given that Bluetooth is so crippled it might as well be taken out, the idea of an external Bluetooth GPS is not possible (for now).
2. If GPS were to work it would be nice to be able to CACHE a route or a map. I might not always have net or edge access and I want to be able to look at my map without net access.
3. Why can't I keep a screenshot in a contact's address book entry? Embedded, so I can see offline as well.
4. You have Streets you have Maps.. why can't I have the two? i.e. street names overlaid satellite maps?
Weather
1. Why does it forget the last update and HAS to get the latest update? I find that after a few hours or end of the day I check it out and its reset itself. It wont remember the temperatures it last got.
Clock:
1. Probably a glitch, but after the second time you press Snooze it won't snooze again. So.. like.. get up already.
Calculator
1. No complaints, but why not have an 'advanced' calculator if you want? I personally could care less, but you have a fantastic display, you could go all the way and even put a graphing calculator.
Notes
1. No complaints except.. how the hell do you back them up? Ah, right.. you don't. If you lose your iPhone or you have to restore it.. good bye notes!
2. The fact of not having cut & paste sucks too.
3. Why no horizontal keyboard entry? The keyboard is frustrating for typing long messages, please make our lives easier by being able to have more space while entering stuff in the Notes
Settings:
* Sounds:
1. Ringtones: You want us to PAY to be able to add ring tones? Are you fucking serious? Then again it explains why the ones that were included as default are so damn horrible.
2. The 'alert' sound for SMSs is WEAK. I have some that I made or found that really get your attention. Why can't I choose my own?
* Bluetooth:
1. As said before, it's TOTALLY useless. Only hand's free support for now
Phone:
1. Contacts: The "auto number formatting" is KILLING me. For the love of god let me enter a number normally without parentheses and spaces, etc. Its just.. wrong!
2. Contacts: I can add beautiful 256x256 pixel pictures for my contacts, why can't they appear, full screen, when they call instead of a measly 32x32 image that I have to squint at? Let me choose! Gimme the choice! It bothered the hell out of me with Nokias, I was hoping the iPhone would let me.
3. Contacts: No support for Groups. Incredibly useful to have
Mail:
1. Why can I not save emails that I choose in an offline folder? Hell, why can't I make folders in the first place? Where maybe I can save a particularly large email?
2. Why can't I save ANY attachments? Nor listen to an attached MP3, WAV, MOV, MP4, or whatever?
3. Its just a matter of time, but, hello "Office" support anyone? iPhone is based on MacOS X, the lowly Textedit in MacOS X has pretty decent .DOC support.. chop chop, lets go!
4. Why can't I type horizontally so I have more keyboard/finger space?
Safari:
1. Some sites have trouble with cookies and safari. Not sure whose problem that is, but its happened a few times
2. Why can't I save files? Sometimes I don't even care if I can open them, I just want to be able to save stuff (a ZIP file, RAR, .EXE or DMG or whatever)
3. Why no ability to "save file as.." or "save linked file as..."
4. Flash support. Hello there, this is the 21st century, just about every site has flash. Get with it (fair enough, this could be am Adobe problem, not Apple's)
iPod
1. No complaints here. (wow!)
I"ve had mine for a week and come from a solid 11 years of usage with mobile phones and more importantly, the last 4 years with so called smart phones. My previous smart phones were the Nokia 6600 and Nokia N80.
So, just to share my experience so far:
Note: Running unlocked iPhone in France with Orange, running Firmware 1.02
Without further ado, I list what I find is lacking with the iPhone:
Design:
1. No place to put a strap. While 90% of the general population doesn't use one, I found it very useful to have even a small strap to make it easy to fetch out a phone in a pocket or just to put around a couple fingers while calling so you ensure that it doesn't slip (or even get stolen)
2. Slippery. The little bastard is slippery if have even slightly sweaty hands. Not good when you're in a disco or its summer or you do sports.
3. The headphone port/jack: It's SO recessed that you can't fit a majority of headphones. I have a pair of $400 e4C Shure in-ear headphones that.. I can't use. The blood boils.
4. Apple headphones are horrible in the ears. After 20 minutes they hurt. Gotten too jaded with the Shures :-/
5. 4GB of internal storage is quite a lot. But still the fact of not having removable kinda bothers me (ability to do a full backup and store it at home for example)
6. The touch screen. Its fantastic. But the jaded California designers forgot something pretty fucking blatant: People wear gloves in winter. The touch screen works only with contact of human skin. Even a fingernail mostly doesn't activate stuff. How in bloody hell am I going to simply ANSWER A PHONE call when its -10 outside and I have gloves on?
Functionality:
Global:
1. No copy/cut & paste
2. Bluetooth: Absolutely worthless, you can ONLY use a hands free bluetooth adapter. No file transfer, sync, fax, modem connectivity.
3. Language support: Only English dictionary/interface for now. I want to see how easy it will be to switch language dictionaries when typing SMSs. I constantly switch between Italian, English, and French every day.
4. Volume: the sounds are SO low. And you can't change the alert sound for SMSs. I always miss them unless I'm listening to the iPod, then there is a momentary interruption and I know something just happened.
5. Vibrate: Not terribly powerful.
6. No ability to use in disk mode
7. No (official) 3rd party software support. It's been hacked to hell, get with the program, make it official already.
8. Re 3rd party support: Perian for iPhone anyone? XViD/DiVX playback? It was done for the AppleTV, could be done for the iPhone, n'est ce pas?
9. NO SEARCH. I have 600+ contacts, plus the emails, plus notes, etc. There's a lot of info. Why no "spotlight" for iPhone?
SMS:
1. You can't create sub folders and save individual SMSs. I used to have at least a couple folders where I would keep certain messages. Whether they were personal, funny, directions, or whatever. It was pretty basic.
2. There is no "message confirmation" function. In all my Nokias you could turn on the function of having delivery reports to ensure that SMSs arrived to destination. This is a fundamental function to have when you're roaming in strange countries where you're not quite sure if your Mobile Operator has an agreement with, say, Borneo Telecom rather than Orangutan Mobile. I had that often where SMSs would go through with one operator but not another while roaming in said strange faraway places. This could be addressed simply by, for example, the message bubble becoming green when its confirmed and remaining greyed out until it is so. I'm not sure if that's the case already, but it would mean that confirmations come through extremely quickly and with the Nokias I had it would take at least 2-10 seconds for a reply.
3. No MMS functionality. The workaround of using email to send pictures to mobile numbers (e.g. [email protected] or [email protected]) is unknown to 99% of the population and just a pain in the ass. I don't send many but there are times where you just have to send one.. or receive one (theres nothing like getting pictures from a drunk friend from a party somewhere faraway)
4. Why can't you turn OFF the auto-correct function?
5. You can't forward sent messages
6. You can't send one message to multiple people at one
Calendar:
1. You call that an ALARM?? You mean to remind me of a meeting with a small, puny little "bleep"? Are you fucking kidding me? I want to be REMINDED and I want you to keep yealling at me until you got my attention and shut you the hell up. I don't want to hear a semi silent electronic fart! Get with it!!
Photos:
1. Why no basic photo editing features? You got a touch screen, let us use it! Ability to use your finger to draw on a picture or even crop it, brighten, colorize, add effects, etc etc. All things that Sony Ericssons and Nokias, Samsungs, etc have had for a long time. I could see this happen relatively soon.
2. I was really expecting to see a Mobile Photobooth function. i.e. distort, warhol effect, pinch, etc etc. They're absolutely hilarious. This was an obvious miss
3. Not sure where to put this complaint (I guess I'll refer to it later), but when you receive an email with an image attachment, WHY can't we save it into our photo gallery? Or even when we browse the web with safari, why can't we save images from the web to our gallery?
4. No uploading to a photo site/blog of our choice (Picasa, Flikr, not even .Mac?)
Camera:
1. No zoom. Digital zoom sucks, but let us choose to take sucky pics or not, mmkay?
2. No resolution prefs
3. No presets (night, sports, etc..)
4. Where in bloody hell is MOVIE function? Come on, even the first mobile phones with cameras (4-5 years ago) had movie taking abilities.
YouTube:
1. Too bad I can't log into my account and save to favorites or whatnot.
Stocks
1. No foreign stock exchanges supported (come on already, wheres the Euronext, CAC, TSE, etc?)
Maps
1. Given that Bluetooth is so crippled it might as well be taken out, the idea of an external Bluetooth GPS is not possible (for now).
2. If GPS were to work it would be nice to be able to CACHE a route or a map. I might not always have net or edge access and I want to be able to look at my map without net access.
3. Why can't I keep a screenshot in a contact's address book entry? Embedded, so I can see offline as well.
4. You have Streets you have Maps.. why can't I have the two? i.e. street names overlaid satellite maps?
Weather
1. Why does it forget the last update and HAS to get the latest update? I find that after a few hours or end of the day I check it out and its reset itself. It wont remember the temperatures it last got.
Clock:
1. Probably a glitch, but after the second time you press Snooze it won't snooze again. So.. like.. get up already.
Calculator
1. No complaints, but why not have an 'advanced' calculator if you want? I personally could care less, but you have a fantastic display, you could go all the way and even put a graphing calculator.
Notes
1. No complaints except.. how the hell do you back them up? Ah, right.. you don't. If you lose your iPhone or you have to restore it.. good bye notes!
2. The fact of not having cut & paste sucks too.
3. Why no horizontal keyboard entry? The keyboard is frustrating for typing long messages, please make our lives easier by being able to have more space while entering stuff in the Notes
Settings:
* Sounds:
1. Ringtones: You want us to PAY to be able to add ring tones? Are you fucking serious? Then again it explains why the ones that were included as default are so damn horrible.
2. The 'alert' sound for SMSs is WEAK. I have some that I made or found that really get your attention. Why can't I choose my own?
* Bluetooth:
1. As said before, it's TOTALLY useless. Only hand's free support for now
Phone:
1. Contacts: The "auto number formatting" is KILLING me. For the love of god let me enter a number normally without parentheses and spaces, etc. Its just.. wrong!
2. Contacts: I can add beautiful 256x256 pixel pictures for my contacts, why can't they appear, full screen, when they call instead of a measly 32x32 image that I have to squint at? Let me choose! Gimme the choice! It bothered the hell out of me with Nokias, I was hoping the iPhone would let me.
3. Contacts: No support for Groups. Incredibly useful to have
Mail:
1. Why can I not save emails that I choose in an offline folder? Hell, why can't I make folders in the first place? Where maybe I can save a particularly large email?
2. Why can't I save ANY attachments? Nor listen to an attached MP3, WAV, MOV, MP4, or whatever?
3. Its just a matter of time, but, hello "Office" support anyone? iPhone is based on MacOS X, the lowly Textedit in MacOS X has pretty decent .DOC support.. chop chop, lets go!
4. Why can't I type horizontally so I have more keyboard/finger space?
Safari:
1. Some sites have trouble with cookies and safari. Not sure whose problem that is, but its happened a few times
2. Why can't I save files? Sometimes I don't even care if I can open them, I just want to be able to save stuff (a ZIP file, RAR, .EXE or DMG or whatever)
3. Why no ability to "save file as.." or "save linked file as..."
4. Flash support. Hello there, this is the 21st century, just about every site has flash. Get with it (fair enough, this could be am Adobe problem, not Apple's)
iPod
1. No complaints here. (wow!)
Comments
Its like walking into a Burger King and saying wheres the Big Macs. lol
I'm reporting most of these things to try and compound on the general frustration of what SHOULD be a well polished product but is either turning out to be a crippled device because it has to appease the Majors or is, well, a typical Apple First Version product.
I'm also submitting a lot of reports to Bugracker at Apple..
Hopefully will get some feedback..
It seems to me that most of the (serious) criticisms mentioned involve the lack of "file browsing," for lack of a better term. I wonder if the lack of file storage and browsing has something to do with Apple's decision to limit software development for the iPhone. Apple really has to open this thing up. They've got to be willing to let their baby get out into the real world and get a little dirty.
I don't think ZO meant that he was surprised by these things - just that they are places where the iPhone falls short of what it could be.
you forgot to paraphrase that statement with a "... for HIM ... ".
Seriously, I have used my iPhone for just a couple of days and since I read everything I could, there was only one thing that came as a surprise - the inability to set the volume on the individual apps. Otherwise, it's spot on what I've read about it and better in real life, to boot.
I'm not a fan of any particular company, but I am a fan of great designs and the iPhone - and the MacBook Pro - are damn good designs. In a world where mediocre products are expected to excite people, these very nice products actually do.
Also, Apple will HAVE to make it more open if they want be serious players in the mobile market.
Nokia sells a MILLION handsets PER DAY and thats also because there is a huge Developer community behind them.
I just can't figure out what Apple is WAITING FOR seeing that they're gonna do it eventually.
you forgot to paraphrase that statement with a "... for HIM ... ".
I didn't think that was necessary - how could it be anything else but his personal opinion for his personal situation?
He was nice enough to offer $100 credit after enough of you kicked up a stink about the price drop on the 8gb model so I dont see why he wouldnt respond IF enough of us wrote to him regarding this.
What do you think?
Clearly ZO is a power mobile user, and that is all well and good. But it's the simplicity of the iPhone that is one of its major selling points, I think. I actively don't want many of the functions he suggests. If I want to do heavy photo-editing work, I'll do it on my MBP with Photoshop.
He does have a point about the gloves, though. Although mine haven't seen a lot of action since I left chilly old Europe for the Deep South six years ago
Realistically, i don't believe all of these things will be fixed or upgraded with future software releases. Some will of course, but i believe that in subsequent iterations of the iphone we will come to see mostly all of these suggestions implimented. The early adaptors are like beta testers in a sense. yes we have a great product, but it is unfinished in alot of regards i would agree. But overall it has been a great experince to use the device on a daily basis for me.
Good luck with your new phone!
My personal theory is that Apple shifted many of the programmers back to OS X development, and away from iPhone development, at least until Leopard ships. Hopefully we'll see a major update once Leopard ships.
I think your theory is 100% correct after the first delay of Leopard Steve was not going to let it slip again, and with some of the development issues they faced I am sure they moved resources around to make sure Oct release of Leopard was going to take place.
I am also guessing he is going to link many of the new iPhone features to the new OS as to get more people to upgrade to Leopard.
I just don't know what that will do for windows users if this is the case. maybe they will just have to buy a mac in order to use the iphone...LOL
6. The touch screen. Its fantastic. But the jaded California designers forgot something pretty fucking blatant: People wear gloves in winter. The touch screen works only with contact of human skin. Even a fingernail mostly doesn't activate stuff. How in bloody hell am I going to simply ANSWER A PHONE call when its -10 outside and I have gloves on?
I thought this was kind of stupid on your part. This should have been completely obvious. Its kind of like saying "Hey, my car ran out of gas now. How the hell am I supposed to get to work? The people that designed this car are morons! They should have thought about people that neglect their vehicles and those who are completely oblivious to what the vehicle can't do without gas."
Again, like others have said, you have not mentioned anything new. All of these things have been discussed since launch day and some were even mentioned BEFORE launch. As I know these things are just your personal preference, do you really think we need 100 of these threads mentioning the SAME things over and over and over again?
We are all well aware of the Bluetooth, Safari, ringtones not being loud enough, etc....
Again, like others have said, you have not mentioned anything new. All of these things have been discussed since launch day and some were even mentioned BEFORE launch. As I know these things are just your personal preference, do you really think we need 100 of these threads mentioning the SAME things over and over and over again?
We are all well aware of the Bluetooth, Safari, ringtones not being loud enough, etc....
I guess you could always just choose not to take the time to read them and reply to them if you feel they are a waste of your time.
I see no problem with OZ posting what he thinks just like I don't see a problem with your posts but you really need to back off a bit.
Most phones that attempt to do everything suck. I would rather have a device that does everything it was designed to do well. Without the usability of some functions suffering for the usability of others.
I would prefer to wait for future functionality when it is well integrated. Instead of the confusing array of menus that most phones are.
I don't know if I would go as far to call it beta. The iPhone does what Apple has said it would do. It only does not do what Apple has not said it would do. There is a difference.
Most phones that attempt to do everything suck. I would rather have a device that does everything it was designed to do well. Without the usability of some functions suffering for the usability of others.
I would prefer to wait for future functionality when it is well integrated. Instead of the confusing array of menus that most phones are.
I have to agree with both of you to a point. In this day and age you would think that Apple would support many of the stock and standard features of todays cell phones right from the start.
But you are correct in saying they do what Apple said they do.
The real question is do they do them as well as they could in terms of Apple product standards, and should Apple of made a better point in there ad's as to what the iPhone did not support with respect to what buyers have come to except as standard smartphone features?
Warning: Long Post
(snip)
Have you ever used another phone?
Yes, the iPhone lacks some features that other phones have.
But the incredibly unsatisfactory user experience on Nokias and Sony Ericssons leave me feeling that the engineers simply shoved the product out without ever even trying to use them. They are unfinished products.
At some point, when the phone could make a rudimentary web connection, or do basic email, the SonyEricsson guys slapped themselves on the back and said - yep. We have done, this product is now finished.
Furthermore, once these gadgets ship, that it. You got what you paid for. Nokia and Sony are never ever going to update them. You want more features? Buy yourself another one.
The iPhone feels much less like a Beta product. Each feature is finished and feels slick.
Checkout the first blog entry by Stephen Fry. http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/?p=3
C.
I guess you could always just choose not to take the time to read them and reply to them if you feel they are a waste of your time.
I see no problem with OZ posting what he thinks just like I don't see a problem with your posts but you really need to back off a bit.
You missed the point. I could care less if he posts his feelings. Good for him. Its encouraged. But he should post them on one of the MANY iPhone related topics already existing that ask "What is the iPhone lacking.... What do you want to see in the next update" etc.
There was no reason to make a new thread. Those are the things that clog up forums of useless material and then makes it harder to use the search function if people come here looking for answers.
the link does not work
In this day and age you would think that Apple would support many of the stock and standard features of todays cell phones right from the start.
If they used the offerings of other manufactures as a framework for their efforts there wouldn't be an iPhone.
In your rush to empathize with ZO and his passion about what the iPhone isn't, you seem to be ignoring the passion that others have for what they feel the iPhone is.
But the incredibly unsatisfactory user experience on Nokias and Sony Ericssons leave me feeling that the engineers simply shoved the product out without ever even trying to use them. They are unfinished products.
At some point, when the phone could make a rudimentary web connection, or do basic email, the SonyEricsson guys slapped themselves on the back and said - yep. We have done, this product is now finished.
Furthermore, once these gadgets ship, that it. You got what you paid for. Nokia and Sony are never ever going to update them. You want more features? Buy yourself another one.
Your points is well taken but in my mind once a manufacture releases a phone that really sets the bar for standard features and the ability to be updated easy so it is not out dated in 6 months. I am sure you will see a change in the cell phone market where manufactures have to slow down and build a better phones in order to stay in the market.
This is what I see the iphone doing to this market with in the next 2 years.
What does it mean to me -- I will be buying another iphone model in the future to stay current, but at some point very soon model changes are going to slow down and it will all be about software, battery life, and storage and that's it.
At this point the current model of the iPhone meets most of these points very well. I am sure we will see many new software features in the next year so when a 3G + GPS model is released for the next holiday season the iphone will have set the international cell phone bar that all other manufacture have to try and beat.