Mark Wagner - Yet Another Blog

Last week, the most anticipated cell phone of the year was release. The phone that cures cancer. The phone that cleans your house. The wonder, the glorious, the most sought after item ever .. the iPhone. Alright, I exaggerated somewhat to but some emphasis on the fan movement behind this phone.

The worst part about the iPhone for people like me, is that is actually lived up to most of the hype. It makes it hard to say, “see I told you it sucks!” Sure, a simple Google search will give you millions of pages on why the iPhone sucks or why it is the best phone to date, but overall it is a good phone (from what I’ve read) and does what is advertised to do. I’ll even admit that it is a pretty cool looking phone. Especially the UI.

What is my problem then?

Here, let me explain.

I consider Apple and the all the “i” products the same as a popular clothing store. People don’t get the iPod and the iPhone solely on functionality and if it adheres to their needs, they get it to be cool. It is a status symbol like expensive designer clothes are. If you’ve used the internet, I’m sure you’ve ran across pictures of people with their pink collared shirt popped up and some caption below it saying how it is priceless that this guy is a fag or something. What are those guys wearing? They are wearing the popular style of clothing from stores like Abercrombie, American Eagle, and so on.

So, why do people like the iPhone? Simple. They like it because it lets them show off. It allows people to say, “Hey look, I got the iPhone come look at it!”

But if you step outside of the box and actually look at the phone you might see it from a different point of view. First off, is it even a phone? To me, it is an iPod that allows you to call people.

Cost

Odds are if you’ve plan on purchasing the iPhone, you own a variety of iPods. You probably own the original, and an upgrade or two. Apple is probably into you for about $800, if not more. The cost of the phone is $600 for 8GB. Give me a break. $600 for another iPod that makes phone calls?

On top of the cost, you need to do with a company like AT&T. If you aren’t up on your news, AT&T was one of the main players in the whole scandal of the government wiretapping your lines. They worked with the government to take phone records and who knows what else. Why anyone would want to give them a single cent of their money is beyond me. They are probably the same idiots who are voting for Giuliani or something.

Gizmodo has a little more information on that.

Basic Functionality

The thing that gets me the most about this phone and makes me wonder why people want it is that it has no buttons. I know that is being really picky but I like to be able to push buttons when I’m dialing or text messaging. I do a lot of driving and I can’t drive and look down to verify that I’m pushing the correct on-screen button. And from what I’ve been reading, the actual touchscreen doesn’t work all that great. The biggest complaints seem to be that it is very easy to hit multiple buttons, and that you will no matter how hard you try.

It also doesn’t have speed dialing. I like being able to hold down a number (especially when driving) and have it dial. They replaced that with something called the “quick list”. Again, when I’m driving or want to make a quick call, I don’t want to search for the number, I want to be able to hold one button and have it call.

For some reason, they decided not to include GPS on the unit. I actually didn’t believe this at first. I had to go do some searching to verify that. The Helio Ocean, while not totally flawless, has GPS and allows you to use Google Maps and even find out where your buddies are (assuming they have it turned on to allow buddy tracking, or as they call it, buddy beacon). This should be standard on a $600 phone.

False Advertising

First and foremost. The iPhone doesn’t use 3G technology. All those ads you saw where they demonstrate how to browse the internet are very misleading. They use a technology called EDGE. What does this mean? Well all the initial reports are coming out saying how slow the internet is on the iPhone. It isn’t like you’ve been seeing on the commercials.

Another big marketing ploy they came up with is that you can watch YouTube videos from your phone. An in the commercial you can see someone quickly popping up a YouTube video and watching it without a single hiccup. But people are reporting how slow YouTube is over the EDGE/internet service.

The phone does not work with Windows XP x64, or Windows Vista. While it is a stupid move, you can’t be mad at a company who probably pushed this phone out as soon as they could. The problem I have with is it isn’t listed on the box. The box says nothing about the software not working in Vista or x64.

Normal Apple Practices

Yet again, another product from Apple that doesn’t allow you to change the battery. Why the Earth do they do this? So if your battery dies in a year or two, you need to send your phone in, or get a new one. I don’t know about you, but my cell phone is the phone form of commucation I have. I couldn’t be without it for a day, let alone how long it will take to waddle into Best Buy, flash your service plan, and get your phone back in a month (assuming it works when it comes back).

The screen is glass, though it does look sharp. But does Apple think that every single person will treat this phone like a baby. You have no idea how many iPods I’ve seen when I used to work in the service department at Best Buy that looked like they were chewed up by a pack of wild dogs. I can only imagine the number of people in the coming months who won’t even be able to read the phone anymore due to all the scratches on that glass screen.

Conclusion

I know fans of Apple are going to be pissed about this and if they wanted to could pick this post apart and tell me where I’m wrong. But the evidence doesn’t lie. The iPhone has it perks. It looks good and has a unique UI that you won’t find on other phones.

But does the good outweigh the bad? Unfortunately we live in a country that is behind on cell phone technology. If you lived in Japan for example, the iPhone would just be another phone in the sea of phones. We are stuck with a variety of carriers ranging from GSM to CDMA. This is why cell phone coverage is so spotty across the country. We are the only country where you can’t buy a phone, and then bring it to whatever network you wish.

So, if you are with Sprint (like I am) and love the service (like I do), you have no choice but to use the boring phones they have (like I use). Imagine if you could buy any phone you liked, and bring it to any carrier and activate it.

I hope this whole iPhone fad will die down so I can start getting my daily feed or normal internet news again. You know, cats with funny captions, Ron Paul videos, and the constant failings of the Bush Administration and which law they broke this week. You know, the usual.