Thursday, August 09, 2007

I Got the iPhone - A Mini Review

I got the iPhone. Gerdy (my dog) made me. My justifications:
  • It was released in the month of my 30th birthday
  • I got a new project today (or any day)
  • Gerdy dragged me into the store on our walk that usually never involves W.95th and Broadway. How can I deny her.

Every time I take it out of my purse, people ask questions. If it's a man, he says: "Is that the iPhone?" If it's a woman, she says: "Is that the iPhone? Oh, is that your cat on there? Oh! My cat...yadda yadda." I have a picture of Dinah on the phone as my wallpaper, which is not that unusual, but the screen is so big and clear, that it looks revolutionary.

I'm timing myself for this post, to show you how the iPhone has improved my life. At 10:42am I took a picture of myself on the iPhone to show you how good it is.

photo from the iphone

See how good I look? ;) Kidding. I'm at Panera, working and listening to Sarah McLachlan. At 10:43am I emailed it to myself. At 10:44am I answered an email while waiting for my picture to show up in my inbox (Panera has free wireless). By 10:45am, I had received the email, saved it to my computer, loaded up my FTP software and uploaded the picture to the FashionMista server so that it could display here on this blog. This means that at 10:42am I took a picture, and by 10:45am it was ready to go live on the web, whenever I finish yapping away on this post.

I was super excited when I got the iPhone, but really, I just felt complete. I am a Mac girl, so I have been waiting for years and years for Apple to release something that gives us Apple-ites a calendar and address book in the palm of our hands, just like everyone else.

iPhone Highlights (in no particular order)

  • If it's not in a case, it slides into my cloth lined wallet.
  • Address book and calendar synch with my computer via iTunes. It literally updates just like an iPod
  • When I synch the address book and calendar, the iPhone actually alerts me to how many contacts on each device - the iPhone and my computer, a PowerBookG4 - will be updated. This means I can type an event into my iPhone calendar, and it will fly into my computer calendar when I synch the iPod. Same with the Address book. And by "synch" I mean plug in the iPhone into my computer.
  • While jogging and subsequently stretching, I can: listen to my 1200 songs while I jog, answer an incoming call from David about when he is finishing golf, then send an email to a friend to reschedule drinks, then call my sister-in-law to pass along a thought on how she can get married housing at Ohio State. The best thoughts come while jogging in the sunshine, so it's best to have all the tools in one place to deal with or nurture all thoughts.
  • iPhone earphones, which include a microphone to talk on, work as regular earphones. So I can plug them into my computer when working in a coffee shop (as pictured above). You could also have surround-sound phone if you like. Too consuming for me, but you might like it.
  • While driving cross country on the highway in Ohio, I could quickly tell David where the nearest Jiffy Lube was at the next exit, thanks to the Map function in iPhone that uses Google Maps.
  • The Map function lets you zoom very far in to see small streets.
  • Love the calculator. So cute and easy to use. My old phone calculator on my Nokia PDA reminded me of my TI-81 graphing calculator, but without the graphing feature.
  • Ring tones. A personal favorite. David's ring tone is an actual motorcycle that is revving up. My mom is a barking dog because her dog, Chipperdee, is always barking in the background when she calls me. My sister is chirping crickets because those are peaceful. My morning alarm are actual church bells, which actually don't do a great job of waking me up because they sound like real church bells outside, which is very peaceful.
  • The clock and alarm. Spin the wheel and you set the time. Look at an iPhone and you'll know what I mean.
  • Camera is fabulous. It sucks battery life, but is so convenient.

I'll stop here. I'm going to write more on the pros and cons of the iPhone on my That IT Girl blog, but I am happy I got it. Typing is one thing that will be quite different from what you are used to. It is not very easy to type and drive at the same time, since the keys are displayed on the screen. That's right. It means that you cannot feel buttons for keys. Oh, and it works on Apple and PCs (Windows based computers).

More to come!

2 comments:

Melissa said...

Welcome to the wonderful world of the iPhone! ;) You'd better practice your demonstration because you'll be asked to give one by every single person you meet. Last night I gave three. One of my favorite simple things is flicking the contact list. One little flick and I can watch the thing scroll through everyone! I was a little reluctant about spending the money on such a luxury, but it has proved its worth. Yesterday we got lost in Amish country because a road is shut down, but thanks to my iPhone, we were able to take another route safely!

Congratulations!! (We mac geeks are such nerds.)

Unknown said...

True...I am giving demonstrations. My favorite is setting the time or an alarm. Then I show people David's ring tone, which is that motercycle revving up.

Good for you on the directions!