iPhone: Day 3

Today is the third day of using the iPhone, so I thought I’d share some reflections on the device that may (or may not) be changing people’s lives. I should state for the record that I have never owned a “smart phone”, and my last phone was a Razr. So, if I seem too giddy, maybe it’s because I’m only just now getting caught up with everyone else.

Calls

I made several calls, some using the wired headphones/mic and others simply using the phone itself. From all accounts, the sound quality was great. I wanted to test the fade in/out of going from music playback to making a call, so I called my girlfriend Carrie. It worked just as advertised, and she had no idea I was talking on a headset, the sound quality was that good. We played around with the visual voicemail, too. Once you have this, you will truly wonder how you survived navigating those menu tress. Press 1 to save, Press 2 to delete, Press 3 to slit your wrists…

Wi-Fi vs. Edge

The auto-switching to Wi-Fi is crucial, because Edge sucks. I remember when GPRS technology came out, and that was 3 jobs and 5 or 6 years ago. To be fair, sometimes it zips, but other times I just give up and put the phone away. So, hopping on to hot spots is a life saver.

Battery Life

Great. Really, really great. I put this things through the wringer (calls, web, email) for a couple of days and still only got down to 50% of my battery. One thing that’s odd, it didn’t seem to charge very fast when plugged into my computer. I wasn’t even sure it was charging, because after 30 minutes the meter hadn’t seemed to move. However, the next morning I had a fully charged phone, so I guess it worked after all.

Ok, that’s it for now. Check out Sunil’s initial impressions at widepipe.org.