When I first got the device, family, friends and colleagues clamored to give it a try. One co-worker looked up briefly while playing with it to tell me, “I want to marry it. I want to divorce my husband and marry it.”
There’s no denying Apple’s claim that the iPhone is a “revolutionary device.” The iPhone is the most fun and easy-to- use gadget I’ve ever laid my hands on.
I’ve been testing an iPhone for the past 3 1/2 weeks, and I’ve also been checking in with people who shelled out big bucks to buy one on June 29 – the first day they were available – to see what they think now that the newness has worn off.
The phone’s intuitive, touch-screen interface allowed me to figure out how to use the phone without referring to the manual. Carrying it in my pocket made me feel connected to the world the way I do when I’m surfing the Internet on a high-speed connection.
I was also impressed by the battery life, which gave me nearly six hours of talking, Internet browsing and video watching before I needed to charge it.
It’s not without flaws. But if you are in the market for a new phone and can spend at least $500, this might be for you.
I wouldn’t recommend it for those who do a lot of e-mailing from their phones. Even though the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard is easy to use and its predictive text is great, you’ll probably long for the comfort and familiarity of a physical keyboard.
By far, the Internet browser is the iPhone’s best feature. It displays websites as they appear on your computer.
Safari, the iPhone’s Internet browser, lets you display up to eight Web pages at once, and it’s easy to move among them.
I used the iPhone to renew a library book, check in for a flight and make a credit-card payment.
One thing you can’t do in Safari is play audio or video files that require the Flash media plug in. But the browser works with dozens of applications that developers have created specifically for this phone. Programs let me create shopping lists, keep track of my mileage and play the original Nintendo game Duck Hunt.
The iPhone sports a great e-mail interface. You can also open Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF files as attachments. Pictures display beautifully in the body of the e-mails.
Since the phone works on AT&T’s EDGE data network, surfing the Internet can sometimes be painfully slow. The saving grace is that the phone can access wireless Internet connections, letting you browse the Internet with super speed.
