The iPhone User Review Contd

Ever since we bought the iPhone for S, I always found myself reaching for it to play with. This annoyed S no end, especially with me taking the phone into the bathroom to catch up on my emails in the morning. If there is one thing that the iPhone has changed in my lifestyle, it has been the ability to check email first thing in the morning. It helps me prioritise what to start with as soon as I reach my desk, rather than doing the prioritisation on the desk. Sometimes, it works the other way too. Every now and then comes an email which puts me in a bad mood as soon as I read it. Perhaps, if I'd left it unchecked, I would have left home more cheerful!

Generally though, its a good thing to have, and it irritated me no end that the Orbit could not bring such brilliance into itself (although it was aged two). So, I was on the lookout for a phone which could do email. Blackberry was a first choice. I considered the Blackberry Storm for quite some time, but an initial putoff was that it had no wi-fi at all. You may argue that O2/Orange gives you a data option, but no sir, that is nowhere compared to wi-fi speeds. AppStore and YouTube would creak their way to render what would be a snap-of-a-finger job on wi-fi. Two, not having a wi-fi option at all is a no-deal in this time of free markets. The phone would be a brick once I am out of contract. Why would I pay for a data tariff once I'm out of contract, when I already pay for my wireless broadband. Three, network coverage is not all that great either. Imagine me at a friend's place or at the local Wetherspoons, and I find the coverage is bleak. Would I not want to switch over to the free, faster wifi? By the looks of it, Blackberry has fixed this grouse in Storm2 by adding wi-fi. Just this above line makes me wonder if all business is going Apple's way by not including basic things and hyping it up when they finally come on par subsequently.

The Blackberry packed in a lot of features - it did email great, had a great UI with its shiny linear icons, external upgradable memory, long lasting battery life, a camera with flash, and allowed me to re-use my old memory card with its drag-and-drop music. But there I was at O2 looking at both the Blackberry and the iPhone. With the sleek shiny iPhone morphing itself to the touch of my fingers, the Blackberry suddenly seemed very outdated (do I have to press buttons? BUTTONS??) Seriously though, what won me over to the iPhone was that the browsing experience in Blackberry reminded me of the Orbit, and the iPhone was miles ahead in its capability to render pages. And the looks, of course.

And so, about a year into S's iPhone, I got myself my own iPhone 3GS.

There are still a lot of things which I would like to have on the iPhone. Like longer battery life, for example. I barely manage a day, it stretches to a day and a half if I don't go to the gym. My Orbit gave me around two and a half days on a full charge, but then, truth be told, I did not use the Orbit as much as I use the iPhone. I'd like the ability to receive/read a business card (The gawky Sony Ericsson P990i did that!!). I would like the ability to forward or delete calendar items which have been pushed from my work email account. (Blackberry does this :( ). I would like the ability to save attachments into the phone. (This doesn't happen because Apple does not give you a Windows-ish file-system view). I would like the camera to zoom in and zoom out by the pinch gesture (Talk about wishful thinking). And so on!!

The iPhone User Review

On July 11, 2008, I was one of the people making a beeline at the O2 shop to get S her new phone - the iPhone 3G. S was reluctant at first, she's had no use for phones which do a lot more than just allow you to talk, but she quickly came around. It is hard to ignore a thing like the iPhone, it's crafted so well that it is almost a work of art.

I loved the phone for its minimalistic design. I loved the seamlessness with which the phone curved together to meet the flat screen. There were no hard keys to press on the front face, nor many buttons at the sides (think reset, push to talk, voice activation etc). Still, for all its looks, the phone looked like a watered down version of my Xda Orbit on paper. At the time we bought the iPhone 3G, the Orbit

• could cut/copy/paste (which means I need not type the whole message again).
• could forward text and multimedia messages (which means I did not have to think of cut/copy/paste in the messaging space).
• could send a business card.
• had a device-independent mini USB Type B connector (which means I could charge my phone through any USB cable).
• could recognise my handwriting.
• had expandable micro-SD memory.
• could suggest names if I punched the numbers on the dial.

All of which the iPhone could not do. In a way, S got the phone she wanted. And once I started playing with it, I started to appreciate the phone more.

A key thing which landed up in the ayes for iPhone was its ability to render multiple pages in Safari. Sure, I used to browse the net on my Orbit, but it was always a columnar display of text which kept on rearranging itself as it retrieved packets from the cloud. Even with the optimised settings for mobile screens, it would invariably come up with two-way scroll bars making navigation a less than satisfying experience. Moreover, there was only one window. With Safari, the iPhone scored twice; one, it had the ability to bring multiple screens, two, it renders the actual site itself and not a WAP site which used to be the case with Orbit.

The user interface design is another thing about the iPhone which I liked. Double tapping a block of text fits it to the screen. Just tilting the iPhone auto-orients its text, so you can type and read in widescreen. The best use of this can be seen in the Calculator, where it offers you a scientific calculator by just turning the device on its side. Tell me a simpler way of doing it. However, a common grouse with the auto-orientation is that when you're lying on your bed, and you turn to your side, only to find the screen has spun around by 90 degrees.

I went great lengths trying to configure my email on my Orbit. I tried Gmail, but it would not go beyond downloading the headers. I tried to configure my primary work email, but it failed for not having a security certificate. Curious to explore more, I tried to configure my secondary work email, and was successful. Only later did I realise that the secondary email had enforced a security option which now required me to put a PIN every time I opened the phone. After registering into a dozen forums, poring over hundreds of posts and downloading freeware to blast through the PIN-gate, I realised that the only sure cure was a hard-reset of the phone. Compared to this, configuring my work email and Gmail on the iPhone was a cakewalk. So every morning, even before getting off the bed, I would roll over to S's side of the bed to grab her phone and check my email (A habit I'm trying hard to break now).

The most important thing that worked in iPhone's favour, was Apps. It is not without reason that they say they've got an app for almost everything. In the first few weeks, I downloaded an app called Shazam. I did not quite know how it worked, but there I was in a friend's car and there was a great song on the radio. I turned on Shazam, it analysed the song for about a minute, and offered me the Youtube video of the song. And we sat there with a silly smile on the face. The very fact that you could search by audio input left us feeling dazed. This was something the Orbit could not do. I would like to talk about Mover, Bump, Evernote etc, but the apps merit a post themselves.

A few months ago, when Apple brought in much needed fixes in the 3.0 upgrade, it solved most of my problems with the iPhone. Although I could not send business cards and still have the charger handy, I am now able to copy URLs and note items into emails, which more or less serves my purpose. But, a major peeve was that the iPhone refused to work when I took it to India. Now, I understand it is locked to O2, who is the sole carrier for iPhone here in the UK, but I also thought it would support a SIM from Airtel, who is the sole carrier for iPhone in India. When I came back, I asked around and to my horror, I was told that O2 would NOT unlock the iPhone even after I fulfil my contract of 18 months. That, to me, was fleecing in broad daylight.

That inexplicable decision seems to have been reversed now, with Orange coming in as the second carrier for the iPhone, O2 are now unlocking the iPhone for free (for Pay Monthly customers, a small fee for Pay & Go customers). Here is the official O2 link.

That's a step in the right direction, especially as S's contract runs out this January.

Yoo Hoo

YES!!! My swanky new, fully loaded notebook was delivered to me.

After a lot of deliberation, and hours of company internet spent on shortlisting the various models of HP on offer, I had settled for a dv1386TU model. As luck would have it, the model was being phased out by HP, and they gave me a better configuration at a reasonably lesser rate. Combined with Srik's employee discount, I got it at almost a steal.

Allow me now to yap on my newest toy. Its a dv1624TN, the latest stallion from the HP stable. Its powered by a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Solo processor, and has a 512 MB RAM ( I'm adding one more 512 MB to the other slot ). Storage is an ample 80 GB, and comes with a DVD Writer. It also has a 6-in-1 media card reader, 3 USB ports and the normal I/O ports. It weighs 2.4 kgs and has an integrated webcam and microphone. 2 headphone jacks see to it that you dont have to watch a movie sharing your headphones.

The best part is it comes with Quickplay, which means that if all you need to do is play DVD / VCD / ACD / mp3 CD or movies/music from the HDD, you need not boot the PC up. It works like a normal DVD player, and comes with a remote too, which you can tuck in the PCMCIA slot, when not needed. A set of headphones are included. XPH is pre-loaded.

Looks are gorgeous, silver on the outside and black on the inside. Media buttons come with a blue backlight, and so do the status lights. The front panel is very aesthetically designed and slopes forward like the hood of a car, giving it that extra sleek look.

I'm just ogling at it from the past three days, will yap more on this later.

K750i-The Reprise

So, I finally got around to tweak the new phone a bit here and there. Checked out the connectivity and other stuff.

The details: Well, the data cable is included in the sales kit itself, so that saves the problem of going to the sales person once again, tell him the model number of your phone and get a data cable by splurging some more on it. The CD provided is informative enough, and the drivers install themselves without much fussing around.

It was then that I found the "bug". Well, Santu wanted to transfer some songs on to the phone, and he was searching for the card memory option, with the phone being connected on to the PC. However, he was not able to access the Memory Card in the Explorer window. Lots of juggling here and there, pushing and pulling the card into the slot did not help...and then we found out that the camera prompts you that the Memory card is not available, when the phone is in charging.

I dont know whether this is a one-piece problem, or the case with all phones, but somehow when the phone is connected to the computer, the card memory is mysteriously disconnected. You should have seen Santu's face when the speculation began that he may have to put in the files into the card thru the phone memory. Anyway, thought of trying another way, and slotted in my bluetooth dongle. Bluetooth works fine, and detection was no problem. We selected the file transfer option, and VOILA... we could see the Memory card option. The relief on Santu's face was worth capturing in his camera.

More time was spent on a new problem-Files were being transferred, but we didnt know where exactly it sat in the phone. After a lot of phone-PC, and PC-phone, Santu finally found a folder where he found all those songs which we used to test the connectivity. However, today he went to see the dealer regarding why the memory stick was not available when the phone was connected to the PC via a datacable. The dealer gave him some Sony Ericsson service center number, and I guess a meeting is on cards.

Finally the last words on the K750i:
The AYEs: 2 Mpxl Camera , Music Player, Overall compact design.
The NOs: Display, Battery compartment, Charger(the biggest let-down).

PS/1: The datacable also has a USB charger, so once the phone is connected to the PC, it starts charging.
PS/2: The normal charger given along with the sales pack is PATHETIC. The pins which go into the phone are so small, you double-take to see whether they are intact or broken.

This review will get a sequel when Santu activates GPRS.

Harsha had called. The bugger got a BnB in an Indian Family on Grafton Road, MK. Seems he cooked rice for dinner yesterday. The guy has a penchant for cooking. Not even 24 hours into the UK, and he starts clanging pots and pans. Office is not as good as here, he said, though the roads and general atmosphere were impressive. Asked him to transfer a few pounds, to tide me over the month. :))

Speaking of Niral, the gal is crazy about her CAT. Went downstairs today to check the office snail mail, and there she was, taking reams and reams of "PROBABILITY AND PERMUTATION COMBINATION" papers. The rate at which I see her prepare, she seems all set to go right into the second year of PGP, IIMA.

Spoke to Goks earlier in the day, and the guy seems to be having a lot of fun. Shopped a lot it seems, and was a bit down, since his vacation is coming to an end. Seems he finally met Elmi, and took her to Malleshwaram CCD. Got to get a lot of details when he comes here.

Spoke to Shan, and her mom as well. Shan tried her "yes-no-stop" Kannada and Marathi on her mom almost ended up eating a few more dosas in the process. She said she would have crabs for lunch tomorrow.

I'm hungry, so I will end this post here...will be back to post how many crabs Shan finally ate.

K750i

Rains have let up in Pune, and for the first time in two - three weeks, the sun shone in the manner which befits him. That he hid behind the clouds a bit later, is another matter altogether. Roads however have not drained, and waterlogging is still a problem, and Santu's bike looks like it has been through the Kadur rally.

Speaking of Santu, he bought a brand new black Sony Ericsson K750i yesterday. I must put it on record here, in the gamut of impressive fatures it boasts of, the music player takes up all the accolades. It even scores over the 2 megapixel camera, which incorporates a flash as well, and held horizontally, can guile people into believing it might be a digicam after all.

More on the music player later, let me go on to other features. In spite of all the heavyweights loaded on to it, I should say that the display could have been bigger. It is bigger than the Samsung x100 (Santu's previous phone), but way smaller than my Nokia 6260. Actually I was surprised when Santu told me he bought this, because he seemed unshakably impressed by flip-open phones.

Moving on, internal memory is a spacious 32 MB, and Sony displays its quintessential "I-am-different" attitude by making the external memory card as a Memory Stick Duo (64 MB). Which means that Santu can't use the stick in a Digicam, or if he intends to do so, he will have to buy one which supports it. I loved the slot though, the card toggles inside like the Card Slot in O2 XDA II.

(For the record, Sony is the only one company which has retained Memory Sticks in all its products. This is one thing I have against Sony, it hampers portability. I have a 1GB RS MMC for my N6260, and I could not find one Sony digicam which would support RS MMC/SD MMC as ext memory. I settled for a better bargain eventually- Samsung Digimax A402)

Coming back to K750i, the camera is a breathtaking 2 Megapixel with still and video shooting, with amazing resolution. Havent shot much using it though, but it comes across as a superb feature. The camera also has a slide cover, which protects the lens when the phone is laid on its back.

The music player is by far the best feature I saw on the phone. The speaker churns out sound at amazing clarity and acoustics, and I was most impressed by the software. While you are listening to music, it stops when you get a ringtone, allows you to play the ringtone, and once you exit the screen, the music comes up automatically. As in every other phone, you can put the music into background and run other tasks.

I am however, unimpressed by the placing of the speaker. It is on the backside of the phone, and its volume, naturally drops instantly when you block it with your finger. So I am skeptical of how loud its tone may sound, if the phone is placed on its back, on the desk/bed. The volume would naturally reduce, unless you want to put the phone with its display-down, in which case you would want to turn the phone upright to know who's calling.

Menu functions seem fast enough, allowing for the confusion from a Nokia - Ericsson migration, and gallery functions and pictures and videos seem to work well when sent from my N6260. A wav ringtone did not work, and I dont know why, because others ran really well, in some cases even better than in my phone.

Overall, the phone is compactly designed. It has some ot the other feature etched into every side on the cuboidal structure, and the camera keys are so designed that the user feels that he is using a mini-digicam. The compactness has given rise to nooks and corners though, because I felt that the battery compartment was not airy enough to insulate it while charging. It is totally packed, and you cannot clean the phone's power contacts even with a slender brush. The SIM compartment is packed tightly too. The commendable thing on this front seems the placing of the ext memory card. It allows for hot-swapping, meaning you dont need to switch the phone off to change between cards.

More on this later, after relentless testing.

Meanwhile Harsha has left for UK, and I guess his flight left Delhi around 0900 today. Havent heard from him yet, and dont know whether his international roaming is on.

More later, adios amigos