I’ve put off blogging about iPhone because I want to really try it out first to see if it really meets my expectations. As expected, it sucks as an organiser, but do well combining both a phone and my iPod. I know this even before I got the iPhone, but end up succumbing to temptation…
The weirdest thing I have to get use to about iphone is the typing. I type on a virtual screen, which only appears if I need to type something. The “official rules” recommend typing with a single finger first, then proceed to 2 thumbs typing. I started straightaway with the 2 thumbs. Initially typing very slowly because of all the errors. But once I can live with the typing errors, the correction engine actually works very well. I end up just typing what I think i’m typing, and the correct words will most likely come out of the wash. It’s ok for most of the things I type. If it’s unique words like names of people or places, the correction engine won’t do that well.
The default applications (apps) that comes with every iPhone do not actually do well. It looks pretty, but not too much functions. I guess I am comparing with Palm. For example, the default apps do not include a ToDo list. So i had to search for one I can use easily (read Paying for software for more details).
Also, birthdays, anniversaries, etc do not show up in the default calendar, which is a bit annoying. I downloaded an app called “Upcoming” to show this list. The default calendar cannot include the Lunar Calendar as well, so I had to include another app that does this. And there’s no “year view” in the default calendar, which again I downloaded another app for this. Happy that all these apps are free (for now).
All these iPhone apps can get a bit unwieldy after a while, and there’s no obvious way to organise these apps (unlike the simple categories which you can use on Palm). Even for a simple calendar, I need 3 other apps to support the one app on Palm, which will increase the number of Apps required on iPhone. The hacked iPhone seems to be more user friendly than the default one. I might consider hacking it one day.
Of course, the things that people normally gripe about (cannot copy and paste, cannot forward SMS) did not bother me too much, as these are hardly used anyway. I use the iPod function more now as i carry my phone with me all the time. I just need to remember to carry my earphones.
In summary? A quick typer, with nice phone and ipod combination. Better default apps on Palm although the growing third party softwares should be a good sign. You just need to keep looking.
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7 Comments
Hey Shang. Your post above further confirmed my notions on an iPhone as a PDA. For me, first and foremost, I want my phone to function well as a PDA and secondarily as a music device as I already have a functional iPod.
Remember zen pockets?
Of course, I remember Zen Pockets, but to me this only works well if the substitutes are good
Plus, that’s why I carry a manbag if I need to haul stuff, though things are mostly in my work bag
Check out this app, you might like it since you use Apple and you have interest in catalog hehe…
http://www.delicious-monster.com/
I don’t have apple… yet.
Ah…ok, i thought it supports iPhone, oh well.
I meant I thought it could run on iPhone. Seems you need to publish on web and access it through iPhone.
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[...] many applications), optimising my iPhone (yes, i succumbed to temptation, but more about that in this post), and deciding on the big question, as always, what on earth am I suppose to do or be in this [...]