iPhone – are we there yet?
I finally plucked up the courage to go into an Apple shop – I picked a day when I had left my credit card at home – to check out the new iPhone. I’m still looking for the ideal mobile blogging platform, and thought perhaps sensible convergence had been developed by the wonderful designers at Apple.
I thought about how I would use such a device. I want internet connection, phone, basic PDA applications – including a reasonable word processor, a camera and a neat little application to resize and and do some basics – light and dark and contrast, perhaps hue and saturation – nothing much really. Interestingly, Problogger shares many of my views.
The phone bit was there, as was the camera, some applications, and really delightful interface design – I love the overshoot bounce on the scrollbar – really cute and I love it.
Now for the awkward questions. I came prepared with my bluetooth keyboard. Um… it does have bluetooth doesn’t it? The salesman shifted uncomfortably. “Sort of”, he said. It seems the iPhone has bluetooth insofar as it can send the phone call to a bluetooth earpiece. But that’s it. No peripheral connectivity. Sorry Apple, you are losing me. I then venture the next no brainer for something with PDA functionality. Storage media – any chance of an SD card so I can take photos with my digital camera or transfer them from the phone to my macbook etc? Ummm… no.
So Apple has made a wonderful telephone, but what they have made is not going to let me lose the PDA and macbook combination on the road. I have traveled with just the PDA and keyboard and have blogged successfully – including camera and image preparation – without the laptop, using the bluetooth connection to the keyboard and wifi to the internet. Maybe next model eh?
Cheers
Jerry
