iPhone impressions

I received my iPhone today as an attendee of the Office 2.0 conference next month. I upgraded to the 8GB version because I figured most attendees wouldn't and there'd be more of the 8GB around. Dunno if that worked, but I don't care as I have it. :)

Here are my initial impressions.

The good:

• I quite like both the physical and logical interfaces: the iPhone is sleek, clean, and crisp. Good feel in the hand.
  
• Typing isn't as difficult as I thought it would be, based both on other iPhone users' experiences and on my past experiences with slider-type phones.
  
• In iPod mode, as in with headphones, the sound is excellent.
  
• Installing my first application was a snap. (check the video)
• Activating the phone was a snap. It required iTunes, though, which seems to require Quicktime, which is a resource hog. Sigh.
  
• Swapping my current Cingular/AT&T phone to this one was waaaaaaaaaaay simple. All web-based, done in 10 minutes.
  
• Setting up access to my secure WiFi network was a snap.
  

The bad:

• The interface is very sensitive - so much so that carrying it around resulted in almost every app on the thing opening spontaneously at some point.
  
• I went to the AT&T (nee Cingular) store today looking to "pimp my iPhone" - and every holder/holster there was just atrocious. Most were too hard to get the iPhone out of to answer; one was not tight enough such that I almost dropped the d*** thing.
• The ringtones are just vile. I found the least objectionable one (Strum), but the rest are a mixture of cacophony and evil. Maybe that's to encourage users to download (and pay for) ringtones from the iTunes store.
  
• Some parts of the interface aren't that intuitive. For example, I struggled a while to figure out how to add a contact; I'm probably going to wipe the thing and start over tomorrow - and this time I won't add my several hundred Outlook contacts, most of whom are 1x/year-type contacts.
  
• Web browsing leaves a lot to be desired. I tried to log into Yahoo and couldn't read the .00000002-sized type. It was very crisp for a 2x4" screen, but 10-pt font scaled down 80% is still UNREADABLE.
  
• In YouTube(!) mode, or without headphones, the speakers are incredibly tinny.
  

The ugly:

• Not sure why, but sometime this afternoon having the iPhone plugged in caused Windows XP to bluescreen. Twice.
• I haven't figured out how to make email work. I can see stuff I sent through GMail, but not emails I have received.

Enough for now. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Ismael and the crew are going to take advantage of these at the conference.

Tags: iphone, office 2.0, office 2.0 conference, office 2.0 2007