There are lots of great things about having an iPhone but it’s not ‘all good’ (as our southern hemisphere friends might say).
1. Terrible for classical music
Ok, so this isn’t exclusively the fault of the iPhone but Apples in general. iTunes is terrible for navigating through classical music. You’d normally search by composer but two pieces by Beethoven might be filed differently (under Ludwig or Beethoven). It doesn’t handle movements properly and gives unintuitive prominence to conductors and orchestras. And of course having classical pieces renders the shuffle function useless.
2. Reception
I’ve gotten used to having no reception at home – it’s always been a problem for o2 in Hackney. But what’s really frustrating is the wait to use the phone after coming out of an area of no reception. I had a 6 minute wait after exiting Liverpool Street last night before I could tell the nanny that I’d be late. And then it’s slow telling you there’s no reception. You can be on the tube and the display says you can make a call.
And it’d be easier to live with if the phone worked through wifi. Being able to browse but not call is bizarre for a phone.
3. No draft text messages / outbox
Because of the reception problems it’s all the more important that when you have none you can write an SMS, press send and know that when you have coverage it will go – like phones do. iPhones don’t. And as nice as the forward feature is, nothing beats a serviceable queue.
4. Auto capitalisation
After three months I still haven’t got used to the auto capitalisation feature. When you write something, delete and the press space, caps lock turns on. I can’t imagine ever finding that more useful than not. And don’t get me started on the auto contraction of its to it’s.
5. One sync lead
You get a plug and a lead when you get the iPhone. The plug will charge it with the lead and you can also use the lead to sync with you computer or play the phone through the stereo. Which means when you really need to charge the under- performing battery, you’ve never got the bits you need. Just one more sync lead would do it – or using a USB at both ends of the device. Come on Apple, don’t be cheap: I’ve bought a premium device.
6. Auto rotating
The auto rotating feature just doesn’t work properly – never has. It’s meant to rotate the display when you hold it horizontally. It does, but infrequently. And of course if you are using your phone whilst on the move, it does when you don’t want it.
7. Cut and paste
I’m really pleased that my iPhone has cut and paste functionality. And I can swallow not being able to use two applications simultaneously. But what’s really frustrating is not being able to cut and paste comprehensively. For example, if I want to put in my contacts the number of someone who’s just called me, I shouldn’t have to find a pen. And if I copy a phone number from webmail it would be nice to be able to paste it into an SMS.
8. The keyboard
I’ve got pretty useful fingers thanks to 25 years of playing the Cello. But even that isn’t sufficient for more than 60% accuracy on the phone. And the constant revert to querty is annoying if you are entering a number with spaces. That doesn’t fill me with excitement for the ipad (which the iPhone auto corrects as upas – go figure).
9. Done, Go, Login
When entering a password on a website you sometimes have as many as three options: done (top right in blue) go (on the keyboard) and login (on the browser). Only one of them has the desired affect whilst two others mean you have to re-enter your password, frustrating when it’s 11 digits.
10. No flash
Ok, so maybe developers shouldn’t use flash. But I miss out on vital news like Rafa’s teamsheet the minute it’s printed, simply because the lead story is published in flash.
This dull moan isn’t meant to be a damning indictment of Apple. But I’ve bought a premium product which needs work. And it’s only been revised once in 3 years (the 3gs).
The launch of the ipad is a useful reminder that Apple is great for first movers but once the company moves onto The Next Big Thing consumers of older products get left behind. If it was made by Nokia we’d be on version 7140 already.