OK so I am a first time apple user (aside from Ipods which were discarded because of Itunes) and thought I would put up some thoughts of my first few hours with the iphone 4.
I needed a new phone and decided to give the iphone 4 a go; today the regent street store called me to tell me my reserved iphone was in stock. I popped along at 6pm and promptly had to wait for 1 hour before buying my phone... not what i expected from the famed apple service but no matter. I got home shoved the iphone on charge and went away.
The screen is pretty amazing and I love the resolution and clarity (i wish it was larger though with the same resolution). The phone feels heavy and reassuring too. First impressions are good; plus points apple.
Itunes- uuuurgh still hate it but I guess I will bear that cross to see what the phone can do; it is a serious irritation for me that I cannot display my music by folder. Registration etc is completed and I can set the phone up.
First things first- setting up email. This was an absolute doddle. Very happy with it. The mail program downloaded 50 emails and marked them as unread. Why can I not select a batch to mark them as read? Negative points for this as quite frankly it is a shocking oversight.
The UI is looking dated now. I realise I have come to love the widgets android gave me. Never mind, this is all about embracing the apple way.
Next I go onto the web- the lack of flash I knew about but it really pains me that I have a powerful phone in my hand for the first time ever (my old hero didnt have the oomph) and I cant view the bbc website in all its glory. No BBC app either. GRRRRR. In general, aside from this, the web page viewing experience is gorgeous.
App store to complete a first foray into iphone land; angry birds is too addictive as is flick free kick. I lost so much time to just enjoying the beautifully realised physics. at £0.59 each, major plus points.
At the moment I sit here tonight torn; there are glimpses of the magic, there really are. I am really disgruntled that I will need to spend the next 2 weekends sorting out my itunes library and there are so many little ui shortcomings that every other smartphone has and I take for granted:
- better email management programs (marking as read and saving files with unknown extensions for forwarding later)
- flash; this is still a major part of my web viewing experience; mainly because I would love access to the BBC video and audio clips whilst i am on the move
As you can probably tell, I am conflicted. I really want to embrace the iphone phenomenon, and will report back in a few days, but I am not blown away. Aside from the screen, it just seems to fall behind the other top android smartphones.
Incidentally, I am neither an android nor apple fanboi (android has huge fragmentation issues); I just want a phone that doesnt seem to have glaringly obvious problems that never get resolved (android relies on manufacturers actually updating their handsets with updates; sometimes resulting in 8 month delays).
edit- maybe this is just a whinge, i ahve just spent a large amount of cash on a phone that feels like it is not delivering; apologies if it offends
...ive been on the regent st apple store waiting list for around a week or so and nothing yet....still have about 2 weeks before i get my apple direct ordered iphone4 though...god knows why they are having so much trouble getting stock in.
anyone else have this
