iPhone 3G at Work, Home and Play

I’ve been using my new iPhone 3G for a few weeks now and it has quickly become an extension of my brain. Seldom before has a new gadget been so quickly, easily and seamlessly integrated into my life.

I’ve used it at work, at home and on vacation and it’s worked well for me in all contexts, so much so that I have dropped four other gadgets I was carrying in favor of the iPhone: my Blackberry, my iPod, my mini cassette recorder and my digital camera. It’s great walking around with just one slim do-it-all device in my pocket all the time. And despite a few limitations, I’m never going back. Let me give you some specifics.

At Work

Taking advantage of the iPhone’s new Exchange integration, I was quickly as productive with the new device as on my Blackberry, checking email, contacts and calendars, accepting appointments, etc. I was worried about whether I could type as well with the virtual keyboard, but I was never very good with my thumbs anyway and I’ve gotten faster with one finger on the iPhone with practice. I am probably at par for speed and accuracy at this point compared to where I was after a year plus on the BBY.

Email is actually better on the iPhone in several ways. Just the fact that it will display html email properly and that I can follow links quickly and smoothly to the web with Safari and my speedy 3G or wifi connection means that I can deal with all of my email on the device and not just some of it, as with the Blackberry. The quick swiping motion you do to delete emails is a pleasure as well. I never used to delete email from my Blackberry because it was just too many clicks. Emptying my inbox is very satisfying, and the iPhone makes that doable.

I do wish I could file work emails in my personal folders from the iPhone (the way the iPhone lets me do with Gmail). That would really let me empty out the inbox. I store my Outlook personal folders on my laptop, though, so they aren’t accessible from mobile devices. One thing I have done is to run all of my Outlook delete filters on the server so that stuff doesn’t reach the iPhone either.

Calendaring is a bit weaker than email. I can browse and accept meetings, and I can set up new appointments, but inexplicably, I can’t invite anyone else to a meeting from the iPhone. This hasn’t been an issue for me to date as I am usually at my computer when scheduling, but I do hope Apple will correct this feature deficit soon.

Also, while contacts, calendars and email synch automatically with Exchange, tasks and notes do not. The iPhone doesn’t have an included task manager but there are a number of inexpensive ones available, even one that synchs with a counterpart app on your Mac (not Windows). I am using WhatTasks on my iPhone and finding it very useful for personal tasks. It wouldn’t be up to the load of my work tasks, I don’t think, so I am still using Outlook tasks on my laptop as well.

At Home

I carry the iPhone in my pocket at home and it has proven handy there as well. It’s a better than average phone, usability-wise. Visual voice mail is a revelation after years of pressing buttons to listen through saved messages one at a time. Having a quick picklist of favorite people to dial is also easier than remembering speed dial numbers. And I like the way the phone recognizes when I have pulled it away from my ear and presents me with options to end call, turn on the speaker or whatever. That’s just very deft.

I’m a big user of Google Reader and I find I actually prefer the iPhone interface to the regular web interface. It’s cleaner and simpler and allows me to mark 15 articles as read at a time once I’ve skimmed them. And, of course, I can use it anywhere. I’m getting more reading done this way than on my laptop.

The first iPhone app I downloaded and still my favorite, though, is Remote. This allows me to control iTunes on my iMac or my AppleTV from the iPhone using an interface that looks and acts just like the iPod interface. And I don’t even have to be in the same room with the device I’m controlling. It’s about as slick as I could imagine it.

At Play

I took my shiny new iPhone on vacation for two weeks to the beach, theme parks, and a car show and here it really shone. The camera isn’t as good as my Casio Exilim Z850, but for vacation snapshots it’s more than adequate and you can’t beat the convenience. The really fun part, though, was posting my photos to MobileMe directly from the iPhone. Every time we sat down for lunch or a drink I whipped out the phone and posted a batch of photos with captions. This was entertaining for my relatives following along with our trip online and made for a lot less work when I got home.

The maps application proved extremely useful on the road as well. When it was time for dinner I would do a search for restaurants and Google would produce a list based on our current location. I could check out an eatery’s website and then get directions instantly. The directions were the usual Google Maps turn-by-turn directions, similar to what I’ve used on my Blackberry before. The coolest part, though, was watching our location dot move in real time as we drove along (or sometimes off) the recommended route in real time.

Listening to music via the iPod features is pretty much like any other iPod but with the most up to date, graphically rich interface. This was a big step up for me from my 3rd generation iPod. I haven’t made much use of the video capabilities yet but the screen is bigger and brighter than my PSP screen, something I was quite impressed with a couple of years back.

There are quite a few games available for the iPhone. I haven’t found any of them really compelling, though, the way I did PSP games when more were being made. Some of the Tetris and Gems clones make very good use of the touch interface but I’ve never found that type of game entrancing. There are marble and driving games that make use of the tilt capabilies of the iPhone but that feels much less precise than traditional gaming buttons.

One app you have to see to believe is Shazam. This little gem will analyze any music that’s playing in the world around you and identify the title and artist. After several tries with the radio I’ve yet to stump it. Once it identifies the music in question, it offers you the ability to buy and download the song from the iTunes music store then and there.

There are free apps that will let you look up people in your LinkedIn network, manage your Netflix queue, record audio memos, IM with your friends, check the weather forecast (I do this now rather than checking weather.com), search wikipedia, convert measurements, translate text – the list goes on and on. Soon I predict you’ll be able to do anything you can do on the web via your iPhone. That might not seem all that remarkable until you realize that, unlike your computer, the iPhone can be always in your pocket and (almost) always connected. I can’t over-emphasize the convenience factor in making access to all of this workable.

Issues

The software is still young, so there are some inevitable issues. Some webpages consistently cause Safari to quit. So I can’t check the train schedule on the device – at least not until they update the browser. Some apps are buggy, too. The worst thing that seems to happen, though, is that they quit and send you back to the home screen. And I’ve noticed most of the apps I run are being updated quickly, so I am hopeful these issues will get ironed out in short order. (Every time you visit the iTunes appstore you get notified of available updates and you can download and install them for free.)

Battery life was a real issue for me at first. Running 3G all the time and using the new gadget a lot, I was needing to charge twice a day. I learned a few tricks, though, that have made it workable for me. First, I use wifi where I can. I have a wireless network at home and at work (and even occasionally on the train). Wifi uses much less battery than 3G. Second, I don’t use 3G when I don’t need to. If I am away from wifi for a long period I will shut off 3G to save battery life until I need it for doing a lot of web browsing or whatnot. Edge speeds are fine for email and such. Third, I got a spare cable so I can leave one attached to my Mac for synching with iTunes and still have a charging cable in my bag for when I need it. Fourth, I got a car charger/FM tuner so I am charging when listening to music or using maps in the car. Since making these adaptations I haven’t had a battery life issue. I just charge over night while I’m synching.

AT&T’s network has occasionally been an issue for me. They’ve been running bilboard ads showing four bars everywhere and I find them funny because they are often posted in areas where I get one bar or even sometimes no service. The worst for me was visiting the Jersey Shore. From Cape May to Lakewood, I just never got a good signal. I could sometimes get email but couldn’t post a single picture in the 3 days we were there. Verizon’s network is simply more complete, at least in the northeast. That said, it hasn’t been a regular issue since I returned from vacation. I’m sure many people look forward to the day, though, when they can use their iPhone on the network that works best in their area.

I’ve heard stories about issues with MobileMe but haven’t experienced them myself. I did have an issue where after synching the iPhone for the first time, I was no longer able to authorize or synch songs bought with one of the 3 accounts attached to my iTunes. Apparenty this was a common problem for people with multiple iTunes accounts but Apple support was very responsive, apologetic and helpful in fixing the issue.

Conclusion

So in the end is the iPhone that much better than a Blackberry? Yes, it really is. Exchange integration is not yet perfect, but the speed, the display, and a real web-browser combined with the overall smoothness and ease of the interface make me look forward to using it instead of feeling forced to use it when my computer isn’t an option. And while the Blackberry was never much more than an Exchange client for me, the iPhone has also replaced my iPod, my camera and my voice recorder. And it’s made all of those functions into a seamless, more enjoyable whole. Way to go, Steve.

Now if the Photos app would just stop quitting every time I try to post a new snapshot to MobileMe a little too quickly…