My Treo broke at High Sierra last weekend. I don't remember dropping it or sitting on it, but there it was, cracked screen and all. Everything worked except for the touch screen, and I was half-jokingly telling people that I wasn't too upset because now I can get a ... and they would finish the sentence for me. Funny, Steve didn't pay for THAT marketing.
When I got home I walked over to the Sprint store to see what they could do for me. I've got the replacement plan and had gone through the fix-it process before without too much trouble, so I figured they'd take it in back, slap a new screen on it and I'd be on my way...
The vibe in the store was pretty dismal. Boxes strewn about, one rep on the phone while the other was helping a customer. Already I could feeling something was off in the air. The guy looked at my phone, told me it wasn't pretty and that there was nothing he could do about it. Apparently something had changed with the replacement plan I'd been paying for and now I have to send the phone in to a separate company where it could take up to two weeks. If I wanted a new phone, I qualified for 'new customer' rates of about $300.
I told him that all of these facts were conspiring towards me walking across the street to the 'other' guys. He quickly shifted his eyes, pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down the address of another store and told me to go there.
Completely weirded out by this experience I stumbled dazed and confused out onto the street. Seeking salvation and some moment of positive clarity, I told my companion that I wanted to just go 'check it out'. She quickly cheered me on.
There was a special energy in the San Francisco air that day. The Baseball All-Star game was getting ready to start just a few short blocks away, and the Super Fan Expo something-or-another was going on at the Moscone Convention Center. Dodging sports fans, scalpers and hangers on, I hurried my way with driven anticipation across Market street to the big bright cube on the corner known at the Apple Store.
It was electric in there, like a celebrity was going to walk into the party. But it was already there, sitting on the table to the left with hoards of onlookers clamoring at a chance to see it, touch it and talk about it.
I had already played with one last week, knew what I wanted to know and walked up to the first of several available reps and quickly barraged him with questions about battery life, bluetooth, email, typing and various other concerns I had gleamed from the critical blogs. He confidently quieted my queries as I noticed a sign indicating that new phones are delivered daily and you need to get there early if you want to get one...
I didn't stand a chance.
"I want one"
"ok, 4 or 8 gigs"
"8"
That's all it took and I was on my way with iPhone, case and uber-branded bag in hand, which tells everyone in the world that I have just joined the club of iPhone users. Rejoice and welcome to the future.
I felt giddy, like I had just pulled off a practical joke or knew a special secret. I hadn't owned the device for 15 minutes before it already started redeeming its costs, and the box was still closed.
Activation was surprisingly straight-forward. Plug it in, connect it to your computer and iTunes launches, guiding you through a set of screens with forms and plans and set-up procedures on your way to the promised land. I was month to month on my previous plan so moving my number was a snap and I was up and running before I knew it.
This is a total game changer. The feeling of it in your hand is weighted perfectly, and the screen is big and bright and clear. The glass smudged with finger use but is of high quality that you can easily clean it with your shirt or the special mini towel included with purchase.
There is one button on the front of it, which takes you "Home", of course.
The home screen is extremely intuitive, with the essential functions on the bottom: Phone, Email, Web, iPod
The top row consists of internal iLife-y apps: Text/SMS, Calendar, Photos and Camera
The middle row is web widgets: YouTube, Stocks, Google Maps and Weather
The bottom row are utility apps: Clocks, Calculator, Notes and Settings
The multi-touch screen is incredibly smooth, and the user interface (iUI) is like Ajax 3.0. Everything glides from one command to another, as if you're on a magical flying carpet.
A virtual keyboard appears if you're doing something that needs typing like sending a text message, composing an email or enter a web page address. It does take a little getting used to, and you quickly learn the tricks to quick recovery and response. After a few days of use it becomes a non-issue.
The media scrolling is fun and exciting. You can move your finger along the screen for a photo slideshow, or scroll seamlessly through your contacts and music.
Functionally, it does what you'd expect. The phone works, and the visual interface makes it fun to make a call or conference someone else in. Call waiting was especially awesome as you could put someone on hold and then just tap the screen on their name to go back to them. Basics like contacts, favorites, recent and missed calls are all taken up to the next level along with Voicemail, which has been completely digitized. The email program is a great POP mail reader, and displays the actual email with actual attachments. The web browser is Safari. Complete web sites load fully and you can zoom in by "squeezing" the screen in and out with two fingers. Rad. The iPod uses the same iUI to go from Aritsts > Albums > Songs. Turning the device horizontally changes the view to a visual cover flow of album art.
Listening to music on the way to the office I got a call, and the music nicely faded into my ring tone. I could answer the call without even looking at the screen by squeezing the button on the ear piece. When the call ended the music I had been rocking to faded back in for the grand finale. The crowd went nuts -- there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
There are, of course, a few things it doesn't do, but all of these are software issues which will hopefully be corrected in future updates:
- You can't send a text/sms message to an email address. This makes mobile blogging, especially with Blogger, kinda useless.
- You can't text message more than one person at a time.
- You can't send a photo over text/sms. I realize that Sprint was using a media server for this and then sending people a link.
- You can't do iChat.
- You can't take videos with the camera, although the camera is 2 megapixels and better than anything i've seen before (see photos below).
- You can't view flash on web pages, but the built in YouTube program has it's own interface and also activates automatically if you go to a YouTube video page in Safari.
- The wi-fi capabilities are great, but if you're not in range using the AT&T Edge network is extremely slow and renders most of the web browsing kinda useless.
- It doesn't work with the Plantronics bluetooth earpiece I had been using.
All of these issues are something of luxury problems. The iPhone holds up to the hype, and creates a whole new paradigm in mobile technology convergence. Wow that was a lot of buzzwords in a row.
Hats off to the Apple team and Steve Jobs for taking a huge risk, going all the way to the edge and completely re-inventing something which needed it. You get an inspirational innovation contact high from just using it and it makes you want to go make something new...or make a phone call, while surfing the web and listening to music.
A final note on Sprint. Even though I had bought the iPhone I still was curious if they'd fix the Treo as I had been paying for the replacement plan. They not only fixed it, but the technician came out to tell me he was a big fan of JamBase. d'oh! sorry dude...
...and now, the iPhone photos:
