The iPhone Review…

Beware. Very very very long post ahead. More photos than I would usually blog with and a lot of jibber jabber.

From a regular guy who probably knows a bit about tech stuff but not enough that he’s still completely clueless when he receives an iPhone without a manual. Hence, the review.

So as you’ve probably seen all the ads and perhaps even toyed with iPhones that belonged to friends and family, you probably would have thought to yourself, “Should I get one?”

Probably the biggest thing about the iPhone was its touch screen capability. Used to seeing the normal screen and having to press little buttons to access the menu, this is suddenly a bit different from what everyone is used to.

This is the iPhone’s answer to the usual “lock keys” button that many phones have. Nokia most likely popularised the whole “Press menu then star” idea. The iPhone decides to do THIS instead.

Now if I can draw you ladies and gentlemen’s attention to the black little slit on top of the iPhone. The gaping hole is where you’d plug in your obviously white iPod headphones. The small small cousin of the gaping headphone socket is the sim eject hole where you preferably insert the included sim eject tool/pin/name badge needle. Now the black little slit is actually not a slit at all. Its the lock key. Press the key and no matter where you are in the phone, it locks the phone. Completely. Shut down. Like what high tech companies would do if an intruder breaks in. Lockdown. Totally.

*all right, enough of that.*

And this is how you would unlock the phone. And this is where you start getting your fingers dirty. Keep your minds clean, please. +D

Slightly out of view at the bottom part of the iPhone, you can see a squarish button. This is the requisite Home key that gets you back to the beginning wherever you are. When the iPhone is locked and loaded, the whole screen goes blank. Press the Home key and the screen comes to life. See the arrow? And the instructions “slide to unlock”?

Do that.

And then you’ll get to this screen, better known as the Home Screen.

Yes, this picture is the same one as the one earlier, just smaller. Press the Home key and you’ll get back to this screen no matter how deep you dive into the nooks and crannies of the iPhone.

One of the main reasons why I decided to get an iPhone was primarily, to check out the onscreen keyboard thing. But then it started doubling as an mp3 player as well as a phone. Then it became my mobile internet surfer, my quick 3 second weather check for the morning, and a time passing Sudoku puzzle. But more on that later.

If anything, the iPhone takes a little getting used to.

As with everything i-(insert gadget here), music is one of the main features. One thing that seemed to sway me towards getting an iPhone rather than the iPod Touch which was wayyy cheaper as well as having pretty much the same functions was that the iPhone was well…an iPod Touch with phone functions. Why bother getting two different gadgets when you can pick up just the one thing and multitask with it?

Don’t get me wrong, the Sony Ericsson k800i still rocks my socks. I would rather take pictures with the SE rather than the iPhone, especially since I didn’t get the new model. Although even with the new iPhone, I don’t have all the basic camera functions that I had with SE.

So back to the issue of the iPod on the iPhone. The menu moves with a flick of the finger both up and down. Turning it sideways provides you with the CoverFlow function so if you’ve been anal retentive enough to get all the album covers, you won’t be disappointed.

Nice little tip too. If lyrics are included, if you play the song, the lyrics display and you can do a little karaoke session.

And like some of the new SE phones that are coming up and out, the iPhone boasts a “Shake to shuffle” function.

However, its bloody sensitive. If you’re like me and you like putting  your phone in your pocket and listening to songs at the same time, turn off “shake to shuffle”. Because with every 2 steps I take, I’m listening to a new song. Either I jiggle and shake that much that it registers it as a shake or else its that bloody good and sensitive. A good reminder to keep it turned off when you’re heading out for a run/jog/bike ride/walk/preferred method of cardio.

This is usually what I would turn to if I decided to go out on the town for an extended period of time. It kinda gives me an idea whether my light jacket would do or would I have to prepare for Hell freezing over when I step out the door. The weather app is one of the requisites on this phone. You get pretty used to it. Especially living in a country like this one where the weather changes its mind like a girl changes clothes (sorry Katy Perry, I couldn’t resist), preparation is key. Or else you get soaked to your underwear like I do when I decide to go out in just my hoodie and the skies decide to piss on me just for the fun of it.

This is Photos, another requisite app on the Home Screen. This is for those people who are photo-friendly, as in they usually have photos from all over and are usually dying to show their friends their collection. So if you’re one of those, I’d strongly recommend getting a 32GB iPhone. Especially if you take more photos than a celebrity paparazzi.

Now, everyone would probably have heard of the Accelerator. Even non iPhones are picking it up. Turn the phone and the screen turns with you. Wow.

So this is it.

Say I wanted to show everyone the deliciously huge blueberry muffin that I got from a measly $2 from one of the most awesome cafes ever, this is what comes up.

But hey, its a bit small and I can’t taunt my friend who has decided to go on a diet and show her the little juicy blueberries buried in the moist softness.

So I just turn it sideways.

Then said friend would leap at the screen scrabbling for food. Dangerous times, this is.

Now this was the main reason why I wanted to get this stupid phone. Well, its not stupid but this frustrated me to no end whenever I was at the Vodafone demo stand. I wondered whether my finger was too big or too dumb. But its purely a practice thing.

Honestly.

I’m still wayyy faster on a phone that has a keypad. After 5 years of practice, the keypad is still the way to go if you have to send a message in the dark.

But this…is something for people to drool over. Its different, its provocative, and hell, its something that people will talk about for ages.

You know when you have a text conversation with someone and you want to actually be able follow said conversation without reverting to the “sent messages” folder every single time?

The iPhone allows you to do just that.

This is my friend showing shock and horror that I got myself an iPhone.

White is me friend, green is me. So you can actually see what’s been said without having to go through the inbox/sent messages folder. Hi Singaporean Rambo (LTA)!! *waves*

And for those of who HAVE to check the internet (like moi who was deprived of internet at home for 7 months! 7 months, I tell you!), Safari is built right into it so you can start surfing straight away (provided you have enough credit, of course.)

But all in all, the iPhone is still exactly that. A phone.

 

And when you dial a number and you put it up to your ear, the touch screen senses the fact that its an ear, not a finger and the touch screen turns itself off. Until you remove your ear and replace it with a finger, that is.

This is the general menu when you dial and what you see when you take your ear away. Sorry for the horrible photo but the only working camera I had near me was the computer’s webcam.

So that’s it, really. The things I’ve found out so far over the past several days that I’ve been playing around with it. And all this…from NOT having a manual. Not bad, aye? Must admit, though, without the manual, there’s a lot more of a surprise element. Though it would be nice to know the iPhone inside out.

May blog about camera function, little funny things I find out about it later. But I think this is pretty good for a first attempt. Eh?