First trip with the iPhone
My recent trip to New Media Expo was my first travel experience since I moved from the Treo 650 to the new iPhone 3G. Overall, I think it the move was positive.
Web browsing was, as expected, far and beyond a better experience than I’ve had previously. No surprise here.
Those of you who followed my SXSW experience know I find Twitter to be an invaluable tool while traveling. On the Treo I was relegated to accessing Twitter with the Treo’s wimpy web interface. On the iPhone I was able to use the Twitterific application and it was, again, a much smoother experience.
Email on the iPhone is a mixed blessing. It sure looks nice, but the UI is quite a bit slower than I had with ChatterEmail on re Treo. This is largely due to the lack of physical keyboard meaning I didn’t have shortcut buttons for filing messages and such. That said, the virtual keyboard on the iPhone allows for MUCH faster typing than I had on the Treo. In fact, this blog post comes from the iPhone while on board a plane from Las Vegas to Dallas (thanks to the WordPress application).
Battery life was also a difficult bit to manage. I found I could make the battery last for a full day only by disabling Bluetooth, WiFi, Location Services, and auto-brightness. I could leave 3G on and make it through the day, though I found the speed benefits were outweighed by the battery savings gained by disabling 3G for all but the heaviest web-surfing needs.
SMS works very well on the iPhone, though I realized that I got very used to using copy and paste on the Treo. In situations where I had to alert multiple team members or colleagues to the same bit of info, I would simply type the message once and use the clipboard to facilitate sending to the rest. On the iPhone I had to retype the message over and over again.
So while the iPhone has a long way to go on its path to maturity, it is clearly a superior platform, especially with the growing App store. I look forward to more software updates and applications that will make use of the iPhone on future trips even smoother!
August 18th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
With regards to your troubles with SMS. The iPhone has the ability to let you select more than one address to send the same SMS message to. Just hit the plus icon in the upper right corner to add as many addresses as you want. Should save you having to type the same message over and over again.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:30 am
With regards to your troubles with SMS. The iPhone has the ability to let you select more than one address to send the same SMS message to. Just hit the plus icon in the upper right corner to add as many addresses as you want. Should save you having to type the same message over and over again.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks, Albert. I noticed that there, but the UI was unclear: would replies from recipients be sent to the whole group? Also, I have to send *exactly* the same message to all instead of copying the bulk and personalizing like I used to on the Treo.
But yes, this would be a good “second-best” solution until we get copy/paste on the iPhone. If some crafty developer could make it work on jailbroken iPhones, I would totally jailbreak mine.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Thanks, Albert. I noticed that there, but the UI was unclear: would replies from recipients be sent to the whole group? Also, I have to send *exactly* the same message to all instead of copying the bulk and personalizing like I used to on the Treo.
But yes, this would be a good “second-best” solution until we get copy/paste on the iPhone. If some crafty developer could make it work on jailbroken iPhones, I would totally jailbreak mine.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Re receieved SMS, since there is no way to determine if the replies are to a certain message, they would just be saved under each replyer. It means that tracking conversations is a bit split up.
It really just serves as a quick way to bulk message the same people.
An SMS forward option would be better perhaps, allowing you to have the same SMS included in each conversation for each person.
Glad your trip went well. Re Twitter, have you had a look at Twinkle at all? Great for things like SXSW or NME as you can view all tweets from anyone in your location, ideal for finding better sessions or parties.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Re receieved SMS, since there is no way to determine if the replies are to a certain message, they would just be saved under each replyer. It means that tracking conversations is a bit split up.It really just serves as a quick way to bulk message the same people.
An SMS forward option would be better perhaps, allowing you to have the same SMS included in each conversation for each person.
Glad your trip went well. Re Twitter, have you had a look at Twinkle at all? Great for things like SXSW or NME as you can view all tweets from anyone in your location, ideal for finding better sessions or parties.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:15 am
Thanks, Dom. Makes perfect sense. And now thanks to you I have Twinkle, as well, and completely see what you mean. Nice!
August 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Thanks, Dom. Makes perfect sense. And now thanks to you I have Twinkle, as well, and completely see what you mean. Nice!
October 26th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hey Dave,
Just curious, what other apps have you downloaded and are using from the iTunes App Store?
October 26th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Hey Dave,Just curious, what other apps have you downloaded and are using from the iTunes App Store?