iPhone 3G: First Thoughts

A friend and I went to the Apple Store in Seattle on Friday morning thinking we could pick up one of the spiffy new iPhones. Us and many hundred other folks. (See photo of the line at right.) Rick and I both looked at each other and decided we weren’t that hard core.

Rick is now off vacationing with his family in Wyoming (a state that lacks Apple Stores), but I came back this afternoon and decided I could deal with today’s much shorter line (just one hour).

Line Hospitality

Props to Apple for their hospitality for those of us in line. This fellow came around several times with water, sunblock, and free newspapers.

Nice.

Once my number came up, the purchase process actually went pretty smoothly, and I think I was out of the store again in something like ten minutes at most.

First Experience: iTunes Store Fail

After running a few other errands, we were finally on the ferry on the way home a few hours later. What better time to hook up with my laptop and try downloading some apps, right?

Wrong.

Somehow my laptop managed to lose its authentication against the iTunes Store, so I kept clicking the “get app / buy app” links in the store. Each time I would get a warning that I had exceeded the number of authorized computers on my account. But it let me download/purchase anyway.

What it wouldn’t let me do, I found out a few minutes later, was to transfer the newly purchased/downloaded apps onto my phone.

Argh.

I did eventually manage to sort out the authentication issue, but it seems to me unwise to let somebody purchase apps if they can’t do anything with them.

First Handful of Apps

I’ve downloaded quite the set of applications so far, and I thought I’d share my first impressions about them:

• Byline: I’d like a dedicated app for reading my feeds. I do this through the online Google Reader site. At first glance, Byline looks really sweet, but it’s missing one really key feature: the ability to browse tags assigned in Google Reader. Some feeds are very legible on the iPhone, some (photos from Flickr contacts, for example) are not. I tag the phone-suitable feeds with “iPhone” in Google Reader, and I really want to read just those tags on my phone and leave the other feeds for when I have more screen real-estate. Until Byline (or another RSS app) does this, I’m probably back to the regular web experience.
• Google Mobile App: I don’t really see the point of this app. It’s a minor improvement at best on the Google search experience already available in the web browser. The thing that’s missing from both the existing Google web site and GMA is a rendering of search results that’s tuned for mobile display. Why there’s an iPhone specific version of Google Reader and GMail, but not Google search is kind of baffling to me.
• Jott for iPhone: First, let me say that Jott really rocks. I’ve been using it for most of a year (see my review of Jott and Remember the Milk from last fall) and I’m still very happy with it. So far I’ve only tested the mobile app version once and I didn’t get any e-mail from it. The recording I made is still available on the phone, but that isn’t really the purpose, is it?
• Places: Looks very cool! I tested it when at home and the recommendations match closely with my own experiences at local restaurants, etc., so I expect I’ll be making use of it when I’m on the road again.
• Remote: Also looks very cool. Some friends pointed me at this application, and I bought an Airport Express based on that recommendation. I think it will be replacing the Roku SoundBridge in our living room, which, though functional, has never really become popular in our home.

I haven’t given enough of a trial yet to comment on the other applications in my screen shot above.

Last Year’s Wish List

Last year, near the end of my “iPhone Review” article, I posted a wish list. Let’s see how the new phone measures up:

• BlueTooth. No improvement really.
• GPS. Check.
• Independent sync with .Mac / Google Calendar. Check, sort of. I still find the $99 price tag a bit steep, since all I’m using from .Mac MobileMe is contact synchronization. I’m hoping that there’s a way to push-sync with Gmail contacts soon.
• True third-party apps. Check.
• Faster wireless. Check.
• Custom ring tones (i.e. snippets of my MP3s). Check.
• AIM/Jabber chat. Check.
• A decent shared notebook service. No. I’m hoping the folks at 37signals are working on something in the background.
• VPN at least for work e-mail, etc. Check.

This Year’s Wish List

In addition to the items hinted at above, I’m hoping the phone can improve in the following ways this year:

• Better Google integration. My e-mail and calendar life lives on Google, and I’d like the phone to play directly in that space.
• GPS track log support. I’d love it if I didn’t have to carry a separate GPS unit with me just to geocode my photos. Ideally I could have the phone simply e-mail me the track logs whenever I needed them.
• Better navigation. Our first foray into using step-by-step directions from the phone was unimpressive. Unlike any of the in-car units I’ve ever used, the iPhone failed to recalculate automatically when I diverged from the designated route. When driving, I can’t afford to manually reset the navigation on the phone.
• Document viewing. I’d like to be able to transfer important documents (flight plans, etc.) in PDF form to the phone and have them viewable on short notice.

I think most of these things can be covered off by application upgrades. Here’s hoping!

Tagged as: iphone, iPhone 3G