Category: gadgets and technology

After the initial walkthrough, I thought it would be interesting to compare specific features and applications between my iPhone and the N95 and N800… We’ll start with Google Maps.

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iPhone, Nokia, Google, N-Series, N95, GPS, Navigation, Google Maps

I shot some video today of the iPhone and wanted to begin to compare things to the Nokia’s I’ve got as well. This is mainly the iPhone with a few phyiscal comparisons to the N95 and the N800. I’ll dive deeper into specific features and applications in future pieces.

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iPhone, AT&T, Nokia, Internet Tablet, Apple, N800, N-Series, N95

I’m sure there will be a lot to say about this new device over time but I’ve got to say it’s a VERY cool device. Considering what it does and does well and even the things it does not do, I’m extremely pleased with how it all comes together.

I’ve been using Nokia N-Series mobile devices for a few years now and have enjoyed the progression of functionality and features from the N90 to the N95 as well as in the two Nokia Internet Tablets. The iPhone combines everything I know I want to have and ties it all together in a beautiful package.

The hardware is stunning. When you hold it in your hand, you know it’s a solid piece. It’s heavier than my N95 but it’s metal, not plastic and the iPhone is also very smooth. The front as you’ve certainly seen by now is almost all screen and the display is the best I’ve seen – super bright and easy to read indoors and amazingly very easy to read in outdoor environments as well. I’ve been using it at the beach the past few days and have had no problem reading the screen in bright sun – even with polarizing sunglasses.

Calling the iPhone a phone would be a disservice.

It’s far more computer that makes phone calls than it is phone, though compared to any mobile computer I’ve used. The battery has enough in it to go a full day with everything on. I’ve been getting up around 6 and find that the battery can go until close to 5pm before I get the warning at 20%. This is with email (3 accounts) checking every 15 minutes, wifi and bluetooth on and clicking through to the web frequently from email as well as general browsing to sites like Google Reader or Jaiku. I’ve listened to a few podcasts while doing all of this and in general things flow very smoothly. Using the included earphones (not my usual choice) works great and with the single button controller I can start and stop the audio playing or take and kill calls.

There are a few times I’ve found that either the browser or email quits, which I honestly (and unfortunately) have come to expect on every device I’ve used. When this happens, it does so with grace and it’s easy to largely resume where yo left off in either app – though you will have to open your web pages again. The last one opened in the first tab pops back when you re-open safari…

It’s hard if not impossible to gauge how the iPhone uses memory. I can’t figure out when I am pushing it too far, though a few clues keep popping up. At times, when tapping a reply into a form in Jaiku, I’ve seen substantial delays in text entry. The only fix that works for me is to kill that tab and try again which is easy enough as I’ve clicked a link from email to get there anyway. I’ve had 5 windows going in the browser while email runs and I view pictures with my family. Initially I though that the browser was not loading windows unless they were upfront, but I Think actually that the iPhone is in fact a multi-threaded device thanks to OSX and having that much going at once just taxes the system to slow things down. Additional delays in both mail and web have been when I’ve walked to the maximum range of the wifi here at our beach house. While the iPhone beautifully reconnects to wifi when I enter the house, it’s slow to drop the connection to EDGE if it can detect WiFi on any level. If I know I’m going to be sitting in a tough connection place, I just manually switch the WiFi off and have had no issues working with EDGE.

The camera is adequate. If there’s good light and your subject is still, you can snap some very nice pictures. The shutter lag seems perfectly manageable – actually it’s pretty quick for a phone camera in my experience. I really like the integration of the images with Aperture and the Photos application is amazing – kills the Gallery app from my N-Series experience. The main drag here is that the only way to get images off is to either sync or email and you can’t save an image to the iPhone if you receive one via mail. That all happens on the desktop since Apple has rudely blocked access to the file system. This also means that your not able to upload to flickr for example while on the go. I did email a pic last night and it worked fine, though as has been reported elsewhere the iPhone strips the EXIF data when you do this for some reason along with resizing things down.

The touch-screen is killer. I’ve had to issues with entering text and have found it easy to pick up, which puts me in the minority I suppose, but I sorta already knew that’s where I was with how many of these toys I played with. 😉 Like everyone else I’d like to see landscape mode work in more than pictures, movies and safari. Especially given that the iPhone does HTML email by default. The zoom features with a double-tap are pretty sweet though and amazing when you realize it “knows” what part of the page to zoom on.

In general my gripes are things that can very easily be fixed with software updates. I’ll be doing some video soon and will compare more directly with my Nokia’s…

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iPhone, AT&T, Nokia, Apple, mobile, WiFi, bluetooth

Not really my first day with the iPhone, but certainly the first day I can use it for the whole day. I’ve had it going since about 6am and got a 20% battery warning at around 12:40. All in all not a bad run.

I’ve had wifi and bluetooth on, email auto-checking every 15 minutes and used the web extensively. I’ve only made one call and that lasted about 15 minutes.

In my previous usage with WiFi enabled handsets, this is by far the best.

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iPhone, AT&T, Apple, wireless, mobile, WiFi, bluetooth

I feel like I’ve spent more time (43 hours waiting on activation!) on this than most people so here’s some info for anyone having issues.

It’s DEFINITELY an ATT issue with porting of numbers. Porting unfortunately also includes Cingular. Thanks to the magic of corporate synergy (sarcasm), Cingular seems to have only changed in name and until you move into an iPhone or new locked ATT device (more on this in a moment), you are still clearly in the OLD system.

Yesterday Apple told me to speak to ATT about getting a new SIM, which ATT told me (at the store) was impossible. Today Apple told me (at the store) they had no SIMs to offer (I should speak to ATT!) and that they would NOT give me a new iPhone. Their POV was that the iPhone was fine and that it was just a matter of time… Around midnight I spoke to someone who was able to manually remove and re-add my iPhone to the plan and try an OTA activation … That was done again today and failed.

It was not until a call later today I learned there’s some magical bit that has to get associated with your account that until it does will leave you in limbo. My limbo lasted 43 hours… The magic bit is something called “Apple Tracking.” Until this is associated with your account, you will continue to see that you need more time for activation to occur.

During my dad’s activation this afternoon (after mine went through!) he encountered one hitch which is that he uses PayTrust to manage bills and that address (South Dakota) did not match where he was planning to use as his main address (outside Philadelphia). Amazingly ATT called within minutes of his second attempt to process and walked us through a walk-around. The suggestion was to set up a matching address with billing and usage and change once it’s activated. Once this was done, my dad’s iPhone activated a moment later. Knowing my issues well enough I suggested that instead of porting his number from Verizon, he go with a new ATT number and just port it later once everything was running.

The process is getting smoother but I am not sure that’s really because anything has been fixed, and more because enough time has passed for the customer reps to have a pooled an amount of learning and are actively sharing. Over the course of my conversations, the people seemed to have

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iPhone, AT&T, Apple

In speaking with ATT tonight I learned that my account was not configured correctly and now it is apparently. I still had a MediaMax (Cingular) data plan attached even though I had selected the iPhone data package as well as 1500 text messages. Neither were there. Interestingly that’s actually the same thing as what I already had – but not named iPhone.

Anyway.

The iPhone was removed and then added back manually by the customer service representative who tried several times to get an OTA activation going, but we were greeted by the standard “your activation requires more time.”

Information seems to be flowing in real-time with ATT and Apple… from the conversations I could hear between reps they are getting on-the-fly advice to try things in the system. Nothing seems to be working consistently. The only standard advice seems to be leave the iPhone connected to your system so as Apple batch processes things it will go through.

So … I think it’s actually on Apple’s end. Afterall my SIM works in my Nokia, but my iPhone sees NO bars and cannot complete it’s process.

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iPhone, AT&T, Apple

It’s officially been 24 hours…

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen those words in the past 24 hours, but it’s far more than I would like to admit. If you’ve followed my Jaiku or Twitters over the past day+, you know I still do not have an activated iPhone. This has been bothering me to such an extent that it actually disrupted sleep last night and gave mea headache for most of the day. To say I’ve been in a bad mood would be an understatement.

In case you’d like the short version… went through initial setup within minutes. (Actually was filming that for an unboxing video that will be far from relevant by the time I’m live with this thing.) Got to the more time needed BS message and sat looking dumfounded for a moment. About a minute or two later I got an email from the iTunes store stating the same thing and that I’d be notified by ATT when it was ready. About 15 hours later I got an email from ATT inviting me to the website to manage my account and all that usual getting started BS – which is extra BS for me as I am already a customer and have an account! Just shy of 18 hours later I got an email from ATT with a confirmation number confirming my processing – not activation of course, but that it was in progress. Nothing since …

My old phone SIM was killed by the activation process so there’s no going back to my prior devices. The iPhone SIM while reported to not work in anything else does in fact work in my Nokia phones (just tested this) and just confirms how messed up ATT is. If I can use the SIM, that means it’s been activated in the system and they have some very special extra lame system handling JUST iPhones which is the problem. It is “just” a phone anyway… regardless of how cool it might be.

I was told by Apple today that I could try a few things. First press the home and power buttons for a few seconds at startup until the logo screen appears… try it outside. Nothing. Apple also suggested I go to AT&T and get a new SIM which I did and was told a)they were not allowed to do that for iPhones and b) that would disrupt the process of activation since the SIM and IMEI are linked. This led me to try taking the SIM out and re-seating it. Nothing. BTW – the SIM is a 3G SIM and says so on both sides…. interesting.

I’m left with a few choices. 1 – Continue to suck it up and hope I magically activate soon. 2 – Kill this process with AT&T over the phone, go back to my other SIM once it activates (assuming it does) and then try again later with the iPhone. For now I’m sticking it out. Like some sick personal challenge, I can’t get beaten here.

I freaked on the ATT staff who shook their heads and hands and called (the same number!) customer support I’ve been dealing with but I somehow got to someone who seemed at least remotely in the loop – perhaps enough time had passed for training to occur. Anyway I pushed quite hard and was able to get a free month of voice service from the call – even though I am still without any service. I guess that and my hat will get me a free bowl of soup!

I’m out of thoughts here other than to try and chill. This is way beyond my control clearly and well beyond the control of anyone I’ve spoken to. It’s broken and will be until it’s fixed. It sucks, but that’s the way it is.

PS – Apple’s phone system said (and I heard this countless times in the hour I waited) hold time is estimated at 5 minutes or longer. My wait was 1 hour and 15 minutes and I suggested they update the time expectation.

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Marketing, iPhone, AT&T, Apple, broken

10 hours after attempting to activate later…. I have no phone. My iPhone is waiting and my previous SIM is dead. The iPhone is useless without activation – no iPod, or any other features period.

I was in the middle of shooting an uboxing video but that clearly is far from time relevant now given the delay. At this point I’d simply like to have some form of phone service via an active SIM.

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iPhone, AT&T, Apple

While we were led to believe otherwise this Brinks Security truck really did deliver the iPhones today.

I arrived at the Brewster, NY AT&T store around noon and found myself number 9 in line. I quickly moved to 8, when one potential customer discovered he was not eligible based on something (I honestly was not paying attention).

The day was painless. People were very friendly and generally just psyched to be there. The crowd was a total cross-section. We had geeks, nerds, jocks Moms, and Dads with kids. There was a good mix of women even, which was surprising, but clearly the iPhone crosses over every personality type.

6 hours later – the doors opened and we went inside to find the AT&T systems completely overrun with traffic. The 5 employes at the store were very friendly and doing what they could but it was just too much traffic at once apparently. After about 45 minutes I was able to leave with my 8GB (one per customer) iPhone in hand!

My iPhone is still sitting in it’s box and wrapped! I’m sitting in an almost dark room while my daughter falls asleep and then I’ll unbox properly! I did get a chance to play with a unit in the store and the hardware feels amazing in your hand. It’s quite solid and surprisingly smaller than anticipated which is great. Much more to follow…

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iPhone, AT&T, Apple

I’ll be heading to an ATT store in Northern Westchester thinking I’ll beat the potential crowds at the White Plains Apple Mall Store. What’s your plan?

Don’t expect much here today until later, but here are a few notes from today’s papers:

From USA Today

Q: What about corporate e-mail? I understand that’s an issue for many consumers, who may not be able to hook up to their company networks?

Jobs: You’ll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks. We have some pilots going with companies with names you’ll recognize. This won’t be a big issue. [USA Today]

And the Wall Street Journal

WSJ: What do you both envision being added over time to the iPhone, in terms of access to ringtones through Cingular’s (now rebranded AT&T) platform and maybe through some other manner, like turning your iTunes songs into ringtones?

Mr. Jobs: As you may know, iTunes is now the number three distributor of music in the U.S., ahead of Amazon and Target and behind Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and obviously the largest online distributor of music in the world. Of course, you can play that music now on your iPhone. One might imagine a lot of things down the road.

WSJ: Is one of those things offering music purchases and video purchases directly from the phone?

Mr. Jobs: There’s a lot of things you can imagine down the road.

WSJ: Steve, how are you feeling now about how this device will impact your iPod business? Will it cannibalize iPod sales in any meaningful way?

Mr. Jobs: We can report to you that it hasn’t so far. We announced this in January, and we’ve had a very healthy iPod business since then. This is a more expensive device and one that carries a service requirement with it, unlike any iPod does. I’m not too worried about that, but we’ll certainly report to you what happens as it happens.

WSJ: A lot of attention has been focused in some of the initial reviews of the iPhone on the EDGE network that this phone is going to be on. Steve, we saw somewhere that your concern in putting a 3G chip in the first edition of the iPhone was that the current generation of that technology would drain the battery a lot, and that there were also some issues of coverage of the AT&T 3G network at the time you did this deal. Is that correct and have those issues been resolved over time as we’ve seen the technology evolve?

Mr. Stephenson: If you think about wireless broadband networks, EDGE is the only ubiquitous nationwide broadband network deployed today. It’s a 300-plus kilobit type service. We’re selling in the tens of thousands every single month of smart phones that operate on nothing but EDGE. The service experience is really, really good and what you’re going to see with the iPhone is the caching technology that Steve and the Apple guys have developed here makes the EDGE experience even better. Between the Wi-Fi and the EDGE coverage, this is a really good experience.

We put right south of $16 billion of capital into this network over the last two years. I feel real good about the coverage and the performance. We put tens of thousands of hours of testing this device on this network and it’s performing at the top of any device we have out there.

…

Mr. Jobs: You know every (AT&T) Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. It turns out EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed is…on a Web browser. It’s good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That’s where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network.

What we’ve done with the iPhone is we’ve made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don’t have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There’s often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you’re sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody’s home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well.

When we looked at 3G, the chipsets are not quite mature, in the sense that they’re not low-enough power for what we were looking for. They were not integrated enough, so they took up too much physical space. We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I’m sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision.

WSJ: Can you say whether 3G technology has evolved to the point where you’re already working on including that in the next edition of the iPhone?

Mr. Jobs: No, we just don’t comment on future stuff.[WSJ]