Anyone have an iPhone or come from one?

[dr g]

The accelerometer is one of the true breakthroughs in phone interfaces in the past little while. Good thing the TP has it.
Frankly, though, the stylus has always been the ultimate gaming control for PDA type devices and the best games for these platforms are those that make best use of stylus control.

[orlandojumpoff]

yeah thats why well never see it... but htc should make one since they make so many phones.. might as well hit the gamer market for one model. if it came out like the keyboard it wouldnt be so cramped.. im surprised some sorta miniusb controller hasnt been developed tho... then maybe id try emu games againon road/plane trips

[jethro_static]

Originally Posted by orlandojumpoff

yeah thats why well never see it... but htc should make one since they make so many phones.. might as well hit the gamer market for one model. if it came out like the keyboard it wouldnt be so cramped.. im surprised some sorta miniusb controller hasnt been developed tho... then maybe id try emu games againon road/plane trips

yup that why we need this games on our phones. for long road trips and plane trips. bejeweled is getting old. LOL

[whinecellar]

NOTE - I just re-read this before posting - sorry in advance for the length but I hope it's all useful info for those of you who care Here we go...

Some of you have been asking for a list of comparisons between the TP & the iPhone 3G. Well, I have been going back and forth for about a MONTH trying to make up my mind between these two phones (I'm currently on the TP), and I made a list a while ago that may help.

First off though, let me acknowledge that I probably qualify for official Apple fanboy status - I am a die hard Mac user. I started out as a PC guy but I have owned every Mac desktop & laptop for the last 15 years. I make my living staring at computers all day (I'm a film music composer) and as most of you know, the movie & music industries lean very heavily in the Mac direction. Naturally just about everyone I work with has an iPhone, and I've messed with them quite a bit.

You would think somebody like me would just line up to drink the iPhone cool aid out of blind devotion - but you'd be wrong. As much as I love the overall Mac aesthetic (and the iPhone has that in spades), there are just too many things that bug me about it which keep me from making a decision.

See, I like customizabilty, and I like options. This is why I was drawn to the Touch Pro. So far so good on those fronts - the TP does pretty much everything I want a smartphone to do at this point. It also lets me tweak it to death, in every way. Options out the wazoo - LOVE that.

However, when I pick up a friend's iPhone again, my gear lust kicks into overdrive. Uncle Steve & co. just plain know how to kick major booty in the UI department. Some have confused simplicity with being "toy-like" - and the iPhone is no toy. It just happens to be simple to use - elegantly so - and I can't imagine why that's a bad thing. There's simply no better user interface out there.

I've lived with the TP for almost a month now, and as much as I love it, I'm still debating whether to roll the dice and get an iPhone. Why? Well, the overall UI, the quality of the hardware (feels like a BMW in the palm of your hand; glass vs. plastic; no squeeks & creaks like the TP), the apps that are coming out every day, and the fact that this thing is legitimately becoming the next major computing platform. I just can't ignore where this is going, and I want to be onboard. That may be silly, I admit, but like it or not, the iPhone is a phenomenon that is only going to gather more steam.

OK, sorry for the long-windedness. Here's that list - hope it helps you make a decision - sadly it hasn't helped me as much I would have thought

TOUCH PRO ADVANTAGES (no particular order)

- Sprint's 3G network is 4x AT&Ts (but they will catch up I'm sure)
- removable battery
- create & edit MS Office documents on the device itself
- voice dialing & MS Voice Command (works amazingly well, but there's a new iPhone app called 'Say Who' that apparently does the same thing)
- easy custom MP3 ringtones & onboard MP3 clip editor
- small size (iPhone's a little thinner but wider - I like the TP form better)
- standard mini-USB cable for charging/sync vs. iPhone's 30-pin plug
- real slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard with dedicated number keys
- true turn-by-turn GPS
- expandable memory (microSD)
- USB/wifi tethering (iPhone will get it but for another $30 month!)
- browser supports Flash (lite)
- Opera automatically wraps text based on zoom level - no need to scroll left/right constantly just to read!
- COPY & PASTE!!!
- acts as USB storage device - easy drag/drop directly rather than having to use iTunes for everything
- transcriber (handwriting recognition) - works surprisingly well
- one of the best cameras I've ever seen on a phone, with advanced features (white balance, etc.)
- records video
- stereo bluetooth support
- true multitasking: you can run more than one app at a time
- stylus! it's nice not to need it, but it's equally nice to have it if you want it.
- fully & easily tweakable (custom ROMS, CAB files galore, you name it)
- KILLER high-res screen (double the vertical resolution of the iPhone) that's incredibly vivid & sharp - looks like a miniature HDTV. If only it were bigger!
- much cheaper plans with Sprint

TOUCH PRO BUMMERS

- feels cheap & "plastic" compared to iPhone; creaks & squeeks every time I touch it. The screen is plastic. To be fair, the iPhone is the only phone I know of with a tempered glass screen... but I sure like that! I don't want to put strips of tape or cloth under my battery cover to make a $300 phone feel solid!

- feels glitchy at times, and I end up doing quite a few soft resets. Again, to be fair, the iPhone is subject to this as well, but under everyday circumstances it just feels "right."

- no headphone out! Gotta use a dongle or cable adapter. It does have great audio quality, and it's so close to being an iPod competitor. The music player is pretty glitchy though, and nothing compares to the iPod UI...

- inconsistent UI. TF3D only masks WinBlows Mobile to an extent, and scrolling, zooming & panning are treated differently per app.

- gotta buy Missing Sync for advanced use with a Mac.

- no international roaming (but Skype and a hotspot would probably make that irrelevant)

Overall, the TP is an incredible phone. It's capable of just about anything, it's generally very responsive, can't beat that slide-out keyboard & high-res screen, etc. If it just felt a bit more solid - heck, I wish it were metal & glass - I think I'd forgive the relatively minor downsides...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

iPhone 3G BUMMERS

- fixed battery
- crappy battery life (unless you only enable 3G as needed)
- no text selection (let alone cut/copy/paste - WTF, Steve?!?!?)
- no MMS (I couldn't care less though - is everyone still in junior high or what?!? Maybe it's just me, but I don't get it...)
- crappy Bluetooth support (no stereo, no file exchange)
- fixed memory (where's the 32GB model already?)
- no support for use as a drive
- AT&T. 'nuff said.
- did I mention AT&T?
- tethering will be an add'l $30/month when it's available
- lots of folks have had the dreaded dropped call issue - nobody seems to know if that's fixable via software updates (geez it would suck if that were a hardware issue!). However, several friends who have recently bought 3G models have said they've had no such trouble....
- Safari is known to crash a bit often (very un-Mac like)
- not all apps multitask
- crappy camera (at least compared to Touch Pro)
- no native landscape keyboard (there are several free solutions though)
- no native voice dialing/command ("Say Who" app fixes this)

iPhone 3G ADVANTAGES:

- world's best UI, overall ease of use, and consistency - by a long shot. There's a reason EVERY smartphone is compared to the iPhone, like it or not.
- hardware quality. makes everything else feel like a toy. elegant simplicity. tempered glass screen. you don't need a scratch protector!

- the App Store. it's not the concept that's so cool (although the execution is brilliantly simple) - it's the CONTENT. Sure there's a lot of goofy, useless stuff (I will not pay $.99 for a virtual whoopie cushion), but there's a ton of potentially life-changing stuff as well. Seriously: GPS-aware to-do lists that remind you to buy milk when you drive near the grocery store?!? Apps that tell you what song is playing nearby (and then let you download it right to iTunes). Apps that use the accelerometer to automatically snap a picture when the camera is still. Voice-activated Google search (made specifically for iPhone). Google Earth. The list goes on and on - there's some mind-blowing stuff in there. Do a search for "must-have iPhone apps" and prepare to be wowed.

For all its flaws (and some are admittedly dealbreakers for many), The App Store alone makes the iPhone seriously hard to ignore. If you read any tech blogs/news, it's totally evident that this is the mobile platform to beat from here on out; there are articles every day about some new twist that give the iPhone yet another insurmountable lead. There was one the other day about airlines starting to implement iPhone-based "virtual boarding passes" - you just show 'em your phone at the gate. I mean c'mon...

- free AT&T wifi hotspot access (airports, Starbuck$, etc.)
- killer mobile browser experience (but I do love Opera's auto text wrap!)
- super slim form factor (prefer TP's narrower width though)
- perfect Mac integration (duh)
- works worldwide
- it's an iPod, for crying out loud
- big ol' screen (if only it had the TP's resolution though!)
- hardware mute (vibrate) switch
- standard 1/8" headphone jack - no adapters/dongle required
- accessories have become a standalone cottage industry
- 3rd party support (growing exponentially)

So, that's about all I can think of. Hope I come across as reasonably objective - I really am trying to provide a balanced perspective & be helpful.

Anyway, to end on a personal note... looking at the lists above, it would seem that the Touch Pro has so many significant advantages that it would be hard to pick the iPhone. Yet despite it all, I'm still leaning very heavily toward the iPhone. Why? I honestly don't know. I may be weird, but I place a LOT of value on the overall aesthetic of a device - the look, the feel, and the overall experience. Despite logic, I also can't ignore where things seem to be headed: the iPhone is king (talking in perceptions here), and the list of who's developing for it is growing by leaps and bounds. Then of course there are the apps - there are so many things there that I never would have even DREAMED of.

Maybe I really am nuts. Maybe if the Touch Pro was made of metal & glass and didn't sound like an old screen door when I handled it, I'd be off playing with it right now instead of typing a novel. Who knows. Incidentally, I am on my 3rd one - the first two had random QC issues and this one is doing some funny things too (flickering screen). Maybe I'm also afraid to leave Sprint after all these years - they've treated me great and they're certainly cheaper (but how long will they be around?)...

Unless someone smacks me upside the head, I'm gonna pick up an iPhone tomorrow morning. The "not knowing" is killing me - I can't wonder what life is like on the other side - I've gotta KNOW. Worst case, I can return it and come back to the Sprint/TP fold and finally get on with living

Either way, hope somebody was at least slightly informed (or entertained?) by my little diatribe here...

Thanks for listening!

Jim

[eptd]

Whinecellar, thank you! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! (Clicked thanks for you!)

[jmorton10]

finally, an intelligent commparison...........

[orlandojumpoff]

"Apps that tell you what song is playing nearby"
like this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=439974
if u didn't know thought id mention it, but maybe it's too late if youre buying an iphone tomorrow lol
thanks for the great post though.. it was great to read a thought out post like that

[Noir]

Originally Posted by jethro_static

Can U post a ink for the WM emulator?What buttons are working?
Emulation for Iphone is there just to be there. It's not suppose to be a basis for Iphones games. Games for Iphone is a full console games. believe it or not.

Game samples:
Starwars Force unleashed:This game is released on game consoles as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngn5k...eature=related

need for speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDMEv...eature=related

Super monkey ball: He described the game as a full console game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a6-cUOPoLY

yes the games look good but I prefer my emulation thanks
and just to be frank, wm had emulation for almost 4 years...and its working 99.9 percent well
*save from sonic 2 for the sega genesis emulator and that's sound based...heck I can even get debug mode who knew*

honestly, you or anyone else is really going to convince me for an apple iphone. And I myself purchasing the device makes me feel like I wasted a lot of money on a phone I thought was par excellence, when in fact I felt really stupid using it because I was fixed to a specific category.

My life, my work, forces me to change things on the fly. And the iphone does not deliver. Windows mobile has its hiccups, and don't get me started on some of the hiccups caused (or the actual companies that cripple their phone out of the box) so in no ways am I a WM fan boy. Though, I will give both phones its due. Just sadly, the iphone is not my phone. Not even in future iterations will the iphone be "my" phone

[Bearxor]

I'm going to throw my .02 in here, even though this is an extremely long thread already.

I've been using WinMo devices since the Toshiba 2032SP. My last device was the Treo 700wx.

Let me just start out by saying that I very much dislike side-sliders. Like, a lot. When my PPC-6600 died, Sprint replaced it with a 6700 and it was, by far, the worst device I had used, ever. That's neither here nor there. Suffice it to say that even though I got Sprint to replace my 6700 with a 700wx, I have also tried a Mogul and I do currently own a Tilt that I swap my SIM card out to every so often, now that I've moved off of Sprint on to AT&T (I guess you know where this post is going by that, lol).

So, next up, let me also say that I very much dislike HTC devices. This was a slow realization, mainly coming from the fact that besides the very early players that dropped out quickly in the NA market (Toshiba, Hitachi), HTC was pretty much the only game in town. HTC devices never live up to what they should be. They're always buggy and of poor build quality. They require constant attention and tweaking. That's why forums like this exist, to basically prop up HTC devices.

I keep wondering when the end-users are going to stop buying HTC devices. Every release is exactly the same. High expectations with eventual disappointment and the resignation that 'it's just the way it is'. That's why I loved my Treo 700wx so much and why a HTC phone wasn't even on my 'possibility' list to upgrade, only the Treo 800w.

Then, the iPhone 3G was announced. It wasn't even the 3G part that caught me, it was the 2.0 software. I had often looked at the iPhone and told myself 'It's neat, but I really need it on Sprint and it really needs Exchange support. 2.0 fixed the Exchange complaint and the promise of future software updates really intrigued me. While I resisted, on July 13th I ended up waking up really early to head to the Apple store to stand in line for a 8GB black iPhone. One day after my birthday, too.

Let me just say that it is the slickest device I have ever laid my hands on. Nice and smooth, really thin with a nice big screen. One trend in the Windows Mobile space that I have not been a big fan of is 2.8" screens. My first three phones had full-size 3.5" screens ad moving to the 2.5" on the Treo was a major bummer. I've always used my phones for some multi-media video streaming, and the smaller screens always irritated me.

I was a little hesitant about the touch interface, having never liked touching my screen on other devices, but it works really well on the iPhone. I wouldn't say the interface is amazing, though. I would really prefer having everything limited to one screen on the main menu rather than having to flip through pages. I know there's some jailbreak apps that let you put applications in to folders and I've tried a jailbreak a couple of times and have always went back to stock because the phone seems so unstable afterwards. Often times, I find myself flicking through pages trying to find the app I want. 12 icons per page just aren't enough. I would just prefer to have everything on one page, even if it means tapping a couple of extra times to navigate a 'start menu' like interface.

I'm really irritated by Apple's lack of push notifications so far. This was promised to be delivered this year and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I'm sure they're working on it, but AIM is basically a useless app without it. I still get my IM's when I'm offline via text message, just like I have been for the past 5 years, but it would be nice to get them in the AIM app.

The keyboard takes some getting used to. It's not VERY inaccurate, but it is fairly inaccurate. I do miss physical keys. They 'key' to being a good typist on the iPhone is to rely on the auto-correct software to fix your mistakes and then re-read it when you're done typing. If you do that, I find that I'm a faster typer on the iphone than on the Treo or Tilt.

The phone can be kind of laggy sometimes. Often, tapping an application to launch it will result in a 15-20 second wait while it launches. The delay for the SMS app is simply unacceptable. I don't have a problem from the other main apps like Phone, Mail and Safari, but the SMS app takes a good 30 seconds sometimes before it comes up.

Keyboard lag is also unacceptable. Often times, clicking in a text box will result in a significant delay as the iPhone seems to struggle to bring up the keyboard. Having said that, it's not any more of a delay than sliding the keyboard open on a HTC device and waiting for the screen rotation would take. It's just very pronounced because you're doing nothing while waiting for that keyboard. Sometimes, on the Treo, there would be a delay in my typing before it appeared on the screen, but at least it would catch up. You can't do that on the iPhone, because you can't type until the phone gets around to displaying the keyboard.

The inability to customize the new mail sound is unacceptable. It is an extremely low-sounding notification to begin with, even at full volume. The mail app, on the other hand, is very nice. Hardly have any problems out of it.

The phone app is also very nice. Bringing up the dialpad give you a nice, large dial surface with no lag between hitting a number and having it display on the screen with a nice satisfying 'button sound'. This has long been a complaint on WinMo device, though Palm fixed it by essentially eliminating the default WinMo phone app. The favorites are nice, and a quick double-tap of the home button will bring you straight to it, as long as no music is playing.

The silent switch is nice. It silences everything except alarms. Alarms have to be manually set by you, so it's not a big deal. On my Treo, I would often silence it while browsing the web at night and forget to flip the switch back and then not wake up in the morning because of it. The alarms will go off on the iPhone. Also, even if the silent switch is flipped, the iPhone will play anything you start manually, like music, movies or games Also very nice.

I wish I could add codecs to the iPhone to play divx or xvid files, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I wish I didn't have to use iTunes for file management. I'd like to just copy my files to a directory and manage it myself, thanks, but I understand the majority of regular users are simply going to just want to sync their music over.

There's no AT&T 3G service in my area, but it's not AT&T's fault. The towers are maintained by a local Telco, not AT&T, so it's their fault. Having said that, the EDGE speeds aren't bad, they can be quite decent. But when they're bad, they are bad, like in places with poor signal. i do wish I was still on Sprint sometimes, but it's not overwhelming. Especially since I can get service in my house now. The iPhone is also very good at intelligently switching between WiFi and cellular when it can. I'm pretty impressed by it, honestly.

Safari is simply INCREDIBLE. I don't think any other mobile browser can even compare. Lack of Flash/Java is a sticking point for some though. Honestly, the site I visited most often with Flash was Youtube, but it do run in to it every now and again. I'm hoping Apple will look at adding the newer version of Flash Mobile in the iPhone, but honestly, even on OS X the Flash implementation isn't that great.

Software updates. This is a biggie over WinMo, at least currently. Apple has been very good at releasing software updates on a regular basis to fix bugs and add new features. Not only that, but they're not leaving the old hardware out. If you bought an iPhone in 2007, it has the exact same operating system as a 2008 iPhone. the 2007 iPhone will have the exact same OS as the 2009 or 2010 iPhone. Not only that, but these upgrades are free. Unlike WinMo devices where, very often, you're stuck with the OS it came with unless you start to delve in to the ROM scene and then, at best, it's not supported by either the manufacturer or the carrier, at worst, it's piracy.

The App Store is a huge leg up over WinMo devices. Very easy to browse and navigate, a huge collection of useful and free apps, all right there on the phone the moment you take it out of the box. It's a model for things to come.

I don't like how the phone basically seems to want to force you to sync it to your computer. Since getting an Exchange account in 2004, I hadn't synced my devices to a computer. I tried to keep up on the iPhone, but it hasn't been synced in well over a month now. As such, there's been no new content like podcasts, but 2.2 is adding wireless podcast downloading so that will largely fix a major complaint I have.

I've probably rambles on for far too long now. Suffice it to say, that as a long-time WinMo user, I'm pretty happy with the iPhone and I look forward to seeing what they can do in the future through software upgrades.

Can it do EVERYTHING a WinMo device can? No. Unless you're doing something really weird with your device though, the iPhone should be able to do everything you throw at it, or will in the future. It's not right for everyone, but it's certainly worth a look. I feel like you really have to use it before you can decide. Not just go in to the store and mess around with it for a few minutes, but really use it as your main device for a month. It's the same thing with the Treo. On paper, it looks like an inferior phone, but in practice, it was far superior to any WinMo device available, especially in usability. The same goes for the iPhone in this case.

[schettj]

With the lasted system update many of the really icky iphone 3g glitches are gone. So it's almost back to "as good as a 1st gen iphone, only faster"

For me, the downers are all policy related
- stuck with AT&T - shudder
- stupid restrictions on kinds of apps developers can create limits useful apps via the appstore or forces you into jailbreak
- hardware itself (3g vs 1st gen) is approaching HTC cheapness. Crappy GSM chip. Crappy GPS chip. Crappy plastic back. Crappy antenna (coverage/dropps).

Plus side - when it does work, it just works. If it does what you want, it does it well. Great screen. Great, natural user interface.

You can get all the "features" of an iPhone except for the phone part by buying the ipod touch. Maybe that's what you want. I carry an HTC Mogul and a jail broken ipod touch, works for me