iPhone 3G Bashing Time!

Okay, it's not quite as serious as that, but close.

I'm going through a dilemma of sorts with my personal communication device (or tether). I need something to take some notes with (a to-do list, if you will), and a calendar. Sure, some impromptu need to check this web page stuff, email (Gmail mostly), and a weather check now and then.

My trusty Sony Ericcson W300i has served me quite well for the past 3 years. It does all the aforementioned above fairly decently, but the anemic keypad is just ain't cutting it, and well, the phone is working on spit, duct tape, and bubble gum. Time for a new phone.

While I've been eyeing up a few HTC products, and patiently waiting for the month of November when a plethora of new phones are coming out; a friend of mine let me use her iPhone for a week telling me it was the next best thing to an orgasm.

The iPhone experience has been a head-scratcher.

The phone itself is nice. The weight itself is good, the device feels solid in my hand. Voice calls work; I can hear them and they can hear me. The touch screen is rather spiffy, and the screen display sure looks nice. The bevy of connection options is great, the App Store is cool, and the iPod functions on the touch screen. well, it works (LOL - sorry not much of a music/movie watcher/listener on my cell phone - I have a Zune for that at the gym).

But I sure don't feel satisfied using this thing as it's seriously lacking features that even my W300i has.

The onscreen keyboard bites for text messaging, and why doesn't it go to landscape mode? Most, if not all, touch screen phones do this by default.

Who's genius idea was it to exclude MMS on a multimedia phone?? I can neither send nor receive picture messages on an iPhone. And yes, I am well aware of the email work-around for this, but I shouldn't have to do it that way. Take picture, tap send, choose contact(s), and off it goes! Done, done, and done. And yes, my W300i does it that way. I rode my V-Rod for 3600 miles this summer, and took pics all the time and sent them to my friends on my phone. And they in turn did the same. With an iPhone this is not possible.

Bluetooth is only usable for a singe ear headset? I heard their reasoning about A2DP (battery life), but you what? Let your users come to that conclusion. Give them a choice and options. And no file and data transfers over bluetooth? That's dumb. I know a lot of users who transfer contacts between devices and themselves, and a few pictures and ringtones from time to time.

iTunes is the bane of application existence (see above). I email stuff to myself all the time, as well as transfer some pics and ringtones. Sorry, want to add contacts, pictures, documents, ringstones, and full songs to your iPhone? Gotta use the iTunes approval service. If Stevie Jobs doesn't want that data on your phone, iTunes won't let it on there.

And what's up with Apple's remote cut-off switch that's embedded in the iPhone? If Apple don't like it, they can remotely kill it off or remove it. And what's cute about that is that at purchasing and contract signing; the AT&T rep doesn't even mention that and it isn't in the contract.

Is it me or is Stevie Jobs and company the land of obsessive, compulsive disorder control freaks?

The iPhone is a pretty neat device with quite a few glaring omissions. More like an iPod with a few anemic cell phone functions tacked on.

Open up the platform for the end users and the developers and give everyone some choices, and you've have a great device.

At least the phone call functions worked.