Disappointed by the iPhone

[pdohara]

This is my first iPhone. I should also say that I had decided to give up on smart phones, but many people told me that I had to try an iPhone before I could give up on smart phones. I have not changed my mind about smart phones because of the iPhone. I am sharing this here because I must just not get it, and I am hoping you can help me understand.

1) Overall Impression
I find that I am hitting the home button many times when I should be hitting a "back" button on the screen. I find the keyboard horrible to type on. I find the orientation change to be unreliable and slow.

2) Apps
The standard Apps are fine, though not particularly exciting. The Apps I have found on the app store are disappointing almost without fail. I have found few that interest me at all. This includes games, utilities, productivity apps, etc. While we are on the subject I find the App store to be very difficult to use. Unless you know what you are looking for it is very difficult to find anything. I suspect many people don't care and are just trying things.

3) Interface with my Mac
I find the mail integration to be annoying. When I read an email on my phone it does not show as read on my Mac and vice versa. This means that I end up going through my email twice. I have had several confusing sessions attempting to understand how pictures are copied to and from the phone. Finally, the PDF support is convoluted at best. Given the price for audio books and printed books in the store I am definitely limited to downloading free books in PDF format. The support is definitely disappointing.

Note that I am not complaining about the poor service from AT&T, nor the antenna problem (which I have not experienced), these are issues with the Apple end of the product. I am not an Apple Fan Boy, but I have been using Apple products for as long as they have existed. I have a great deal of respect for Apple and the products they create. I typically tell people to purchase Apple computers over Windows PCs. Still based on my month of using the iPhone 4 I find little to recommend it.

What am I missing?

Pat O

 

[sakumaxp]

1)i have tried the mytouch 3G and the G1 smart phones and by far the iPhone keyboard is the most responsive i have tried, and the whole hitting the home button thing, that is just how you operate, not how the phone does. as for the orientation from my past phones and other phones i have messed around with its pretty darn smooth to me.

2)as for the apps they are grouped up in categories i find it not hard to find things, but you can also use the search feature that helps me find a lot of random things that i might think the app store could have.

3)i dont use my mac mail, but i use gmail and it works just fine, it deletes mail and marks it as read, from my phone or mac.

i still recommend this phone. that is just my input, but hey everyone likes something different, but how long have you had the phone for, it might grow on you and the usage you might get a little more friendly with the interface

 

[DannyBoy]

Wow! Sounds like your pretty picky... The iPhone of all phones is the simplest and easiest of all smart phones. I really don't see how you can be so picky about all these little things like how you haven't used the OS enough to learn when to not use the home button...how is that apples fault? I'm also curious as to how you have all these features a smartphone offers yet your debating giving them up altogether? Honestly I think you need to spend a good month typing on the keyboard and getting to know your phone. After that then I would like to know what you think about it! Just can't pick up any piece of technology and expect to know how to operate it to your complete satisfaction on week one. What other smart phones are you coming from and how long did you have them?

 

[Edge1978]

1) IMO the keyboard on the iPhone is the best on any touch screen smart phone. I went from an iPhone 3G to the HTC Aria, I figured I'd give the iPhone a break and try something new.
The one thing I liked about it was that you could just hit the back button, instead of the home button. However now with the iPhone 4 it has multitasking which is pretty much the same thing as a back button in my opinion anyway. The keyboard on the Aria was so small, the space bar was as big as the standard letter on the iPhone keyboard.

2) I do agree that some of the apps in the App store are crappy BUT when you jailbreak your phone you will find so many ways to customize your iPhone to your liking. Unfortunately seeing you just got the iPhone it is most likely running on 4.1 which at the time has no JB released as of yet.

3) Like Sak, I use gmail as well, and it syncs perfectly with my pc.

Stinks that you don't like it, but I'm glad you atleast gave it a shot.

 

[iphone-y]

Pat, as someone who has used mobile phones since the Motorola 'brick' and then on thru Nokia's, Samsung, O2 and Moto Q9h I can only say after a month of use that I'm in awe of the iP4.

Yes it took a bit of persistence to swap from a dedicated keyboard to touch keys (and I definitely find that tapping towards the left side of the keys to be more accurate). But like another thread said - I'm addicted to the iPhone 4.

The screen and camera you can not compare with any other phone. As for the Apps, well with over 100000 there are bound to be lots of mediocre ones and duplicates but I found it didn't take long to find the good ones.

Here is my short list:

For information storage and passwords - eWallet
Alarm - Alarmed
Words - Dictionary, iTranslate (awesome)
Reference - Wikipedia, World Facts, oecdfactbook, cultures, google, yellow pages
Books (pdf) - GoodReader, Kindle
NEWS - pulse, time, NYTimes
Navigation - Navigon, MotionX (awesome), iHUD, Navionics Marine, Google Earth, BikeMateGPS, Route4me, Trailblazer
Aviation - Plane Finder, World Airport, iMetar, AvConnect, FltPlan, Aircheck, Airports
Lifestyle - Facebook, Twiter, YouTube etc...
Radio - Tunein Radio (awesome)
Movies - IMDB, Movie Guide (Lenard Moultin), Flixster, The Movie Guide, PktCinema
Apps - AppMiner, AppShopper, PositioApp
Tunes - Top100s
iPhone Utils - BatterLife, iOS 4 Secrets, FileApp Pro, System (awesome), Remote, Wi-Fi Finder

As for the App store, my limited experience is that is very easy to get around. If not by category then by keyword search or by the helper apps mentioned above. One thing is for sure - I was used to paying au$10-40 for smartphone apps but half the App Store apps are free, and half of the paid ones are around a dollar - so for that alone there is no comparison.

Then there is one thing that no one has mentioned yet and that is the undeniable reliability of Apple software (Os and apps). If I set an alarm, it doesn't matter what else I have running on the iP I know I can trust the alarm to go off (given that I make sure the battery is OK and don't have sound switched off.

For me, I'm hooked good and proper. There could be no going back now. I reckon I would probably bow to Steve Jobs if I met him lol!

cheers Anton....

 

[pdohara]

1)i have tried the mytouch 3G and the G1 smart phones and by far the iPhone keyboard is the most responsive i have tried, and the whole hitting the home button thing, that is just how you operate, not how the phone does. as for the orientation from my past phones and other phones i have messed around with its pretty darn smooth to me.

The issue with the home button is that sometimes it is used to backup and sometimes it is used to exit. This leads to my issues.

I have been using the phone for a month. I cannot afford to change phones anytime soon, so I will plug through. The phone is fine. I am not saying it is terrible, just disappointing.

Pat O

 

[pdohara]

Wow! Sounds like your pretty picky... The iPhone of all phones is the simplest and easiest of all smart phones. I really don't see how you can be so picky about all these little things like how you haven't used the OS enough to learn when to not use the home button...how is that apples fault? I'm also curious as to how you have all these features a smartphone offers yet your debating giving them up altogether? Honestly I think you need to spend a good month typing on the keyboard and getting to know your phone. After that then I would like to know what you think about it! Just can't pick up any piece of technology and expect to know how to operate it to your complete satisfaction on week one. What other smart phones are you coming from and how long did you have them?

I have used Palm, Windows and Blackberry smartphones. I am disappointed in them as well. I have been using the iPhone for a month (6 weeks in fact).
What benefits are you talking about? I am interested in how you use your smartphone. Not to bash, but to understand

Pat O

 

[pdohara]

I agree that the iPhone is the most visually appealing phone on the market. I also expect the OS and Apps from Apple to be reliable. That is one of the issues I have with other (Windows) smartphones. Still the experience has not been great. I guess I do expect greatness from Apple.
I will check out the apps listed. Though why I need a battery app is unclear to me, I guess the difference is that I do not want to play with my phone. I want to use it to get things done.

Thanks for the feed back.
Pat O

 

[pdohara]

As for the Apps, well with over 100000 there are bound to be lots of mediocre ones and duplicates but I found it didn't take long to find the good ones.

Here is my short list:

For information storage and passwords - eWallet
Alarm - Alarmed
Words - Dictionary, iTranslate (awesome)
...
cheers Anton....

So here is an example of my issue with the App Store. I am thinking that having a Dictionary may be useful. You have recommended one. I go to the app store and see that there is a reference category. Assuming that the Dictionary program is in reference I select that. I now need to choose "Top Paid", "Top Free", "Release Date". Since you did not mention if it was free, I choose Release Date. Seeing the number of apps I realize that I would be better off searching by keyword. Switch to search and type in Dictionary. The first three apps are all called Dictionary. No issue I will choose one, except how? They are all rated about the same. They all describe themselves as easy to use. You did not mention the publisher. So I guess I'll pick the free one.

Just so you understand that I am not simply whining about this, there are apps I have looked for that I have not found. I would like an App that shows the relative strength of wifi signals. I am putting together a wifi hot spot and my church and would like to be able to walk around the building and double check that there are no dead spots, find areas that could use more coverage, etc. After searching the app store I searched the Internet and learned this App would violate Apples standards. Apple considers applications that show wifi strength to be hacking tools. OK, I guess I understand that. When it comes to games I like wargames. I looked in categories, there is no category for wargames, OK I'll search. Of the games that come up many are not war games, but have War in the title, so I guess the search engine considered that close enough. Of those that are on the list most are not free. So I try a few and find that I do not like them. What I am left with is a bill for $10 and no games on my iPhone.

As I have been saying, I am not suggesting that phone XYZ is better, I am saying that I am disappointed with my experience on the iPhone.

Pat O

 

[uncle sam]

Nothing is perfect ..but Jesus!!

 

[Infernalblaze]

1)i have tried the mytouch 3G and the G1 smart phones and by far the iPhone keyboard is the most responsive i have tried, and the whole hitting the home button thing, that is just how you operate, not how the phone does. as for the orientation from my past phones and other phones i have messed around with its pretty darn smooth to me.

The issue with the home button is that sometimes it is used to backup and sometimes it is used to exit. This leads to my issues.

I have been using the phone for a month. I cannot afford to change phones anytime soon, so I will plug through. The phone is fine. I am not saying it is terrible, just disappointing.

Pat O

i don't know if I'm just reading this wrong but in my experience the home button on the iPhone is always used to exit the app never to just go back.

as for the not being able to find stuff in the app store, since you know the name of the app why not just use the search feature?

 

[pdohara]

There are many things about the iPhone I like. The screen is gorgeous. I like the fact that it will change orientation rather than making me do it. The synchronization is excellent. I like the possibilities that having a gps, compass and pretty good network acress in one product creates. The speakers are surprisingless good for such a small package.

Like I said I don't dislike it, I guess I expected more because so many people were talking about how the iPhone was a game changer. It's fine but not significantly different from my blackberry curve, except as I noted.

Pat O

 

[Bluering]

I guess, you are after the perfect device which technically does not exist.
I think you want a custom made device.
To paraphrase D Rumsfeld: "As you know, you go and make the most with the device you have, not the device you might want or wish to have at a later time."

 

[anticool]

Nothing is perfect too

 

[qnet]

This is the first year I have tried smartphones of this type (touch-screens with apps). My main concern was if these phones could be useful with my business and, both the Nexus One and my current phone - the iPhone 4 - have satisfied this need.

The touchscreen and typing took some getting used to but, I'm a lot better at it now. The auto-correction really helps.

I would suggest to just keep playing with it and trying things out. Eventually you may get used to it and come to like it more.