The "i" of the iPhone

The iPhone is a very nice cell phone. For being a first generation product, it is quite good. But it isn't perfect; there are still advancements that need to be made. Without considering the bugs that hinder user experience, let's simply consider the purpose of the iPhone and how well it meets its purpose. But first we must determine the meaning of the "i" that makes the phone distinctive.

The purpose of the "i" in Apple's products since the iMac has indicated that it is Internet friendly. The iMac and iBook line was all about ease of use on the Internet. But then came the iPod. Now the "i" stood for something else--the individual. The iPod is a product where the user can place customized lists of music, videos, pictures, and other information that meet their desires. The "i" in iPhone has taken a bit of both of these meanings.

The iPhone is Internet capable, but it also is able to function like an iPod. The "i" represents, I think, a blended meaning. The iPhone is geared up for the Internet with the individual in mind.

This sort of evolution of the "i" is important. It demonstrates the background out of which the iPhone came forth and is therefore necessary for how it ought to be understood and how it ought to work.

The iPhone ought to be understood as a product meant for the individual. It is highly customizable. It is adaptable. It has a camera and an mp3 player. It has a calendar. It has all these features and more that are user-friendly. The iPhone excels in this aspect of the "i".

The iPhone ought to be used to meet the individual's needs with the Internet in mind. It is applied well to user function, especially in respect to the camera, calendar, etc. But when the Internet is also taken into consideration, the "i" is not quite so focused.

The Internet on the iPhone struggles in many ways. Safari for the iPhone crashes way too easily. Safari cannot view some of the most standard features of the Internet, such as java, embedded videos, or flash videos. Download times are quite long due to the Edge network by AT&T. The Internet friendly features found on the computers are not an option on the phone, such as drag and drop photo saving. Safari cannot run in the background, so a site cannot begin to download and continue it in the background as an email is being written, for example. As far as the "i" is concerned with respect to its initial meaning, the iPhone falls short.

The iPhone really needs AT&T's 3G network in order to improve the user experience on the Internet. Safari also needs to be enabled for actual Internet experiences. When the iPhone came out, Apple boasted that on it you could view the actual Internet and not a mobile version. Such is not actually the case. Media rich web sites are more and more common, which means the iPhone is not capable of showing the majority of the Internet as it really is. It is going to need to incorporate Internet standards before it can really do a good job.

Until the iPhone receives a better Safari and network, users will benefit from web applications designed for the iPhone. What is ironic and annoying about this is the initial claim about the iPhone, that it views the real Internet, was not true and that it does benefit from mobile Internet. Web applications are iPhone specific mobile sites. The Internet through Safari can be quite annoying in overall experience without these web applications.

I don't know if the "i" is meant by Apple to mean Internet friendly anymore. Perhaps it only means individual friendly now. If such is the case, they have excelled with the one exception of allowing the Internet to irritate the individual while using Safari. Perhaps they should have an "i" on the Internet like they used to.

Problematic iPhones?

My wife has (or had) one of the first iPhones available. She got it nearly 1 year ago. She has been experiencing a lot of problems with it, as have several other friends who bought the iPhone when it first came out. It took Apple four or five months to work out the bugs, so when my wife bought my iPhone for me in December, I was fortunate enough to not experience the same difficulties.

What difficulties did she have? One bug was the camera not saving pictures that she would take. Another, the photo library on her iPhone would wipe out, leaving the screen a grayish white and the pictures would not be accessible. Other bugs, which even I have sometimes, include applications closing unexpectedly. I have found that media-rich web sites will likely cause Safari to close unexpectedly, especially BeenUp2.com. Also, her iPhone would no longer register on a computer. Nor would it register as being plugged in to an electrical source.

I told my wife to wait until the June software update comes out, but what she did instead was a better decision. She made the trip out to Arden Fair Mall and Apple replaced her phone. She was within the one year warranty and she had been experiencing these problems on an ongoing basis. I was able to fix her phone when she first came across the photo screen wipe by reformatting her phone, but since it was no longer responding, I could not reformat it for her this time. She did the right thing--she took it back to Apple. Their superb customer service kicked in gear and she walked out of their with a brand new iPhone replacing her old one.

If your iPhone is experiencing the same problems, perhaps you should consider taking it in to the nearest Apple store. As long as it is within the 1 year warranty, they should help you. They have very good customer service. I don't know why they wouldn't help.

Why Google Reader?

I began to use Google Reader recently to organize and read my RSS feeds. I used to use Safari, and I thought I would use Mail 3 when I got Leopard to view my feeds. Nothing was wrong with Safari, and Mail worked good too. But then I thought, "I could check these throughout the day while on my iPhone if I use Google Reader."

As a result, I switched to Google Reader. I can check them all throughout the day on my iPhone. Something interesting comes up, and when I have a moment to read, I check it out. I don't have to wait until I get home. Plus, Google Reader enables me to set up a blog roll, which you see in the right column of this blog. This comes as an advantage, for I used to have to manually update my own blog roll when I would add feeds to Safari, but now Google Reader does it for me.

Google Reader is nice also because it can be accessed anywhere--from any computer, phone, or gadget, provided the device is connected to the internet.

Overall, Safari and Mail have good RSS capabilities, but in terms of my own needs, Google Reader suits the job quite nicely.