But the camera seems to be much better than the camera in the AT&T Curve. They are both technically 2 megapixel cameras but there is a substantial difference.
So I bought one down the street. It comes locked so I just ordered the unlock codes online. I'm stuck with AT&T because their coverage is so much better than Tmobile in Boston.
I have a few weeks to give it a try and decide if it's a worthy alternative to the iPhone.
The lack of wireless syncing and the lack of search is killing me.
I have a Curve but I hate the UI, crappy camera quality (example: same image, this one taken with iPhone and other with a Curve) and the Curve doesn't have WiFi.
I've been looking for an excuse to go back to my trusty Blackberry. I told myself that either the iPhone will get better soon or I'll ditch the iPhone when I can get a Curve with WiFi and hopefully a better camera.
The iPhone can support MIcrosoft Exhange email via IMAP. It's relatively straightfoward to do on the server side of things.
But I figured out it makes a big difference how you configure the iPhone. It's not intuitive but use the IMAP config screen. Do not use the Exchange config screen. In addition to stability issues, you won't see any meeting invitations if you set up with the Exchange configuration screen.
Looking for a connection Originally uploaded by bsabet.
I was a few minutes early for my meeting this morning near the Embarcadero.
So I pulled out my iPhone and looked around for an open wifi access point.
A whole bunch of access points showed up. And some looked open.
But they weren't. They were all locked. Quite sad.
We need software that makes it super easy to make your WiFi access point available when the owner isn't using it. Available by hours in the day. Or available with bandwidth limits. Or just available.
Same inspiration as the SETI@home project. Donate your resources. But for WiFi.
They look gorgeous on the iPhone. And they work very well. Even over EDGE. Not only are the beautiful looking - they are fast & responsive. PocketTweets hasn't received as much attention but this iPhone app for Twitter is amazing as well. David showed it to me earlier this week and I love it.
On my iPhone i get MS Exchange email via IMAP. Email syncs just fine. But calender and contacts sync locally via USB (really) or I goto Outlook Web Access (OWA). But you can't do contact or calender search on the iPhone or OWA. And OWA looks ugly on the iPhone. I even use the mobile version of it which is better than the full version. Still ugly.
Someone needs to create a beautiful version of OWA for the iPhone. And please add company and calender search too.
iphone.exchange.com
That's would be so cool.
Update: looks like this post triggered a rematch with Fred. Beating him twice will be awkward :)
Dave Winer and Vidya Lakshmipathy have taken opposite sides in the discussion about the mobile web experience.
The question is whether the iPhone experience of the "full internet" is better for mobile devices or do we need an optimized version of the web for mobile devices.
Dave thinks we will always need a well designed mobile web sites because the screen will always be the limiting factor. Even with a gorgeous iPhone screen he thinks it's too much work to zoom in & out, scrolling up/down/left/right.
Vidya disagrees. She is a fan of the iPhone view of the world.
I agree with Dave but for a different reason.
The problem is the network - not the screen/resolution anymore. The user experience depends on whether you are browsing on a fast/WiFi network or on a slow network like AT&T's EDGE network.
The full internet is awesome on the iPhone if you are on a Wifi network. However, surfing the full internet is unusable if you are using EDGE. That's when I point my iPhone browser to mobile websites like m.twitter.com, m.facebook.com, flickr's mobile site or the mobile version of Outlook Web Access.
I have two sets of bookmarks on my iPhone. Full websites when I'm on WiFi. And stripped down, mobile websites when i'm on Edge.
Once we have faster cellular data networks and/or open WiFi in more places I'm going to be in Vidya's camp.
A bunch of friends have asked me how my experiment is going.
As my friends know, I've been a die hard blackberry user for awhile. We use Microsoft Exchange at the office and blackberry enterprise server. That trio is like gold. It just works.
But I wanted more. Don't we all?
For the past week, I've been using my iPhone exclusively. The Blackberry Curve has been in my desk drawer at the office. And turned off. Cold turkey.
My experience so far:
1. Screen. Unfucking-believable. Gorgeous. I love having (& showing off) photos of my kids. I watch funny N3 and Wallstrip videos when I'm at the airport or when I'm bored. The screen makes all the difference.
2. WiFi. Apple did WiFi right. The range is better than my MacBook Pro. And set up couldn't be easier. WiFi combined with the built in browser is a winner. Love Facebook, nytimes and reading blogs on iphone w/wifi. Browsing on iphone on the ATT Edge network is a loser though. I usually don't do it
3. Keyboard. The keyboard isn't a blackberry. Not even close. And if I'm ever asked to defend my crown, I will absolutely use a blackberry to avoid getting my ass kicked by fred, howard or any other contender. Yet after just one week my iphone typing skills are getting better. Really. Two tips to become an iphone typing jedi
-hit the keys at a 90 degree angle. this is a must.
-don't edit any misspellings until you complete the word. The built in dictionary is quite good and will prompt you in a very intuitive way. Similar experience as Blackberry SureType. Finish the word first. always.
4. Telephone. I like the phone features much better on the iphone than my blackberry. It's easier to hold, dial, mute, redial, hang up, navigate auto-attendent systems, turn ringer on/off etc. Visual voicemail works really well. Pet peeve: phone numbers listed in calendar or email aren't clickable.
5. SMS. The SMS app on iphone is very cool. Some may disagree but I like that SMS are separate than email (unlike the blackberry). I really like how it keeps threaded messages together. It's the ultimate Twitter device.
6. Camera. Very easy to use. Photos are a bit nicer than the Curve. Syncs with iPhoto. Easy to upload to flickr via email. Love that. I also like that photos of my contacts appear in full screen with callerID for incoming calls. So far my friend Stan has the best photo ID in my address book. I won't include it here but it's very funny.
7. Contacts. The contacts/address book app is really sweet and really bad at the same time. It's very easy to call, email and sms your contacts. Contact integration with google maps is just magical. But the iPhone doesn't have contact search (yet).
8. Super iPod. Listening to music on iPhone is awesome. Coverflow is dreamy.
Incoming phone calls fade out the music perfectly. iPhone headphones also has a mic so you can talk on them as well. Even though I've been an ipod owner since the beginning of time, I didn't always carry my ipod with me. with iphone, i do. And that's excellent.
9. Form factor/durability/stability. The iPhone is solid. Hasn't crashed on me once. The keyboard does slow down every so often but not bad. Form factor is outrageous. Screen seems very durable. No scratches after a week or normal use. I do tend to baby this thing a bit though. I don't just throw it on my desk like the blackberry.
10. Dealing with Microsoft Exchange. Email is easy for those of you that use gmail, aol, yahoo, pop3 or imap. Exchange is not easy on iPhone.
By enabling IMAP on the Exchange server, the iPhone works with your corporate email. It's not push email like blackberry though. Instead iPhone can at best fetch every 15 minutes. You can also manually fetch your email. I thought this was going to a headache but I can live with this.
There are two huge problems with iPhone for Exchange users though:
-Calendar and contact sync can only happen locally. And requires a cable. No over the air sync and no bluetooth sync. Sad but true.
-Even worse, any Exchange-based meeting invites sent to you are not received on iPhone. I believe it's because IMAP is for email and can't deal with the calendar protocol in exchange. It's not made for that. I cannot accept or reject an incoming meeting invite from the iPhone mail client. (This doesn't effect meetings I schedule myself obviously). My workaround is to check Outlook Web Access periodically where I can accept/reject mtgs.
So after a week, I've decided to continue using the iPhone as my primary phone. It's far from perfect but at this time I like it the best. And it's fun. I've never felt that way about my Blackberry.
When I travel more than a day, I'm going to keep the Blackberry in my bag just in case meetings suddenly change and I need to stay on top of it in real-time.
But for days in/around the office, quick day trips to nyc and weekends, I'm going all iPhone, all the time.
I just realized that I've missed a bunch of text messages that some of my friends & colleagues have sent me.
The best way to text my mobile phone is either send me an email or send me a direct message on twitter (prefer the latter). You can do this from the twitter website or even better, send a txt to 40404 and then in then type in "D bijan <your message here> "
Please do not send an sms directly to my mobile number
One of the things I'm missing in my iPhone experiment so far are the little keyboard shortcuts on the Blackberry. Especially punctuation.
My friend Chris from Apple sent me this tip last night. Very helpful.
"Did you see the period trick? To get punctuation, you have to bring up that alternate keyboard view, then switch back. You can do that in one step though: touch the key to bring up the alternate numeric keyboard, slide over to the period (or whatever punctuation key), then let go. The key you want will be typed and you're dropped back to the alphabetic keyboard immediately. Neat-o. :-) "
Anyone have any other cool little tips for us former/current Blackberry folks?
Few observations after day 1.
-On the blackberry keyboard you can pretty much strike the keys at any angle. I often come in on the side if that makes any sense. To get the best performance out of the iPhone keyboard, it's best to come in at almost a 90 degree angle. I'm starting to get pretty good actually.
-This phone is instant conversation piece. I'm almost reluctant taking it out because I end up giving demos. I did last night on the flight from SFO to Denver. And I gave a mini-demo at Starbucks early this morning.
-the bluetooth software is hosed. I can't get it to pair up with my Jawbone headset which is a buzzkill.
But since the iPhone launch I've given at least 6 demonstrations of Google Maps on a Blackberry.
So if you have a blackberry and you aren't running Google Maps than you are missing out.
It works just like google maps in Firefox but it's integrated with the phone
You can type in for example "Starbucks near 02116" and get a map, address etc. And in just one click your phone can call the number. More info here.
Or just point your blackberry browser to www.google.com/gmm
Google SMS is also killer. I use it at least once a week. It's crazy simple and super fast. It works on any phone but on a blackberry or iPhone its absolutely yummy. Here's how it works.
Earlier this week a friend of mine that works for Verizon Wireless sent me a new Blackberry 8830
I was traveling this week to the west coast so I wasn't able to get it all set up until today
This thing is incredible. It's small, thin and light so I now longer feel like I'm holding a sherman tank next to my face. The bluetooth radio works great with my car. And the address book even sync'd. I'm still getting used to the glowing trackball instead of the trusty wheel but it already feels pretty good. I actually like the keyboard better than my previous 8703 (where do they come up with these names?)
And this phone is bi-lingual. It's a CDMA blackberry when I'm in the USA and it can do GSM when I'm in Europe. Sweet. Yes, I know the GSM roaming fees are pricey and yes, I know that it's a locked phone. Blah, blah, blah. But i'm happy so let me :)
With this phone I'm also switching my mobile phone number. I had been using a GrandCentralcompetitor. It just felt too complicated for me and for people trying to reach me (I can hear Andrew cheering now). I'm now completely addicted to Simulscribe (thanks Jonathan for the tip).
Those of you on plaxo network should have received an update by now and I sent an email out earlier as well. If you are someone that should have it and didn't get it then please send me an email and I'll get you my number
We are investors in 4th Media based in Denver. The CEO & cofounder of the company is Andrew MacFarlane who was the cofounder of Software.com which later became part of OpenWave.
The company is emerging from stealth mode and looking for beta testers for their personalized mobile streaming service. The service will allow you to search, discover and easily publish any audio content (video coming soon) to your mobile phone wirelessly. They currently have about two thousand pieces of audio content that they aggregate or you can upload your own content, link to RSS feeds or even URL's of 3rd party content.
I recently added Wallstrip's RSS feed to the service so I get an audio version of Wallstrip sent to my phone which is fun. I also have KQED streamed to my phone which I have missed since leaving the bay area. And the best part is that the 4th Media service does all of this without adding any additional software to your phone. No proprietary client app needed.
It's still an early beta so we are very much looking early adopters to help us . We especially need folks that will really try out the service, give 4th Media feedback and also be patient as features, functionality and user interface/experience will change a lot & often over the coming weeks, months.
So if you are interested, take 30 seconds and register at:
Once you're signed up for the service you'll receive info on how to activate it on your phone. Please note that all media is delivered to your mobile phone via streaming, which requires a data plan and which will generate usage charges from your mobile carrier. Also for now the service doesnt work on the Blackberry.
In a world where you talk to entrepreneurs and VCs every day you hear stuff. Sometimes really cool stuff.
But it's important to keep your word and keep secrets.
I'm so glad this story broke about Yahoo and my friend Tim Bucher's company Zing. I saw a demo of the Yahoo Music integration at Zing's offices back in January but I had to keep mum about until now. It's really a beautiful product and I'm looking forward to getting one.
Verizon Wireless is going to launch VCast TV today as promised.
I've seen demo's of digital broadcast for mobile and the video quality is truly impressive.
But aside from live events (ie sports mostly) consumers mostly want unicast.
I think the tradeoff of beautiful broadcast vs lower resolution unicast is a no brainer especially for mobile. Giving users control beats pretty video all day.
So until someone creates time shifting for mobile digital broadcast (ie tivo for mobile), I'll take unicast.
Every six months or so a little voice inside my head tells me to switch to a GSM provider. GSM subscribers always get cool phones much earlier than us poor CDMA folks.
The upcoming blackberry 8800 (super thin, full qwerty keyboard, WiFi) is making the voice louder than usual.
Unfortunately, I need the coverage of VZW here in New England so I really can't jump carriers.
Maybe the eventual VZW version will have a camera.
When I wrote my last openness post for the CE industry I forgot to mention the most important device that needs to open up. The mobile phone.
I saw this on slashdot tonight. Lots of naysayers but OSS for mobile phones needs to happen.
I know of a few other projects that are working on this for real. Some are grass roots efforts. Some are being led by start ups. There is also a large, very successful company pushing open source very hard for mobile phones and they have just enough clout and talent to make a difference.
I lost my bluetooth headset on my trip last week. I bought it in 2005. There a bunch of new models that are smaller and seem to offer improvements. I'm thinking about getting the Motorola H700.
Would love to hear any recommendations before I make my next purchase. Many thanks in advance.
I've been a loyal Apple consumer for a long time. Even in the ugly System9 days I was there. And that wasn't easy.
Lots of folks are gushing about Apple's new iPhone. And I'm excited about it too. But I'm not getting version 1.0 of this thing. Thesereasons don't bother me much. The virtual keyboard worries me a bit but either that will work for me or not.
The biggest show stopper for me is speed. The first version only supports EDGE. Yes, I know it has WiFi too but I need connectivity everywhere and that's what I have with my EVDO blackberry. I don't want to downshift. I'm sure they will upgrade the iPhone with HSDPA at some point.
