Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
So Addictive
The first application listed on the iPhone's home screen is Apple's SMS text messaging app, and if you're not already a heavy texter, this application will change that.
With a very iChat-like interface (iChat being OS X's IM client for the Windows users in the audience), the iPhone's messaging client does SMS right. Text messages are grouped according to contact and are stored in conversation format; you can always clear your history if it gets too cumbersome otherwise you've got a walking log of everything you've ever texted to anyone organized by contact.
It seems like an oddly simple thing to get excited about, but honestly it's done so much better than the competition. On the Samsung Blackjack for example, each text message is handled as a separate message, much like email. If you and I are having a conversation, each message you send me, appears as a separate message in the inbox. The messages are not grouped together, they are simply organized in chronological order.
SMS on the Blackjack
While this makes sense for email, SMS is supposed to be used for shorter chats and thus it makes sense to group according to chat or contact.
SMS on the iPhone, versus...
SMS on the Blackjack
The Blackberry comes a bit closer, while it doesn't group by contact or conversation, it keeps a partial record of all of your messages within a conversation in each message. It's like keeping a copy of your chat history in each new message that's received.
The iPhone's SMS application makes it almost too easy to send text messages; you stop thinking of each message you send as costing you money and look at it more like an IM conversation. While an IM conversation is free, sending that last message that just had the phrase "k bye" just ate into your SMS budget. AT&T still charges per message and although the iPhone data plan gives you 200 free, it's easy to burn through them.
Is this last message worth $0.10?
AT&T was particularly sneaky in its SMS upgrade pricing, because in order to get any more text messages you have to upgrade to 1500 messages for an extra $10/month, there's no in-between. Of course for an extra $20/month you can send unlimited text messages, keeping in mind that is doubling the cost of your dataplan on the iPhone.
We hate to speculate that the reason the iPhone has no built in IM client is to encourage SMS use, as IMs would be covered by your unlimited data plan. While the iPhone's SMS application is great and absolutely necessary, we would like to see it augmented by AIM/GTalk support at the bare minimum.
As is already widely known by now, the iPhone only supports SMS and not MMS. If you're addicted to picture messaging, your only option on the iPhone is to email pictures to your friends. Now if all of your friends have iPhones then this works out perfectly.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
85 Comments
View All Comments
michael2k - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
Except of course for the keyboard.If he unveiled the thing, it would have to be as a small laptop.
edwinder - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Anand, I never got through your iPhone review...because everything I read is basically Blackberry this, Blackberry that. Just so that you know, not all your readers like/own/used Blackberries, and have found other replacements that suit us more besides a Blackberry (i.e E61). Yes, I know you love your BB's, but hope you can rename your article to reflect the review that you wrote. Nothing wrong with it... but reading your article gave me no basis of which to refer to, hence stopped reading it after a few pages.aGoGo - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Exactly,I used BB 8700, 8100, 8300 and 8800.. all of them suck, i have to admit that the RIM makes the best "stupid-proof" devices, that can enable you connect to your work email through BES, other than that, every single feature sucks.
I'm using the Imate Jasjar (HTC Universal) and it can do every single thing the iPhone can do, without the cute looking UI, people wanna use things, not look at them, how many of you are still using Aero glass and DreamScene? Every single person disabled them after one week.
r33tr33t - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
You can catch bits of Anand's gigantic house as well as his face reflected back in the metallic part of some of the iPhone photos.plinden - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Actually, http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html">here, Apple does claim "up to 6 hours" internet time, so what you're seeing is in line with Apple's claims.
Yes, I do like my Apple products (3 Macs and two iPods) but I've always taken the battery life claims with a large pinch of salt.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
I know exactly what you're saying; battery life on the MacBook Pro is no where near Apple's 6-hour claims; I'd be lucky to get 2.5 hours of real work on mine.Thanks for the correction, I too was shocked to see it actually lasted 6 hours on WiFi. I'm doing some more tests now looking closer at its battery life, so you may see a follow-up article in the near future.
Take care,
Anand
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Looks nice, but too big for me. If they can build one around something more like a 2.25" screen that would be sweet.Also on the next to last page there is a picture missing of the screen you get to unlock the phone.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Agreed. An iPhone mini could be very interesting but I'm not sure how the keyboard would work out. And I've added the missing image, thanks for the heads up :)Take care,
Anand
Drumsticks - Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - link
I had to go through this review for a paper I was writing for school, and I came across this comment. In 2015... how times have changed :)aGoGo - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Blackberry Curve and Blackjack?there are better phones to use, how about the HTC Universal? Nokia N95? SE P990i? HTC Athena?
I really don't know how much this damn thing is gonna cost if it's unlocked? $1000?