iPhone 3g - first impressions
Posted by Rob on 30th Nov 2008 in Out of the box
My old mobile phone had seen better times, it’d been dropped numerous times, was a bit temperamental (no wonder!), and my current calling plan was getting a bit expensive. It was time for a change.
I’d always got the impression that O2’s iPhone tariffs were expensive, but reconciling my current bill with an affordable one actually meant that I could save a few quid each month and have an iPhone! And so I ordered my upgrade and am now the proud owner of an 8mb 3G model.
Activation
Getting my iPhone up was a doddle, download iTunes, pop in my sim card, plug the iPhone into a USB port and follow the onscreen prompts - easy peasy and I made my first call in just a few minutes.
Pressing buttons
The iPhone software is really a mini operating system, and clicking on a few things let’s you quickly learn what’s what. Most of the functions like Calendar, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Photos, Camera and the ubiquitous ‘Settings’ will all be familiar to most mobile users, but venture a little further and you find that these functions do a lot lot more that you might be used to.
Mobile contacts
Naturally you can make an address book of your contacts, call them or text them, but iPhone does much more…
- Store any number of phone numbers for a contact
- Store email addresses for a contact
- Assign a unique ringtone for each contact
- Store the contacts address, company name, birthday and more
- Assign a photo for each contact
Google maps!
One fantastic things for me is the inbuilt Maps. Not only can you plot your current location but it also allows you to get directions on where you’re going. Just tap in the address or postcode of the start/end point of your journey and iPhone will show you where you are using GPS - as you drive along in your you can see the map marker move. OK so it’s not as detailed as Satnav but still useful nevertheless, and great when you’re on foot in the big city.
Music and podcasts
The iPhone has full iPod capabilities and you’re able to download music and a wide and diverse range of Podcasts from iTunes. Naturally a lot of the content, particularly music, you have to buy, but many podcasts are free.
App heaven!
Probably the best feature are the downloadable applications - everything from office tools, to gadgets, to games. Again most applications are paid affairs but price is very reasonable from £0.59 upwards. Of course there are many free applications as well, many of which are cut down versions of their commercial counterparts.
Unlimited web access
As the iPhone depends on a web connection for much of it’s functionality tariffs come with unlimited web access - hurrah! iPhones comes with Safari for web browsing and a mail client so you can retrieve and reply to all your IMAP/POP email. I haven’t managed to connect to 3G yet but the vanilla connection, while not fast, is acceptable, and it’s fantastic to surf real web sites whilst on the move.
It’s not 100% perfect as the touch screen does take a bit of getting used to, but things like that are small potatos compared to what you get.
Am I pleased with my iPhone? Without a doubt!
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