On

The On function is the most important function that any device must support. Without it nothing else can function.

OK, I admit it – not a very profound or new concept for any of you I’m sure but over the past few years I’ve become increasingly aware of how important it is for this to function perfectly. On my old Cingular 2125, I used a horizontal belt case. Almost every time I went to answer my phone, I’d bump the case when opening it which was just enough pressure to push either the answer or hang-up buttons. I was constantly talking to those I didn’t want to and hanging up on people I needed to talk to. I’d never just let the phone ring or vibrate without checking it to make sure someone I accidentally answered was not covertly listening in on my conversation.

Next is the HTC TYTN. By all measure, a much better phone than the 2125 – even in the area of turning it on. Never answered it by accident but man is that thing slow to answer. I could hit the answer button and maybe 10 seconds later it would answer. Re-uploaded the ROM – no dice. The other problem with the TYTN is the actual Power button to turn it on (as you might do when needing to check your email). HTC went the other way and made this button as small as you can imagine. I don’t turn it on by accident but I might need to push the button about three or four times to get it on.

I gotta say that Apple got this one right on the money with the iPhone. Turning the screen on is easy – big round button on the front or big button on the top. Can’t miss it. If you hit it by accident you’re covered there too – Nice big slider to unlock the device. Got a call? Slide the slider. I’ve yet to slide that by accident. Beautiful design! Apple picked a screen motion that is near impossible to have happen naturally. I’ve yet to have a problem answering a call. Me pressing the Red button to answer a call is a different story but I won’t blame that one on the phone!

The Keyboard

I guess one of the features of the iPhone that I was most apprehensive about was the virtual keyboard. I’ve used on screen keyboards on devices such as the HTC TYTN but honestly had a very poor experience with them. I heard that the iPhone was different. Months ago, I was in an Apple store playing around with the first iPhone and I must admit….I found it virtually impossible to type on. Never seemed to be able to hit the right area of the screen for the character I was looking for.

Shortly after picking up the iPhone 3g, I started typing on the virtual keyboard…..very slowly. Some of the tips help such as holding down the letter before releasing such that you can slide to the one you really want. Yeah right – that’s going to work for high speed typing after years of typing on physical keyboards where holding a key down is the last thing you want to do. It was about as far away from an enjoyable experience as I’ve had in some time. Sort of felt like holding a wire that was giving me a shock, wanting to pull my hand away but having to hold on anyway.

Then I remembered an article I read a few weeks ago about the iPhone’s auto correcting capabilities so I gave it a shot. Away I went just trying to get my finger on the on-screen key hoping I got the letter and ignoring any mistakes. Once again – very hard for me since I type 80+ words a minute and frequently correct as I go. But I tried anyway. Gotta say – Apple got it absolutely right on this. I won’t claim to be the fastest typist on that HTC TYTN with its slide out QWERTY keyboard but right now I’m easily typing faster on my iPhone than I ever had on the TYTN. In fact I wrote the entire first post on the iPhone using the fantastic WordPress app.

The other aspect of the virtual keyboard that I find elegant is that it appears whenever I need it. I used to do a lot of reading/browsing on the TYTN in portrait orientation. As soon as I hit somewhere I needed to enter data I needed to rotate the device (which, of course, doesn’t rotate the image on screen), slide out the keyboard (which finally rotates the screen….slowly) and hope that after I did this I did not accidentally tap the screen causing the field I was in to lose focus. On the iPhone, its simply there whenever I need it. My only gripe here is that it would be nice if more apps supported landscape orientation such that I could use the wider keyboard. Not a major problem though.

You’ve gotta know the shortcuts though or you’re not going anywhere. Some of my favorites.

• When typing an email address pressing the period to get the domain extensions (.com, .org, etc.)
• Double tapping the space bar to get a period and space. In fact, I do this sometimes when entering email addresses into non-email fields Seems easier to double tap space, delete the space and add the domain extension than trying to switch back and forth from the numbers screen.

All in all, I’ve gotta say that Apple did a great job on the virtual keyboard. I expect to use devices with them for many years to come.

-John

Welcome

I was one of the thousands of people who waited in line on July 11, 2008 to purchase the shiny new Apple iPhone 3g. I had read about the device since the earliest days of speculation on what the new device may be. After seemingly figuring out the perfect time to start my wait (3 hours) I was able to snare the exact object I desired – the black 16gb Apple iPhone 3g.

Interestingly enough, I knew very little about how the iPhone actually worked before I purchased it. Very different than most purchases where I’ve read the manual cover to cover and any piece of information I could find on the web. This time was to be different. I was going to enjoy the pleasure of learning to use this device hands-on. I wanted see how intuitive this device really was.

I’ve had a truly wonderful experience with the iPhone 3g. This is far from being my first mobile device. My past few devices have been:

HTC TYTN or AT&T 8525 (Pocket PC)
Cingular 2125 (Windows Mobile Smartphone)

Other mobile devices include various web phones from Nokia and Sony as well as Palm powered Handspring and whatever that first mobile Palm was (maybe the 7?) Even had a Newton for a time many years ago.

I have never owned a Blackberry. I really don’t know why. My employer has full Blackberry support. In fact they have better support for Blackberry than any device I have ever had or have now. Someday maybe….

I did not have a first generation iPhone. I couldn’t bring myself to buy a device costing that much that didn’t support 3g networks and didn’t handle third party applications. Both issues have been dealt with on the new version and I couldn’t resist!

In general I’ve been overwhelmed with the iPhone. I’m most impressed with how transparent the device is in my daily life. It just seems to do exactly what I want when I want. What more can you ask from a piece of technology?

Over the upcoming weeks I’ll be writing about one aspect or another about the device comparing it to similar usage on my last device, the HTC TYTN running Windows Mobile 6. Hopefully you’ll find it valuable.

-John