Soo.... I got an iPhone ..

blah!bLaH!BLOG!!

Posted on 10/7/2007 @ 8:49 PM in #Non Techie | 12 comments | 6784 views

(I promise - a few good sharepoint posts are on the way, I'm just way too excited about my new iPhone right now, please bear with me)

I lied!

Earlier I had blogged about getting an iPod Touch. I said, I was perfectly happy with my WM6 phone. Okay, I wasn't unhappy with my WM6 phone, but I wasn't exactly thrilled either. The biggest plus point of my WM6 phone was "tethering", i.e. my laptop could get online anywhere.

I started reading about the screen issues in the new iPod touch. I am pretty sure Apple will take care of them, but, I suddenly paused and asked myself -

- Price Of iPod Touch = Price Of iPhone

- iPhone Features > iPod touch

- iPhone memory = iPod Memory /2.

Okay, so here is my theory about memory - "If you can't find a song you like in 2000 songs, the problem isn't your mp3 player". So that knocked off the memory issue. that left me thinking .. hmm .. can I put up with the ATT network?

Okay, for the hella super convenience and amazing featureset and experience of owning an iPhone ... y'all - I bought an iPhone.

Having owned it for 48'ish hours now, I can confidently say, this was a good decision. This is the best phone I have owned EVER. Let me tell ya why -

- What did I loose compared to WM6?

iPhone doesn't have games. the only game I care about is chess.
I can't do tethering anymore.
Exchange activesync - well boo frickity hoo - no big deal IMO.
Worse coverage indoors only (AT&T). I am holding back opinions on this for now as I haven't taken any long conference calls on my phone from home just yet. But we'll see.

- What did I gain?

A phone that actually works without freezing every 20 seconds. (No shit!)
An amazing device, the ease of use, the thought behind every UI element screams of Apple everywhere. This is a very well put together device.
Visual voicemail - yes it is a big deal.
A beautiful, gorgeous screen that makes using email, browser etc. so much nicer.
A much better battery life.
No reason to carry an MP3 player - the phone does both :)
A full fledged browser, this is a big win.
A cheaper rate plan compared to verizon.
And a serious simplification of my life, this stuff just works man, no twiddling around, no hanging issues, nothing!! IT *just* works.

Dispelling myths -

The keyboard is a worth while tradeoff for much larger screen space. The autocorrect doesn't work as well as WM6, but I am getting used to the keyboard.

Critiques of iPhone -

The iPhone has a serious bug. When you POP3 email over Gmail, it randomly tells you "This message has not been downloaded from the server". That is super annoying. The workaround is to go gmail.com and check your message there, OR, use IMAP. This is a big downer, and I hope Apple fixes it soon. I am speculating that iPhone downloads only headers and downloads mail content on demand. That is just silly.

Update: See this - http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-10-iPhone_+_Gmail__This_message_has_not_been_downloaded_-_WORKAROUND.aspx

Overall -

I'm keeping the phone. The plusses far outweigh the negatives.

On 9/23/2007 8:04:12 PM Jag said ..

Hi Sahil, I am from Australia and eagerly waiting for the iPhone to be available in down under. Thanks for a nice post. Jag

On 9/24/2007 9:29:09 AM Becky Isserman said ..

I just read on digg or slashdot that they were slashing the price by $200. Did you get the discounted price or did you have to pay the full one?

On 9/24/2007 3:23:34 PM Sahil Malik said ..

Becky - I paid 399 for the 8GB model. Is that the cut price, or is 200 a YET another cut that I am going to be very pissed off about missing out on?

On 9/25/2007 9:33:05 AM Becky Isserman said ..

Looks like you got the $200 price cute. Apparently, it used to be $599...It has to suck to be an early adopter. I just read they are also going to brick any iphone that is hacked and no longer has the At&t lock.

On 9/25/2007 11:11:59 AM Rob Garrett said ..

I guess it's a matter of preference - I considered the iPhone but just cannot bring myself to move to an inferior network. Tethering - big deal for me, I'm on the road alot, access the corporate SharePoint server remotely and know that I can still work as long as I have bars on my cell phone. Exchange Sync - cannot live without it - handy in the car to know that I have the latest calendar appointment.. but if you're not affiliated with a corporate Exchange server I can see your point. My WM6 phone hardly ever freezes or needs a reboot. Battery - yup, you got a point there, I have to turn my PPC into a brick to get good battery. I'm interested to hear how iPhone does on battery with Bluetooth turned on and paired with a headset. Cheaper rate plan - you pay for what you get, what can I say ;) Like I said, it's a preference - I guess I cannot see the point of driving an open top sports car when I have a large dog - iPhone looks nice, but if you get bad cell reception isn't no more than a pretty brick? Glad you're having fun with it :)

On 9/25/2007 3:08:08 PM Sahil Malik said ..

>> My WM6 phone hardly ever freezes or needs a reboot. Oh yeah? And I'm Jennifer Lopez, just in disguise!!

On 10/2/2007 10:02:41 AM Carlos Fernandez said ..

I am still on the fence regarding the whole iphone fiasco. Not sure that going to a closed platform is worth it. Especially since i like to tinker with my toys. Secondly it is a handsome devil but from what i have been seeing HTC is certainly releasing some damn sexy phones of their own. Using the new WMTouch platform which is an extension of WM6. check out the HTC touch if you are interested. Thirdly, I just can't seem to bring myself to joining the herd of sheep who salivate at the mouth for all things apple. I'd rather watch how the others enjoy the kool-aid before i buy a pitcher. Now if apple were serving beer then i might consider joining the ranks!

On 10/2/2007 10:07:09 AM Carlos Fernandez said ..

Oh and another thing, I like the fact that I don't have to re-encode things to watch them on my phone. Since other programmers have been so kind as to provide the mobile codecs for most of my needs. It seems apple only supports their format for video playback. And since most the stuff i watch is encoded in DivX and/or Xvid its probably a no go. Just thinking about it makes my head dizzy with the multiple copies of "VIDS" I would have to maintain. I want my DivX and Xvid support.......just like I wanted my MTV in the 80's.

On 10/2/2007 11:40:59 AM Sahil Malik said ..

Carlos - you liked the 80's :-/ .. oh man, there's nothing left for me to argue here.

On 10/3/2007 11:58:16 AM Becky Isserman said ..

I just checked my at&t online account status and it looks like I am allowed upgrade. Even if I technically just got a new razor a few months ago. It is getting so much more tempting to buy one:)

On 10/3/2007 12:26:34 PM Sahil Malik said ..

OMG OMG !!! :) I hear sublimnal voices. Seriously get the iPhone, and then we can compare notes .. on our iPhones of course!

On 7/27/2008 2:34:17 PM Harry Brindley said ..

Switch to IMAP on the iPhone to solve “this message has not been downloaded from the server” problem. Using Gmail as an example, do not create a default POP Gmail account on the iPhone, start out creating an "other" type of email account to get to the IMAP option. For step-by-step instructions, including how to specify a different "from" email address if needed, then read my blog entry at http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/iphone-mail-this-message-has-not-been-downloaded-from-the-server/

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