We take a look at the changes that have come to the iPhone in the last 9 months. Have they been enough, or should buyers wait to see what's next?
Review summary of the Apple iPhone:
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 In reassessing our original opinions about the iPhone, nothing speaks to the phone's abilities more than the fact that it has become our primary phone as well as our primary music player. On long trips, it has proven invaluable as a PMP, and driving around locally, has even replaced our GPS-enabled phones (though it won't replace a good PND, by any means). It is important, in understanding this phone, not to underestimate the importance of a great user interface, and the more we use the iPhone the more we find lacking in other devices. That being said, there is still much work to be done. Admittedly, much of that will be handled by third-parties, and some of the features we crave will require a hardware upgrade to 3G networking, and perhaps better hardware for camcorder recording. Still, some of these omissions, like MMS and voice dialing, are still puzzling, as greater and lesser features have been added since the iPhone's launch. We can't recommend that anyone waiting for features beyond GPS jump on board immediately, as no other improvement has been so impressive. But users who understand the limitations of the iPhone will be delighted by what they find. And with ActiveSync support and more third-party apps on the way, the future for the iPhone looks bright indeed. Release: June 2007. Price: $400.
Pros: Fantastic touch screen. Fun, intuitive interface. Best-in-class audio and video player capabilities.
Cons: Poor messaging, hampered by a questionable touch keyboard. Lacks some key features. Myriad functions drain battery quicker.
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Full review of the Apple iPhone:
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Editor's note: Our original review of the Apple iPhone can be found here.
Though the most ground-shaking updates to the iPhone will probably come from third-party developers taking advantage of the recently-announced iPhone SDK, since its launch last June, Apple has made some significant improvements to the iPhone's interface and capabilities. We decided to revisit our original review to see if the improvements have made the phone so much better.
Navigation - Very good
The iPhone still lacks GPS, and even the ability to pair with existing external GPS devices, but Apple has taken some interesting steps to improve the navigation experience on the iPhone. The current version of Google Maps, on any phone, not just the iPhone, adds the ability to use cell phone tower signals to triangulate the user's location. We've used this service before, notably on the HTC Touch Dual, and found the service to be unreliable. But Apple has also incorporated data from Skyhook Wireless, a company that has mapped out Wi-Fi hotspots to provide similar information, and the combination of cell tower data and Wi-Fi locations makes for an impressive location service.
Occasionally, Google Maps placed our location in a broad range, finding us somewhere on the island of Manhattan. But usually it found us with impressive accuracy, often pinpointing us precisely with half a block of our location. We've done worse with actual GPS devices. At worst, the service, which doesn't track your direction or speed, couldn't tell that we were on a major highway, and not the local roads nearby. But at best, and it was usually performing at its best, it completely made up for the lack of GPS on the iPhone.
The iTunes Wi-Fi Store - Good
The iTunes store is certainly the nicest looking over-the-air music store we've seen. Though its catalogue was not noticeably larger than similar offerings from Sprint and Verizon Wireless, it's prices were competitive, at $0.99 per song, though Sprint has been offering similar pricing for some time. Unfortunately, the store highlights two of the biggest problems we have with the phone. First, like all music purchased on iTunes, songs come locked with Apple's increasingly bothersome FairPlay DRM, which no other player can surmount. This isn't a problem if you only use iPods, but if you want to load your music onto any other device, you'll have trouble. Second, the store only works over Wi-Fi. This is understandable, given the iPhone's EDGE-only 2.5G networking, but disappointing. Whereas a Sprint phone might allow you to make spur of the moment decisions about picking up that song you have stuck in your head, the iPhone requires you to find an open Wi-Fi hotspot, or a Starbucks (which has a deal for free iTunes store access for iPhone owners) in order to download. You can't even browse the library and queue up downloads for later unless you're covered by Wi-Fi. We expect this will change when the iPhone gets faster 3G networking, perhaps in the next version.
Ringtones support - Good
There have been third-party apps that, legally or not, allow you to use your own .mp3 files as ringtones on the iPhone, but nothing sanctioned by Apple until a recent software update. This update allowed users to pick select (and we mean VERY select) songs in iTunes and cut them up as ringtones, for an extra $0.99. That pricing isn't horrible, but it also isn't free. Of course, there's another, much less publicized option. Macintosh owners can use GarageBand to cut up ringtones as well, then load them on their iPhones for free. So, if you know someone with a Mac, have them make you ringtones, or pay extra for the privilege. Clearly, licensing concerns among the iTunes artists were at play here. And, to be fair, most over-the-air download services do not also let you use your purchased music as ringtones. But it is still disappointing to pay extra, and be limited in the choice of which tunes can be used. Of course, we own a Mac with Garageband, so it wasn't a problem for us.
Interface improvements - Good
In addition to these key features, there were some other basic improvements to the user interface, but nothing too significant. The icons on the home screen can now be rearranged, and users can add Web site bookmarks to the home page as well. If you fill the home screen, you can create multiple home pages, which can be flicked around for a virtual desktop-like experience. For messaging fans, SMS can now be sent to multiple recipients at once, but this should have been available from the start.
What's still missing
In our original review, we complained about a few surprising omissions from the iPhone, and many of these are still absent. MMS messaging is no where to be found, and neither is any Instant Messenger support, though AOL representatives did show a brief demo of an AIM client at the Apple SDK press conference. Voice dialing is also a no-show, and the iPhone has proven itself to be one of the most difficult phones on the market to use while driving, though, of course, driving and phoning should be avoided, anyway. The camera on the iPhone still lacks any adjustable options, and it is impossible to record video on the device.
And the phone is still kind of buggy. Though our computer is more apt to recognize the phone since we upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), iTunes has stopped automatically synchronizing our iPhone, even though we have checked and unchecked the little box to enable this option numerous times. Google Maps still has trouble searching for businesses that are truly local, and will often make suggestions that are literally thousands of miles from our current location, which is disappointing since it does such a good job of figuring out what our current location is.
We're also still not in love with the keyboard. Though we mostly abandoned our Palm Treo 755p for e-mail checking, and completely abandoned it for Web browsing, when we need to send anything longer than a brief SMS, we break out the Palm device. Apple's software does a fine job of guessing at our intended word, but it isn't perfect, and tapping the touch screen is not as quick or satisfying as using a dedicated QWERTY.
Comparison
Compare the Apple iPhone with similar products
Who is the Apple iPhone for?
DadsInternet addictsMomsMultimedia enthusiastsMusic aficionados
Price and availability
Available on June 29 from AT&T, the Apple iPhone will retail for $400 (8GB) or $500 (16GB) with a two-year contract.
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