Dear iPhone…how do I love three

So I went for it. I bought an iPhone. But don’t worry, I’m keeping my BB Curve and upgrading to the Bold when AT&T deems it’s time to renew my contract. Yes, I have 2 lines. One for personal and one for work. Yes, that is my justification. Deal with it.

So let’s start first with a quick review/comparison. (** Note: I realize comparing the iPhone to the Curve is a little up fair but the BB still wins in some areas so just take it with a grain of salt.) App reviews in next post.

The iPhone is probably one of the most amazing little gadgets I’ve ever toyed with. I jailbroke that sucker within the first couple of hours in my possession and well worth it. While I love it’s functionality, there are definitely some limitations that render it nearly useless to *me* if I couldn’t add some apps to it to customize.

The iPhone beats any and all devices for mobile browsing. Period. I underestimated the touch screen’s zoom in/out feature. Looking at anything is better on the iPhone. It’s crisp and clear and easy to navigate. Typing on the iPhone takes some getting used to but I’m getting there. But it totally bothers me that there are some apps where you can not type in landscape mode. Like the native SMS and email client. C’mon Apple…these are probably the 2 apps where you need landscape typing the most. It’s easier to hold and type this way and I’m disappointed that this was overlooked. I’ve added jailbroken apps to get around this problem.

More than anything, the iPhone is…fun. It’s more fun than my BB which handles email wonderfully but some apps on it just don’t cut the mustard. So let’s move to comparisons, shall we? Easy stuff first.

EMAIL: Blackberry wins. They’ve been doing it for so long it’s a science. Everyone else is playing catchup to their push technology. It’s also easier to reply to emails on the BB. Maybe it’s just because I’ve had my BB longer but I can whip out emails longer than you can imagine on my BB so fast it’ll make your head spin.

BROWSING: iPhone. They have a true web browsing experience. Not this made for mobile stuff. the iPhone can display websites just like on your home computer. If you’re on WiFi, the experience is even better. The iPhone screen is nearly twice the size of my BB screen.

APPS: iPhone. “There’s an app for that.” There are thousands and thousands of apps for the iPhone. Some are amazing. Some should have just been part of the native iPhone features. Some are just ridiculous. But the choice is amazing. Sorry BB.

ALARM: Blackberry. Why can’t the iPhone use the mp3′s stored in the iPhone as the alarm sound when you wake up? I’m really quite baffled by that.

NAVIGATION: Tie. The trackball of the BB curve makes it easy and simple to get around. The iPhone touch and “flick” makes it kind of fun. You can create folders on your BB to put apps into to clean up your screen. The iPhone needed a JB (jailbroken) app to be able to do that. If you have a lot of apps, the page flicking can make it hard to find things you want to get to.

COMPUTER COMPATIBILITY: Depends. If you have a PC, the BB is probably more compatible. If you have a Mac, the iPhone gets the vote. I have a Mac so the iPhone syncs perfectly with my contacts, calendar, iTunes, .me. The BB oesn’t have any native Mac clients so I use a 3rd party app to sync. And it’s buggy. I’ve had my contacts messed up by this. Very annoying.

OVERALL EASE OF USE: Again, somewhat subjective here. I feel that the younger generation and creative can adapt to the iPhone much easier while the BB is more traditional in its function and form.

SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE UPDATES: iPhone. Much easier and nearly intuitive. The BB, you almost need a CS degree to update. OK, not really but I wouldn’t suggest upgrading the BB software to most people unless they *really* know what they are doing. The iPhone on the other hand is simple. Plug it in and it does it all for you.

VIDEO: iPhone for viewing. Fanfreakingtastic.

So there are the quick comparisons. And for me, neither is a clear winner. Each has it’s own pros and cons in important areas. So until someone makes a phone that really does it all (maybe the Nokia N(97), I’m keeping both.

And real quick, here are some serious oversights on the iPhone:

* Alarm – I mentioned this above. It’s really really REALLY ridiculous that you can’t choose a song from your iTunes as the alarm sound.
* Landscape typing – again mentioned above. Why did I have to add a JB app in order to do this? It should be native.
* Folders – my Mac has Stacks but I can’t do the same on my iPhone. Too many apps and you spend too much time looking through all the pages. I installed “Categories”, another JB app in order to move apps into folders. Apple should know it’s users like to keep things clean.
* Removable memory – I realize this is so Apple can upsell people and make it more expensive but seriously, it should have a micro SD slot just like all the other phones out there. If they want to sell MORE iPhones, They should allow this. Even it’s just for storing media – no apps.
* Copy/Paste – SERIOUSLY. I know the Apple developers can do this. Again, I installed a JB app to be able to do this but it really needs to be a native feature. Please FIX ASAP.
* MMS – a multimedia device that can’t send or accept picture messages? Doesn’t feel right to me. You get a text saying that your MMS is on a webpage. But because you can’t copy and paste the login/password from your SMS, you have to wait til you get to a computer to see it. Stupid. At least link to it so I can view on my iPhone! Seriously. Major major flaw.
* Camera – camera phones are never really that great but no camera flash or light? No video capability (unless you install yet another JB app). I thought this was a multimedia device?
* iDisk – what happened to the feature that you could email files directly from your iDisk? No access to your iDisk (unless you have, yes, another JB app).