Tuesday, July 17, 2007

iPhone flaws

Tom Yager of infoworld test center has come up with extensive iPhone Pros and cons list after extensive testing.

I have formatted the list into Five sections to make it a little more organised.

Phone:
Pros:

  1. Visual Voicemail speeds through large voice mailbox, eases initial setup of greeting and PIN

Cons:

  1. Substantial delay for new voice mail notification
Internet Browser
Pros:
  1. Extremely high-quality text
  2. Clever zoomed-in handling of HTML option lists

Cons:

  1. Web apps cannot download, upload, or store data
  2. Web pages cannot be saved for offline viewing
  3. No Flash, Java, or native application support
  4. Mail viewer HTML image display, JavaScript can't be disabled
  5. Yahoo "push" e-mail did not deliver immediately in tests
  6. Operation of interactive Web sites awkward
  7. No external mute button
  8. Slow rendering of zoomed HTML content
  9. Slow JavaScript interpreter, no mouse events hamper Web 2.0 apps
  10. No streaming audio/video support
  11. No full-screen view in browser; large button strip always present
  12. No edit-in-place in Settings; each line of text is a separate entry page
  13. No master inbox covering multiple mail accounts
  14. Chat substitute uses expensive SMS (Web alternatives available but don’t signal on incoming chat invite)
  15. Safari doesn't try to reformat Web page for convenient viewing (like Windows Mobile IE's one-column view)


Mp3 player

Pros:

  1. Incoming call smoothly fades out audio, fades back in after call ends
Applications and utilities
Pros:
  1. Zoom, pan, and scroll gestures ease UI operation
  2. Text editor has BlackBerry-like shortcuts for contraction, plus near-miss dictionary
  3. Word, Excel, PDF document viewing built in (no editing); useful for file storage

Cons:

  1. Cannot browse iPhone's folders by any means
  2. On-screen keyboard is large, opaque; obscures underlying interface
  3. No text select/copy/past
  4. No rich text editor
  5. Spelling errors are not flagged in text
  6. Cursor positioning inside editable text is difficult
  7. Vertical/horizontal scroll regions too narrow; trip underlying controls
  8. Feeling for home button can delete e-mail (trash button is bottom center of display)
  9. No file upload limits use of online document viewers
  10. No musical ring tones
  11. Fewer slideshow transition effects than video iPod
  12. Cannot download content for offline playback except through iTunes
  13. No Bonjour support for iTunes, Web sharing
  14. iPhone pairs with MacBook Pro Bluetooth, but offers no supported services

Hardware / Misc.

Pros:
  1. Works with standard iPod charger, USB cord
  2. Buzzer motor powerful, silent

Cons:

  1. Touchscreen imprecise; can't adjust for parallax (finger/screen offset)
  2. Proximity sensor did not answer calls in tests
  3. Extremely strong radio frequency interference
  4. Enclosed speaker is too weak for speakerphone and voice mail playback
  5. No VoIP support for Wi-Fi
  6. No A2DP (Bluetooth stereo) support
  7. Battery not user-replaceable
  8. Memory not swappable or expandable
  9. Quality of camera is comparatively poor; focus distance limited; no digital zoom; cannot capture video
  10. No voice-record capability; iPod add-on did not function
  11. No TV out
  12. Device does not operate in landscape mode in all applications
  13. Battery drains rapidly with Wi-Fi use; no transmit power setting
  14. Will not accept existing SIM card
  15. Not addressable as USB storage
  16. Phone audio quality subpar
  17. No over-the-air sync options
  18. No exposure control in camera, very slow shutter creates blurry images
  19. Headset jack not phone standard
  20. Two-year commitment required for activation
  21. No third-party software

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