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
    

iphone and the business user

There can be no question about iphone's success with the consumers- the mass market. The evidence is out there everywhere. The real test of iphone's success, however, will be the adoption rate of business users. This segment of the market is important keeping in mind that they are the ones who will patronize the entire iphone ecosystem (the software add ons, accessories, and the lot). Strengthening of the iphone ecosystem is critical to success of future products that are going to be developed by Apple. More products can be developed using the same platform sharing many of the same features.

Studies of adoption rate of iphones in business cummunity is, therefore, of interest to many. On this note, Elina Malykhina of information week wrote an interesting article about signs of adoption on the iphone in the business cummunity. Though the article discussed issues faced by business people like inability to install third party software, it remained optimistic about iphone's prospects with the business community.

In a follow up article, William Gardner of information week reported on a usability survey conducted on iphone by Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric, Inc. The major highlights of the usability survey are listed below:

Major strengths of the iPhone's user interface

• Participants found the Visual Voicemail feature to be intuitive and useful.
• Participants compared text entry using their iPhone and their previous phones (which used multi-tap for text entry). Overall, participants found that text entry was much easier on the touchscreen soft-keyboard of the iPhone compared to standard multi-tap text entry.
• Most participants used the landscape (horizontal) view while searching for a website (The New York Times.) The horizontal soft keyboard was definitely preferred over the vertical keyboard orientation.
• Selecting and playing a song using both the vertical and horizontal views was easy for participants. Participants also commented that the 'Cover Flow' navigation feature was a very engaging feature.
• Making an outgoing call with the iPhone was easy for all participants.
  Participants also found that receiving a phone call on an iPhone while listening to music was seamless. They found the interruption of the music and transition to a call to be very smooth.
• Saving a number as a contact and recalling that contact for a phone call was straightforward.
• Answering a phone call while in SMS mode was also straightforward. Participants found it helpful to be taken immediately to their message after the call had concluded.
• Most participants found it easy to take a picture and email it from the iPhone.

Primary difficulties with the iPhone interface

• Participants uniformly found text entry SMS and email to be difficult. They were frustrated by the forced use the vertical keyboard and the lack of visibility for editing the middle of a word or sentence.
• Many participants found Google Maps difficult to use on the iPhone. They experienced issues with the fine-motor control required to pan accurately in different dimensions in Google Maps and predictably zoom in and out. It was unclear to participants how much they needed to adjust the size of their "pinch" gesture to zoom in and out with the control that they wanted.
• Participants were often frustrated with their Web browsing experience and hoped that this would improve dramatically with an upgrade in network capability. The lack of Flash and Java capabilities during Web browsing was considered a detriment to basic Web use.
• Finally, participants were surprised (and somewhat annoyed) to discover that horizontal text entry was available only in in the Safari browser.

It reamains to be seen if the difficulties with iphone will limit the business adoption. However, It must also be noted that since most of the problems are software based, a fix should be available in the near future. Is apple listening?

Interesting iphone review

An Interesting and comprehensive review of the iphone on the maczealots.com website:
http://maczealots.com/reviews/iphone/

Iphone reviews

Every tech magazine around the world which is worth its salt has carried a review of the iphone in some form or the other. However, why read all these when you need only one or two comprehensive ones?

1. The NY times review (For the technologically challenged people like me)
2. The CNET magazine review (For advanced users who are bordering on geekiness but not quite there yet)
3. The PC magazine review (For the insatiable geeks)

P.S: To the innumerable authours of reviews in magazines and blogs not mentioned in this list: My humble apologies. All web has been taken over by iphone, if I attempt to index all sites which have mentioned about iphone, I will have the next google in my hands. (Interesting project, coming to think of it.)