Apple’s iPhone comes to Canada: What’s to love and not to love
The Apple iPhone arrived in Toronto this week to a Beatles-like reception
It’s arguably the most-hyped consumer electronics gadget in history and Apple’s iPhone is finally available in Canada through Rogers Wireless. With all the media hoopla surrounding this sexy smartphone there’s probably very little you don’t already know about it.
Here are the things people are saying they love about the iPhone 3G, and the things they don’t, as compiled by the Toronto Star last week:
What people love
1. It’s so wireless. Ten different radios are under the hood of the iPhone 3G, including Wi-Fi (to surf the Net while on a wireless network), Bluetooth (for hands-free headsets), GPS (to navigate to a destination) and 3G connectivity for high-speed wireless connectivity through Rogers’ HSPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network.
2. The display. The 3.5-inch multi-touch screen makes it a breeze to navigate through the phone’s features. Use your fingertip to flick down your contacts like a digital Rolodex. Pinch and expand to zoom into your photos. Tap to preview and play music via the iTunes Wi-Fi store.
3. Shhh, it’s really a computer. You haven’t surfed the Net on a phone until you’ve used an iPhone, thanks to a real HTML-based Safari browser with support for photos and some videos (such as QuickTime). Turn the iPhone sideways and the built-in accelerometer automatically flips the screen horizontally.
4. It’s an iPod. Store up to 8GB or 16GB (depending on the model) of music, podcasts, audio books, photos and videos – all copied over when synched with your iTunes software. But unlike any previous iPod, the iPhone also has a built-in speaker so you don’t need ear buds if you don’t want to wear them.
5. Programs galore. Apple opened up the platform for third-party developers. The AppStore means you can download thousands of applications to run on the iPhone, ranging from 3-D video games and song-writing software (think GarageBand for your pocket) to medical encyclopaedias and digital cookbooks with video tutorials.
6. It’s stable. The operating system is rock solid. We haven’t experienced a crash once. Any time you want to get out of a program you don’t have to look for an “X” to tap in order to close it – simply tap the solitary “Home” button at the bottom of the iPhone. It might not be a sexy feature, but there’s nothing more un-sexy than a crashing OS with a complicated interface.
7. Coffee is close by. Type in something you’re looking for in the Google Maps search field – such as “coffee,” “gas station,” “Indian food,” “CIBC” or “hotel” – and you’ll immediately see pushpins fall onto the satellite image. Tap the closest “point of interest” and it will present the phone number (tap to call), website, address and directions.
What don’t people love about the iPhone 3G?
1. The soft QWERTY keyboard takes some getting used to – especially for those with fat thumbs. And while you can hold it horizontally while surfing the web (to make the keyboard bigger), emails must be typed on the vertical layout.
2. No video recording. What gives? Plus, the 2-megapixel camera is the same as last year’s model (5 megapixels would’ve been nice).
3. No MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) support. You can take a photo and email it to someone but you can’t send it to a friend’s phone with a message.
4. No voice-activated dialling (e.g. “Call Home”), as you can with most other phones. On a related note, there is no voice recording feature (an invaluable tool as a journalist).
5. Google Maps doesn’t give you audio-based turn-by-turn instructions, so it’s basically useless while driving.
6. You can’t copy and paste text on the iPhone, such as a copying some words from a website to the Notes section. With any luck this oversight will be fixed with a firmware update.
7. More memory, please. Rumour has it a 32GB version is in the works. At the very least offer support for expandable memory cards, no?
– Compiled by Marc Saltzman, special to the Toronto Star