Waiting For iPhone
I said I wasn't going to do it. I said I was just
gonna go take pictures of the poor fools standing in line to buy their Holy
Grail of phones. But dammit, Steve's Reality Distortion Field sucked me
in.
It was a little bit before 6 PM on
June 29th — the appointed day for the revelation of the iPhone. I arrived
at the Dupont AT&Tingular store and hoping to get pictures of the
scruffy-looking fanboys and gurls, the well-heeled early adopters and
what-have-yous that had no doubt been standing in line for who knows how long.
Grabbed my camera and was shocked to find only about 30 fairly normal folk
calmly hanging around, waiting out the last few minutes of the countdown. The
first guy in line had only gotten there some 6 hours before. These weren't the
hard-core geeks I was expecting and this was nothing like the silliness that was
going on in the news stories from the big cities. Could it be that the phone
that the media and the pundits had nicknamed the Jesus Phone was going to be a
flop?
I hung around for a few minutes
talking with the people in line. Have to admit our small little band was imbued
with a bit of a festive air, with cheerful banter and building excitement as the
clock ticked closer to 6. It was during this time that I found out the reason
for the short line; this store had but 31 iPhones to sell and quantities at the
other stores were similarly limited (e.g. the store across from Oxmoor only had
35 for sale). Oh well, this store was going to sell out its allotment to the
people already standing here, even with the one per customer limit. Oh, what the
heck, I went up to the door to the gal who was serving as gatekeeper and got my
piece of paper with my number on it. Thirty-two. Let's see, 31 phones and I am
number 32... Oh well, wasn't going to buy one till I tried out one of the demo
units and read a few reviews and maybe haunted the store a few more times before
I melted plastic.
Click! The door
opened and they took in the first 9 customers. Cheering! Wow, I have never stood
in line for a product introduction before. Certainly a different experience.
During the run up to 6 there were a lot of people who stopped by to ask what the
line was for? Where have these people been all week? Even more people came up or
slowed as they drove by to ask how many phones this store had in stock. There
were many looks of disappointment and even disgust when they were told only 31
and realizing that the store would sell out before they even got into the store.
First couple of customers were coming out with their SEALED shopping bags with
their iPhones and accessories inside, each greeted with cheers and high-fives.
Bags ripped open to reveal the simple, yet elegant black boxes. No, they were
not glowing with an inner ethereal light. No that light was in the faces of
these new owners. Simply amazing.
The
line moved along fairly quickly as the phones were not being activated in the
store, but had to be taken home and activated via iTunes. This sounded like an
innovative new way of doing things, but as it turned out according to reports in
the media and the Blogisphere, it was poorly executed by AT&T. It is a long
story that I won't get into here, but it seems to have finally been worked out
by mid-week. I got into the store about 6:20 and went straight for the demo
units, which oddly were not being used by anyone. The iPhone feels wonderful in
the hand, even when constrained by the security ribbon to its kiosk. It is just
about the right size to be cradled on your palm with your fingers curled around
it with a nicely balanced heft that makes it easy to use. It is very smooth
without being slippery and this gives you a sense of security in handling it. In
contrast, my former RAZR (in its day, considered the sexiest phone around) and
my current Samsung Blackjack feel positively clunky and unwieldy in the extreme.
This is a device that is truly a pleasure to hold. The metal part of it has a
subtle matte finish that doesn't show fingerprints, unlike my iPod video which
gets fingerprints if you point at it from across the room (don't get me wrong,
you'll have to pry that iPod outta my cold, dead fingers). The optical-glass
front on the other-hand had paw prints from everybody who handled it since it
was taken out of its box and placed on the kiosk. I took a napkin out of my
pocket (had been at the Wendys out front for dinner right before coming over)
and swiped across the screen. I wished everything cleaned that easy; just one
swipe and all those greasy fingerprints and smears were history. Oh, and after
all the use it had already had, not sign of a scratch on
it.
The screen is nothing short of
glorious. I put it through its paces for about 10 minutes and was just astounded
at its brightness and clarity. The user interface is what all phones should be.
I found typing on it to be much easier than what I had heard it would be; even
with one finger I was going along much faster than I had ever done on my RAZR
and was approaching the speed I get on my Blackjack. The error
correction/predictive typing works better than advertised, so much so that I
could almost hear Obi-Wan whispering in my ear to
"use the
Force"; would probably be comfortable with
thumb typing in a couple of days, so this is a non-issue. I found myself wishing
that Google Maps would work like this on my phone, and why can't I get the real
net on my my Blackjack like this. Video is a whole lot nicer on this screen than
the little one on my iPod and the way you can access those videos, your music
and pictures is much more intuitive than the current menu-based way we use
today. Speed using Wifi was great and on EDGE it was ok, and actually faster
than what my RAZR used to do and what Lynda's Crackberry Pearl did (before she
traded off for a Blackjack like mine). An iPhone with 3G speed would be great,
but most of the places I would use it have WiFi now and if you get out of town,
and I mean not far out (Shepherdsville, Sellersburg and Shelbyville) you will be
back on EDGE anyway, so it may wind up being a moot point. I mostly care about
making calls and getting text and email and that uses the EDGE most of the time
anyway.
While I was playing, er, I mean
evaluating the iPhone, they announced that they were now sold out of iPhones, so
the doors were opened so anybody could come on in. Sigh, oh well, I am only
evaluating, just evaluating. I finished up what I was doing and made my way on
out of the store as I had to meet Lynda for supper (well, an ill-advised dessert
for me) over at Panera Bread across Dutchmans Lane from the
store.
Is the iPhone too expensive?
Considering I bought 2 RAZRs a couple of years ago for about $400 each and they
were subsidized by the phone company and the iPhones aren't subsidized at all
and the RAZRs couldn't do a tenth of the stuff the iPhone does, it comes down to
what you want to use your phones for and the level of frustration you want to
deal with. The RAZRs were certainly sexy in their day, but they have been
supplanted in their sexiness and they were always a pain to use. The Blackjacks
can do much more and even a couple of things the iPhone can't, but they are
Windows Mobile devices and they have to be rebooted after locking up or one
function or another ceases to work, and this is happening 3 to 5 times a day.
Also, it is almost impossible get through a whole day with the Blackjacks on a
charge, which is why they ship with 2 batteries and an outboard charger. Lynda's
Crackberry Pearl almost got sent through a wall, so the less said about it, the
better. There are phones out there that do more, but I question whether they do
it well, and there are most certainly phones that are cheaper and even free, but
even they can't lay claim to the ease of use of the iPhone, even if all you want
to do is make a call from your contact list. So, the iPhone may or may not be
too expensive. I think we can justify it price considering the luck we have had
with phones over the last 7 years, and if we can't justify it, we'll just
rationalize it and call it good.
After
dinner, Lynda and I went back to the store and played with the demo units. They
told us they had two 4 GB in stock. Apparently a couple of customers took their
new prized possessions home and their spouses/significant others said "you paid
WHAT for that #$%@ing phone?!" and they had to bring em back. The lesson there
is to get permission first, even if you do rule the roost in your mind (yeah,
right...). Lynda was definitely in her GeekGurl element and think she wants one
more than I do.
We may get a couple of
these 1.0 versions and then again, we may not. I am hoping that they will update
the Bluetooth to recognize my GPS dongle so it can work with Google Maps. The
GPS is the only place where the Blackjack beats the iPhone — AT THE
MOMENT. We went to the phone store at The Summit and played with them on the
Fourth of July and it was probably a good thing they were sold
out.
Watch this spot in case we decide
to drink the Kool-Aid™ and actually get a couple of iPhones, will write an
update and post it on the blog.
Posted: Sun - July 8, 2007 at 01:39 PM