Why is it that such a remarkable piece of technology leaves me feeling squished and small inside? Like being given rules to live by that you fundamentally disagree with. In order to keep using the iPhone, I must surrender to the whims of, not one but two, corporations: AT&T and Apple. Let me express my thoughts - so you can share my dilemma.
- iPhones require the $30/mo for unlimited data plan, instead of $15/mo; and if I select podcasts larger than 10Mb, the download is unilaterally blocked until I connect to iTunes or have a WiFi connection. No recourse; No options; no way out. Leaves me feeling cheated.
- Being able to tether a laptop while traveling is a huge benefit - i was able to get it working during my last trip, but with the next update it will be shutdown; Leaves me feeling cheated, again. Unfortunately, I could jailbreak, but I feel subjecting users to need to do so is just plain wrong.
- Oh, the new 3Gs has video capture! I shoot a video and there is no way, that I know, to pull the video off in its raw form so I can edit it using tools of my choice. I'm told, if I have iMovie on a Mac, I'm home free. Not happening.
- Try sending a picture you just took with the camera - without warning, the picture is down sampled to 800x600 before being sent. Come on, give me a choice! Ask, seek permission - give the user the credit he is due, allow user to set defaults. Respect the user.
- iTunes - an iPhone user is FORCED to use iTunes - iTunes tries to take over my music library and promptly begins to convert my files.I have to iTunes to subscribe to podcasts and use sync to refresh the iPhone. I have not found a way to have the iPhone refresh over the air... I feel cheated, yet again.
- Frankly, I can't stand iTunes - how did it get to be so popular. Or perhaps it isnt, just because everyone has a ball and chain around their ankle wouldn't make it "popular". Why should I need iTunes even to delete consumed content on the iPhone?
- The processor on the iPhone 3Gs is plenty powerful - why can't I listen to streaming music while checking my email? Why must each application quit, most without keeping context, when a new activity is started. Multi-tasking and task switching is painfully absent on the iPhone.
- Battery life leaves much to be desired - I have had to resort to keeping the iPhone plugged in whenever I'm near a source and using an external battery pack.
- And then there is this: ATT has had system wide iPhone visual voicemail failures: http://shar.es/JzvV
So, without further ado, would you share your thoughts? What should I do about feeling 2nd class, about being subjected to arbitrary restrictions, about paying for undelivered service, about being 'squished'?
Please take the poll, add a comment and share your thoughts about the subject AND my very 1st blog! Thanks!
About the Banner: A Partially frozen Saddlebag Lake, off 120 Tioga Pass Road, late June, 2009.
About the Banner: A Partially frozen Saddlebag Lake, off 120 Tioga Pass Road, late June, 2009.
6 comments:
1) The average iPhone user uses about 10x as much data as the average other smart phone user. 'cause for the first time, it's actually a pretty usable phone. So, while I hate paying $30/month for the unlimited data plan; I understand it. And frankly Sprint and T-Mobile, who have the cheaper data plans, aren't viable service providers for my particular neck of the woods. I choke down the excessive cost here because I know it's essentially the same for all high-end smartphones at AT&T and Verizon...but I'll likely be even more annoyed when they announce their official tethering plan. :-(
2) Which brings us to point two. The other US mobile service providers are kind of in a precarious position when it comes to AT&T. AT&T has all the iPhones, which, as I mentioned before, use 10x as much data as the average smartphone user. As a result, the other vendors get to talk about how much *better* their unused data network is. But if you put the same demand on their mostly empty networks, I suspect that they'd suck as much. AT&T is aggressively rolling out networking upgrades, but they're definitely behind. I believe this is why they didn't offer tethering out of the gate (especially when it comes to San Francisco and New York where AT&T has been hammered). I don't think that Apple nor AT&T is happy about the current situation, but it's probably better to be able to deliver what's promised. Now, just don't screw us on the tethering pricing...
3) I'm sure that there's a way to get the video off the iPhone, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. I've got a Mac and iPhoto slurps it over without my doing anything, so I'm spoiled that way. ;-) But I'll certainly confess Google showed me nothing obvious quickly... How do you get photos of the iPhone under Windows?
4) There's an app that enables email photos without downsizing them. Concur that it might be a user option instead of a separate app, but Apple is all about choosing settings that "just work" for 90% of their audience (to reduce complexity). From a usability perspective, I agree with them. But as I'd rather have the raw data myself, I'd too rather have the option. But, for me, having an application enabling the functionality is fine.
5) Um, Apple is definitely treading in unfriendly waters when it comes to Windows. Certainly if they tried to support Microsoft's products, Microsoft would simply break them. There are Windows applications which are capable of syncing data and such on the iPods and iPhones; however, Apple would be poorly served trying to officially support all of them. From a corporate perspective and a user perspective, it makes the most sense for them to provide a tool that "just works" for 90% of their users and to let "power users" do other things if they so wish. It's been a while since I played with iTunes under Windows, but I recall that it asked whether or not it wanted you to be you default media player and I thought you could configure media playback separately for various formats. That having been said, I agree that it would be more pleasant if one could subscribe to podcasts via the phone rather than having to use iTunes. Podcasts have never really caught on with the mass market, so feature-wise, they're kind of trailing. There are apps that allow you to subscribe to podcasts; however, lots of folks are offended by that "solution". ;-)
6) iTunes itself was never hugely popular on its own. It was okay. It allowed you to buy things from the music store. And for people new to the media management game, it fulfilled most of their needs. Without all those annoying skins and crappy looking controls prevalent on most Windows media applications. Most grandmothers don't want to skin their apps. They have enough difficulty figuring out which random looking icon is play/pause/stop in the first place. So they really don't want them to change icons *and* move around. ;-) So for folks who got an iPod and then got iTunes, it mostly works, they've learned how it works, and it's a perfectly happy place for them. For folks who want it to work a different way, well, um, welcome to not being part of the 90% audience that Apple's designs best serve. ;-) For the record, I can delete at least some kinds of content from my iPhone (iPod app (the Apple one) - Go to the top level, select Videos, right swipe the file to delete it. I thought this worked for Audiobooks and Podcasts as well as videos; however, I don't currently have any installed, so I can't check. It is awfully modal for Apple. And it's inconvenient that it doesn't seem to work anywhere I've found for songs.
7) Multiprocessing, CPU, etc. Apple wants to be sure that 90% of the people are "delighted". Apps are horrible at power management and bad apps will drain the battery in an hour. Background apps are harder to control power-wise. Apple will likely eventually address this...but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on it.
8) I still get 5 to 6 hours of heavy interactive use per battery charge. But I don't use Bluetooth or Push email (the latter is particularly bad about eating battery). And if I'm in areas of poor 3G connectivity, I tend to actually turn the phone into airplane mode and re-enable WiFi for networking. Searching for either a 3G signal or a WiFi signal will also kill a battery quick.
My summary perspective. Using the iPhone sucks less than any other option that I've tried. Even though I'm forced to use AT&T.
My girlfriend, who hates most phones, is constantly borrowing mine. Her 90+ year-old mother was delighted to play games on it. And when I was at home, my 70+ year-old parents constantly wanted to play with my phone. iPhones are less than 5% of the US market, but consume 75% of the data on 3G networks. Mobile YouTube uploads jumped 400% the *day* the iPhone 3GS shipped. For a lot of people, it "just works". For "power users", there's more of a, if you will, "un-learning curve". ;-)
reinharden
Reinharden: Thank you for the elaborate response... I guess understanding the underlying thinking behind the restrictions is warranted. Thanks!
Have you decided yet whether you're keeping it or sending it back?
I'm just curious... Partially because you're kind of the key "next market" for Apple.
It's one thing to work for people who don't have any real expectations going in. Put to be even more successful, the iPhone will have to be capable of being at least tolerated by well-informed users. ;-)
Windows got to the point a revision or two that it's not necessarily worth switching once you've been well-trained in using Windows. For a lot of people, the various smartphones out there today might be similar. If they've already got a great phone that pleases and delights them in daily use, there's not necessarily any reason to switch. ;-)
reinharden
I've something for you to try.
Depending upon which version of Windows you're running, you might be able to extract the "raw" video by simply plugging the phone in via USB which should result in the phone showing up on the Desktop. You should be able to click down into the file hierarchy to find the files and then simply drag them to your computer.
Unfortunately, I can't try that right now...otherwise I'd check it out and let you know if it worked for me.
reinharden
Indra, I guess you are not the typical 'fanboi', you actually expect them to make stuff for the power user. The 90% comment above strikes me as "it is good enough for everyone else, why are you whining ...".
This is a problem, most other companies ship products with reasonable defaults such that 90% of the users never need to touch anything. However most of those settings can be tweaked to customize the device/software to ones liking. And in the remote chance that one of the 90% does venture into the maze of options, there is always a Restore Factory Defaults. But in this case they have chosen to just shut the power user out. It is their way or the highway.
The reason they get by with such crap is that 90% of the users will at some point in time feel limited by the choices offered to them, but then the fanboi kicks in and starts admiring the texture and scent of the crap.
I see this as the Achilles heel, other companies need to step in and offer both software and hardware solutions that will satisfy 99% of the users out there.
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