Cliff and Vasken wrote up some link bait complaining about how the iPhone doesn’t meet their expectations or is a lesser competitor to a crackberry. But I challenge them to find a device that offers what they say is missing or even matches what the iPhone has.
Still, I’ve been using mine for a month now, and I can say there are few things it’s missing or could do better. None of them are deal breakers; in fact, it’s only because the device is so generally good that I’ve got any complaints at all. Call me a fanboy if you want, but I’d be interested in hearing from anybody who’s spent significant time with an iPhone who’d rather go back to their old phone.
Like Cliff, I’m frustrated that the built-in GPS isn’t user-accessible or integrated with the Google Maps app, but having used it a lot in my travels recently I can say that the maps are hugely useful even without the GPS. (though this is funny and useful too) The lack of Flash support is frustrating, but I’m not aware of any mobile browser that fully supports it, and the YouTube app is actually much better because the stream dynamically adjusts its bandwidth based on the connection speed (EDGE is way slower than WiFi, though not nearly as bad as some are reporting), and the high bandwidth stream looks much better on my iPhone than in Flash on my desktop. And despite some whining that not all the YouTube content is available, the Apple press release on the subject did claim that all YouTube content would be available by fall.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have complaints. I already noted issues with data getting lost after a firmware reset, but that post missed a few more general issues:
- No copy/paste/clipboard
- Browser doesn’t save passwords, or synchronize passwords from the big-screen browser
- Form auto-fill seems a little dumb compared to the big-screen Safari, perhaps because the history isn’t sync’d?
- The .Mac RSS reader is pretty good, but it can’t display aggregated feeds the way Safari on a Mac can
- The email inboxes aren’t aggregated as they are in Apple Mail, and I must instead check each account individually
- When using GMaps, is there an easy way to switch out of route-view to search for a single point?
- No search tools — especially useful for finding music or contacts
All of those can be fixed in software. My list of hardware-realted complaints is tiny by comparison. I mean, I’ll agree with those that point out the phone can’t properly orient itself while in orbit and doesn’t have a metal cutting laser, but my own complaints were smaller scale. I was surprised to learn that my Belkin car audio adapter didn’t work, somewhat less surprised to find my camera adapter didn’t (wouldn’t it be cool to offload pics from the camera to iPhone, then view them and upload the good ones to Flickr?) and I’m eager for somebody to develop a small external keyboard (hey, check out Pogue’s iPhone keyboarding tips).
14 Comments
Uh, good buddy, I take your challenge. The BlackBerry is the device that does everything that I said the iPhone was ‘missing.’ Very simply, that ‘thing’ that it does is that it runs on an open platform that all can develop for, and many already have the skills to write code for.
When Apple acknowledges that it can’t control the universe (even a smaller, more limited one of its own designation), it will finally build a product worthy of mass consumption.
And yes, that’s a software problem. But a really, really big one.
Not sure if I’m missing what your saying but the arrows in the opposite direction at the bottom left will take you in and out of the route view.
@Eby: Sorry, you’re right…until you make the mistake of hitting the Edit button, they you’re stuck with two entry fields and no way to cancel out. That’s what I meant.
Is it me or does these complaints appear to be very lame? I don’t know maybe I’m just not sensitive enough to understand this crap. Look you numbskulls, If you see a rose, the first rose I might add that has managed to grow from a concrete paved road. You don’t complain about how many scratches it obtained. You look in awe at what has never before been done. IDIOTS.
I feel like Apply stole me.
I bought a phone and 10 days later, the price dropped $200.
And Apple return just $100! What is this arithmetic?
the name of this is STEAL.
Who could imagine that a company like Apple needs to
steal money from the costumers!.
There is not enough money for this Steve Jobs! Pool man, acting like a thief.
my Iphone works whenever it wants it freezes up every day. Apple wont even switch it out for a new one but wants to continue to repair it all of my data was lost.The apple associate john told me on the phone to change my frown to a smile and God is upset with me because i want a new phone and he’s gonna say a prayer for me.
NO CORPORATE DISCOUNTS ON IPHONE PLANS
I went to the Apple Store two days ago to check out the iPhone and ask questions about the rate plans. The Apple Store told me AT&T is responsible for the rate plans and they can’t answer any questions. When I went to AT&T (where I bought my phone yesterday) they didn’t mention anything about the loss of a discount on my account. I called AT&T after I saw the discount loss warning when I started to activate my iPhone and they told me it was all up to Apple!
My wife and I have a family share plan, she is the main line and I am the $9.99/mo line, it has been this way for over 2 years. Now I’m cheap and had been trying to decide between the iPod Touch or the iPhone because I didn’t know if it was worth the extra $20/mo for me, well now it will cost me $40/mo for the $20 data plan because of my discount loss… It’s not just the $9.99 extra line and the $20 data plan that don’t get the discount, it is the ENTIRE plan incliding my wife’s phone that has nothing to do with the iPhone. Since I had to open my iPhone to find out about this, I will now have to pay a restock fee if I want to return it.
I realize Apple is running a business here, but this deal AT&T has with Apple is wrong on so many levels to the consumer.
The Iphone also does not have Yahoo Messanger, Aim, Video, or a text system that can forward messages or send messages to multiple recepients, something that ALL other phones can do.
I love my iPhone, but its Safari web browser *cannot* remember passwords. (It can only remember passwords stored in cookies.)
Although the web browsing experience on the iPhone is by far the best I’ve seen on any phone, this is my one major complaint. It is a royal pain always to have to re-type my passwords into Safari.
If anyone knows of a work-around, please comment.
ive jst bought the iphne too!!…. but the more i used it , the more i find it nt user friendly… i cant save pictures from the net!!! i cannot transfer pictures either!!… n there is no b;luetooth file transfer!! what crap is this!!
if my iphone wasn’t jailbroken I would have returned it months ago. its the jailbreak that allows all the cools apps that apple forgot to include, like screen capture.
Why can?t I text the same message to all of my friends at once? It?s annoying, really…I wrote about my frustration with the iphone, too.
http://blogontap.corn/iphone_complaints/
I was tricked by the “cool stuff” this phone can do! However, after one month the “cool” factor is gone and flaws are starting to really piss me off.
Problems are as follows:
1. No snooze for calendar events. I use my calendar to remind me of events & to do’s. Being able to quickly snooze a to-do, without having to edit would be great but Apple chose form not function.
2. Can not search contacts using keyboard. It’s a slow process to scroll through 600 contacts. Even when you use the slider bar to get to a group of contacts by a,b,c etc…
3. Ear piece volume is awful. In a public place it’s very hard to hear people talking.
4. Forward at text message would be nice.
5. Spell check a finished email or text. Yes it does check each word as you type but if you use the delete key it doesn’t spell check that word.
6. If you in the middle of entering a calendar item and the phone rings that information is lost.
7. The sound/notification for a calendar event is two very quite beeps and or vibrate. You can not change the volume, length or type of notification.
8. If a notification goes off for a calendar event a window comes on the screen. You must either view event or dismiss. However, if you view the event and another notification goes off you have to view that new event or dismiss. If you choose to view that new event the one you where working on disappears and will not remind you again.
9. Can only sort contacts by first or last name. What about company?
These are all issue that could be addressed by software updates. What’s stupid is that these are all features other phones have done well for years. A little time spent doing research would have avoided these issues. Then you’d have the best of both worlds, form and function.
I am looking forward to someone making an external or bluetooth keyboard for it. I’d use it as a portable computer on the run. I’d also like to have logmein or gotomypc or something like it to use my iPhone to tap into my home computer (email files, etc.)
I’m looking forward to full exchange support.
I love my iphone. all the jailbreak stuff was premature and I’m really looking forward to the apps produced by the new SDK.
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