Solo Practice

My iPhone experience, briefly

By Michael Grossman

I wasn’t planning on buying an iPhone. On June 29th, the day it was released, my wife and I were vacationing in San Francisco, the apparent epicenter of iPhone mania. We walked by the Apple store, while touring the city, and stared at the line snaking around the corners composed of desperate and drooling-in-anticipation iPhoners. Although early reports, reviews and videos did cast a neat-o cool aura, I wasn’t swayed. I was perfectly happy with my Blackberry Curve.

The next day, June 30th, when walking past the SF Apple store again, my curiosity got the better of me. I wedged my way into the store but was stopped in my tracks when I couldn’t get anywhere near the devices on display. A huge swarm of touchy-feely types were all googlie-eyed over the new coming of sliced bread and indoor plumbing. I didn’t bother waiting for a turn as dim sum awaited us on a beautiful Saturday morning.

The following Monday, back home in Chicago, I had morning business in the loop. But, I realized, I had time to sneak into the Apple store on Michigan Avenue when it opened at 9:00 a.m. to take a look at the iPhone. Crowds would be thin, I imagined, and I could get a peek at the subject of the monster-hype.

Crowds were in fact sparse at that time of day and Apple had happily laid out many of the devices for playtime. When I looked at the display it was not unlike the feeling I get when walking into a Chinese restaurant buffet at the end Yom Kippur. After about two minutes of fondling the device, in ways that might be illegal beneath the Mason-Dixon line, I was so honestly impressed that I plunked down my money and took one home. I’ve had it about two weeks now and I enjoy it more and more every day.

I’ve used all sorts of smartphones using all sorts of operating systems - Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Smartphone, Blackberry and Symbian. None have been perfect, and neither is the iPhone, but what it does well - it does REALLY well.

The form factor rocks. Email, while not as great as a blackberry, is pretty good - at least for my light use (I’m seldom far from a laptop for heavier email use.) It’s the best iPod, evar! Google Maps works very well, even though there is no built-in GPS. Calendar integration with iCal is great, though I do wish multiple calendars were supported. Contact management is strong. Web browsing, although slow if not on wi-fi, displays what other smartphones will not because it’s a full-fledged web browser. I’ve found this surprisingly useful - online banking, train schedules and restaurant menus to name only a few instances.

Oh, and it’s also a phone that is better than any I’ve used.

What ultimately pushed me over the edge, in addition to playing with the device, was when I learned that software updates will continue to make improvements. iChat, flash drive support and other applications will be added in the near future. I think this great phone is going to get much better. (See comments made in a recent interview with the fellow who is in Apple’s iPhone demonstration videos, Bob Borchers, discussing iPhone software upgrades and other iPhone topics.)

Some issues, like a battery that must be brought to Apple when it’s time for replacement, are annoying. But I think this is manageable and relatively minor. All the pluses of this device easily outweigh temporary and minor annoyances for my uses and in my opinion.

Updates I hope to see in upcoming months are an iChat application, to-do integration within iCal and multiple calendar support. I’m sure there are other things I’d like to see added to the device, but I can’t think of them now. I’m always confident that there are others with louder and more comprehensive voices who get heard by Apple developer-types before I do - and usually, in my experience, Apple listens well.

In the lingo of my all-time favorite NPR show and podcast, Sound Opinions, this is a “Buy it!” device.

Note: For a comprehensive review of the iPhone, from a lawyer’s perspective, check out Finis Price’s fine blog TechnoEsq.

Full post as published by Practical Lawyering on July 16, 2007 (boomark / email).