Isn’t the idea of a mobile (cell) phone mobility?
When you have to use two hands and possibly the aid of a stable surface to use a phone then it’s kind of lost all its mobility. Ever tried to use an iPhone one handed? Yeah, it’s impossible. It’s too large and clunky.
Two hands and a desk to rest the iPhone on, coupled with the fact that it needs to spend half its day plugged in and charging means the iPhone is more of an iMac. Without the large screen and all the features.
Edit: I’m going to have to wade into the comment controversy. Apple do in fact recommend using it with both hands at all times as shown by all their ads – here, here, here and this one from Apple’s lawyers who will probably be after me next. In fact Apple pretty much think you should have all hands on your iPhone at any time. Oh and your nose as commentor Mick said.
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Tags: many hands, nose phone, octopus
Saw your link to this ‘blog’ on a front-facing camera article.
I tell you, with every post I force myself to read on this site, it becomes more and more painfully apparent that you have never actually used the device, or you’re hired by RIM or Microsoft to post outright lies about the iPhone. I will expose outright fabrications and fallacies in every one of your posts below.
“Owners keep asking you when you’re buying one” – You simply cannot base the quality of a device on what a few owners around you say about YOURS. What kind of argument is that?
“Apple won’t allow Flash on the iPhone” – No matter what, you will never get a true desktop experience in your pocket, and you are foolish to expect one. The flash plug-in is majorly flawed, and even desktop browsers perform significantly better without it loaded. Oh, and 50% of pages using flash? Try again. With a more reasonable number.
“Battery life” – When they run out every hour or so? I dock and sync mine when I arrive home at night for a few hours before pulling it off (and leaving it on all night, and all day the next day). It takes serious usage to take my phone below 70% in that time.
“The press talk about how amazing our iPhone future will be” – Apple didn’t want to skimp on quality of video. If video was going to suck earlier, I wouldn’t have wanted it, and would’ve waited for a better version. Now, we get smooth 30fps video on the 3MP autofocus camera. Check out a sample if you haven’t. It is something to be excited about. Oh yes, and your commenter (Nathan) on that article is also technically incorrect, but less so than you. Twitter limits to 140, FYI.
“It costs $1000 and does the same as a $200 phone” – $199 – $299 for qualified customers, $399 – $499 for unqualified customers. What are you talking about? It IS a $200 dollar phone for a large portion of people.
“They can’t multi-task” – The need for multitasking was circumvented with the introduction of push notifications, which use less battery while essentially doing the same thing. App devs just need to implement it. And restart your browser every time you go to a different application? Goodness man, it keeps all of your pages fully loaded. Tap Safari, and everything is just the way you left it.
“They have a capacitive touch screen” – In the same way a thick glove would prevent you from using an iPhone, a thick glove would also prevent you from accurately using most any other phone as well! The iPhone’s capacitive touch screen still responds under light cloth. And who wants to carry around a separate stylus or practically write on their phone with a pen? No thanks. Capacitive touch works much better then regular touch screens, in that it doesn’t require any pressure whatsoever, just the presence of a finger. You should try one sometime.
“They’re huge!” – The screen, battery, and circuit board all take up space you know… Space that’s almost the size of the phone itself, not to mention other miscellaneous things such as the headphone and dock port, which require space inside. And no, in your hand, the iPhone is not huge by a longshot.
“Apple think you should be grateful for a feature you should have had 2 years ago” – Do you really expect them to NOT advertise a new feature in the iPhone line? So yes, other phones have recorded video and had some amount of copy/paste functionality before. But guaranteed it isn’t near the quality of the features on the iPhone. Please show me what other phone can copy a news article with all formatting and images completely intact, and email it to someone as easily, intelligently, and elegantly as the iPhone.
“You need two hands to use it” – This is the one that makes me believe the most that you’ve never used one. Simply put… the title and all content in the post is a complete lie, without debate. It is fine to use (even type short messages) with one hand.
Let me know when you’ve actually picked up one of these devices, and then we’ll chat again. Even the iPhone haters have to admit that it pioneered various mobile technologies and paved the way for the cellular world that is emerging today.
It looks like Jdsee has just volunteered to post a video of him/herself using all the iphone features with just one hand without resting it on a surface.
I’d like to see that. I’ve never been able to do anything usefull – without using my nose anyway. You must have giant hands.
Did you really just link the same video twice and hope I wouldn’t notice?
What someone does on an ad for demonstration purposes in no way recommends how you should use the device. Find a statement from Apple, and not various other blogs, saying that it was designed as a two-handed device if you want to make an argument.
Exactly which features, within reason, would you like me to demonstrate one-handed operation with? And no, I will not demonstrate multitouch one handed. Almost nothing on the phone requires it, and I’ll agree, that’s for when you want to use two hands.
Hey Jdsee – are there any jobs going at Apple? You do work for Apple right?
I have no affiliation with Apple whatsoever. I picked up an iPhone a while ago for an *unbiased* review of it and became a fan then.
You so can’t tell you’re a fan hey. Love your work KB, Iphones suck! .. cause I don’t have one.
JDsee,
The iPhone can be used 1handed but it’s clumsy and precarious when compared with the likes of REAL mobile phones/smart phones. The iPhone is a media device (ipod touch) with telephony functionality. You need both hands to use it properly and for the majority of people world-wide, it is counter to what a mobile phone (device) is because its most important function (usable on the go -1handed-) is weak on the iPhone. You can try and defend it all you want, but try and walk through the aiport (or shopping mall) with a briefcase/bag/book (whatever) and try and use your iPhone. Now pick up a Nokia and do the same thing. Leaps and bounds difference and the iPhone loses very hard here…
The big problem is people bought into the hype that it is a MOBILE phone when it is a nice PDA with telephony functionality.
BATTERY LIFE: IS an issue. Even on my E90 and E71 which can give me 2.5 days of continuous output of always on 3.5G and web, media, I carry 2 batteries for trips. For someone who still has 70% battery life at the end of the day, you’re a casual user. I can get to 70% by mid-day on my E71, and the battery life on that is SUPERB! compared to other phones out there. That’s always on 3.5G: push mail, facebook, IM, Music Player (I clock about 3 hours a day in music played), close to 100 MB of web use (per day on an unlimited plan). Not even counting my OVI media share and such. On other devices, the battery goes dead by slightly past mid-day (iphone is not known for good battery life).
User-replacable batteries are a MUST just as 1handed operation is a MUST for a true mobile phone.
Functionality: My E90 can do everything a iPhone can and better especially in the copy/paste department…and especially in the office functionality. Believe me, once you get past the romance of it all, you’ll find out soon enough other devices out there can do many things much better… and do it 1handed. Might not be as pretty but oh well.
FLASH: Flash is not a problem on desktops. The only people who need to disable flash are peopple with woefully old/underpwoered machines or in corporate firewalls where flash is disallowed. On my E90 and my E71, I see web pages in their full glory. Click play on the embedded video and it plays right there on the page. There’s simply no reason whatsoever that iPhone can’t or don’t want to support this.
But on top of that, those people for whom flash is important are EXACTLY the market that iPhone are being sold to; Media consumers. Flash being one of the prevalent media plugins on the WWW, iphone users are getting shortchanged big time regardless of any personal preference for it or not.
AS A FINAL POINT:
iPhone IS NOT paving the way for mobile technology “as we know it today”. NOKIA is doing that. Do some research and you’ll be amazed to find out that what you think is “amazing” is rather pedestrian in the rest of the world because America lags so far behind in the mobile sector. Check out Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong if you REALLY think Apple is leading the way. They’ll laught at you if you were to tell them that. They are several years ahead and mobility is integral to their life at every stage of society. In every research, USA is ranked with the 3rd world countries in terms of how developed their mobile society/technology is. iPhone only make you wake up and smell the coffee;you’re still ranked in 4rd world category even with the iPhone…that’s how much more advanced the rest of the world is… “leading the way” my foot!
Ounkeo brings up an important point – in the US they were starved of decent PDAs and mobile phones. To the average american the iphone probably looks good. If they had seen what the rest of us have they wouldn’t touch the iphone.
I feel sorry for the people in the US, they are lagging behind the rest of the world. The iphone is just a cute toy.
This is not a valid point.
iPhone users can’t do two things at once, so their other hand would be useless anyway.
Why all the hate of iphones, im guessing the people who say ‘iphones suck’ are people who have been brainwashed by other bellends on this website, too poor to afford one, or so rich they can afford a butler and generator so their butler can wheel around a generator powered imac (best computer no question) and also do all the typing, and are therefore used to a voice controlled powermachine that is just as portable as a phone.
Iphone rules