The iPhone, revisited
It’s been over two and a half years since the original iPhone was released. I’m not ashamed to say that I was at the Apple Store in SOHO that day to make my purchase. In contrast to the lackluster iPad preview that was given by Apple this past week, the months between the original iPhone preview and its release dragged with the weight of anticipation.
Despite the available updates that have since been offered, I still have that original iPhone. The camera doesn’t work. The metal frame has several dents – there was an unfortunate accident involving an elliptical machine about a year ago. Occasionally, the phone will freeze up. I’m not sure if this is because it’s old and beaten up or slowed down by newer iPhone applications. Even with these problems I confidently say it is the best phone I have ever owned and I have no plans to trade it in anytime soon.
It took me a moment to remember my last phone. It was a very sturdy Samsung camera phone I picked up on 6th Avenue after ESPN’s short lived mobile service was cancelled. It was serviceable, but I didn’t really love it. It was the best of the available choices and I wasn’t particularly excited by any of them. I’d owned Samsung phones before that were quite good – better than any Nokia or Moto phone I’d ever seen. But it was basically just a phone.
The iPhone has changed the way I communicate. Thinking back over the past few years, here are the biggest changes that I’ve experienced:
My iPhone is the only device that allows me to track all of my email addresses at once. I cannot do this with any other application that I know of. Sure, I could have my web browser open with a tab for each of my 4 accounts, but why would I do that when I can turn on my phone and see on the screen an indicator of how many new messages are waiting. I now read email more often on my phone than on any other computer. It makes it easy to keep track of what’s going on at work and keep up with my friends. The iPhone’s mail app is simple and easy to use. It’s the first mail app I open each business day. And since it’s on my phone, I’m able to track my email and respond to clients and coworkers much more quickly. I cannot emphasize how huge this is. I use my phone more for mail than I do for anything else – and that include phone calls.
Chinese
Until the most recent update to the MacBook Pro line, the iPhone had the best interface for entering Chinese characters. You can just draw them with your finger on the screen, and the phone will figure out what you’re writing. For someone who is learning the language, this is an amazing advantage. If I see a character, I can open up my handy Chinese dictionary (I have two of them on my phone), draw the character, and get a translation. I took my phone with me to Taiwan (even though I couldn’t make any calls) and used it to learn new words.
Google Maps
Shortly after I purchased my iPhone, my girlfriend and I took a road trip up through Vermont and New Hampshire into Maine. We had a couple of maps, but we mostly just used my iPhone. On the whole trip we were only lost twice. Once was when the battery on my iPhone died, and the other time was when we were in the middle of nowhere and I couldn’t get signal. These days, with the updates to Google Maps, it’s super easy to locate public transportation in a city like New York or Washington DC, and I can always instantly see where I am and what’s around me. This is very handy when I’m looking for a cup of coffee or a WiFi hotspot. Unless I’m researching something on my laptop, I almost always use my phone to find my way point A to point B.
Social Media
Recently, I’ve gotten involved in Facebook and Twitter. My girlfriend uses Plurk, which is popular in Asia. These are just more ways to communicate with people you know, and the iPhone makes it easy to take that ability with me at all times. I don’t find it particularly useful for keeping track of people who live near me, but it’s the only way I regularly connect with friends in far-away places.
It’s strange. When the iPhone first came out, I was ecstatic. I thought Apple had finally made a device that the iPod always should have been. However, the iPod capabilities of the iPhone are the ones I use the least. Sure, I listen to music now and then or the occasional podcast. However, I’m usually near a computer or television. I can listen to music or watch video much more comfortably on some other device. What I do make use of are all the ways in which the iPhone helps me connect with others. Sure, other phones do this as well, but no other phone makes it so easy and user friendly. No other phone comes close – not even after two and a half years.