Thursday, January 11, 2007
iPhone iPhone iPhone
I've been waiting (WAITING!) for this thing for years. Now it is here and I'm really bummed. Not about the phone itself, which out to be very cool, but that Apple's chosen to go with Cingular. I hear very little good about them, but your experience may be different. I'd like to see how many sales they're losing by not opening up the phone to more carriers.
While watching the keynote by Steve Jobs, I wondered why he didn't make more out of the iPhone as a PDA or a Palm substitute, specifically in the calendaring area. At one point, unless I mis-heard, he mentioned iCal then said he'd return to it. He didn't. Part of that might be due to iCal's lameness in several areas. The app goes so far, then no more, or shunts you off into the way Apple thinks is best. And, syncing with a Palm? Less than ideal. Is this fixed in the iPhone? I have no idea, but it doesn't look like that aspect of the device is at the top of Jobs/Ivy's prioriy list. (If anything, pimping the iPhones usefulness as a PDA would have added another device to the list during the pricing justification part of the keynote address.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm as big an Apple fanboy as the next Apple fanboy, but at the end of the day the choices Apple has made regarding their re-invented phone have really left me flat. I'd hate to think Apple went with Cingular just because they could keep a secret and dissed the calendaring/scheduling aspect because it is not a sexy as watching Pirates of the Caribbean. But sometimes Apple does makes great products and then finishes them off with a WTF moment. (Another of them, Merlin Mann addresses over at 43folders.com .)
