I’ve had my iPhone for about a year now, I foolishly bought a 3g iPhone the DAY BEFORE WWDC 2009. I thought I made a mistake, but in reality it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Because, really, what was the real difference between the 3g and the 3gs? I didn’t need the video camera (nor did I crave it), the compass was a neat little toy (what ever happened to augmented reality apps?), and that’s pretty much it for me. I know there was probably more there, but I don’t really care.
So one year later, what happened?
Nothing really. I have an iPhone, and what…. Yeah… I have an iPhone. While I am an Apple fan, and I like how their shit just works. I still find myself not sold on the iPhone, I see HTC and their offerings… And yet, I still crave a good Android based smartphone. But why though? The iPhone does what I want it to do, it’s got great apps, the phone is a phone, and it’s a solid piece of work. I just… I keep looking at the Nexus One, HTC Incredible, HTC Evo, and other Android based phones. I know I’ll never buy a ”regular” cellphone again, thanks to what the iPhone has done. But, why am I thinking of cheating on Apple?
Flash doesn’t bother me, in fact, I do not like flash. I’ve hated flash for the longest time and I’m glad there are new standards coming out to change the landscape.
Tethering… It’s a good idea, but there are wifi networks out there and if I really wanted to get connected to the interwebs and add some more tubes, I’d get one of those dealie bobs from Sprint or Verizon (Overdrive or Mifi respectively).
Is it AT&T? I used AT&T and Cingular before with my myriad of Motorola phones and never had a problem, and with my iPhone I haven’t had the issues that everyone else suffers. Which I blame crap bandwidth in high population areas for those issues. My only problem is that where I go in the states, I always have Edge. *shrugs* That really doesn’t bother me, unless I’m driving and then Pandora does it’s thing.
I think it’s the lack of personality in the OS itself. I am a very individualistic person, I hate falling in line with others. So when I see my iPhone and everyone elses iPhone, and the only difference between being the cases. It tends to bother me more than usual. I like my iPad because I can set the background on the lock and home screens. But I don’t know if thats entirely it.
- Image from Unbeatable.com
I love a good user interface, and I’ve loved Macs for so long because it’s a good, solid UI. It’s pretty much been the same since 19huzabuzah, and it works. I think the iPhone OS UI is too simplistic. Black background, 4×5 block of apps, and that’s it. To be honest, the HTC Evo home screen is pretty much what I expect a smartphone home page to be, it’s what I hoped the iPhone OS interface could be. However, even with OS 4 coming out in the Fall, it’s still going to be the same. The same bleak, bland interface, but with backgrounds. It should be the date and time being taking the upper fourth, the current weather underneath, and maybe 4 to 8 eight of your most used apps. And then the following pages of apps after, would be the 4×5 block of blandness, all the while getting the Johnny Ive touch.
I have yet to decide if I will buy a 4G iPhone when it comes out, or buy out my AT&T contract and jump ship. Android seems to get better and better, while my lovely little iPhone just goes, “Hey, I’m here. I’m still behind the game but if it were 4 years ago, I’d be awesome!”
Is this the start of me jumping off the HMS Apple? Not so much, it is me however, craving that Apple-formula that’s worked so well in other products. My advice to everyone else, look at the iPhone, and look at the latest HTC offerings. Either way you probably wont be disappointed, but play with both handsets, make your choice, and you will not be disappointed. Smartphones are the future, and the future is gonna rock.
