Saturday, July 10, 2010

Early iPhone 4/iOS 4.0 Impressions...

I've had my new iPhone 4 for 2-3 weeks now, so I guess that's more than enough time to make a fair review of the device. Generally speaking, I'm impressed by the 4th generation of the iPhone & all that it features. For me, it offers the perfect blend of functionally and entertainment necessary to maintain it's top-dog status among all smartphones currently available to consumers. For years I was a very heavy iPod user, so after losing my 3rd iPod Touch, I got wise & chucked my Android G1 & consolidated my cellular & mp3 devices into one - it's been a glorious ride ever since.

Among of my favorite improvements to this iteration of the device & corresponding OS are the *front/rear mounted cameras allowing for video calling (& what I imagine will eventually include an introduction of
video Skype to Skype calling capabilities within current the Skype app) and the all important self portrait, *multitasking - no more starting over in an app each time you open another (plus an app mgmt dock for toggling between currently running apps), *application folders (another formerly missing feature which largely influenced my constant jailbreaks of my previous iPhones) and the *ability to edit iTunes playlist directly rom iPhone (no more waiting all day to get home to ur PC or Mac just to add/delete a songs from a desired playlist).

Below you'll find my quick list of pros & (
just for u BB enthusiasts) cons for the device.Pros:

-326 pixels per inch Ultra High Resolution Touchscreen Display (Games and apps look
even more amazing, the sharp, rich/bright display of photos & graphics is currently unmatched.)


-improved better battery life (as promised by Apple -
finally!)

-Thinner Design (some ppl say its slightly heavier, but I find it comparable to the weight of my 32gb 3GS if not lighter)

-Bright Flash for photos/steady light for video recording

-5 megapixel camera/720p HD video recording

-Fully customizable split home/lockscreen wallpapers

-SMS/MMS now display character count, so no more guessing whether ur msg will fit into one sms (*note - feature must be enabled in message app settings).

-Group messaging between all iPhone users running the current OS.

-Mail app now groups back & fourth emails from the same senders into thread groups
Cons:


-1st off, it's still currently exclusive to AT&T, so any add'l greatness of the iPhone is definitely handicapped in that regard (you Verizon hold-outs still have a lil wait in-front of you before iPhone 4 becomes a reality - 2011 at best)


-The Locksreen
still features minimal customization options - or better yet, none at all. It would really be useful to have updated information (mail, calendar, weather, reminders, etc) displayed on the lockscreen for viewing at a glance. This is where other cell phone OS such as Android have managed to one-up Apple in the game and another reason that I continue to jailbreak my iPhone, they clearly blew it there.

-Lastly Apple used some new stronger more scratch-resistant glass on the front & rear of the phone to house the inner-workings & main display. The only draw-back here it that this new glass doesn't seem to resist smudges & fingerprints nearly as well as it's predecessor, the 3GS. An easy fix would be a screen protector (however touchscreen phone users of any sort should be well accustomed to by now).

As with anything else, there's always room for improvement, so jailbreaking is still necessary if you want to 'fully' maximize the features of your iPhone, but I can honestly say that Apple has done alot this go-round to bridge the jailbroken vs non-jailbroken iPhone gap. Two thumbs up...

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