iPhone

iPhone

I’ve never been a big fan of Apple. As an engineer I’m into customization. Apple’s weren’t really built for that. Growing up I liked to swap out video cards, add new floppy drives (like a 3.5” to update my 5 1/4”), run programs from the command line, etc. etc. As such, I was always a PC owner. I attended the University of Michigan which, when I enrolled (and maybe still), was the world’s second largest purchaser of Apple computers (after NASA). My dorm’s computer room was full of Mac classics with only four PC machines way in the corner. I typically used my computer (a 486DX2/66 – quite fast for 1994), but would have to go down to the computer lab to print things out. Even in a crowded lab one of the PC’s was usually open. Macs were for people who didn’t know how to use computers.

My Junior year I built my own Pentium machine, but typically would use one of the Sun Sparc machines (re: UNIX) in the engineering lab (as I spent far more time in the engineering lab than at home). Most students – even engineers – were afraid of the UNIX machines so there was never any problem with waiting for a machine to open up. Sun’s word processor was more than acceptable for the work I needed to do. Michigan kept buying and upgrading Apple’s for their main campus labs, but we didn’t see too many of them on the engineering campus.

Soon after I graduated I converted to laptops. There were just to convenient to use. I was willing to relinquish some of my customization capabilities. Apple soon came out with their Macbook. Sorry – still not interested. Why would I pay a premium for a computer with an Apple logo on it? Heck, I couldn’t even play all my favorite games on it! Useless.

Next Apple started to get creative – they expanded beyond just computers. The 1^st Gen iPods came out. Sorry guys, still not interested. I can get a Creative mp3 player with a larger drive at a lower cost. I don’t need to pay extra for to have some ridiculous color either. The iPods got better and smaller. I was starting to get interested, but not enough to buy. However, what Apple does is they add features bit by bit until they finally add the feature that pushes you over the top. When Nike came out with their little iPod running gadget I could resist no longer. I didn’t even matter that I wasn’t a runner – this thing was cool. I went out and bought my iPod + Nike (although still used my New Balance running shoes). You could challenge people online, keep track of your miles … this thing was great! I had grandiose dreams of running 10K’s and marathons. That lasted about 2 weeks until I realized that even with the Nike gadget, running was still really boring. Still, I would run a few miles every week and it was fun to look at the graph of my run at the end. Typically it looks like a ski slope because I have no idea how to pace myself. The iPod has served me well for the past couple years.

Next Apple came out with the iPhone. Interesting, but not enough to buy. Plus, it was quite expensive. I was perfectly happy with my BlackBerry – I could check my email, surf the internet and do everything I really needed in a phone. I didn’t have a camera on my BlackBerry but the cameras on phones two years ago weren’t that great. If I was going to take a picture I would just use a real camera. Next Apple came out with the 3G. Ok, it’s faster but that’s still not enough to make me buy it. Everything else was basically the same. Then last month they came out with the 3Gs. This one had video. Time to buy an iPhone! Apple finally reached my critical mass of features. I could now consolidate my phone, iPod, camera, and video and Nike gadget into one device.

I waited a week and a half before buying because I wanted to avoid the lines. Even after that time there was still a short line at the Apple store. I came home with my shiny new iPhone and was ready to roll! However, I quickly ran into a few snags. Katie took the Windows laptop to school with her in NM so all I had was the Linux box. The iPhone needs iTunes to loads music, etc., and there is no iTunes for Linux. My iPod integrates well with the Linux-based Rhythmbox for music transfer, but not so with the iPhone. Darn. Luckily I still have had my 10 year old Windows laptop stored in a box. I dug that out, fired it up and loaded iTunes. I was able to sync it with my iPhone, but the computer only has USB 1.0 so it takes FOREVER to transfer files. 100 songs took me a shade under an hour to transfer. The old laptop doesn’t have MS Office on it so I don’t have an easy way to transfer my contacts from my BlackBerry, but I can wait for Katie’s return to handle that.

Initial impressions: The iPhone is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The internet is fast, it has stereo bluetooth, there are options galore on it. The camera needs to be held perfectly still to get a clear picture which is a bit annoying, but not a deal breaker. Another problem is that there are too many apps. You could spend your entire life looking through the App Store. It’s hard to tell which one’s are the best because it seems like 95% of them have 3 stars. I’ve already loaded, then unloaded several once I realized they weren’t that great. Anyway, I’m sure my new iPhone will provide me with plenty of wasted time in the coming months.

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