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Nov 16 2010

My iPhone 4 Experiences & Thoughts Series Part 1

Posted by MickyFin in EDITORIAL

whiteiphone4h My iPhone 4 Experiences & Thoughts Series Part 1

Well, as many of you will know by now, I recently purchased an iPhone 4, a 32GB Black model, and my initial plans were to convert it to a white iPhone 4 with parts I have also purchased, however having had the device for almost a week now, the black is actually growing on me, so I think I will keep it black for the time being.

Many of you have been looking forward to my experiences with my new mobile device, especially my impressions, and thoughts on iOS compared to what I have been used to over the last Decade, S60, and Symbian. What you are about to read are my own personal opinions, and in no specific order, as this was compiled from notes, and put together in this blog post especially for you. I hope you find my findings of some use, and as the title suggests, this is part 1 in my new series of iPhone 4 Experiences, and Thoughts, comparing the iPhone to Nokia’s offerings.

I will detail in this post my findings from the moment I received my iPhone 4, from Activating it, setting it up with my various online accounts, and of course usage.

The iPhone 4 to me is such a complete device, its simply impressive, activating the device via iTunes on my MacBook Pro, not only activates the device, but also sets and syncs the iPhone with all of your personal information on your Mac, information such as your bookmarks from your browser, all of your contacts, and it even sets the time, date, and configures all of your notes, and calendar entries, brilliant.

All of the above is what I have expected from Nokia for a long time now with their Nokia Account functionality. One would expect when you get a new Nokia device, you would do similar to that of an iPhone, but instead of connecting to iTunes, connecting to Ovi Suite, and then Ovi Suite does all the syncing for you to your online media, and accounts, but sadly this is not the case, yet.

The User Interface, and User Experience I have gained on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of amazing, its just works! Not only this, but it works in such a way, its very pleasant to use too, and the eye candy so many people are aware of not only looks nice, but it’s an interaction with the user, bringing the device alive as it were.

As mentioned, everything just works, no lags, no blank screens, no hanging around waiting for apps to load, it just does everything very well indeed, much like my MacBook Pro which I should mention was the best investment I have ever made when it comes to work tools. It was the confidence I got from my MacBook Pro, which pretty much made me decide to get the iPhone 4.

Not only was I tired of Symbian, and forever waiting for that perfect device from Nokia, (If there is such a thing?), I simply wanted to experience something new, and the iPhone 4 ticked all the boxes for me, and most of those boxes consist of interconnectivity with my MacBook.

Yes, admittedly Apple’s launch of the iPhone 4 has to be one of the worlds most misunderstood, and confusing launches ever when it comes to mobile phones, with the White iPhone 4 being delayed, then delayed again, and then rumors hitting that it had been scrapped altogether, but none of this has affected sales Globally, not a dent on sales, period. This in itself must tell you something. Even though Apple screwed up big time, and add to the mix the Antennagate issues, people were still lining up outside Apple Stores around the world, readily awaiting to hand over their hard earn cash to get their hands on the latest and greatest technology. I can now see why.

Let me remind you, I’m a self-confessed Nokia Enthusiast, period. This is of course different to a Nokia fanboi, where the latter will praise Nokia no matter what mistakes, flaws, and mistakes are made, whereas I, I am known for speaking my mind, and of course, share my own personal opinion with everyone, which of course, I’m perfectly entitled to.

Back to the iPhone 4, and my personal observations with it, and its iOS. The App Store, wow, what can I say, this in itself is an astonishing accomplishment from Apple considering its only two years old. The Official Launch day was 11th of July 2008.

My experience with the App Store has been nothing short of an impressive, pleasurable experience, with the extension of the UI extending to tiny little finishing touches, such as a small status bar showing the downloaded app actually loading on your iPhone. All these small details count, and add to the user experience.

Now don’t get me wrong, iOS is not perfect, and although I have chosen thus far not to Jailbreak my iPhone 4, and understand in doing so would knock down a couple of those walls around the walled garden environment, I chose to fully test out iOS, and the iPhone as Apple intended it to be f or their consumers.

This leads me to iTunes, now whilst iTunes is the place to go on your MacBook, or PC to browse the endless amount of apps, games, podcasts, and videos, it still is a restriction for one’s music library that say you have already on your HDD.

I am yet to even try to put music on my iPhone 4, but you can be sure when I do, I will share my experiences with you all in another post.

Back to iOS, and this time I want to talk to you about the various Social Media applications that I use, and the various notifications that the iPhone allow you to set up.

Tweetdeck for iPhone is impressive, smooth, and the next best thing to the actual desktop client on your mobile. When I say smooth, I mean really smooth, but this is not just down to a great app, but also to the iPhone itself, and its touch screen technologies used.

There’s no haptic feedback here on the iPhone 4 touch screen, there is no need for it, simply because, as soon as you place a finger on the screen of the iPhone 4, the device is then connected to you, and you actually feel apart of what you are interacting with, not by vibration, and that haptic feedback Nokia uses, but visually you are connected to your device, the smoothness, and eyebrow raising visuals all add up to an amazing user experience. The pinch and zoom functionality is mind-blowing when you compare it to the laggy offerings from Nokia, with Symbian.

Facebook for iPhone is yet another great app, with so much functionality available to you, it’s quite simply overwhelming at first use, but soon you get comfortable with it, and its elegant performance. Notifications which you can set up in settings work very well indeed too, enabling you to respond instantly to any comments, and feeds you have taken part in.

Foursquare, what can I say about this? To give you a quick comparison from foursquare on the iPhone compared to say the N97 from Nokia, on the iPhone I can check in, with just two clicks and a few seconds I’m done, on the N97, it takes several clicks, and takes up to over one full minute or more.

Email on the iPhone is in my opinion the best email experience I have ever experienced on a mobile device, as mentioned earlier on, when syncing my iPhone to my Mac, it synced all of my email accounts, so no configuring needed in setting all these up, it synced my contacts as already mentioned, and pretty much makes emailing on the iPhone as simple as emailing on my Macbook.

The Portrait keyboard on the iPhone is equally as impressive, Apple have certainly mastered this, bringing text entry as a pleasurable experience, again no vibrations here, but simple clicking sounds, and enlarged letters as and when pressed, and you don’t even after hit a full stop at the end of a paragraph, simply hit space twice, and it automatically places a full stop there for you.

Photography on the iPhone is yet again, simple, smooth, fast, and a joy to carry out, with superb UI animations, connecting you to the whole camera experience, and touch to focus is genius.

One thing iOS does not allow though in your iPhone camera, is one click uploads using the likes of Pixelpipe, however, having said that, with the Pixelpipe application installed, this too is so simple to use, a 4 year old could do it. Launching Pixelpipe loads up your Camera Roll, this is where all of your taken photos are stored. In Pixelpipe simply select the photo you wish to upload, and bam, done. No messing around, simple, and it works.!

I am yet to carry out any video recording on my IPhone, but this is something I want to cover in depth at some point in another post here on NokiaDNA.

Yes, NokiaDNA is a Nokia blog, and a lot of people have been sharing their thoughts, and opinions on me writing, and covering the iPhone 4 on here. My answer those in question are that this is my own blog, be it Nokia focused physically, or verbally, and this post you are reading now, although about the iPhone 4, I am sharing with you my thoughts, and impressions as a Nokia enthusiast, and comparing the two for you, as I know a lot of people have been waiting for some time on reading my thoughts on Apples iPhone 4.

Nokia have a lot to learn from Apple, and their iOS, they really do, from User Interface, to User Experience. Eye Candy is not just eye candy, but its an interaction with the user, and the device, the eye candy acts as a notification status whilst carrying out background tasks, whereas on a Nokia, you are either exposed to a blank screen, or loading symbol, often wondering if the device has in actual fact frozen up, or crashed. This lack of user interface on Nokia devices with Symbian is one major area that Nokia need to improve. Nokia make great devices, there’s no denying that, but lets face it, their track record for software is somewhat confusing, and ill implemented. Yes, I know what you are thinking, multitasking, and alike, full functionality of what you can do with a Nokia device over the iPhone 4, but I will save this for yet another post on NokiaDNA.

MeeGo for Nokia is certainly looking promising, and I will be giving Nokia a couple more chances to get me to change my mind on their software performance, firstly I shall be taking a very close look at the upcoming Nokia E& Symbian^3 QWERTY device, hopefully before Christmas. If my relationship with the E7, and Symbian^3 don’t work out, then my final chance with Nokia will be with the Upcoming, unannounced Nokia N9, MeeGo handset. Please Nokia, don’t let us all down on this front.

I’m not a big gamer it has to be said, but since having the iPhone 4, things have changed somewhat, and I’m now finding myself, playing much more games, and this is solely down to the iPhones performance, smooth graphics, in gameplay UI, and interactive functionalities.

Game Center although quite new to the iPhone 4, its bloody amazing, and blows N-Gage out of the water, but having said that, I didn’t experience N-Gage as much as I would of liked due to many of the games I tried were not that good, and besides, these were on a tiny screened Nokia N95.

Summary: The iPhone 4 is now my primary device, and is a complete breath of fresh air. Ok, it’s not for everyone, but until you have actually had some hands on time with one, you won’t understand. Trust me, its an iPhone, not just in the name, “I” Phone, it really becomes apart of you, and your every day life more than any other mobile device I have ever used, period.!

Will I still use Nokia devices? Yes. I have Nokia in my blood having worked for them over the years, and will always rely on a trusty Nokia device for my Music, full Bluetooth functionality as well as FM Transmitter. I referred to Nokia devices recently calling them the Tonka Toys of Mobile, where as the iPhone 4 is much more like a Christmas Tree Ball, pretty, but fragile. Yes, I do know how fragile the iPhone 4, and yes I know all about the many issues that come with the iPhone 4, months before I purchased it, but did any of these matter to me, or the millions of other iPhone owners? No. This again, in itself tells an important message.

Thanks for reading, I will be posting more similar posts soon, covering different aspects of the iPhone 4, comparing it to the Tonka Toy of mobile, Nokia’s.

 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 at 11:30 and is filed under EDITORIAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://twitter.com/jenjaman Eugen

    So dull and boring – it is like reading commercials – everything is perfect and etc etc etc. Get on with it already, there are tons of people who’ve posted same load of s before you.
    It is so dull to read these stories of converted to the dark side – yap yap yap, my last chance etc, Nokia must show me etc etc.

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  • http://twitter.com/zerolinesofcode Zero Lines of Code

    Simply great and honest review.

    Fanboys are the beings which destroy a company.

  • http://twitter.com/antonioj antonio

    LOL, you´re causing rage among nokia fanboys…but this is what happens when 90% of the people are exposed to an iOS device, even the biggest haters…

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Thanks for your contribution here, Im merely sharing my throughs, and impressions here, and of course my opinions as stated in my post. I know a lot of people wanted to hear what I think of this new device, and platform, so this is the first part of a new series I will be posting, however, I may guest post elsewhere rather than on my Nokia centric blog, but we’ll see.

  • http://kosmoagiristos.blogspot.com/ Memphis eX Noel

    Micky I know how much a fan of a good UI you are and that too much enthusiasm hit you with your new belonging. But as a hardcore user I am having used all the iPhones I am sure through time you will start hating the device all along.

    iPhone is like a gorgeous cheek you are amazed at first and later you just tolerate her quirks cause you think she is better than you, and because everyone say how hot she is and how you shouldn’t give up on her cause it will be a huge mistake and someone else will bang her and be happy.

    iPhone is the best and worst smartphone at the same time! By the time you’ll want back control of your life and not letting apple decide whats best for you, you will hate that phone and feel the prison around you.

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Thanks Kip, I really appreciate your input here, and duly noted too. Time will tell I guess, but lets not forget, I have not jumped ship, I’m simply tasting a different flavor of a different brand. Im just getting so tired of the same taste in my mouth with symbian, its simply a relabeled bottle with the same tasting contents if you know what I mean. How many times can or will people put up with this relabeling of same bottled contents.?

      • http://kosmoagiristos.blogspot.com/ Memphis eX Noel

        I never said that you jump ships, I actually I prefer you being honest and not a fan-boy, and there is plenty of honesty in your article although as I said I feel too much enthusiasm.

        A few years ago I was a Nokia hater but I loved Symbian (even remember the time when Psion left and sold its part on Nokia and I celebrated when Sony Ericsson veto the decision and bought some part of it). The way it worked seemed alot like Linux. Symbian was just the kernel, the UI was a different story (Series 60,80,90, UIQ) just like on Linux (Linux is just the kernel, the UI is always different, Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment, etc.)

        Most people can’t understand this and so they bash Symbian but the problem is not Symbian but Series60, a UI that was not meant for touch devices. So technically Symbian is the best for mobile phones (better than the power hungry but modular linux), practically its the worst User Experience because Nokia lost so much time either on opening it (better say deciding what to open and what to leave proprietary) or going the touch way the iPhone showed on a UI that was not meant for it.

        As for iPhone (and being on subject), the first one was a really bad product, overpriced and meant only for Americans, not even a smartphone although Steve has done it again to make all Americans believe the opposite. After the update for 3rd party app support it was better but still I felt like being in jail. I liked the 3G, but I had huge problems, and I still couln’t believe there was no mms support copy/paste multitasking and so on. I couldn’t do anything from what I wanted or the way I used to do it. 3GS was just an update with no reason until the latest iOS came to give reason to the updated hardware but software wise it had some nice things that were present on all Symbian Smartphones maybe even on feature phones. And now 4 just the same shit with better but more fragile hardware and things we already have. Bad Multitaksing support, folders which the could be much better and the UI seems old now to me!

        What I hated and still hate on iPhone is that Steve and his fanboys try to convince us that this is the right way to go. That you have to use iTunes to do everything and that is great software (I remember hearing Steve on an interview calling some windows customers telling how great iTunes is but for me it is just huge bloatware in my pc, even SongBird feels faster despite being based on firefox). No real filesystem to see where my files are and how they are (that is unacceptable for a cumputer geek like me). Partial bluetooth support, I have a stereo bluetooth headset with playback keys on it, guess what, the keys are useless, won’t comment on the crappy earphones that apple products come with), and why should I use mail for sending files when my friend is next to me and his device has bluetooth what if hehas no internet on his phone? And why there is no real multitasking when you have such a superior OS based on MacOS (at least thats what the fanboys tell us, the truth about iOS is so cruel to tell them)

        And lastly the most important thing no matter how good the touch input is on iPhone, why should everyone buy the same phone? I hate input with touch devices no matter the brand, LG, Samsung feature phones, Symbian, Android even with the 3rd party apps on Android and Symbian (Swype, Slide it etc). I prefer a real keyboard, either hardware like that of n97,e72 or numeric like the one on SE Aino. And guess what iOS just doesn’t let 3rd party apps to touch core functions the same way Android,Maemo/MeeGo and Symbian lets and we have apps like Swype, SPB Mobile Shell etc.

        It’s a jail and beside all the bells and wistles it’s not something it will last unless you are not into technology alot! Sorry for the long post just wanted to make my self clear…

        • http://nokiadna.com Micky

          Thanks again Kip, yes, Im fully aware of the history of S60, and Symbian, and also feel the frustrations watching time go by and nothing materialising to compete with the competition, and seeing S60 5th Edition with added on touch support simply made me mad, and drove me crazy.

          I will be giving iTunes a good test drive today as I will be loading up my music. You mention its a pc hog on resources.. Do you not have a MacBook? I have not noticed any loss in resources with iTunes personally.

          Thanks again for your input here Kip, its truely appreciated.

          • http://kosmoagiristos.blogspot.com/ Memphis eX Noel

            Sorry for being late in replying, I don’t even have time to log into twitter these days.

            I don’t have a MacBook and my experience is from Windows only, and apple software was always a hog in my PCs.

            I actually don’t have the money for a Mac and when I have them I buy something better for my needs (although I had the money for a Macbook I decided to buy an HP EliteBook 2730p, an original tablet way before iPad came to light, it better suited my needs). I am a Computer Engineer and I prefer building PCs on my own so MacOS is not an option but even if I had one, I am a Linux Geek (and a great follower of Open Source/Open Commons) so MacOS feels the same prison for me as iOS. Even if I had a Mac the first thing to do was to get rid of MacOS and install Debian (or a distribution based on Debian like Ubuntu) or even better Gentoo (which I can customize to death as I am compiling the whole OS specifically for the hardware I have and making the OS and its apps a lot less memory and CPU hungry) and Windows 7 for compatibility.

            Well from someone who is used in controlling a whole system from a command line, you understand UI is of less importance, the problems for me in Symbian were Nokia and the decisions made for the hardware in S^1 devices (especially Nokia N97 Classic) but still believe if they were any real hardcore developers on Symbian like the few you only see on demoscene we could see great software running on the limited resources of S^1, and symbian had such developers in the early days. Times like those made me think (maybe even dream from the old S60 ver.1 days) that if only Nokia had the bootloader open for customizations and not encrypted as well as the hardware specs being more open we could see whatever OS (and in general, software) we might dream of in our nokia devices, just have a look in the past on Siemens SX1, a Symbian S60 v. 1.2 phone that can run linux with Qtopia)

            Don’t take me as an Apple product hater (but I am an Apple Philosophy hater), iPhone is the best smartphone for the reasons you said but at the same time its the worst smartphone (for the reasons I said).

            In the end it depends on what you want to do with the phone. And right now iPhone suit your needs!

            You know I am a follower of you for some time now not because you are a Nokia Fan but because you are not biased and always say things as they are. Wish most Apple fans had the same objectivity!

            By the way sorry for the long talk and my bad English, I’m in a hurry writting this and in verbose mood :p

  • Araham

    Excellent review. I think it takes a lot of guts for a longtime Nokia supporter like yourself to say such things in a public forum. I gave up on Nokia products two years ago and haven’t looked back. I couldn’t have said it better myself when you wrote: “it works in such a way, its very pleasant to use too, and the eye candy so many people are aware of not only looks nice, but it’s an interaction with the user, bringing the device alive as it were.” Moving on to Android and iOS after Nokia/Symbian was like taking a leap into the future!

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Thanks for your kind words, yes indeed, it was not easy for me to write this opening part in my upcoming series of posts based on my iPhone, and iOS experiences, and thoughts as a Nokia enthusiast..

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  • Tank_2112

    Cheers Micky! Enjoyed reading your post. I agree with many of your thoughts on the iPhone 4. I had been using various Nokia devices for over three years before purchasing the iP4. Namely, the Nokia N95 8GB and the N82. Other devices that I used included the 5800, E71, and N86. My niece still uses her 5530 although she recently used the N82 for a school dance. Ended selling all save for the N95 and N82. Love those phones. Occassionally I go back to the N82.
    But, anyhow, back to your post. I have owned my iP4 now for over 4 mos and really do enjoy using it. No regrets in purchasing and drinking the iOS juice. I’m not into customization or multitasking as much as I used to be. Just give me something that works and works welll; good and easy to use email, ease of use in syncing my contacts, calender and music and bookmarks, etc. Foto and video quality on the iP4 is so easy to use and looks great IMO. I could go on but you pretty much covered it. Although, there have been occassions when I’ve gone back to the N82; namely when I go camping or out at night with the Mrs. For the most part, however, the iP4 is my main device. Stay Hard Mik!

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Thanks for your reply here Tank, its appreciated. I like you will always have a Nokia device nearby to fall back on for those similar things as yourself.

  • @Chris_c81

    Brilliant, as expected from your good self Micky, quick summary and musings of your experience with the iPhone 4 so far.

    It took a little less time for me to be cheesed off with Nokia and their offerings, and my first iPhone was the 3GS after devoting a good 12 years to the good ship Nokia. Never found much to complain about with the 3GS myself, however I would say that you have chosen the best time to experience not just the iPhone 4 but the iOS 4.x too as this brought a lot more to the table. Bought my iPhone 4 32GB on day one and I have zero regrets.

    I think yo lu summarise it best by saying “it just does it”, which has been my greatest finding on the conversion process from Nokia/Symbian to iPhone/iOS, albeit somewhat “gated” or “fenced”. Honestly though, I do not miss the “tinkering” and like you thus far, am running a vanilla iOS as Apple intended.

    On the subject of music, one piece of advice I would give is to manually manage your music and videos on iPhone. This allows you to setup a music library in iTunes from the MP3 files on your HDD. Then you can simply drag and drop the albums to the iPhone directly within iTunes. Don’t be put off or feel daunted by comments about how fiddly iTunes is. Once setup the way you like, it works how you want it to work. Can I suggest MediaMonkey and it’s ‘tag from web’ feature to manage the sorting, naming and cover images for your music, before adding them to iTunes. Makes browsing through your music on the iPhone itself a more pleasing on the eyes affair.

    I honestly think it’s great to see such an honest summary review, and you shouldn’t be put off by negative feedback and comments here. The web is your tool to use as you see fit. More importantly though, perhaps Nokia will take some notice from a respected Nokia enthusiast.

    Can’t wait to read more Micky, nice work.

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Cheers Chris for your input here, its valued.! As to iTunes, I plan on adding my songs today, and was originally planning to add them to iTunes, then sync to my iPhone once connected to my MacBook. You mention MediaMonkey, I have heard about how good this app is, but sadly there is not a Mac version?

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  • http://twitter.com/oli4n97 Oliver

    you compare a Symbian OS in the first version (S^3) to the iOS which got a major update lately. why not wait or compare again when Symbian release next version in earlier 2011? but i think your are already converted :-( it began with the macbook pro you have. i don’t know how – but Apple have something they could make follow nearly everyone them like a “sect partisan” when they get a “first hands on”…

    • bp101

      Er, he’s comparing what’s available now.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/DV4VTMJFSOYQNRXF5SYFGU5NSY dj

    great post.

    just a query, is the iphone really in need of a computer to sync to? that would really annoy. but equally the experience does sound good.

    • http://nokiadna.com Micky

      Yes, thus far anyway, but who knows what Aple will bring to the table in future updates :)