Reviews

Alright so, we can review the living heck of the iPhone, do as many stress tests as want and try every which way to activate hidden features of even dream of future iPhones but there will be those of you who still have those nagging questions that we have yet to answer. So this is why I will be dedicating one massive post containing your questions by the end of the week.

Please keep in mind these must be legitimate questions about the iPhone and can deal with anything about the phone. I will try as best I can to answer each question and some may be skipped over but those will be posted as unanswered questions in hopes our readers can find out the answers.

There are two ways you can contact me. First is by email, my address is tanner at applematters.com and it must contain the subject (without quotes) “iPhone questions” or else I may not be able to get to it. Ask if you would like to remain anonymous or if you would like your name and email next to your question.

Second way is by phone, my number is 1-714-496-9554 and you will be… more...

The pivotal part of the iPhone is it’s calling features even down to the most basic functions. Here is part 2 of my iPhone review focusing on the device’s calling features.

Call Quality
The overall quality of calls are a very important thing for cell phone users and even more so considering the amount of money the device costs. I am happy to report that the iPhone’s overall call quality is great but not the best I have heard from a mobile phone. Nonetheless I am very grateful for the massive improvement in call quality when using the iPhone compared to my low end LG phone. I would hope that Apple allows real 3rd party Applications onto the iPhone so popular VOIP Apps such as Skype or the Gizmo Project can be installed which would really make the device sing.

I did encounter some static and a sort of robotic tone from some callers that were using cheaper phones but on AT&T’s network. Besides that I wouldn’t say things were crystal clear but you could differentiate the caller’s voice from others easily and background noise could be picked up and… more...

Out of all the functions the iPhone has to offer, mail is the one I will spend the most time with. After a full day with the iPhone I have some good things to say about mail and some not so good things to say.

Keep in mind, I have only started playing with this thing for a day or so: some of these things may exist, i just haven’t found them yet.

I have 5 separate IMAP or POP email accounts. Up to friday, I used the Motorola Q to access all 5 email accounts plus my work email account via Exchange. The Motorola Q is a workhouse when it comes to email so I was hoping the iPhone would represent even better quality. I was not looking forward to carrying 2 smartphones at once. In fact, the best scenario would be if I could downsize to just the iphone.

INSTALLATION
Installing all 5 email accounts and their settings was a breeze. In fact, it was accomplished with one click. All settings were synced automatically from the settings on my Powerbook MAIL. And I have had no issue whatsoever when it comes to connecting.

THE PROGRAM
The… more...

I’ve had my iPhone in hand for about a little less than a day now and I am fairly quite impressed at the device’s awesome features but my opinion of Apple’s first phone isn’t all positive and no it’s not about the evident lack of core features that make up the most basic of phones. Here is part 1 of my iPhone review.

Music
Navigating to your home screen and touching the iPod button can access music on the iPhone. If you are accustomed to the iPod’s simplistic and easily navigated interface then you will be blown away by the iPhone’s version of music navigation due to the graphical overhaul and a sense of clutter. It took some getting used to and it seems Apple wanted to make media playback a pivotal part of the iPhone experience all the way down to the hardware. First off the iPhone can still be used while being synced and sometimes it cannot, I do not know as to why but I think me being able to use it while my content is being synced over was a glitch. While charging, the iPhone can… more...

What I’d give to be in the reviewing industry right now. Steven Levy, of News Week, managed to get his paws on the iPhone and has given a rather in depth and addictive review of the device which you’ll just want to read at the very first chance you can get.

He talks about how he was able to check weather conditions in NY, monitor baseball scores, catch up on e-mail, find an old friend and watch an episode of ‘Weeds’ on YouTube (all on a single charge, I might add), with great ease and not once looking at the manual that comes with the iPhone. He compares browsing the internet to his old Motorola and cannot believe what a charm it is to use.

He also managed to show the phone to a few people on a business trip and their first reactions were “I have to have this”, along with questions on what to pawn in order to buy the $499 device. Levy also notes that Jobs gave him a personal call at some point, to see how the phone was handling, something which impressed Levy no doubt. A few… more...

You can always count on Walter Mossberg to do a full review of a piece of technology. Yesterday, Mossberg with Katherine Boehret published an amazing review of the iPhone based on the 2 weeks they had to test it out.

In a nutshell, the only major drawback they noted is one in which we all have worried about: the partnership with AT&T and the slow network speeds.

In addition, even when you have great AT&T coverage, the iPhone can’t run on AT&T’s fastest cellular data network. Instead, it uses a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones. And the initial iPhone model cannot be upgraded to use the faster networks.

Check out the video below where Mossberg says, “The most beautiful and most radical smartphone I have ever tested.”

[Via The Mossberg Solution]

With the announcement of the RAZR2 today, Tech Digest have run a comparison review of Motorola’s “wickedly cool” phone with Nokia’s N95 and Apple’s iPhone. The winner? Read on.

The review goes over a variety of different features each phone has to offer, including the camera, video and music playback, size, connectivity, “whizzy features” and as with any respectable review, the downsides of each product. In terms of music and video you’ve probably already guessed that the iPhone has won hands down, although the other two phones should allow over-the-air downloads, something which at present many are unsure the iPhone will do. The camera’s on the iPhone and RAZR2 are mediocre by today’s standards, both offering 2-mega pixels, but the Nokia N95 wins with its beautiful 3-mega pixel snapper. The iPhone loses points to the other two phones on its size but the 3.5-inch screen compared to the RAZR 2’s 2.2-inch and N95’s 2.6-inch. The iPhone is flamed for its out-of-date 2.5G technology where the N95 and RAZR2 have 3G standards, but the RAZR 2 doesn’t have Wi-Fi which both Nokia and Apple’s devices do.

The verdict on Tech Digest appears to… more...

When the iPhone was announced at last months Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs ran over a list of things that the iPhone will be offering, but a few of those things mentioned were not really explained in enough detail, which is where Action Corp comes in. These guys like to look at the finer things in products that the manufacturers may or may not have gone in enough detail about, and the iPhone was target number one when Apple introduced it in January.

The following video talks about the Calendar, which was mentioned in Steve’s Keynote but never actually talked about, GoogleMaps and, most interestingly, ringtones on the iPhone. I won’t give too much away but the video does reassure on a lot of things and it’s the latter which I’m sure will appeal to most.

[Via TUAW]

So much has already been written about the iPhone and it’s yet to be released, surely a good sign for Jobs and his fruity technology company. Of course, just like the iPod, manufacturers and critics are already looking at Apple’s device as the standard for next generation mobile phones, so it’s no surprise the term “iPhone killer” has cropped up in the press already. We’ve seen the likes of the LG Prada, and the Samsung F700 already been labelled as iPhone killers, but neither have really sparked as much interest as the iPhone itself.

Anyone who is down with mobile phones and been following this blog will know that last week saw the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona offer a variety of new ‘next generation’ phones, almost all being labelled as a ‘music phone’. This was a sure sign that Apple had some competition to face in the coming months, but according to PC Advisor, none of the phones on offer at the 3GSM World Congress were anything particularly special, and even the new touch-screen range was either too complicated to use or didn’t take into account larger than life fingers. Nokia and Sony Ericsson are… more...

Wow, the pictures on Apple’s iPhone website really do speak a thousand words, something PC Advisor UK know all about. Today they released an article which takes a detailed look at everything the iPhone has to offer, in the ways of both hardware and software. They also answer a few questions, presumably submitted by curious potential iPhone buyers, such as “Will the screen scratch?”, “What accessories are available?” (see some here) and “Are there any similarities between the iPhone and iPod?”.

One thing that did attract my attention was the statement, “Jobs said that Apple will eventually release models with 3G wireless data capabilities”, which is a given but always nice to hear. I hope that the “eventually” remark means sometime before it arrives in the U.K, because I can see sales falling somewhat if it doesn’t, although I don’t doubt it will sell well.

Anyway, this article is probably not for the avid iPhone fan out there, but for anyone new to the iPhone scene it’s definitely worth a read.