Besides the main pre-installed Applications such as Mail, Safari, Phone and iPod Apple has expanded by offering 12 Widgets that aren’t as full featured by are also no joke. Here is part 3 of my review of Apple’s iPhone which focuses on all 12 of the device’s Widgets.

Text
Many were upset over the fact that Apple had not included iChat as an iPhone application but the next best thing was SMS and email. The Text Widget is extremely simple, straight forward and strongly resembles a typical iChat conversation by displaying chat bubbles but the bubbles cannot be changed in color however it’s no big deal really and you’ll get used to it very quickly. You will be notified of any new messages any where you are in the phone. Conversations are grouped by contacts or number and until you clear them, all new messages will be grouped into one folder regardless of date. The iPhone’s text widget is simple and should be which is a good thing but I would like to see SMS integration into an iChat Application on the iPhone in the future.

Calendar
The iPhones calendar Widget is very nice but that doesn’t make up for it’s shortcomings. To me it seems like Apple wanted to create the widget as nothing more than a simple viewer but then decided how outraged we would be and wanted to avoid that. While it makes viewing events easy from synced calendars I’m not buying it (technically I already did). You are presented with a list view which shows every single event from today to the very last event for each calendar. In list view you are not told which event belongs to which calendar which is EXTREMELY frustrating for people like me with recurring events and unique events for different calendars. Day and month view are nearly the same as the grown up iCal however. But a major thing missing from the Widget is the ability to create a To Do or assign an event to a specified calendar whether it is newly created or synced over. However one thing I like about the Widget is that it shows the current date, something that OS X’s iCal lacks. ICal is a central Application for me and is essential to keep track of projects but the half baked iCal widget may make me switch to Google Calendar altogether.

Photos
The Photos widget is nothing more than a simple photo viewer enhanced by Multi Touch. This isn’t a bad thing but I would’ve liked to see Apple incoporate Multi Touch into some basic photo editing tools such as cropping but I can’t knock it because the Widget does what it needs to and does it good. Any photo can be viewed in landscape or portrait mode by tiliting the iPhone any way. Yes even rotating it 90, 180, 270 and 360 degrees.

Camera
The iPhone’s camera is funky and I can see why Apple chose not to incorporate video recording functionality. The image quality is superb for being a cell phone but it’s more of a camera you’d use to take a lot of still pictures. The interface is simple, way too simple. There are no additional options such as zooming which is a big shame or even a flash. What you see on screen is exactly what you get, no more, no less. Don’t expect to be taking pictures for TIME magazine or photo contests but for the average user it should suffice. However the lack of basics is very unnerving.

YouTube
Not focusing on the Widget for a second YouTube on the iPhone is a bit hard to swallow for me. Don’t get me wrong I like it, just not how Apple has implemented it. First off by focusing on converting videos to H.264 and bypassing Flash means to me that Apple really wants to confine you in a walled garden of limited video formats even if it means converting thousands of videos and cutting off access to thousands more.

But back to the YouTube Widget. While playing videos on my Wi-Fi connection (15 Mbit Internet connection) I noticed better than usual video quality but nothing to rave about as these videos were most likely converted from Flash to H.264 and not the original but I am only guessing. It wasn’t worth it to waste the needed processing power for converting every video in YouTube’s Database but that’s their decision. Playing the same videos back on an EDGE connection was not a pleasant experience. You actually get a horribly low quality version that looks like it was blown up from something like 80 Pixels. Although you do get a faster load time the quality is just horrible even when EDGE hits it’s peak speeds.

Even though the Interface is very similar to the iPod’s interface on the phone you cannot do a lot of things such as comment, log in or rate videos. It’s mainly a dumbed down viewer. Also there may be some videos that have not yet been converted that you’re looking for so give it some time, by Fall YouTube’s entire catalog should be converted.

Stocks
I know nothing of stocks, I don’t own any but comparing the Widget on the iPhone to Mac OS X’s Stocks Widget they look identical.

Maps
I am very pleased with Google Maps and is bearable on the slow EDGE network. It’s simple like the other Widgets but has more features that will simply wow you. The best summarization of the Maps Widget is that it’ll make finding driving directions a lot less painful. If you would like to take a trip from New York to California, Maps will very, very quickly configure driving instructions that are very detailed and straight to the point which is perfect. If you would like to bypass the map when viewing directions it can be displayed in list view.

Driving directions can be created from the location of Address Book contacts and bookmarks which can help if you need to find a newfound friend or create directions for them to the nearest Apple store. You can search for any location from your recent searches, bookmarks, contacts or type it in yourself. An amazing feature that makes this Widget shine is the information displayed of a location. Say you need directions to the closest Apple store and need to set up an appointment with the Genius Bar, you can do that quickly and easily plus add that information to your address book.

I can’t complain about the Widget but in future versions the addition of Google Streetview, once more cities are catalogued would be helpful. Also step by step voice instructions generated from the iPhone and controlled by the included Earbuds would be helpful for bikers and joggers, if they want to hear the next step they could press down the mic once or twice to repeat the current step.

Weather
How complicated can a Weather Widget be? Not too complicated when it comes to Apple. If you want a quick glance at the week’s forecast and today’s temperatures then this simple Widget is for you, it’s a carbon copy of Dashboard’s Weather Widget.

Clock
It’s A clock, it tells time, what more do you need? Well do you need an alarm that plays only the default ringtones? A stop watch that can save your previous times? Do you need a simple Timer? This Widget packs all of those in while keeping a very slick interface. Custom profiles can be created for your alarms and times in different countries.

Calculator
No need to be mistified by this Widget, it’s an exact copy of OS X’s calculator and only does the basics. It’ll help you cheat on a 4th grade math test but it sure won’t calculate your mortgage.

Notes
One thing the iPhone lacks is a serious typing Application that can sync documents to your computer and vice versa. Notes is just a simple Widget to jot down your To Do list or create simple brainstorms. There is no easy way to create a title as the first sentence is set as the Note’s name. But a useful feature is emailing your notes to anyone but it stops there. I am surprised Apple didn’t take synchornization into account which forces users to turn to Web based solutions. I know I can’t knock a Widget named Notes and expect it to be Microsoft Word but as the only way to save text I just have to until Apple can get a simplistic version of iWork that can fully edit and create documents onto the iPhone.

Settings
The Settings Widget controls the inner workings of your iPhone. Airplane mode can be activated which turns off Wi-FI and the wireless radio. Wi-Fi can be configured along with basic network settings. Usage displays battery consumption which is spontaneous, overall and current minutes used as well as the amount of EDGE data sent and recieved. Sounds controls the vibrate and other calling functions and notifications. Brightness increases or decreases screen brightness. Your Wallpaper when receiving a call can be set. General settings include displaying about info, date & time, setting auto-lock and passcode lock, Network controls VPN as well as Wi-Fi settings. Mail prefences can be set as well as Safari, iPod and Photo settings, Phone controls basic calling functions such as call forwarding and call waiting. Essentially the Settings Widget controls the prefence for everything on the iPhone.

Final Word
The iPhone’s Widgets are an odd bunch, some do their job extremely well or extremely horrible and will confuse you making you believe that they’re full featured Applications when most aren’t. Apple definitely slacked off on the iCal and Notes Widget but all others look good. It got me thinking though, Dashboard Widgets are basically CSS and HTML, why can’t Apple allow those to be installed as well?

Part 4 of my review will focus on the browsing experience through Safari