Why iDon’t Like the iPhone At All

Sunday, 03 August 2008 11:45 Gary Kopycinski Commentary

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gary-kopycinski Commentary

iWent shopping for a new cell phone yesterday. My Treo 650 finally sprung a leak. Up to now, that phone was simply the best phone iEver owned. In spite of the numerous times iDropped it though the years, it held up solid. The tone was always clear, and iLove the Palm OS.

So, iWent to the AT&T Wireless store in Homewood, IL. Very nice people, although iSensed the clerk who waited on me was losing patience after a while. In general, the clerks at that store don’t have a great reputation for good customer relations. Nevertheless, the clerk who worked with me was great.

iArrived with a printout from ConsumerReports.org of the best Smart phones. The Samsung Blackjack II was rated the CR Best Buy. However, the iPhone 3G was in the corner by the window, all booted up and ready for play. iAsked the clerk if iCould take a look at the Blackjack, and took a look at the iPhone 3G while she ducked in the back to get the Samsung.

The iPhone 3G looked nice. At $299, it was just within reach of my budget, but not really what iWanted to spend.

iWent online with it. Very slick interface, and an extremely quick load. Opening the web browser, iDecided to load my most complex site, which happens to be this one, eNews Park Forest. iOpened up the QWERTY keypad and began to enter the URL: www.enewspf.com.

That’s when the problems began.

iStabbed keys with my finger, only to see the wrong letter load in the browser’s address bar. It took a good 3 or 4 minutes just to type in that simple URL. Once iDid so, iWas pleased to see my page loaded — the whole page — much more quickly than iExpected. It looked slick but tiny in that little screen. iEventually figured out how to see larger areas of the page so iCould actually navigate.

The clerk interrupted me. iAsked about the iPhone, and was told there would be a wait of 10 to 21 days for it to come in. That decided the matter for me, but iStill felt drawn to that strange little tablet. Perhaps iCould wait?

iAsked if there was a chance iCould transfer my data from my Palm Treo 650 to the iPhone. Not a chance, the clerk said. iWould have to enter all of my data into iTunes, and then upload it to the iPhone.

iThink not. After more than a decade of Palm Pilots and Palm smart phones, iHave more contacts than iCan count. iCould not see myself taking a few days out of my life adding contacts and calendar dates to a completely different system.

Battery life? Apple may be optimistic, but friends who either took the iPlunge and bought this train wreck don’t get much out of the battery. Having that much Internet in the palm of your hand takes a toll on the battery.

Could the iPhone be the phone of the future? Time Magazine loved it. iDidn’t at all.

So, enough with all this iNonense.

I ended up with a Palm Centro. I did look at the Samsung Blackjack II, but that thing was even larger and heavier than my Treo 650, and it looked, well, ugly. Additionally, the Blackjack does not use the Palm OS, but a Windows system, and that would involve hours of my life transferring data.

When the deal was done, I ended up with a phone smaller and lighter than the 650 I was hauling around all these years, and I like it. I don’t want the entire Internet in the palm of my hand. I’ve said for years that I just don’t want to be that connected. I need some “me” time, away from these fascinating machines. And the deal was right. After the mail-in rebate, my total out-of-pocket is just over $80, much less than the $400 I spent on the Treo a few years back.

It took 10 minutes tops to upgrade my Palm desktop software, synch the phone, and transfer my data to the new phone.

So, it’s back to Palm. You can have the iPhone.

Or, you might want to try the iRack:

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Comments

0 #5 frodojrr 2008-08-23 11:23

I admit I had to exercise some restraint and not jump right back in defending myself, especially given the nature of some of these comments.

I stand by what I wrote, and am preparing a more appropriate rebuttal. But I did enjoy the comments.

0 #4 AUNJAR 2008-08-04 21:23

It is funny you should mention the store in Homewood. I to have had similar experiences there, I no longer go there anymore.

I would actually like to have an Apple iPhone, but even at $299 (far less than the initial roll-out); it is more than I care to spend on a phone.

I actually spent quite a bit of time getting acquainted with the first roll out of the iPhone (see - http://www.johnzpchut.com/iphone.htm). But latly I have just not been that in to the Apple iPhone.

I currently own a Samsung BlackJack II (refurbished), which while not the best looking phone looks a lot better than its predecessor. In any case it works for me.

It took me a little while to get use to it, but I do like it and can live with the Microsoft Mobile OS that it runs on.

Prior to the BlackJack II, I owned a Black Berry, which I thought was a great phone.

BTW -- Great Post!

0 #3 rjp 2008-08-04 07:36

I believe that the cell phone and related electronic devices are one of the most horrendous inventions of the 20th century. Have we forgotten that the intent of the original cell phone was to provide a means for making phone calls in an 'emergency' situation, i.e., you're a medical professional on call, the car breaks down and you need to call AAA, heavy traffic will make you late for a business meeting, etc. Today, a good day is defined by being able to drive your car without being hit by some idiot who believes they are so important that they have to be talking non-stop on their cell phone, texting someone or checking e-mails while driving. Recently, someone came running up to me at the Jewel asking if they could make an 'urgent' call on my cell phone as their battery had gone dead from listening to the ipod feature on their phone. The nature of this emergency? Was their yellow mustard in the refrigerator! And when the next electronic 'toy' hits the market, we all stand in lines like Lemmings to be able to have bragging rights that we got it first. Does anyone ever stop to think about how much toxic waste we create with all those perfectly good devices that are tossed in landfills because they are not today's trend? As someone who worked in an on-call basis for many years as a nurse, I always treasured the time I could be left alone with my own thoughts. As Henry David Thoreau so eloquently stated, "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake." So do yourself a favor, make it a point to spend some time each day with all that electronic nonsense shut off and take some time to smell the roses. What could be more important than that?

0 #2 drew5617 2008-08-04 05:56

I find it absolutely hilarious how people who don't own an iPhone think they know enough to talk about it. I too was a Palm owner, owning several Palm pilots and and a Treo 680. I made the switch to the iPhone last year when the first one came out, I have not regretted it for a minute. I did not have to re-enter all of my contacts when I switched, because I use my computer's address book. Both the Palm and the iPhone sync with that. Maybe if you spent more than 5 minutes in the store using the iPhone, you would realize how much better it is. The OS sure beats that crappy Palm OS anyday of the week. So you can keep your Palm and that weak Blazer browser. I will continue to love my iPhone and surf the web the way it was meant to be seen.

0 #1 bobrobertson 2008-08-04 04:18

iThink Gary Kopycinski = iTarded

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