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I think it has been about 10 days since I jumped on the rather crowded iPhone 3G bandwagon. I have been using the rather competent i780 prior to the iPhone and was worried I will miss the power and flexibility of WM. Keyword here is “was”.

Anyhoo here’s my quick summary of how it has been so far.

Yays:

• Eye candy and rather engaging interface of course. I really love the SMS interface. Wonder if it will lag if the ‘conversation’ builds up to hundreds though. Would be nice to have a ‘purge after X days’ function… for backup can use something like this or this.
• Speaker is better than expected for music and overall sound notifications. As I had the iPod Touch (which has no real speaker) prior to the iPhone, this is really a big change for me - no more plugging in a speaker or earphones just to watch Youtube.
• Typing is not as bad as I feared. You have to trust the auto correction but also not take it for granted (as in carelessly type).
• App store is an awesome way to add new software/capabilities to your phone. On Windows Mobile there is so much you can get but the installation is for sure more cumbersome (browse web, download file, unzip, cab, install). Apple’s restrictions do limit the potential of what the apps can do but if you are willing to jailbreak your iPhone and put up with troublesome software updates then you can possibly have the best of both worlds.
• I am leaving out the other obvious advantages of the iPhone like its built in iPod goodness, Google Maps with GPS (ooh look glowing blue dot) etc etc…

Boos (and yes this list is longer than the pros of course… )

• I miss viewing at a glance (ala WM’s Today screen) my appointments of the day. Also to Google directly from the Today screen.
• Rather annoying to go to System Preferences just to enable or disable Bluetooth or Wifi…
• Sometimes newer versions of apps won’t install and I would always be prompted to use iTunes on the computer to get it installed. Annoying.
• You know that “XXXXXXXX tried to call you…” message you would get from Singtel if you miss a call while your phone is off the grid? Well, there is no way for you to figure out who is the actual caller since you can’t highlight the number and try calling it to see if it is in your phonebook. For Palm/Windows Mobile and other phones you can always do that to figure out the caller. On the iPhone, forget about that and start trying to remember more telephone numbers.
• I wish there was an option to enable higher quality streams from YouTube when on HSDPA connections rather than the iPhone automatically pulling high quality streams only if you are on Wifi.
• Likewise for iTunes… it won’t work unless on Wifi. Isn’t HSDPA fast enough for streaming?
• Saving vids to my iTunes library from the iPhone would be awesome as well. But this is a nice to have not an actual boo boo of course…
• I’d prefer if the mute ringer switch was also a kill all sounds switch like the Treo.
• Macro shots are terrible. One solution would be this. But I don’t really want to risk breaking my iPhone..
• Battery life could be better. With 3G, Wifi and BT on - one day. With 3G, Wifi, BT off and low backlight, 2.5 days… I now charge in the office and at home. Think I need a charger for the car.
• iPhone 3G stigma. Ya I think it warrants the term stigma. Having an iPhone is no longer a special thing. But I don’t care - I am still loving it pretty much. For now.
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