I’ve been on the market for a new phone/plan for months. And, during the iPhone frenzy a teeny tiny piece of me secretly envied all those who waited in their tent cities for a shot at getting a 3G iPhone. The envy lasted only until I got a call the next day asking if I wanted the 3G, courtesy of iStockphoto, who ordered phones but couldn’t apply them to their company plan.
In a Nutshell
It’s like the iPod Touch with added access to a phone, email, apps, and GPS. The Rogers plan can also be whittled down to something semi-affordable.
Pros
This is the first phone I’ve ever owned that allows me to do everything I need to do without having to carry around all kinds of extra cruft. On a normal day I’ll port around an iPod, GPS for running / cycling, camera, daytimer, computer, cellphone, and on a non-normal day travel documents. All of this has since been consolidated to my phone. And, it’s opened up a whole new world of tech geekiness that I didn’t know even existed! For example,
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Travel: I’ve been able to successfully flight web and gate check-in, book hotels, and book plane tickets using my iPhone. There’s nothing more strangely satisfying than handing the flight attendant your phone when it’s time to get on the plane.
GPS: full-on GPS tracking / mapping / logging / positioning for running, cycling, driving, looking for restaurants / stores / people’s houses — and I get real-time stats/tips/directions in audio as I move around. I’m also becoming a geo-caching junkie. Who knew that there were whole teams of people out there hiding treasure and pinning away the world using Google maps. There’s a lot of room for improvement in many of the sport GPS apps, however.
Hardware: Video is a saving grace on long drives / plane rides for La Niña who will happily watch movies without a peep. The phone is the same quality as my blackberry and visual voicemail is a nice touch. There was one freaky moment that happened when I first got the phone and I had the iPod hooked up to the stereo in the Jeep. The music faded as dP called and his voice came in over the stereo. It took me a moment to figure out how to talk to him — but once I did it was odd. The phone is also Bluetooth enabled (there were rumours circulation that it wasn’t). The photos the camera takes are not bad:
Internet: I rarely turn on my computer now that I can access email, blog, surf, read the news, surf YouTube, check feeds, get the weather, find addresses, etc on my phone. Apps certainly make this easier: the life organizational tools / apps, digital books, calendar, social networking, GoogleTools, metric conversion, restaurant finders, all save me from having to drag out my computer periodically. There is even an app that will tell you what the name of a song is: hold the phone up so it can hear the music and within a few moments it will tell you the song and artist.
Sounds dreamy, eh? There are cons:
Cons
Like the iPod Touch the battery life sucks. I need to charge the phone daily. There are ways of minimizing battery drain (turn off WiFi, bluetooth, use only the phone, turn down brightness, etc.) and bits of hardware you can buy to help prolongue battery life. However, if Apple can create a phone of this calibre then surely they can create a battery that can maintain it.
With Roger’s plan the phone is locked; and, given the opportunity to unlock the phone I would do it in a second so I can use pre-paid SIM cards as I travel around. For now I’ve been using the Truphone App to make calls while away from Calgary; with Truphone you can make calls over WiFi for a fraction of what it would cost for roaming; think of it like Skype with a small charge. And, if the user on the other end is using Truphone, your calls are free.
The Roger’s Canadian plan isn’t super expensive. It’s comparable to what I was paying for my Blackberry with Telus. And, if you have reliable access to WiFi then there is no need to have a data plan. That said, I can see the real costs coming with data transfer (more so than with Blackberry) if you are not using WiFi. Luckily, in my travels I’ve encountered a few mesh networks and open public networks. Even in Halifax I was able to periodically connect to WiFi in coffee shops and around hotels.
Ideally
To make the phone better, an upgrade of the battery and ability to swap SIM cards would help (the phone comes with a SIM card removal tool — locking the phone must be a Rogers thing). In my own life a good fitness attachment for my bike/arm would be handy. In the future figuring out ways of further reducing cruft: IDs, swipe passes, bus tickets, etc. would be handy — and probably make identity theft really easy. If there was a keyboard attachment and photo editing app I’d never use my computer.
I’m sure there are still questions… feel free to ask away!
Haha thats funny you got one, I have been eyeing these up over the weekend and I think I am going to pick one up. They have just been approved for testing use in my company, and they have same if not better features than the blackberry. It supports wireless using radius authentication and cisco vpn, and much faster browsing that the blackberry. I am looking forward to getting one, sounds like you are having fun with yours!
I got my 3G now and I love it. The only downsides I am seeing is the battery life as you mentioned, and my typing speed compared to the blackberry is much slower, the virtual keyboard really does slow me down!
There’s a ton of remote server apps you can get for the phone…
I’ve discovered another drawback: the amount of life it steals away because it’s so damn addictive. So, the new rule is: only when exercising (GPS, sport tracking, music, movies when on my bike) and after everyone has gone to bed or when I’m in flight.
I finally got my 16 Gb White iPhone last week — I love it, although that really is no surprise since I have an iMac, black MacBook, iPod, and new video iPod Nano….. LOL
This is the nicest “cell phone” I’ve ever owned — I’ve never been one to run out and get the latest/trendiest electronic device — and I didn’t with the iPhone either, considering it’s been out in the US for 2 years, and plenty of people bought them and unlocked them for use in Canada. Anyway — we had a problem doing a HUP with our account as my husband has a corporate plan…. thankfully I found a way around the annoying corporate plan and got the 16 Gb at the promotional price. (no phone is worth $500+ IMO, even if it is by Apple!)
There are so many great things about the iPhone though — especially as someone who is a serious Apple user, I love how it seamlessly fits into my entire life — I love having my music, videos, photos, calendar, contacts all synced together. It’s great to have the ability to upload photo albums from my handmade jewelry line and of course link to my website directly from my phone — that way if I’m talking to a client or potential interested client, it is easy to show examples, etc.
But I also agree, it can be a huge time-sucker (but then so can my MacBook since we have wireless and 3 computers in this house!) !
I’m looking forward to having it for a our trip to New York next week, as it will save me from having to take my MacBook with me, which I wasn’t keen on doing anyway.
The Rogers/Fido conglomerate is of course always a huge pain in the ass….But we are biding our time until Shaw launches their wireless, and I can move my iPhone over there — my husband will probably get an iPhone at that time, too. (he initially said he didn’t want/need an iPhone, but I think now that he’s seen the iPhone “in action” he is changing his mind. 😉 )
Out of curiosity, what plan did you choose from Rogers/Fido, and what case/screen protector did you choose?
I have a white silicone case on mine right now — and a plastic/stick on screen protector. Choices for iPhone products are sadly lacking in Calgary right now, so I will go to the Apple store in NY next week and probably pick out some new accessories… 🙂
Anyway, I’m glad to hear you are having fun with your iPhone! You’re one of only two other people in Calgary that I personally know who have iPhones. 😀
Hee hee — I just noticed your blurb at the bottom: “a thoughtful comment is required.”
Hopefully mine qualify!
Anyway — I was just going to add that yes, I can definitely see that battery life would be an issue with this phone. But considering my previous phone, an LG phone that began discharging its battery immediately and at random times (sometimes after being fully charged) almost right after I got the damn thing…….iPhone is a HUUUUUGE step up for me.
So for me, while I agree that there should be a better battery in it (and also the ability to buy and install a new battery YOURSELF), I actually don’t mind since I’m coming from a previous REALLY crappy cell phone experience. I think with my rate of use in these early days, I could probably go 2 to 3 days without charging…. But I imagine that will decrease as my rate of use increases….
Hi Nic: I’m with Rogers and I originally got the standard iPhone plan but then phoned them back to widdle it down to something affordable and better matched my needs. I still plan to hack the phone so I can swap out SIM cards when I travel.
Cases: I’ve got two — a leather case I picked up in Halifax (Belkin Leather Sleeve with Belt Clip for iPhone 3G) and an Agent 18 case I ordered from the Apple Store in NY (Agent 18 FlowerVest for iPhone 3G). The leather case is probably the best. The Agent 18 one is cutesy but doesn’t quite fit. I’m now on the lookout for a good sport band because sport apps have taken over my life.
My biggest complaint right now is iTunes; it’s a fight every time I use it. It just works whenever it fracking feels like it.
P.S. The “A thoughtful comment is required” is completely silly and goes back to 2003-ish when I first added comments to the sharbean site… what is that.. a historical bliff… a legacy item? I still hate the wording but have never been able to find the wording that I want.