Gadgets

Is the iPhone the Apple of our eye?

In the last 6 months, the iPhone has been the subject of 40,000 reviews, and it turns up about 18 million times on Google, becoming one of the most talked-about electronics products ever. In the United States, people call it the "Jesus phone" and zealots are waiting outside in front of Apple stores to get hold of one. All of this before most of consumers has even touched the gadget


By MARIA ENCINAR
from La Coruna, SPAIN


There are plenty of things you can do with 400 euros: celebrate New Year's Eve in Barcelona, spend a week in Turkey or buy a spanking new pair of Manolo Blahnik's. But if you are a gadget lover you'll save every last penny to get yourself an iPhone.

Unless you've been hidden away in a cave for the last year, you already know what an iPhone is. A multimedia, internet-enabled and touch screen mobile phone designed by Apple.

Following the trail of success of iPod, Apple announced its iPhone last January at the Macworld 2007, a biannual Macintosh conference. The iPhone was released, first in the United States on June 29th, with much media frenzy and then in the UK, France and Germany in November 2007 with more skepticism.

In the last 6 months, the iPhone has been the subject of 40,000 reviews, and it turns up about 18 million times on Google, becoming one of the most talked-about electronics products ever. In the United States, people call it the "Jesus phone" and zealots are waiting outside in front of Apple stores to get hold of one. All of this before most of consumers has even touched the gadget. So what's so special about iPhone?

It turns out that all the hype and critics are indeed well-grounded. It does things no phone has ever done before; but it lacks some basic features found in many phones, including stereo Bluetooth, 3G compatibility or an unexpandable 8GB flash memory.

The bigger achievement is the software, based in Mac OS X. It's beautiful, fast, robust and really simple to use. There is a single button at the bottom, which always takes you back to the homepage. Otherwise it's all a combination of gently touching in the screen that makes the phone come alive.

The multimedia performs well. The iPhone is also an iPod. It offers an easy-to-use applications for music, photos and videos. The camera is only 2 megapixels, fewer that the best camera-focused mobiles, but the image is clear as long as shot direct light.

The iPhone is able to access the web when connected to a WIFI or a network. It's a child's game to send an email. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with images. You can even open PDF, Word and Excel documents. The Web browser is also fantastic. The iPhone lets the user zoom into sections of a page with a double tap, overcoming the limitations of screen size. Making a call, though, takes as many as six steps and the call quality is variable.

For a phone which boasts of being an internet communicator it lacks features such as instant messaging and voice over IP. There's also no GPS integrated.

The phone runs on what is known as the Edge network, which is significantly slower than 3G - the fastest mobile network, already a standard in European telecommunication. It makes less appealing the idea of a quick trip to France to buy an unlocked iPhone. However Apple confirmed last week that iPhone second generation will incorporate 3G technology. It's definitely worth to wait if you don't want to spend 50 seconds waiting Wave Magazine's home page to appear.

Far from being perfect, the iPhone meets the expectations we have for mobile devices. It provokes a reaction among gadget geeks and general public that no other phone can match.


(Published: 09.12.2007.)

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