I must first thank my wife for getting me this wonderful gift. To be honest, I didn’t expect much. All I was expecting was how cool it would be to flip the contact lists and enjoy the smooth scrolling.
Then when I got the phone, I was positively overwhelmed. Well, no, I was mesmerized. I just can’t believe how anyone/team could create such a beauty. I work in a company where supposedly great things should happen all the time. Then you remember that ideas will always only be ideas if you can’t execute. And in order to execute, in most major corps these days, you need to work through so much crap. The more I think about this, the more I admire this company.
Anyway, here are a few things I love about my iPhone:
1) The scrolling. Yes, I still love it. I sometimes would just open my contact list and scroll it up and down. It is like staring at the washing machine. It absorbs me. It is beauty in action. Silky smooth. And the more you look at it, you start to wonder, “what makes it so beautiful?” The little things: the Ritardando at the end of each scroll, the fonts, the layout. The same applies to a bunch of other animations on the phone: the main screen that scrolls just as fluidly; the little service provider notification on the upper lefthand corner; all the little things. Apple had it since the Mac days, but still, how come nobody picked it up? Well, if I apply what I have learned from my company, I can totally see how it might have happened in most other companies. I bet many people brought it up in sony/microsoft/whatever. Then they had meetings to talk about them, then people came up with different point of views, then they weighted the cost and benefits of coding these little things, then they dropped it. Then for those companies that did manage to push these ideas through the pipeline, they lack a freak (Jobs?) to make sure it works flawlessly and CONSISTENTLY, or they just don’t have the right team, and/or the right amount of budget, to code them correctly so they work the way they should (HTC anyone?).
(oh and by the way, I actually ENJOY typing on the virtual keyboard. I find it extremely rewarding. Again, I think it is because of the silkiness of the whole experience. Haha.)
2) Integration. I just never realise how big this is, or how powerful this could be. I suck at writing but i will try and put it down in words. The software/apps and the function of the phone and the internet: I felt that iPhone really integrated these things well. The Facebook app is cool, because I can use the mobile upload tool conveniently to share pictures with my friends that are quite active on facebook. I then realised I could just use the twitter tool coz that’s what I use Facebook for most of the time. Then once i get into uploading pics, all these wonderful camera apps make the experience even more enjoyable. ToyCamera, QuadCamera, etc. Prebuilt filters have always been available in the past. But never had any gadget managed to integrate them so perfectly. This spiced up my phone-camera experience by leaps and bounds. I now constantly think of taking snapshots with these fun filters and post them on the different sharing sites, from FB to flickr. I am now exploring tools for better blogging. I want easy photo sharing, geo-tagging and instant blogpages. I think the tools are there, but I need to find the right webpage for this. Blogspot? probably not, coz no one reads my site. Flickr? same issue. Perhaps Facebook. But then, none of my china friends are on it. Kaixin? er. Anyway, you get the point. Now I am so looking forward to how Apple will integrate more stuff onto this: Music? It certainly has a number of great apps already: Ocarina, etc. But again, I need a bit more. something a bit more intuitive and powerful. Cloud computing (i don’t know if i really need this)? I also want a better Instand Messaging tool. I loved the Blackberry messenger. It was because my friends were all on it, and it was easy to use. Fring is a good IM aggregator (?), but it … really is very far from what it should be. I need something to be always on, GPS enabled, and simple to use. I am not asking for a lot, am I? I think Apple should just create an iPhone Messenger, and “cloud”/iTune it (is that even a term?). Integrate it with Google Earth/map, and then a few useful restaurant/movie/shopping sites.
3) Critical Mass
I think my wife decided to get us the phone because she saw this: Critical mass has been reached. New apps are coming up everyday; more and more friends are using it. It will just continue to gain momentum. You see, Apple never really had anything like this before. The mac-users are worshipers of a cult. Now, it is different, the iPhone has the critical mass. So things will only get better.
So there must be things I don’t like about the iPhone. Yes, of course, iTunes. It is a decent software, but it can be so much better. It is slow and clumsy to use. It assumes that you are stupid. Oh well, but i have gotten very used to it. I get the podcasts I want, I’ve managed to sync everything I need. Another one is copy and paste. It is not really that big of a deal, but a nice to have, so to speak. There are other minor nuiances. But see the thing is, iPhone forces me to adapt to it so effortlessly. I actually enjoy being normal again. ๐
Apple managed to bring us the iPhone, and obviously it wasn’t a one gadget wonder. It is a revolution in the world of integration, and I think it is working ridiculously well. Plus the iPhone is challenging/forcing all its competitors to evolve immediately, and it has become THE benchmark of … everything from design to integration to marketing to … you get the idea. Now i understand why a manager of mine once told me we should never acquire Asics, because only competition will make us better. Come on, Adidas …