First Impressions of the iPhone

I've often written about how much I enjoy technology and one of the great aspects of my job is that I get to play with all kinds of neat toys, at least for a while. Today, as part of a review I'm doing, the company sent me an iPhone. So for the next couple of weeks or so, I finally get to play with this year's most wanted toy.

My first impressions, however, were not completely favorable. My first task was sign onto my wireless network, so I didn't have to deal with AT&T's Edge Network, which believe it or not, would not allow me to talk on the phone and access the internet at the same time. The trouble was, when I tried to sign onto my wireless network, I kept getting a message from the iPhone that it wasn't accepting my password. I was perplexed and confused. Nothing is simple.

Once again, as with all technology, even that as elegantly designed as the iPhone, it took some digging to figure out the problem. My first stop was my Apple Airport Express utility and with some experimentation, I figured out that the iPhone could not communicate with my network because it had 128 Bit encryption. When I dropped it down to 40 Bit encryption, suddenly the iPhone could connect. I also turned on the Use Interference Robustness feature, which is supposed to help devices such as cell phones communicate with the network. I'm not sure if this helped or not, but I did a test where I signed on with 40 Bit encryption on, then changed to 128 Bit, and tried again. Didn't work. When I went back to 40 Bit encryption, I was able to get on. Go figure. Who would have though a device as sophisticated as the iPhone couldn't deal with higher end wireless networking encryption technology, but that appears to be the case.

This is after first and foremost a phone, so I tried a phone call and I could hear great. I put it on speaker and it was clear as a bell. The volume control is conveniently located on the side and I had no trouble hearing on the speaker. Much clearer than my Nokia 6200 series phone.

I went on the web and it wasn't quite the experience you are lead to believe in the commercials. It's still a phone and therefore difficult to read web pages on-screen. I found that sometimes when I turned the iPhone, it failed to adjust the picture to landscape or portrait. It took some time to realize how the pinch technology worked to zoom in or out (pinch your fingers together to zoom in and separate to zoom out), but it's very nice once you get the hang of it for making web pages more readable.

I had a lot of problems entering my 128 bit encryption key on the touch keyboard. I kept touch the number next to it, but I found using my pinkie worked better, and I'm sure this takes is a bit of practice before I'm a touch pad whiz.

I was able to configure my Gmail account after some hunting and pecking. Be aware, before you enter your Gmail account information, you need to turn on POP support. (Otherwise, you'll end up entering the information twice like I did).You can configure the POP support by doing the following:

1. Open Gmail.
2. Click Settings > Forwarding and POP.
3. Click Enable POP for All My Mail (or for all email that arrives from now on, whatever your preference).
4. Save your changes.
5. On your iPhone, click Email, then click Gmail, and enter your account information.

When you click Gmail the next time, you will see all of your email in a nice, clear, easy-to-read format (much clearer than if you try to access Gmail using Safarai--I tried this and it was not a great experience trying to navigate the Gmail page).

I love the look and feel of the iPhone. Like the iPod, it just feels nicely balanced in your hand. The screen does get smudged from finger prints, but the finger prints don't get in the way because of the screen design and lighting. So far, I like what I see. The real question is after two weeks will you be able to pry that phone from steely fingers. Of course, you will. I think.

9/20/07 Addendum
It turns out that changing my network to 40 Bit Encryption somehow broke the network connection so that my wife could no longer access the internet from her computer. When I returned it to 128 Bit Encryption, her laptop could access the internet. I'm not sure what the encryption scheme I use has to do with why one device can access the internet and another can't. If you know the answer, please leave a comment.

9/30 Addendum

I figured out the issue with the network. See Configuring Your iPhone to Work on Your Wireless Network.

 

Comments

[Wandas11]

I recently got one of my own and I have found it to be fun. Love the touch screen.