Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? No... but it's not a PDA either

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I'm disappointed to find my new 3G is a very poor 2nd to my old Sony Clie, and the Psion5 I had before that - How do you organise your life and work with it? With all that computing power, where is the software to make To Do lists, take notes and store them, edit Word or excel docs, add a portable keyboard, cut and paste text, etc?

Suggestions for (non-jailbreak) Apps would be welcomed.

While I'm ranting... I'm not much impressed with it as a phone either! The simplest Nokia I have owned lets me organise my SMS into folders: sent / received / drafts, etc. + forwarding. Never mind MMS. Who told Apple to ignore everything the more experienced phone GUI designers have learned that customers want? Or have I missed something. (I have read TF manual O:) )

And O2 reception is worse than Vodafone in the parts of Scotland I visit.

This new iPhone 3G is only my second iProduct, the 1st was an iMac this May, and now I'm getting past the surface beauty, I'm beginning to chafe at limitations of usability and customising... Then again, it is soooo pretty.
 
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I do wonder about the glaring lack of MMS... It can't be that hard to implement and the iphone is basically the only phone these days with a camera that cant send or even receive them. It just doesn't make sense...
 
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We should be able to see in the future something like iPhone Office 2009 or something, so we can actually create, edit and store any kind of Office file (.doc, .pps, .xls), like, we can upload a file into the iPhone and modify it, and then do whatever you want with it. Right now the only way for me seeing Office files is sending myself an email with an attachment containing the document, then I can just look through it.
 
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I have found that FileMagnet seems to work well for viewing docs, and it's cheap. It will be better when it will auto-rotate docs to view in landscape.
 
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While I'm ranting... I'm not much impressed with it as a phone either! The simplest Nokia I have owned lets me organise my SMS into folders: sent / received / drafts, etc. + forwarding. Never mind MMS. Who told Apple to ignore everything the more experienced phone GUI designers have learned that customers want? Or have I missed something. (I have read TF manual O:) )

What are you talking about? The SMS format on the iPhone is far superior to any other phone. Viewing text messages as conversations is far more convenient than having all of your incoming and outgoing messages bunched up into single folders.
 
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Good point, thanks. I'm getting used to it, and beginning to appreciate the different paradigm. What you're saying is, more like Chat, and less tied to the tree directory needed by the obsessive & anal, yes? :)
 
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I concur.

Also, on the iMac side of things saying you are starting to see the limitations and so forth, well, welcome to Mac Computers!

I, like many on these forums, used to work with daily and also build and maintain Window based PC's. When I switched to Mac after working on one for a few years at a studio (during which I went through a full spectrum of emotions from "Gah! Mac's are rubbish and pathetic!" to "Hmm, I guess they're ok) I felt just like you.

I got one and instantly rooted through all the cool things it could do. Isight, garage band, inbuilt mic, front row so on and so forth (sorry that list isn't massive but you know what I mean) and after about a month of drooling over it, I felt a bit frustrated because I had reached my limit of exploration of the platform.

Sure I had all the software I needed running on it that I had on my PC and more, but I felt a bit uneasy and irritated that things couldn't be tweaked, pulled out and put back in, the hard drive couldn't be defragged, the hard drive was practically welded in there and so on.

Now, after a while, all those "Couldn't"'s were changed to "Didn't need to"'s in that I didn't need to check the registry every other day, I didn't need to defrag the hard drive, I didn't need to check for virus's, I didn't need to pull things out and put them back in and update drivers and so on.

Good lord! I found myself actually 'Using' a computer and then, when I was finished 'Using it' shutting it down and for the first time in a very long while, having a life outside of fretting if my machine would run properly the next time I booted it up.

So, and I know you seem to be realising this now with your iPhone, it wasn't that my Mac had limitations, it was that I was so used to 'Having' to sort problems out that t just use a computer was beyond my capacity to believe!

I use my computer every day and touch wood it still works and all I have ever done was stick more RAM in it.

I am eager for my current contract to run out here in the UK so I can go get an iPhone but that's not till November. I am a little anxious about switching to another carrier and having such a 'do it all' phone, but to be honest, I know I'll be fine because each time I leave the house I always grab my iPod Touch AND my Sony Ericsson and wish they could be just one item.

I hope, like everyone, that Apple wise up and add copy and paste like some jailbroken apps do (I haven't jailbroke my iPod by the way, I have just read about it) and SMS must be some carrier contract issue which I hope they resolve. The camera wouldn't annoy me that much except it would be easy for Apple to make it record video too. Anyway, if they aren't going to do any of the above, I wish they would tell us why, unless they are on a 'Squeeze every penny' mission and will release one new feature with each generation of phone just like they started by adding 3G and a non recessed headphone jack.

Enjoy your iphone anyway, it's just 'Different' like 'Think Different' - Apples oft used strap line.

Mel
 

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Enjoy your iphone anyway, it's just 'Different' like 'Think Different' - Apples oft used strap line.

Mel

Excellent points, all - but this is the cincher. Your iPhone is not an evolution of your Clie. You need to get out of this mindset and try to remember that you have had years of experience to acclimate to and learn the ins and outs of these devices. The iPhone is a completely different platform that you need to approach with a fresh mindset.

Another thing to note is that although the iPhone has been out for a year now and is in its second generation form, it is a completely new platform - and like with any new technology, it's going to need some time to mature. Things like the App Store and now official support for native 3rd party apps have only just begun. As the device matures, it will be refined. Always keep this in mind when you buy new technology.
 
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What are you talking about? The SMS format on the iPhone is far superior to any other phone. Viewing text messages as conversations is far more convenient than having all of your incoming and outgoing messages bunched up into single folders.

I have to highly disagree with you Kash. I do like that it groups the incomming messages to the assigned contact, but what if you want to save just ONE of their texts? Nope. Yeah yeah you can write down what they say in the notepad, but its not the same. And its not so convenient when your significant other sends you a sext message and you have to delete your entire conversation to hide it :p

(P.S. Hiding it means when you worry if you leave your phone around without passcode lock and you dont want anyone to open it up and look.)
 
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There is a way to do so by jailbreaking the phone, but not officially (at least not yet). Then again, the passcode lock is there for a reason ;)
 
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Sorry i am not going to look to my phone for a way to stop someone from picking up my phone and reading my texts. That is what my fist is for. If someone did that to my phone I would not say "gee my bad I should have had that hidden". No I am going to say, "You have a 3 second head start".
 
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Overdramatic much?
 
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Who wants to have passcode lock on their phone 24/7?

Sorry i am not going to look to my phone for a way to stop someone from picking up my phone and reading my texts. That is what my fist is for. If someone did that to my phone I would not say "gee my bad I should have had that hidden". No I am going to say, "You have a 3 second head start".

Hmm, well I wouldnt want to be your parents/friends/siblings if they read your phone when you forgot it on your couch... :Confused:
 
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Let's forget the passcode for a second, what difference does it make if the iPhone had the option of saving a single text message or moving them into folders? People could still find these messages as they're still right there in the SMS app. You either make sure other people never get their hands on your phone, or you put a password on it. Since there's no way to officially access the iPhone directory system, there's really no way you can hide stuff deep in the bowels of the OS like you could on a Windows Mobile device.
 
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Hiding texts was more of a sub-point. The main focus was saving a single text message, or a few of them. Lets say, someone sends you directions to somewhere, details about an upcoming event, information of some sort that youd like to save. Granted, you can choose to open up the Notes and write down whatever it is youd like to save, but its just not the same. If someone sends you something and you just do NOT want to delete or forget / remember, you cant do it! and also, what is up with the random time displays for text messages? It doesnt display the time for every message, just kind of randomly for every couple messages.

Bottom line, i think the iPhone is great and excells in a lot of fields most others come in short, but its like having a watch that cant tell time. They should have focused more on the simple tasks people want in a cell phone. What percent of people with an iPhone really care about having microsoft exchange on their phone versus the percent of people who want to be able to have mms? Its just dumb to overlook these basic things.
 
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You need to save information? Then don't delete the conversation. Simple as that.

As for the time thing, it only displays the time when there has been a significant lapse in sending messages back and forth. Otherwise, you can assume the series of messages sent under a single time stamp were sent within seconds of one another, as is often the case. Would I like to see a time stamp on every message? Sure. But it wouldn't look nice, and it isn't that big of a deal when you know how to use the existing system.

The Exchange support is what Apple needs to get into the enterprise market. That means money. It also involved a lot of work on the part of developers, especially since Apple is new to this. Devoting resources to adding in small features that only a small sliver of iPhone users want isn't that high up on the list. We might get it one day, but Apple had bigger things to focus on in the past year, such as developing the iPhone 3G and the 2.0 software.

Sure, we all have things we don't like about the iPhone, but you know that it's a heck of a lot better than anything else on the market, otherwise we wouldn't be using it.
 
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Dont delete the conversation. That is a funny answer. Heres an example of what I am referring too. And I mean this in the nicest way possible of course.

Take your girlfriend or just a friend for example. Lets say she / they send you a message about something, something you might need to remember later but its not a big deal. A week later, after you sent over a 100 messages to eachother back and fourth, you need to remember what they said. Have you ever tried scrolling through a conversation with over a hundred exchanges? It takes forever! Scrolling and scrolling through just to look at one thing? Forget it. Now if you could just save the one text and then delete all the rest you could go back to it in seconds.

And please, DO NOT say that only "small sliver of iPhone users" want MMS. I understand you are a highly regarded member on this message board but saying that just sounds ignorant. Name me one normal person who would rather have Microsoft Exchange support over being able to send someone a photo through a text (dont CON ME and say 'e-mail it'). I know plenty of people in my university and town that have iPhones and couldnt give a crap about having microsoft exchange or a built in stock application (which i would delete if it was an option).

Face it, and be real here. I go to school in NYC next to the Time Warner mall where people get driven to work in Maybach Mercedes, Rolls Royces', Bentleys, etc. The majority of people get out of the cars already on business calls using their blackberrys and other bulky smart phones. Then, around 3 oclock, all the kids from the Lincoln center private schools that march down broadway to the subway come prancing around with their iphones! Showing eachother pictures of dumb things, etc. The fact is, iPhone is always going to be more of a hipster cool trendy gadget to have than a pure business product. Apple needs to get their STUFF together and give us some DARNED picture messages. Please.
 
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I guess I'm not normal. I think MMS is gimmicky though I find its absence quite puzzling considering its popularity.
 
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Dont delete the conversation. That is a funny answer. Heres an example of what I am referring too. And I mean this in the nicest way possible of course.

Take your girlfriend or just a friend for example. Lets say she / they send you a message about something, something you might need to remember later but its not a big deal. A week later, after you sent over a 100 messages to eachother back and fourth, you need to remember what they said. Have you ever tried scrolling through a conversation with over a hundred exchanges? It takes forever! Scrolling and scrolling through just to look at one thing? Forget it. Now if you could just save the one text and then delete all the rest you could go back to it in seconds.

And please, DO NOT say that only "small sliver of iPhone users" want MMS. I understand you are a highly regarded member on this message board but saying that just sounds ignorant. Name me one normal person who would rather have Microsoft Exchange support over being able to send someone a photo through a text (dont CON ME and say 'e-mail it'). I know plenty of people in my university and town that have iPhones and couldnt give a crap about having microsoft exchange or a built in stock application (which i would delete if it was an option).

Face it, and be real here. I go to school in NYC next to the Time Warner mall where people get driven to work in Maybach Mercedes, Rolls Royces', Bentleys, etc. The majority of people get out of the cars already on business calls using their blackberrys and other bulky smart phones. Then, around 3 oclock, all the kids from the Lincoln center private schools that march down broadway to the subway come prancing around with their iphones! Showing eachother pictures of dumb things, etc. The fact is, iPhone is always going to be more of a hipster cool trendy gadget to have than a pure business product. Apple needs to get their STUFF together and give us some picture messages. Please.

I've got SMS convos that are quite long and don't find it to be that much of a hassle to scroll through it. Beats having to go through a single Inbox with all of the messages bunched together. Though if Apple gets around to incorporating copy/paste, then not only will the people demanding that feature be satisfied, but so will you as now you have a way to save that particular message. :D

I wholeheartedly agree that the lack of MMS was an astounding omission on Apple's part. I personally think that emailing the picture isn't really a suitable substitute as the vast majority of cell phone users do not, and cannot, check their email on their phones. I personally didn't say that MMS is only requested by a small sliver of iPhone users, just the other stuff like copy/paste and saving messages. I'm really surprised that Apple hasn't incorporated such a simple feature into the iPhone yet.

While you make a valid point about the disparity of the types of users for each device, it's the simple reason that iPhones were not business-friendly in the past year and is exactly why the iPhone hasn't supplanted Blackberries and Treos. However, with the addition of Exchange support and a plethora of other enterprise options in the 2.0 firmware, we just might see the balance shift in the other direction with business users, especially ones who care about image, carrying the iPhone in far greater numbers. So while your last statement applied for the past year, it doesn't hold up well with Apple now targeting business users.
 

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