Steinblogger

I’m going to keep updating this post with links for the different iPhone app management sites’ links to comixology.com’s iPhone interface.

addfone.com

touchtip.com

iPhone Application List

I’m one of the “early adopters” stung by Apple’s price drop on the iPhone, which adds up to $400 in my family. Apple’s $100 store credit gesture is nice, but necessary only because the early adopters of the iPhone are mostly Mac owners.

Apple is competing in a new category and needs to compete in a new way, while its core early customers for the iPhone are Mac users that expect Apple to act like Apple Computer, Inc. rather than as a cell phone producer. If Apple behaved like Apple Computer, Inc., it would keep the prices fairly static, shipping new models with new capabilities to keep the prices in place. At the least, it wouldn’t drop prices by a third within the first year or so.

The Motorola RAZR is a great example of how the cell phone marketplace works differently than the computer marketplace. According to the NY Times, the RAZR was released at $499 (yes the same price as the original 4GB iPhone) and was $199 six months later (about 60% less). Within 12 months it was $99. That’s a perfect illustration of how pricing works in the cell phone world. Don’t expect to see iPhones for $99 anytime soon, but don’t expect Apple to give a gift certificate every time they drop the price, either. That’s a one-time gift to us early adopters.

Personally, I’ve gotten at least $100 of value from my iPhone in the last two months. So, I’m good.

I discovered a great iPhone shortcut by accident. While in the email list view, slide your finger left-to-right over the message title and description. The delete button will appear. That drops a click from the deletion process (no need to click edit).It’s fun to discover little touches like this after 7 weeks with the iPhone.

I received my first AT&T bill yesterday. It was a whopping 61 pages long! On top of that, because of all my trials getting the phone activated, AT&T had me down for three accounts with my number and one account for my wife. My heart stopped when I saw the total: $456.99!

I also received my last bill with Sprint. We were very careful about our Sprint accounts, making sure to not renew them so we could switch, pain-free to AT&T. In fact, I called Sprint in May to complain that they surreptitiously renewed both of our accounts. They agreed it was a mistake and confirmed they had removed the renewal. Yet they still charged us a $350 penalty for leaving them! It took over a half hour on the phone to get it rectified.

AT&T only took about 20 minutes. We’ll see next month if we’ve resolved all of it. Part of the shock is that they pre-bill, so I received both July and August. To their credit, they finally heeded my request to give us back our activation fees.

Sprint vs. AT&T, who comes out ahead? I don’t think I’m any worse off than before. So, AT&T comes out ahead simply for being smart enough to get iPhone.

People who buy the iPhone are 90% satisfied, according to a poll referenced in a USA Today article. My pocket book is excited that 40% of buyers haven’t owned an iPod before, and 30% are new to Apple all together.

I just tried to click my MacBook Pro’s display with my finger. That says something about what an improvement the interface of the iPhone is over my laptop. No longer are you moving a mouse on one plane (your desk) while an arrow shifts on a perpendicular plane (the monitor)*. When you’re first introduced to a computer, you have to learn how to do navigate. On the iPhone, you are physically touching, pushing, pinching and pulling the interface! If you’ve ever played with a child’s developmental toy, you can work the iPhone. You don’t have to think about how it works. With the iPhone, Apple made “it just works” mean something more: it does what you naturally expect.

* Props for this thought to John Gruber, who described using a computer this way at his talk at the Apple Store Soho.

I’ve had the iPhone working since Thursday morning, just enough time to form some opinions. I’ve been using a Palm Treo 700p with Sprint since January, so I’ll use that as my benchmark.

To summarize: I had high expectations, but the iPhone has exceeded them at every turn. This is a truly amazing device. If you care to wade through the details, here they are:

The weak points

AT&T
What do you get when you try to find a company that will let you have it your way? You get the only partner desperate enough to make a one-sided deal. Every time you strike a bargain like that, you won’t get the highest-quality player. I just hope Apple can help AT&T improve their operations.

AT&T’s customer service has to be the most convoluted system in phone history. Compared to my experience getting the iPhone up and running, Sprint was a dream (and that’s saying a lot). It took four days and 10 calls – with at least one transfer per call – to find out I had made a mistake with my phone number transfer from Sprint. Then, I was told it was fixed on two occasions when it was not. AT&T is a maze of departments: I found the Activation department, the iPhone Activation department, the Transfer department, the Port and Activations department, the Activation Status department, the Port Request department, and two separate Customer Service departments, plus Apple’s own iTunes activation line. That’s a recipe for the iPhone activation PR disaster we saw this week.

Signal strength
The signal strength seems to fade away inside buildings more than Sprint’s did. I’ve had two situations where I would have expected some sort of signal but wasn’t able to get one. Since I’m switching networks, I can’t tell if this is AT&T’s problem or the iPhone’s. Regardless, it’s a step down from Sprint’s coverage in the NYC area.

No iChat
Even though the free AIM client I picked up for the Treo, Toccer, was buggy as all get out, at least I had an option for chatting with Instant Messenger. I hope Apple adds this in an update, because I don’t want to shell out another $10/month for unlimited texting.

Slow Internet-over-cellphone
I’d like to have more speed on AT&T’s EDGE network. Still, I find I’m using the iPhone to browse the web more (see below), but that doesn’t mean that the speed is better than Sprint’s. It isn’t.

The strong points

Safari and WiFi
As I mentioned, browsing the web is a pleasure, even when I’m on the slower cellular network. I don’t fear what a site will look like, or if it will function, like I did with the Treo. My bookmarks are synchronized with Safari on my computer (thank you!). There are innovative interface touches, like the spinner that comes up with drop-down menu choices. It’s never been so much fun to pick a state while filling out my address.

For no extra cost, the iPhone gets on a WiFi connection when it’s available. When you live in New York City, you can find an open WiFi network on just about every corner, so this is invaluable. When I’m on my home WiFi, Safari appears to be avery bit as fast as on my MacBook Pro. Truly amazing.

The keyboard
Contrary to my expectation, I like the keyboard. I’m typing at least as fast as I did on the Treo because of the iPhone’s auto correct feature. Plus, the iPhone keyboard gets out of the way when not in use, leaving behind a ton more screen than the Treo.

Video
I never used the Treo for video, because it was such a pain to get video onto it and the quality was terrible. And it sucked down battery power like you wouldn’t believe. Instead, I carried a video iPod when to watch video. No longer! Video on the iPhone is stunning. The screen resolution and size is such that I am seriously considering selling my video iPod because, even though the iPhone only has 8GB of space, I don’t think I’ll ever watch a video on my video iPod again. Why would I?

The iPod
The interface, sound and overall user experience is, amazingly, superior than the iPod.

Mail
Mail on the iPhone is quite good. I get fully formatted mail (including HTML), a great interface and automatic synchronization of my Mail accounts (that’s right, I didn’t have to set them up on the iPhone. They simply came over from Mail.app on my computer). The Treo’s email was functional, but plain. All setup was done on the phone, and it sent and read only in plain text. You couldn’t even see HTML-formatted email.

The fun
I never had fun using the Treo. I have fun using the iPhone. Case closed!

Over 25 hours since I got my iPhone (update: 38 hours), and it still hasn’t been activated. Not sure it can help anyone, but here are all the numbers I collected. I hope you have better luck. I was told I just have to wait.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, I suppose. No cell operator is celebrated for customer service, and in my case I’m having to deal with two – AT&T and Sprint. Sprint, of course, has no incentive to make this process easy. Toyota regularly sends engineers to help their partners streamline operations, which gets them their car parts cheaper and faster. Maybe Apple needs to send in some customer support people.

Notice in my list there are six AT&T numbers, but only one Apple number.The list, in the order I dialed…

AT&T Customer Service
1-877-419-4500 – the number I called first, got right through gave me the port request number (the 866 down the list a bit)

AT&T Activation Status number (need activation order number)
877-800-3701 – the iPhone Activation Helpline. I waited 20 minutes, but they couldn’t help me since I haven’t been assigned an account yet. They gave me a number and told me to call myself instead of forwarding me…

Cellular Customer Service
800-331-0500 – AT&T Customer Care. Frigging only open Monday-Friday.

Port Request
866-895-1097 – Phone number to call about the status of the port request — tried this out, they couldn’t find my number, so I got sent to an operator. That operator said they couldn’t look me up.

Another AT&T number
877-777-4189 Another AT&T number even though it was called an “Apple support number.” My call was answered right away. The operator gave me another “port and activation” number, but also tried it herself and said it was “in process,” but that I could talk to an operator there if I want.

Port and activations line
888-898-7685 – I asked if there was something holding it up that I could help with. They also had trouble finding me and my account. Said there should be a pre-approval number on the receipt. No luck — maybe you get one when you buy at AT&T rather than an Apple Store. Third time I had to give my social security number! Ugh. She couldn’t help, so she’s sending me to an Apple support group.

Apple support group
800-694-7466 – Told me there was nothing to do but wait. At least this guy sounded confident.

Yes, I my wife and I took the iPhone plunge yesterday afternoon. We’re moving from a Sprint family plan, so we’re among those that are waiting to have their iPhones activated. They look sweet, but it’s annoying there is a delay this long (I registered at 6pm last night!). In the meantime, you can’t use the iPhone’s non-phone functionality (wifi, email, etc.); you have to wait for activation. For shame.