Thursday, January 08, 2009
Super Cool Gadget
8-JAN-2008:
Okay ... daddy brain-washed me into buying the iPhone and so I did. I received it yesterday evening and so far here's what I think, just in case you're interested and you want to hear from someone who has used it.The iPhone functionalities are the same as the iPod Touch except that it has the phone functionality (making calls and SMS) and a camera - two things that I had on my old phone and hardly used. Other than that, the REALLY cool stuffs are all available in the iPod Touch, such as Internet, emails, You Tube, music, videos, photos, games, etc, etc. There are lots of stuffs in there which I haven't time to explore yet.
What I find really cool is that because I sign up with O2 (the mobile operator) for the 'Pay and Go' (which means pre-paid in M'sian terms), I now get unlimited mobile Internet access (free of charge) for 12 months (after which will cost £10 a month but who knows whether I'll still be in this country by then). This means that I can surf the Internet from anywhere (in the UK). Now, I think the iPod Touch doesn't have this capability (but you can still surf the Internet using Wi-Fi). Note: Wi-fi is not available everywhere but the 3G Internet is.
The iPhone is twice as thick as the iPod Touch and heavier. I think it looks a tiny bit longer as well, but only noticeable if you put the 2 side by side.
The iPod functionality is cooler than ever (at least compared to my old one which is the iPod Mini). You can play music as usual but now if you have a music video, it will play the video as well (otherwise it just shows the album art). The best thing is the integration with iTunes. Where previously you need to purchase songs from your computer then sync it to the iPod, now you can purchase songs (and rent movies) directly using the iPod.
The Internet browser (it's called Safari) is great! It supports all sorts of Java Script or whatever and the web page looks exactly the same as you see in the computer. Mind you, I can also access Dom's nursery webcams. Of course, because the screen is much smaller here, it also allows you to zoom in and out by double tapping on the screen. Now, I can access my recipes easily without having to bring my laptop into the kitchen (extremely annoying especially while waiting for Windows to boot up or when the laptop runs out of battery).
Dominic's favourite is the integrated You Tube. He goes in, taps a video to watch (nursery rhymes or Little Einsteins) and when the video finishes, taps another one. Unlike the Creative Zen (which he normally uses to watch cartoons when we're dining out), the iPhone/iPod Touch comes with a speaker so he doesn't need earphones anymore.
I also like that the iPhone flashes up the SMS message when I receive one so that I don't need an extra key press to view it. As for the phone functionality, I hardly use my phone and nobody ever calls me (I only top up £20 a year), so really I think the iPod Touch is enough for me.
So brother-in-law, after reading my *review* do you still want the iPhone? You choose - if you really want the iPhone, you can have mine (pay me back of course - £340). But if you want the iPod Touch instead, I'm sure it'll be a gift from Saimun. :-)
