I’ve had an iPhone for about three weeks now, and I have to say—I’m really impressed. One of the most amazing things about it is how easily it navigates the internet, my calendar, and my e-mail, and the variety in third-party applications for it is simply overwhelming. There are over 10,000 applications available for the iPhone, and almost 1/3 of them are free!
Starting with the internet: the amazing thing about this is that you can view regular old web pages. Most phones only view “mobile” versions of websites, which are generally very limited in functionality and pretty clunky to use. The iPhone allows you to view basically any webpage, and it’s all due to it’s ingenious zooming function. Want to zoom in? Just put two fingers on the screen and make a spreading motion. Zooming out is just the opposite (a squeezing motion). This simple yet powerful tool makes it possible to browse any kind of webpage on the small screen of a phone.
The e-mail capability is pretty impressive, too. The phone offers the same zooming and panning capabilities, which makes it ideal for viewing emails that have large images in them, or newsletters like ours that have a fixed width. Another cool thing the iPhone offers is the ability to automatically synchronize all of me e-mail, contacts, and calender entries (this is a $99 per year subscription based service from Apple). If I read an e-mail on my phone, it is automatically marked read in my inbox at home so I don’t have to see it again when I sit down at my computer. This is fantastic.
One of my favorite features about this is that I can start an email on my phone and sit down and finish it on my computer later. Any calender entries or contacts that I add, remove, or modify on either my computer or my phone gets updated automatically on both devices. This is great when I’m out and I realize something that needs to be done for Alabu. I just add it to my calendar right there. Now I don’t have any excuses for forgetting things.
I’ve also got about 80 or so third party applications on it (all of them free, so far). Everything from my mobile banking application, facebook, instant messenger, games, and productivity applications like this one called VNC that allows me to view and work with my actual home computer screen right from my phone! My personal favorite is the mint.com application, which allows me to get up to the date information on my monthly budget and how well I am sticking to it. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, I highly reccommend mint.com. It is a great way to keep your finances in check and reduce your spending habits.
I’m still exploring all of the features of the iPhone, but so far it gets a 10 out of 10 from me.
H.M.