iPhone review

The much anticipated iphone was unveiled earlier this month at the MacWorld Expo in San Fransisco. Currently restricted to Cingular customers only, the iphone is proving to be extremely popular and has left a lot of people on other networks disappointed. But what is it about the the iphone that's really got people counting down the days, hours and minutes to it's release.

After revolutionising how we listen to music, Apple have taken it one step further and have created a phone of the future. The iPhone combines quad band mobile phone technology, widescreen ipod with touch screen controls and a “breakthrough” internet communications device.

Measuring 115 x 61 x11.6mm, the phone is slim, sleek and bursting with technology! Connection is real easy with this phone. For me, Bluetooth is essential so I can send my pictures to my laptop easily and quickly. But it also comes with wi-fi and EDGE , so there are plenty of choices. The iPhone also boasts a desktop class email allowing you to keep in touch on the move, web browser for quality mobile internet and you’ll never get lost with Google maps which is almost a must on most phones in today’s market. It really is the ideal phone for keeping in touch and staying connected.

If that wasn't enough for you, the widescreen iPod might attract you. With touch screen controls and a choice of 4 or 8 gig of store, you can carry your entire music collection in your phone , in your pocket. I don’t know about any other girls out there, but it definitely saves on the handbag space! The iPhone is also compatible with iPod accessories such as car docking stations and speakers, which means no need to rush out and upgrade your current iPod accessories.

Other features include a 2 mega-pixel camera, a minimum requirement in my opinion. Phone photography has come along way in the past year or two and anything less would be a major disappointment. The Multi touch display with qwerty keyboard is an interesting choice – I can’t comment on the usability of this, but being the first of it’s kind, I’m sure it would take some getting used to. Touch screens seem to be the way of the future and I am sure other companies will follow suit. Time to start practising the tapping. The iPhone also comes with an optimized MAC OS X operating system, pdf viewer and widgets (mini applications).

Sounds great right? Maybe... but as with all technology, it has it's drawbacks. As I mentioned before, the iPhone is only available on the Cingular network and this will be the case for the next two years. Bad news for the gamers also, currently, the iPhone doesn’t come with any games. I would expect this to change fairly quickly though as the current iPods come with standard games. Are you one of those people who likes to catch embarrassing moments on video? Well you may have to wait for a while. The iPhone only takes still pictures at the moment. I don’t think it will be long before they upgrade the camera to include the video feature though, as most standard camera phones do this already. As there is no video, there is also no 3G technology at the moment either. One frequently highlighted drawback is that the wi-fi and Bluetooth do not have syncing capabilities with calendars or email, which may prove to be a problem for the busy exec. For the moment, if you want to have your appointments on your iPhone and computer, it will be a case of entering the details twice over.

But overall, the iPhone seems to be a big hit. I am certainly looking forward to it’s release and I am sure sales will speak for themselves. Priced at about the $500 -$600 mark (depending on how much store you choose), they aren’t cheap, but you will certainly be the envy of all your friends.