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iReviews
So I spent some time this morning reading the iReviews. Apple let Walt Mossberg, David Poque, Steven Levy and several other tech journalists have an iPod iPhone for the past couple weeks. Given all the iPod iPhone hype, I am surprised none of these journalists had stories of beating back the crowds during their two week preview. Ryan Block's got a good rundown of the new facts that are coming out as a result of these test drives.
The most interesting comments came from Walt, who liked the keyboard:
The iPhone's most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt -- who did most of the testing for this review -- was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years. This was partly because of smart software that corrects typing errors on the fly.
But other facts like the lack of search and cut and paste indicate to me that this phone is still not business ready (thought it might be people ready).
I suppose I should get one to play around with it. If it's easy enough to do, I'll probably do it. But I won't be one of the millions who will be lined up tomorrow/iDay to get one.
I am still in love with my Curve.
UPDATE: Sorry about calling the iPhone an iPod twice in this post. Must be a freudian slip of some kind. I wonder if there are people who will get an iPhone and only use it for music and browsing. I could be one of them. Maybe that was my subconscious working.
UPDATE: Dave Budde left a link to this in the comments. In this case, a video is way better than any other review I've seen. Well done NY Times.
Comments (20) | Posted June 27, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
re: "I am surprised none of these journalists had stories of beating back the crowds during their two week preview."
Guess you missed this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRfAaIb2Ro
Posted by: dave | Jun 27, 2007 7:44:02 AM
Fred,
I agree with you on iPhone not being business ready.
To me the biggest deal killer was from Walt's review "and you have to switch to a different keyboard view to insert a period or comma, which is annoying."
How can you type an email without a "comma" and a "period"?
Thats absolutely ridicolous...
Posted by: Nik | Jun 27, 2007 8:27:15 AM
Another Interesting aside on Dave posting the YouTube video. The NYT iPhone YouTube video has about 40,000 views- all of which should have theoritically gone to NYTimes.com but haven't.
Just goes to show Brightcove (great content -e.g. Kara Swisher's BoomTown- BUT an EXTREMELY annoying player) and other old media video efforts still have a long way to go to make the video viewing experience easier even if they have the video content itself freely available.
Posted by: Nik | Jun 27, 2007 8:39:13 AM
Just start calling it the iCurve and I am sure you won't notice any difference at all. ;)
The Curve seems to be the iPhone equivalent for business users. I have a feeling though that as time goes on, Apple will build more business focused features in to the iPhone. They have no need to do that right now, as consumer demand is so huge.
Posted by: Jevon MacDonald | Jun 27, 2007 8:57:11 AM
In my Apple-crazed household, we thought the most interesting press was in the FT on Monday, "Stylish devices in search of a network". Biggest iPhone disappointment will not be the keyboard. Linked below from my name.
Posted by: Karen E | Jun 27, 2007 9:19:02 AM
Nice work with the people ready throwaway line.;)
Posted by: dick costolo | Jun 27, 2007 9:28:47 AM
FYI, you may want to change 'iPod' to iPhone' in your first paragraph.
Posted by: Clay | Jun 27, 2007 11:33:38 AM
I love how it was "I won't give up my blackberry"... but now it's "...not business ready".
Next it's going to be "I'm just going to try it for a bit."
That blackberry is going to feel very lonely.
Posted by: rick | Jun 27, 2007 11:41:24 AM
Guys - check out the keyboard demo from apple's site - it's a short 101 video that shows how intelligent the iphone's keyboard really is.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/keyboard_medium.html
Posted by: Marc | Jun 27, 2007 11:55:21 AM
"FYI, you may want to change 'iPod' to iPhone' in your first paragraph."
ditto- For a monemt there I thought they were going to give an insightful review of the iPod :)
Posted by: mike | Jun 27, 2007 12:28:39 PM
Yes! The iPhone is people ready! (Brilliant.)
Posted by: michael sippey | Jun 27, 2007 12:41:49 PM
iWantThis
Posted by: David | Jun 27, 2007 1:15:56 PM
The UI is the biggest question mark in the iPhone's future, and the keyboard, the most key driver of the adoption curve ... http://sramanamitra.com/blog/999
I still cannot imagine typing long blocks of text on this device, but if they have truly got this right ...
Posted by: Sramana Mitra | Jun 27, 2007 2:01:11 PM
Not related, but congrats on the comScore IPO pricing today. Another win for the old flatiron portfolio.
Posted by: Kyle S | Jun 27, 2007 2:03:00 PM
I'm also pretty confident in my choice of the curve over the iphone. It's really all about productivity.. I'm a thumb-typer (will have to re-watch the wallstrip shootout to see your style) and watching the demos and videos reinforces that it just wouldn't live up to the blackberry.
Also, there's an html email renderer for blackberry on crackberry.com's homepage today (maybe it's old, but I just discovered it). Not webkit perfect, but at least makes some of the goobly-gook legible.
Posted by: daryn | Jun 27, 2007 2:55:35 PM
"people ready"? really?
Posted by: Mark Collier | Jun 27, 2007 3:36:49 PM
i'd definitely love the Curve for $300 less than the iPhone *if* it had wifi.
Disclosure (since that's all the web 2.0 rage), I don't care about the phone at all really, I'm in this for the wifi iPod/internet appliance.
all the complaints about AT&T's sluggish network don't bother me because wifi is practically ubiquitous here (San Francisco).
I was in the AT&T store this morning porting my AT&T landline to an AT&T wireless acct in anticipation of the iPhone purchase, but I think I can hold out until at least Saturday before picking up the iPhone...
Posted by: Robert Seidman | Jun 27, 2007 4:01:33 PM
The iPhone is definitely a flawed device. To wit,
Unfortunately, the iPhone:
1) will not cure the heartbreak of Psoriasis (sorry)
2) will not beam you up to the Enterprise (although Scottie is working hard on this)
3) will not have a Taser or Mace attachment (if v2 does, all NYPD police will have one as standard issue)
4) will not cure your smoking, drinking, Crachberry or prescription drug addiction (but may act as a surrogate for said conditions)
5) will not be a replacement for Viagra or Levitra (but you won't have to worry about priapism)
6) will not allow you to get the woman/man of your dreams (however, I might be wrong about this one )
7) will not predict the winner of the 5th at Belmont this saturday (but you will be able to get the race results after it's run)
8) does not have a Harry Potter-esque "Time Turner" (Apple did consult with JK Rowling but she would not divulge its secrets)
9) will not replace a flux capacitor (although Dr. Emmit Brown is rumored to be working hard on this)
10) will not have a light saber attachment (but the Force will definitely be with you!)
Posted by: Leo | Jun 27, 2007 5:52:16 PM
I've read you need a plan in order to unlock all the iPhone's features - including the music player. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/total-iphone-2-year-costs-charts-details/
Posted by: NICCAI | Jun 27, 2007 6:41:57 PM
Glad you posted David Pogue's video, as did I. I love his videos and if you like this one I highly recommend browsing others on the Times site. Just go to http://video.on.nytimes.com/
and put pogue in the search box.
By the way, the Times uses Feedroom and not Brightcove. I think the number of YouTube views is not surprising and that the biggest issue is the embedding, more than simply being on YouTube. This validates the model of Wallstrip -- build the sponsorship into the content and then let it go. Pre-roll sucks and I think MySpace is making the pre-roll mistake. See VideoEgg for good alternatives to pre-roll.
Posted by: Michael | Jun 28, 2007 1:42:57 PM
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