Laurent’s blog

The iPhone is for play… the blackberry for work

The Setup

Let’s first and foremost spend a few seconds explaining the setup. I’m not a blackberry server or exchange user but still consider myself a business-user with heavy use of both voice and emails, not so much a mobile Internet user yet. Therefore, the “Exchange for the rest of us” seemed very appealing and having access to a viable mobile Internet looked like the killer-app.

It is by leaving behind the blackberry that you really discover its strength.

After a week of both play and work I’m now completely torn. The iPhone is a great toy, an ok communicator, and definitely not a good work tool.

Pretty things first

I love the fact that my emails and contacts are pretty and that safari can actually display all websites – except of course flash components. Using Unfuddle and Campfire on the go was especially a bliss, something I had never been able to do efficiently.

Over-the-air sync of contacts and calendar is a clear improvement from my previous cable-sync. Unfortunately, I relied too much on it too early and found myself twice with a contact missing an updated phone number. That was because of some sort of crash of MobileMe.

That’s unfortunately where the good side of the hyper-hyped device ends.

Essential tools missing

I hate the fact that I can’t search my inboxes or that emails are not pushed (forwarding through MobileMe does not count, sorry!). The automatic fetch of data, which is really another way to say “pull” can only be done every 15 minutes at most, far from the 3 minutes increment the Blackberry Internet Service provides. Can you really have a viable conversation during a work day in 15 minute increments?

To get discussions going, I used SMS most of last week as a replacement to emails.

A few other things are seriously lacking for productivity. I find myself waiting a lot, for the keyboard, for an application, for a window, for the data… the iPhone is not very responsive to say the least. It’s even scary when you compare it with the blackberry navigation. To make matters worse, the lack of multitasking means there’s no way to consult a document or a web page at the same time as writing an email or a blog post. And I’m not talking about the absence of copy and pasting! I seriously can’t believe that it is a low priority on Apple’s list.

For play, not for work

I’ve tried to use the iPhone for work and I’m very disappointed. Although Apple was synonymous with reliability, it’s definitely over. I’ve been experiencing regular crashes with mail, safari, 3rd party apps, MobileMe, sync server. I now expect a crash when opening an application, saving a draft, taking a picture or writing an email. It has the aftertaste of Windows. Very frustrating.

Also, the battery is horrendous. I’ve been charging it twice a day with 3G disabled (but not wifi). But, to the contrary of some overheard criticism, the keyboard is not bad at all, and aside from accented character – for French, someone can type quite fast with a bit of training. Both with one or two hands.

Unfortunately, I gave the pearl to my wife and she doesn’t want to give it back. One thing’s for sure, if the Bold or Thunder has a greatly improved browser with the same reliability as the other blackberry devices, I will change back the first chance I get! Unless Apple quickly introduces push notifications, copy-paste and far better stability.

To recap

Pros
- great UI, design
- great mobile Internet experience
- good keyboard
- good selection of 3rd party apps
- easy and straightforward app store
- OTA contact and calendar sync

Cons
- very poor battery life
- very poor stability
- no email push and no email search
- no selection, copy/paste, ctrl-Z
- no multi-tasking
- no message count on the locked-screen
- no iPhone IM (I really miss the blackberry messenger)