I may be the last person on the planet to 'discover' smartphones, but I assure you I had my reasons. Let me start out by telling you up front if you are an experienced smartphone/iPhone user you are surely not going to gleam a shred of helpful information out of this article. HOWEVER if you are like me, keep reading, it might save you some hassle!
What is this all about you ask? Simple. I just spent the better part of a day setting up, configuring, customizing, etc. my new iPhone 4, coming from a non-smartphone. Most of that could have been better spent had certain things been better explained or designed and this is an accounting of my experience with solutions, should anyone else happen upon it.
First a little background on me, lest you think I'm just some idiot rambling about how I couldn't figure out how to install iTunes (kidding). I was an IT Manager for a decade, quit years ago to follow my dream of being a full time commercial and wedding photographer, owning
BGPictures.com and
CigarObsession.com. Our household consists of a desktop PC, an uber desktop PC, a PC laptop, a Macbook, a couple iPhones and a smattering of gadgets and gizmos like AppleTV,Wii, etc. I have some very custom goings on such as a home made kaleidescape system utilizing a 4TB Drobo and the AppleTV, my main editing rig with 9TB of mixed RAID storage, all watercooled, etc. I know my way around technology to say the least.
All that being said, the iPhone experience left me with some strange looks, a lot of Google searches and then some expletives directed at Apple. This is going to be in no particular order, just as things come to mind, so my aim is that someone somewhere will save some hassle in going through the same thing!
Battery life. I chose the iPhone over all the other choices based on a select few points that are very important to me, as a business owner. First and foremost battery life. I use the crap out of my phone. Notice I said - PHONE. Yes I realize that the phone is probably the last part of this handheld computer people are concerned with these days but to me, that's what I need most. The iPhone has excellent battery life and has awesome call quality - not only on my end but on the client end as well. Especially the speakerphone! Using certain features of the phone has taught me what does and does not need to be used in certain situations to preserve that great battery life. I played around with navigation/GPS the first night. After a 1 hour drive, the battery had expired 25%! OK revelation #1 - to use the navigation/GPS for anything more than a spot check - the phone should be plugged in to a car charger.
