Work bought me a 4S to replace my ageing blackberry curve and the last time I sat down with an iPhone and checked the features out was pretty much an original iPhone way back in the day when I was still WinMo 6.5.
I was expecting to see a lot of new features added into the iPhone as its still the Market leader in the US and has very high market share. To my surprise iOS mobile hasn't moved on and Apple haven't really added anything useful or helpful.
Here is a list of my main gripes with using it as a work phone/smartphone for email:
1.No widgets for emails and non customisable email notifications.
2.No way of stopping notifications for emails from making noises at night without turning the whole phone onto silent mode. I want to be able to not be notified of emails between 8pm and 7am but still be rung 24-7.
3.No easy way of turning WIFI on an OFF as its 6 buttons presses to get to the WIFI settings.
4.All applications have their settings (if they have any) under the "settings" app so you need to exit the application to change its features rather than clicking the menu button inside of the app.
5.The keyboard is hard to use as the numerical keys are on another page and you require a lot of extra key presses and more time to type out passworkds and emails. Further more if you are entering a number and press space (Like you would with a telephone number or postcode) it defaults back to the alpha keyboard. Also your password for the app store etc required both alpha and numerical chars so a lot of key presses extra there. NO WAY OF GETTING A NEW KEYBOARD.
6.The email APP is horrible and if you have auto filtering turned on from outlook into different folders the email application looses your email and it doesnt make it clear what folder its in.
7.I cant hide Newsstand or put it out the way in another folder.
8.Downloading an APP causes you to leave the market and return to your home screen rather than leaving you where you are to DL more.
9.No proper file management.
10.Cant use it to stores files or as a flash drive.
11.Not plug and play with PC.
12.Has a non standard USB connector so I need to carry around extra cable now when travelling.
13.You have to use ITunes to get any media onto the phone and it converts everything.
14.You cant sent pictures via bluetooth to it from other phones.
15.Tethering doesn't work properly.
I will add more when I think of them...
On the flip side:
1.SIRI makes me laugh as when you swear at it it says "NOW, NOW" etc.
2.You can now use chrome on it where you couldn't before.
Several of those can be solved with Apps.
You can get other email applications I believe.
If you want flash then you d/l the free 'Puffin Browser' app
I use MediaMonkey (free) and not Itunes. It won't convert any files like itunes does and you can just drag and drop to and from the iphone to your hearts content.
Don't forget to double click the home button to use multiple apps so you can change settings without having to close the one you're in.
There's another standalone keyboard app if desired.
Link it to dropbox or documenttogo to have files stored on there.
The genius of iPhone is that they created a phone and an operating system that works for a very large number of people. As so many people own and love the iPhone they obviously have a great experience with the phone. However if the Apple way doesn't fit with a user then it tends to miss my a country mile and the user experience is dreadful. I fall into the latter camp. For me it does nothing the way I want to do things, it stops me using the phone in a way that's obvious and intuitive for me and for the few weeks I messed about with an iPhone 3S it was a horrible experience, for most of the reasons you listed. I guess that's why it polarises opinion so much.
I prefer this kind (http://lamejournal.com/) of IOS, although I have yet to see them make a decent mobile phone. Site linked courtesy of our north american member, dMw Tugs (http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/member.php?90-tugs).
Quote from: TeaLeaf;357069I prefer this kind (http://lamejournal.com/) of IOS, although I have yet to see them make a decent mobile phone. Site linked courtesy of our north american member, dMw Tugs (http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/member.php?90-tugs).
Now thats a proper IOS... That works!
My boss handed me a IPad 3, with the message: figure this cr** out..
And have yet to find out how it could make my life easier or even better in any way.
Im getting furious with the autocorrect!!!
A friend lent me his iphone so I could send a text message. Even sober I can't use it easily, the screen is too narrow to fit on a sensible keyboard now that I've moved to a 4" phone it made my thumbs feel huge. The autocorrect wasn't great either. When I'm black out drunk I can send coherent messages from my phone. I know a lot of that is because I'm used to it, but it just felt harder than it should have been. Same with navigation, no back button? You have to keep moving your thumb to the top of the screen. Generally in android there are no precise movements at the top of the screen. You slide down the notifications bar and all action takes place in the middle or though the buttons which are always in the same place.
Everything seems really straightforward on Android for me. There are plenty of apps and phone designs to allow for personalisation. The problem with Apple is if they pick something outdated, like the small screen or the dock connector they can't change it for 2 years. Whereas in the mean time everyone else has upgrades their phone and has nice big screens and can charge their phone anywhere using a micro USB charger which every house these days has (like the old nokia chargers). I'm sure the iphone 5 will sell well, but I'm equally sure that long term iphones will fade into the background with 10% or so of the market share as there is less and less to distinguish them and they begin to be a year or two behind the competition they won't seem so great.