I hate the iPhone... my $1000 project

I know, this admission is like branding myself with a scarlet letter but I'm going to forge on with my blog posting, yes MY blog posting LOL.

"Why do I hate it"? you might ask, or better yet, "why did you purchase it"? Well I didn't know I'd be stepping back into the dark ages with such a modern device. I thought I had done my due diligence, waited a few years for the bugs to be worked out of the first generation models, done my homework/research and then.... utter and total disappointment.

For starters: Cut, copy and paste is just now arriving for the iPhone? Are you serious? and iPhone freaks are ecstatic with this revelation? I'm glad I waited. Then I've gone back in time with no MMS features, but this is AT&T's fault. I'll register my complaint again today with their customer service...see I can talk to them for free from my iPhone so I take full advantage of testing out some of my features and calling them on their nickel to test them. All of their other phones do MMS, why not the iPhone, but of course they are figuring new ways to charge iPhone because they see $$$$ instead of customers. Ooh and while I'm ragging on AT&T, whats the deal with 3G. Either let us have it, or not. My phone can be in the same place, and every hour, for a portion of that hour, no 3G service available, then it pops back with an oddly regular schedule.

Back to my hatred, and believe me I'm trying to work it out. My number 1 complaint is the need to transfer contacts. I'm sorry but the iPHONE is a phone and as such, should be able to seamlessly convert contact information between it and other mobile devices. Some say AT&T should make that happen to which I reply whatever. BOTH have failed me. I guess its my fault, I'm coming from a Palm OS environment where I used every feature available to me. My contact list has become a massive database, unfortunately including many fields other programs such as Outlook, Google and Yahoo don't know what to do with the format. Bottom line I'm stuck doing 1000+ contacts by hand in a format Rotten Apple can comprehend. I have gained one thing though.... now I have my contacts in a universal format, stored in a couple of places, backed up on my external harddrive and should I EVER have to move them again... I'm ready!

I'm used to a great many fancy applications on my Palm Centro, the most used has been my ringtone maker. To think iTunes wants a piece of this lucrative market is to be expected but I'm not willing to shell out money for ringtones when I have to assign ring tones by PERSON not by group. Come on its 2009 already. Groups in contacts is supposed to be a convenient way of lumping commonalities together. I'm used to identifying the group/person by their ringtone and to go though the afore mentioned 1000+ contacts one by one assigning them a ringtone is preposterous. But what do I expect, iPhone just received contacts with the 3.0 Operating System upgrade.

I'll talk about the battery issue and then I'll shut up for today. I reserve the right to complain loudly and with passion in a later blog. All of the "bells and whistles" of the iPhone come with a heavy price. If I have 3G on, and I'm not in a 3G location, the phone whirls endlessly trying to make a connection, thankfully it reverts to the Edge network so I can at least communicate. During its mindless whirl, it gulps battery life. If the bluetooth is on, when its not in use, battery life is gulped. If Location Services are on, you got it, battery life is gulped. In 2009, I need to wear the charger cord around my neck like a necklace. You never know when I might need to make a PHONE call. (Said with biting sarcasm.)


OOh and why is $1000.00 in the subject line? Well I wonder how much its going to cost me to get my iPhone to mimic my beloved PDA... So far I have only the cost of the phone, but I've been too busy fighting with my contacts to get heavily involved in the App store... Stay tuned though, I"ll report on my progress.