Last night I was using my iPhone to browse the web on the train into London. Now I’ve done this since I owned my first web-enabled phone in 2001 so I know the experience is pretty poor due to the patchy network coverage. However, on this journey the iPhone hung completely, not even holding the power button would shut it down. After about 3 minutes, it turned off and restarted fine, but every single AppStore application I’d already downloaded would just crash. I wonder if I’m now a victim of the iPhone app crash bug?.
Before it crashed I was reading an article on news.com about rumours that Microsoft will launch an AppStore equivalent called SkyMarket (rubbish name IMO) for Windows Mobile sometime in the Autumn. This got me thinking: are the iPhones apps poorly written due to the developers lack of experience? Is it because Apple haven’t exposed enough of the iPhone’s system? If its the former I’m sure we will see similar issues plague applications in SkyMarket as its likely to draw more developers to Windows Mobile – especially as it has twice the market share as the iPhone at the moment.
Whilst I’d get a lot of satisfaction out of blending my iPhone, I still enjoy using the device.
I’m being objective by posting my experiences with the Windows SmartPhone I’ve had since December. This is the 4th Windows Smartphone I’ve had. The first one (the original Orange SPV) was an absolute nightmare, definitely a v1 device. However, we’re talking late 2001 here – and the device had an SD card slot, the ability to browse the web, a full media player capable of MP3, WAV, WMA and WMV (yes, it played video, quite well).
I like PDA-style phones far more than the candy-bar style – in fact the last two phones (Orange M1000 and HTC Tytn) I’ve bought myself and used the company SIM because they weren’t on the list of approved devices.
The TyTN II is a Windows Mobile 6 device with a full slide out QWERY keyboard which is really useful if you do as much email on it as I do. The screen is a bit too small, and performance is not brilliant, but on the whole its a good device. Battery life is good (2-3 days with push email enabled), the 3G signal is pretty reliable (more so than I’ve experienced with the iPhone – but thats on O2 and the TyTN II is on Orange so its unfair to compare them).
The touch-screen interface really does show its age compared to the iPhone (see my blog entry here and here). In fact, the interface is quite frustrating on occasion – having to page through menu after menu to find a function. The keys are all programmable; I’ve set mine up as shortcuts to the apps/features I use most. The Camera is surprisingly good quality (3 Megapixel) with better colour accuracy compared to the Tytn.
The most annoying thing about the device is the browser: Internet Explorer mobile is absolutely rubbish. I’ver installed Opera 9 beta which is far superior, but still nothing compared to Safari on the iPhone.
Compared to the iPhone, the TyTN II is has more features, is more reliable but nowehere near as user friendly or as nice to use.
I succumbed to the iPhones slick lines and lovely user interface last week, but just like my purchase of a Mac Mini last year, there are some warts under the glossy surface;
The touch-based user interface is a pleasure to use, but the ability to use the phone in landscape mode is only available in a few apps. E.g. If you’re browsing the web using Safari and come into range of a wireless network, the phone will swap back to portrait mode to ask you whether you want to connect to a network. Further, some of the screens lend themselves to working in landscape, but are locked to portrait. Contrast this to my Windows Mobile which allows all apps and user functions to work in landscape – but the iPhone UI is far nicer to use.
I’ve setup my iPhone to fetch email from my work server – which is does nicely. However I can see an obvious way to accept meeting requests which is pretty stupid (it might be me not seeing it).
There is no way to use the iPhone to connect a laptop to the internet. My Windows Mobile has internet connection sharing built-in, and I use it in hotels fairly often.
The AppStore is brilliant and I can’t work out why Nokia, Micorosft, Sony et al did not do the same for their phones years ago. Whilst there are thousands more applications for Windows Mobile, there is no central place to go an get them. Moreover, the experience is disjointed when you do find an app you want to buy: buy, download to PC, copy to phone, install. AppStore = buy and install all in one step.
26/8/8 Update
If you setup push email, the battery lasts <24 hours
If you setup syncronisation to occur every hour, the battery lasts <24 hours
A number of the apps crash with no error – just dumping you back into the home screen (WordPress and Cannon Game on mine)
28/8/8 Update
Last.fm released an app which lets you sign in and listen to music on the iPhone. I installed it and sign-in failed claiming my password was wrong. I used Safari to sign in on the iPhone – no problem, back to the app, still fails. Uninstalled & reinstalled – still the same. Poorly written apps like this could be a big downfall of the iPhone. For me, the shine is rapidly turning to a dull glow (its still nicer to use than my Windows Mobile tho).
I just saw an article and video showing off Microsoft Sphere – something a reseach team came up with. There has been a lot of investment in how humans interact with computers over the year, the most recent leap forward has been Apple successfully integrating touch into their iPhone. Microsoft and other have been working on similar ideas for quite some time (in fact I had a tablet PC which has the same concept as the iPhone) back in 2005, but in honesty the iPhone is more refined.
Anyway, check out the article here, or just watch the video I’ve embedded below;
I’m being objective by posting my experiences with the Windows SmartPhone I’ve had since December. This is the 4th Windows Smartphone I’ve had. The first one (the original Orange SPV) was an absolute nightmare, definitely a v1 device. However, we’re talking late 2001 here – and the device had an SD card slot, the ability to browse the web, a full media player capable of MP3, WAV, WMA and WMV (yes, it played video, quite well).