iPhone Break

July 21, 2007

Ok, I have had my iPhone for almost two weeks, time for an update. First, if you have an email account that supports IMAP, you really need to use IMAP for both your computer and your iPhone. Mail was of no real use to me until I did this. IMAP let's you create and use folders that are stored on your mail server- so you can keep some mail on the server and have access to it at all times. I set up all of my GTD related folders in IMAP, leaving the rest of my filed mail in Apple Mail on my MacBook Pro. This increased the usefulness of mail on my iPhone by an order of magnitude.

Safari on the iPhone is clearly version one. It quits on me frequently. Mind you, not as frequently as Netscape or Internet Explorer used to back in the day, but that ain't saying much. Still, my iPhone has definitely replaced my MacBook Pro as my casual surfing tool. For reading blogs and generally exploring the web for news and fun, it is a pleasure.

I am now a frequent user of SMS, something that before was limited to the occasional quick note. Twitter is largely responsible for this. I am now a twitter addict. It is a great excuse to get to know the keyboard.

The keyboard is still tripping me up. I am a pretty good touch typist, and learning to thumb type is difficult for me. A recent surprise was that I am better using the smaller version of the keyboard (the one you get with the screen in portrait) than the larger version. I think this is because the keys are closer, ironically.

I do not use the iPhone as an iPod much, mostly for podcasts. But today I was trying to listen to some Talking Heads and the iPod function just plain quit on me, twice. I have found that when this happens with Safari, it is best to turn the iPhone off and back on (reboot). This seems to cure the quits for both Safari and the iPod application.

Overall, I am far more pleased with iPhone than I expected. The keyboard is my greatest challenge, and I am eagerly anticipating the day when I finally "get it."