Into the Walled Garden
I know the title doesn't sound like that of an iPhone review but the iOS experience really is a walled garden of sorts. The reason for this is largely because Apple plays a large role in deciding how their devices should an shouldn't be used. This isn't a new concept. AOL did it in their hay-day. They started their business with revenue-sharing agreements with specific information providers in their subscriber-only space. Facebook does it too, requiring you to login to their site before you can view profiles, play games, etc.
This isn't to say that a walled garden approach is particularly bad. In the case of Apple, it's actually pretty good. If you want to do something with your phone that Apple decides shouldn't be done with it, tough cookies. However, for most intents and purposes, the iPhone just works and works great.
As I'd mentioned in a previous post, I'd been eagerly awaiting the day when my Sprint contract was due to expire and I could jump ship to Verizon, plus get a new phone. In the same previous post, I'd mentioned that I was going to get the iPhone 5 and if I didn't like it, my second-fiddle choice would've been a Droid Razr HD Maxx. Within a couple days and I was already liking the iPhone very much.
I'm certainly no particular lover of Apple products. I did a lot of research and really just wanted something that worked. I needed something easy to use because, while I'm not shy to technology, I don't necessarily want to compile all of my mobile apps from source and code my own wifi drivers. Despite the overall age of iOS itself, I'm pretty impressed by some of it's features so far, particularly iMessage. iOS has proven to be reasonably intuitive and easy to use. My girlfriend got the 5 also. With no help from me, she's connected it to our wifi, setup her email, seemingly downloaded all hundred billion apps in the app store and has been using the device trouble free from day 1.
Let's start with the hardware. I haven't verified the exact figures for myself but the 5 is noticeably lighter and thinner. Supposedly the construction of the 4" glass touchscreen is different but new manufacturing techniques haven't changed the way the screen operates. Around back, the camera is still the same 8mp camera with auto-focus but features a lens made of crystal rather than glass this time around. Still around back, the 5 is mostly aluminum rather than all glass. The only glass on the back are small strips at the top and bottom. The edges are still the same as before but are color-matched this time as opposed to the silver brushed-look. They're also as wide as the whole device unlike the 4/4S where there was a notable lip between the aluminum edge and the front/rear glass panels. Overall, the 5 feels great in the hand and definitely feels like a flagship device should: Understated Sexiness.
My biggest worry about getting the iPhone wasn't that it was an Apple device. While I'd never owned an iPhone before or even any iPod/iPod touch device previously, I'd spent enough seat time helping others use one that I'd gradually learned a thing or two about them. Hell, I was a pro at setting up email and wifi connections on one before ever even considering getting one for myself. No; My biggest worry was the battery life. My Pre had terrible battery life. I couldn't go more than 6 hours without having to charge it for a 3 to 4 more just to get it back up to fully charged. The Evo's battery was more robust but on a normal day, it'd need more juice after 9 hours of mixed use. On a normal day of use at work, I'm at between 50% and 60% battery life left by the time I make it home, which is after 11-12 hours of mixed use. Being tech-savvy, I know how to keep every app from using the GPS, how to enable auto-brightness, etc. I've made all of the normal battery-saving settings one would normally make but they seem to go a long way on the 5. I'm very happy about this considering the original spec of a skimpy 1400 ma/hr battery definitely concerned me.
iMessage is great, particularly if the people you're talking to with it have iPhones or Mac devices as well. My girlfriend and everyone in her family save for her parents and one lone nephew who loves his Nokia Lumia 900, have iPhones and iPads. For me, my parents and roughly half of my friends are rocking Android devices of some flavor so iMessage is just the app I use for texting them. It's just like texting from any other smartphone. The keyboard is fine to get used to and I haven't had too many mistakes. I became very acquainted with an on-screen keyboard with my Evo. The faster and easier typing made up for the lack of accuracy that comes from a good hardware keyboard (like those on the later Palm devices).
Speaking of the keyboard, iOS has the best autocorrect I've experienced on a smartphone. On the Pre or the Evo, autocorrect would often either not have any suggestions or would offer up strange words. On my Evo, it literally changed the word "snack" into the word "anal". My boss did not appreciate that email about me getting something to anal on. Thanks Android. On my previous devices, if I accidentally hit B or V rather than the spacebar it would turn something like "homebsoon" into "Giraffes". On my iPhone, it's intelligent enough to fix mistakes like that and has accurately corrected those types of mistakes every time thus far. It's a little thing but I love it so much.
Setting up the device takes some time but it's no fault of the 5 or iOS itself. It's mostly because most of the apps you're likely to download first will be the ones that interface with services you probably already use. Facebook, Netflix, Hulu+, Pandora, Fandango, Evernote, each and every Google service.... installing other apps you might like such as an RSS reader, Angry Birds, NPR, Alien Blue (if you're a Redditor)... getting other features of the phone to act how you like such as choosing each app's notification properties... None of it is hard at all; It's just a million simple steps. For the apps that don't have their properties in Settings, the app might have it's own settings hidden somewhere within itself.
Once setup and tweaked the way you like it, it's super easy to use and just seems to work without any fuss. I can go from playing games to writing an email to making a grocery list to asking Siri something stupid and all very quickly. Phone calls work as great as great as any other phone. Texting is just as good as ever was, though appreciably better with iMessage for other iOS/OS-X users. Buying music and content works fine through iTunes though I've noticed that Amazon MP3 seems to have better prices. Watching videos is as great as watching videos on a 4" screen will ever be. The camera works great as well, though the pictures taken with it tend to look slightly washed out and boring. The default Camera app has some very rudimentary editing available on the device but you'll want to look into something like Camera+ for more robust editing features.
In general, I have some of the features I was used to with my Evo that I haven't had in a while. On the other hand, most of those features are simply better and easier to use with the iPhone 5. I'd really built up the 5 in my head and I think that most of that was just simply based on getting a new phone. It took me a couple days but I've come to realize that the iPhone is still only a smartphone; It's just a really great smartphone.
I can't comment on the durability of the iPhone 5. Despite feeling so light initially, it still has just barely enough heft to it so you know it's a real phone. I also put mine in a pre-purchased Otterbox Commuter case prior to even leaving the Verizon store. On top of that, I haven't dropped it yet. After years of working in a grocery store (working with glass jars and such), I've developed a reflex of stopping dropped/knocked objects with my foot before they hit the ground. That's how both my Pre and Evo survived many drops (and I didn't have a case or even a screen protector for either of them. You definitely tell both have seen some miles (especially the Pre)).
If you've already got an older iPhone and are looking to get the 5, it's an obvious upgrade. Get it, you'll love it, end of story. If you're an avid Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone user then there's not a lot that the iPhone will do that other high-end devices will do with those platforms. There's a new flagship Android device being released every week, Blackberry just double-downed on their new platform and Windows Phone has a lot of good things going for it.
My new iPhone may be a walled garden but I can't see any of them. There was an app for that.
This isn't to say that a walled garden approach is particularly bad. In the case of Apple, it's actually pretty good. If you want to do something with your phone that Apple decides shouldn't be done with it, tough cookies. However, for most intents and purposes, the iPhone just works and works great.
As I'd mentioned in a previous post, I'd been eagerly awaiting the day when my Sprint contract was due to expire and I could jump ship to Verizon, plus get a new phone. In the same previous post, I'd mentioned that I was going to get the iPhone 5 and if I didn't like it, my second-fiddle choice would've been a Droid Razr HD Maxx. Within a couple days and I was already liking the iPhone very much.
I'm certainly no particular lover of Apple products. I did a lot of research and really just wanted something that worked. I needed something easy to use because, while I'm not shy to technology, I don't necessarily want to compile all of my mobile apps from source and code my own wifi drivers. Despite the overall age of iOS itself, I'm pretty impressed by some of it's features so far, particularly iMessage. iOS has proven to be reasonably intuitive and easy to use. My girlfriend got the 5 also. With no help from me, she's connected it to our wifi, setup her email, seemingly downloaded all hundred billion apps in the app store and has been using the device trouble free from day 1.
Let's start with the hardware. I haven't verified the exact figures for myself but the 5 is noticeably lighter and thinner. Supposedly the construction of the 4" glass touchscreen is different but new manufacturing techniques haven't changed the way the screen operates. Around back, the camera is still the same 8mp camera with auto-focus but features a lens made of crystal rather than glass this time around. Still around back, the 5 is mostly aluminum rather than all glass. The only glass on the back are small strips at the top and bottom. The edges are still the same as before but are color-matched this time as opposed to the silver brushed-look. They're also as wide as the whole device unlike the 4/4S where there was a notable lip between the aluminum edge and the front/rear glass panels. Overall, the 5 feels great in the hand and definitely feels like a flagship device should: Understated Sexiness.
My biggest worry about getting the iPhone wasn't that it was an Apple device. While I'd never owned an iPhone before or even any iPod/iPod touch device previously, I'd spent enough seat time helping others use one that I'd gradually learned a thing or two about them. Hell, I was a pro at setting up email and wifi connections on one before ever even considering getting one for myself. No; My biggest worry was the battery life. My Pre had terrible battery life. I couldn't go more than 6 hours without having to charge it for a 3 to 4 more just to get it back up to fully charged. The Evo's battery was more robust but on a normal day, it'd need more juice after 9 hours of mixed use. On a normal day of use at work, I'm at between 50% and 60% battery life left by the time I make it home, which is after 11-12 hours of mixed use. Being tech-savvy, I know how to keep every app from using the GPS, how to enable auto-brightness, etc. I've made all of the normal battery-saving settings one would normally make but they seem to go a long way on the 5. I'm very happy about this considering the original spec of a skimpy 1400 ma/hr battery definitely concerned me.
iMessage is great, particularly if the people you're talking to with it have iPhones or Mac devices as well. My girlfriend and everyone in her family save for her parents and one lone nephew who loves his Nokia Lumia 900, have iPhones and iPads. For me, my parents and roughly half of my friends are rocking Android devices of some flavor so iMessage is just the app I use for texting them. It's just like texting from any other smartphone. The keyboard is fine to get used to and I haven't had too many mistakes. I became very acquainted with an on-screen keyboard with my Evo. The faster and easier typing made up for the lack of accuracy that comes from a good hardware keyboard (like those on the later Palm devices).
Speaking of the keyboard, iOS has the best autocorrect I've experienced on a smartphone. On the Pre or the Evo, autocorrect would often either not have any suggestions or would offer up strange words. On my Evo, it literally changed the word "snack" into the word "anal". My boss did not appreciate that email about me getting something to anal on. Thanks Android. On my previous devices, if I accidentally hit B or V rather than the spacebar it would turn something like "homebsoon" into "Giraffes". On my iPhone, it's intelligent enough to fix mistakes like that and has accurately corrected those types of mistakes every time thus far. It's a little thing but I love it so much.
Setting up the device takes some time but it's no fault of the 5 or iOS itself. It's mostly because most of the apps you're likely to download first will be the ones that interface with services you probably already use. Facebook, Netflix, Hulu+, Pandora, Fandango, Evernote, each and every Google service.... installing other apps you might like such as an RSS reader, Angry Birds, NPR, Alien Blue (if you're a Redditor)... getting other features of the phone to act how you like such as choosing each app's notification properties... None of it is hard at all; It's just a million simple steps. For the apps that don't have their properties in Settings, the app might have it's own settings hidden somewhere within itself.
Once setup and tweaked the way you like it, it's super easy to use and just seems to work without any fuss. I can go from playing games to writing an email to making a grocery list to asking Siri something stupid and all very quickly. Phone calls work as great as great as any other phone. Texting is just as good as ever was, though appreciably better with iMessage for other iOS/OS-X users. Buying music and content works fine through iTunes though I've noticed that Amazon MP3 seems to have better prices. Watching videos is as great as watching videos on a 4" screen will ever be. The camera works great as well, though the pictures taken with it tend to look slightly washed out and boring. The default Camera app has some very rudimentary editing available on the device but you'll want to look into something like Camera+ for more robust editing features.
In general, I have some of the features I was used to with my Evo that I haven't had in a while. On the other hand, most of those features are simply better and easier to use with the iPhone 5. I'd really built up the 5 in my head and I think that most of that was just simply based on getting a new phone. It took me a couple days but I've come to realize that the iPhone is still only a smartphone; It's just a really great smartphone.
I can't comment on the durability of the iPhone 5. Despite feeling so light initially, it still has just barely enough heft to it so you know it's a real phone. I also put mine in a pre-purchased Otterbox Commuter case prior to even leaving the Verizon store. On top of that, I haven't dropped it yet. After years of working in a grocery store (working with glass jars and such), I've developed a reflex of stopping dropped/knocked objects with my foot before they hit the ground. That's how both my Pre and Evo survived many drops (and I didn't have a case or even a screen protector for either of them. You definitely tell both have seen some miles (especially the Pre)).
If you've already got an older iPhone and are looking to get the 5, it's an obvious upgrade. Get it, you'll love it, end of story. If you're an avid Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone user then there's not a lot that the iPhone will do that other high-end devices will do with those platforms. There's a new flagship Android device being released every week, Blackberry just double-downed on their new platform and Windows Phone has a lot of good things going for it.
My new iPhone may be a walled garden but I can't see any of them. There was an app for that.
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