tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2009-05-12 01:12 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2009-05-12 01:12 pm
Entry tags:
So I Has an iPhone
I've had the thing about three weeks now (it was a birthday present), so I feel I've had a little time to get to know it. I really like the iPhone itself – when it's handed to you, it Just Works (TM), it's intuitive and easy to pick up and use. Not that I actually use it as a phone, you understand (my old mobile wasn't so much a phone as Insurance, in case the car broke down or I had problems while out hiking). But as a music holder and Instant Internet Access Almost Anywhere, I am most fond of it :-)
1) The designer of Apple's website should be kicked thoroughly in the head, have the brain surgery, and then be kicked in the head again just to make sure they get the message.
When you find the part of the website that says, 'You will need drivername.exe to make your iPhone talk to a Windows PC', it would be really nice to have a link to the drivername.exe download. It would be almost as nice to be able to find drivername.exe by looking within the iPhone downloads menu, or typing 'driver' into the site search.
After half an hour of the SO and I both poking around the site without success, he gave up and asked a bulletin board of geeky friends with iPhones. Ah, said the geeks instantly, there is no Logic, there is only the following Magical Incantation – and they recited a series of about 10 increasingly unlikely-sounding menus to find the prize.
I appreciate that this is, in fact, all a deliberate ploy by Apple to make me think, 'Wouldn't it be so much easier if I just had a Mac?' What it actually makes me think is that I'd rather be kicked in the head and have brain surgery than ever own a Mac.
2) The designer of iTunes should be kicked thoroughly in the head etc etc
I originally stopped using iTunes to buy music about 4 years ago when Apple released the version that made it mandatory to install QuickTime. But now I had an iPhone – so I gritted my teeth, installed iTunes, and then went through every menu I could think of to stop it and the world's most hideous media player from trying to take over every aspect of my PC, and restored all my default players. It was inconvenient, but it can be done.
Then I wanted to download a free app to my iPhone. I cannot do so without entering my iTunes account info, to prove that I could pay for the thing that doesn't need to be paid for. I pout and enter my account info.
No, says the phone, you cannot have your app, because you have a British iTunes account and an American iPhone.
Fine, I say. I go back to the desktop, log into iTunes and go to update my account info with my US card details and billing address. Which seems reasonable until I get to the 'United Kingdom' part, which is set in stone, greyed out, no way to click on it, no drop down menu to change it. Once in the UK, always in the UK, according to Apple. (Afterwards, I recalled that I have heard this bitched about before, that you can't even move between the US and Canada without invalidating your iTunes access. Because clearly, the only possible reason anyone would ever want to move countries in a modern world would be because they are Teh Evil Pirates attempting to circumvent Apple's annoying regional protection crap.)
There is only one way to get around this, which is to create an entirely new iTunes account from scratch, with a different email address. Lucky I have more than one, isn't it?
3) I need to spring clean my PC more often.
Once iTunes is successfully installed and decontaminated and talking to the iPhone, iTunes will helpfully copy and convert all mp3s in the 'Music' folder to its own library and format. This was fast, efficient and supremely useful – and filled 12.6 GB of my iPhone, thus confirming yet again that the correct answer to 'And which size of hard drive would you like?' is always 'The biggest one.'
Driving to work with shuffle engaged, I found myself far too often thinking, 'What the hell is this and what was it doing in my computer?!' I have developed a very bad habit of uploading entire albums, then not getting around to deleting the tracks I don't like. (Who knew I had quite that much Apoptygma Berserk,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angstymcgoth?)
Three weeks later, working through the artists alphabetically, I am currently mid way through 'D' and have deleted 2.5G of unwanted and duplicate music, so that I can make space to start on the rest of my CD collection....
The Verdict
I like the iPhone. It's clever, and mostly practical, if still missing a few useful features like cut and paste. I love the screen, and the train-able keyboard (though I wish I could find an easier way to move the home icons between screens). It does take one evening of frustration that makes you want to beat your brains out against the wall to get the thing fully functional, but after that brief pain, it is All Good.
And I never, ever, ever want to own another piece of equipment made by the Evil Fruit.
1) The designer of Apple's website should be kicked thoroughly in the head, have the brain surgery, and then be kicked in the head again just to make sure they get the message.
When you find the part of the website that says, 'You will need drivername.exe to make your iPhone talk to a Windows PC', it would be really nice to have a link to the drivername.exe download. It would be almost as nice to be able to find drivername.exe by looking within the iPhone downloads menu, or typing 'driver' into the site search.
After half an hour of the SO and I both poking around the site without success, he gave up and asked a bulletin board of geeky friends with iPhones. Ah, said the geeks instantly, there is no Logic, there is only the following Magical Incantation – and they recited a series of about 10 increasingly unlikely-sounding menus to find the prize.
I appreciate that this is, in fact, all a deliberate ploy by Apple to make me think, 'Wouldn't it be so much easier if I just had a Mac?' What it actually makes me think is that I'd rather be kicked in the head and have brain surgery than ever own a Mac.
2) The designer of iTunes should be kicked thoroughly in the head etc etc
I originally stopped using iTunes to buy music about 4 years ago when Apple released the version that made it mandatory to install QuickTime. But now I had an iPhone – so I gritted my teeth, installed iTunes, and then went through every menu I could think of to stop it and the world's most hideous media player from trying to take over every aspect of my PC, and restored all my default players. It was inconvenient, but it can be done.
Then I wanted to download a free app to my iPhone. I cannot do so without entering my iTunes account info, to prove that I could pay for the thing that doesn't need to be paid for. I pout and enter my account info.
No, says the phone, you cannot have your app, because you have a British iTunes account and an American iPhone.
Fine, I say. I go back to the desktop, log into iTunes and go to update my account info with my US card details and billing address. Which seems reasonable until I get to the 'United Kingdom' part, which is set in stone, greyed out, no way to click on it, no drop down menu to change it. Once in the UK, always in the UK, according to Apple. (Afterwards, I recalled that I have heard this bitched about before, that you can't even move between the US and Canada without invalidating your iTunes access. Because clearly, the only possible reason anyone would ever want to move countries in a modern world would be because they are Teh Evil Pirates attempting to circumvent Apple's annoying regional protection crap.)
There is only one way to get around this, which is to create an entirely new iTunes account from scratch, with a different email address. Lucky I have more than one, isn't it?
3) I need to spring clean my PC more often.
Once iTunes is successfully installed and decontaminated and talking to the iPhone, iTunes will helpfully copy and convert all mp3s in the 'Music' folder to its own library and format. This was fast, efficient and supremely useful – and filled 12.6 GB of my iPhone, thus confirming yet again that the correct answer to 'And which size of hard drive would you like?' is always 'The biggest one.'
Driving to work with shuffle engaged, I found myself far too often thinking, 'What the hell is this and what was it doing in my computer?!' I have developed a very bad habit of uploading entire albums, then not getting around to deleting the tracks I don't like. (Who knew I had quite that much Apoptygma Berserk,
angstymcgoth?)Three weeks later, working through the artists alphabetically, I am currently mid way through 'D' and have deleted 2.5G of unwanted and duplicate music, so that I can make space to start on the rest of my CD collection....
The Verdict
I like the iPhone. It's clever, and mostly practical, if still missing a few useful features like cut and paste. I love the screen, and the train-able keyboard (though I wish I could find an easier way to move the home icons between screens). It does take one evening of frustration that makes you want to beat your brains out against the wall to get the thing fully functional, but after that brief pain, it is All Good.
And I never, ever, ever want to own another piece of equipment made by the Evil Fruit.