OK, my wife says I’m an early adapter. I try to be on the cutting edge of new technologies without crossing over into geekland, and yes, I now own a new iPhone 4…but I didn’t wait in line for two days to get it. I let FedEx deliver it to me (two days ahead of schedule) after being shipped from Shenzen, China. Now for the lowdown: this is one amazing piece of technology. It just feels good in your hand. I upgraded from my two-year old iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 4 is like a Audi R8 in comparison. Apps open much, much faster. You can switch between apps (multi-tasking) and return back to any open app exactly where you left off, meaning the app doesn’t have to relaunch each time you go to it.
The biggest app I’ve had on both of my iPhones is Navigon, a GPS travel planner. My wife says I’m “directionally challenged,” but not any more. On my 3G this app would take minutes just to open. Now it loads, finds my location and plots my travel route before I back out of my garage and reach the end of the driveway. Web pages load at the speed of a click. I’m not waiting minutes for news websites to download. Now it’s literally a matter of seconds. For more info, I suggest visiting http://www.apple.com/iphone/
The downside: it’s not the cheapest smartphone on the market, and you still have to get in bed with AT&T, my former employer, with a two-year contract. News stories and blogs will tell you of dropped calls from AT&T and antennae problems with the iPhone 4. Personally, I’ve had none of these problems, however, I will order a free case from Apple when they become available in a few days.
The funside: With the available 32GB capacity, I’m pulling many of my favorite CDs and loading up the iPhone 4 with tunes. My techno-son, Ian, had me cough up $0.99 for the Battleship app. You cannot believe the graphics and how good they look on the new iPhone 4 Retina screen. We linked our two phones (yes, he has one, too) and played Battleship wirelessly. Great fun. I won. And not only a great looking screen, the iPhone 4 is now upgraded to a 5-megapixel camera and can shoot hi def video. More on that and the $4.99 iMovie app for the new iPhone in my next blog.
