I've had my iPhone for a week now and am amazed by how much it has changed the way I use a mobile device. My Blackberry was all work: I used it for email and to read stories on Arsenal. (Yes, that counts as work these days.) The iPhone is much different. There is so much to do with it. I find that I use it far more, but for less drudgery and more fun.
A bit like how I use my Mac.
I thought I'd compile a list of the five best things about the iPhone, and the five worst. It's not a perfect device by any means. It's interesting to see that some of the iPhone's greatest strengths pave the way for its greatest weaknesses.
But first, the good:
- The typing on the iPhone is lightning fast. I never would have guessed this, but it's true. I was pretty fast on my Blackberry 8700 and then 8800, but I'm at least 25 percent faster on the iPhone. I worried about the lack of tactile feedback, but the iPhone gives visual feedback (the key you're about to hit enlarges to meet your finger) which is arguably superior. In addition, it's very, very smart about correcting misspellings. Often I'll keep typing, even when I know I made a mistake, because I know the iPhone's software will correct my mistake for me. It usually does.
... Read more
This hack on open source from John Dvorak is just that: a hack. One intended to get page views. By linking to it I assist him in his quest, I suppose, but I do think his post serves as a reminder that open source needs to continue to improve its ease of use.
But see, there I go: like Dvorak's system administrator (who actually wrote the piece below), I'm treating all open-source software under a blanket description and all Windows software under its own blanket description. The truth is far more complicated: some open-source software stinks, and some open-source software is manna from heaven. (Handbrake is so easy to use that even Dvorak's system administrator could use it.)
Still, there's some truth to what he says as it relates to community-developed software:
My theory is that when people use VI it lowers their standards as to what good software should look like and causes their minds to physically alter in a way that leads to VI syndrome leading to delusions that their little piece of [expletive] software is the greatest program in the world and that they are just so superior to Microsoft that it?s just a matter of days before Microsoft collapses and everyone accepts Linux as God.
... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
