I confess, I own an iPhone. I am an Apple gadget obsessive. My desire for an iPhone was so great that I even signed myself into a contract with O2, while I was still committed to a contract with Three.
So, for the last two months I have been paying off two mobile phone contracts. "What an idiot," I hear you say. Yes, I guess I've never been the most financially astute squirrel in the tree but that's what desire does for you.
I'll tell you one thing though, for all those moaning iPhone haters out there, it's so much more than it advertises. It's so much more than a Phone, and an iPod. And with its sleek black shiny surface (or silver if you have the older model) I can tell you right now - once you've had black, you'll never go back. I couldn't ever use another phone now and I'm going to tell you why shortly but first let's look at the downsides to this little gadget. As a camera phone goes, you would expect a hefty rate of pixel quality from the iPhone. Sadly this is not the case. A measly 2 megapixel camera is all that it can offer and with no special settings, it really does define the term "point and shoot."
Whilst they made a big thing of the new 3G model, it's not possible to video call to another phone. The Bluetooth function is only available when using a Bluetooth headset, that is of course Apple approved. This of course means that those who are obsessed with getting the latest Basshunter ringtone off your friends (you know who you are), the iPhone won't allow you to have this. As for the texting facility, you can't forward messages and you can't send one message to your entire contact list in one simple action. I found this out when I bought the handset and needed to let my contacts know that I had changed my number. So I spent the best part of my weekend, adding every single contact one by one as a recipient of the text message I was sending. The Safari internet browser has a massive flaw in that it doesn't support Flash. This renders a large percentage of Internet sites useless on an iPhone. External Storage on mobile phones is becoming increasingly common these days so, naturally, unlike the iPod the iPhone does not double as a flash drive for those important PDFs that you need to view on the go.
Sounds rather rubbish compared to some of the high end handsets on the market, wouldn't you say? Well, I hope you do because I feel part of an elite club at the moment. I don't want to hear a happy hardcore ringtone, then watch some uneducated minion whip out the iPhone and start tapping at the screen whilst spitting his undigested cornflakes over himself as he talks (believe me – you see this on trains, a bugbear of my life that I'll discuss next time.) Now I will share with you why all those negative points I mentioned don't matter one single bit.
So the camera quality is poor, fair enough. But have you ever seen a photo on an iPhone? With its 3.5 inch screen and high clarity, any photo you take looks fantastic and easily comparable to a Sony Cybershot cameraphone. But really, all squabbling aside if you want to be David Bailey, then buy a frickin' SLR camera and don't rely on a phone. Who actually takes photos on a phone and prints them out anyway? They stay in the phone and at very best, get uploaded to MyFace or SpaceBook. As for video calling, when did you ever see anyone in the middle of a video call? Never.
Now lets finish off the argument: Bluetooth, Ringtones and external hard drives? Ha! The App Store is the way forward. As we speak, 'Apps' (can you guess what it's short for?) are being churned out into the public domain, some are free and some you pay small amounts for. These little Apps, are getting round all the negative points of the iPhone. For example, it's now possible to use the handset as an external hard drive, thanks to WiFi file transfer programs like Discover. Simply enter the unique IP address that the App gives you into your Internet browser, drag and drop your files and your away.
With more Apps appearing every day, the potential is limitless. How many phones d you know of that could let you take a call from Santa Claus? yes, that big jolly dude with the beard. Well I can say the iPhone does - and did. Last week, during a late evening visit to my parents' house, my Mum told me my niece and nephew were upstairs in bed.
Being the good uncle that I am, I nipped up to see them. They weren't asleep, my niece (who is 8) was upset because she missed her Daddy (who had taken the evening off with her Mummy to see Coldplay at the NEC Arena!). "What can I do to cheer her up?" I thought to myself.
"Talk of Christmas always works," so I quizzed them about their wishlists to Santa. No joy, I forgot that the kids of today seem to think of Santa as a fraudster. My niece told me that he didn't exist, but I knew deep down that she wanted to believe. I made her a bet there and then - if I could get Santa to call my phone then they had to cheer up and go to sleep.
Ten minutes later I returned. With my phone on the bedside table in clear view, my nephew asked me if Santa was going to call. I had thirty seconds to waste so I told them that I tried but that he was too busy. A smug "I told you so" expression appeared on their faces, and right on cue the iPhone sprang into life and Santa's picture appeared on my screen! The children jumped with excitement as they read who was calling and now I was the smug looking one. I spoke on the phone with Santa for a few minutes, dropping their names into the conversation every so often. Needless to say, the Fake Call app for the iPhone has restored my niece's belief in the spirit of Santa Claus for another year!