3 Reasons I Probably Won’t Buy an iPhone

I’m really wanting a new phone – my current one (SMT 5600) has been through a lot and it’s about time to upgrade.   One of the phones I’ve been considering is Apple’s new iPhone.  After doing quite a bit of research on the web, I don’t believe the iPhone is going to be my next phone for a few reasons:

  1. No integrated GPS If I’m going to pay $500+ for a new phone that has really nice mapping software like the iPhone, it’s sure as heck going to have GPS support.  Sure, the iPhone may eventually support assisted GPS (where it uses the cell towers to determine the location) and that may work out well, but for now, it doesn’t look like any form of GPS will be supported in the near future.

  2. No tactile QWERTY keyboard I type at a decent speed on a regular keyboard and I know that speed will be drastically reduced on a mobile device, but I just can’t imagine how the virtual keyboard will work on the iPhone.  Apple says it takes a week or so to get the hang of it and then you’ll be typing at a productive speed, but I’m not so sure.  I type fast by not looking at the keys and can “feel” when I hit the wrong key and I don’t think that will translate well to the iPhone.  I have no doubt that the virtual keyboard will be really nice compared to using the standard phone keypad for text entry, but I don’t think it’ll be quite as good as a Treo/Blackberry type keyboard.  Maybe I’m under-estimating Apple here, but from the blogs I’ve seen where people tried to use the iPhone, I don’t think I’m too far off.  I’m sure this won’t be a huge issue for people that just want to send quick text messages, but if you’re like me and want the ability to respond to e-mails or post to a blog etc., then this may be an issue.

  3. Closed API and no SDK I realize most people don’t care about this at all, but as a software developer, I see this is quite a big issue.  Apple has said that third-party applications will be allowed on the phone as widgets (meaning HTML/JavaScript code that runs inside of Safari in the case of the iPhone).  It’s possible that Apple will expose key parts of the iPhone’s OS through javascript, but I haven’t heard anyone mention it yet.  To me, this means that you’ll have a powerful UNIX-based phone that really doesn’t do anything more than show pretty web widgets unless Apple decides to create more “real” applications for the phone.  Just seems like a waste of hardware too have so much potential trapped inside there with no way to access it – but maybe the widget interface will turn out better than anyone can imagine.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So I went to see the new Fantastic Four movie – I hadn’t planned on seeing it since I wasn’t terribly thrilled with the first one.  I never read the comics, but I do know some of the FF storyline somehow (a cartoon maybe?  can’t remember…).  Anyway, a friend said he saw some reviews that said the movie was pretty good – so I decided to tag along.

The first hour or so wasn’t all that great.  It was almost entertaining, but not quite.  I think the little bit of the silver surfer story that I did know ruined this part for me – they spend so long trying to figure out what is going on that it just gets plain boring (not to mention the fact that it never really goes into detail about what IS going on…).  I would say this part of the movie was a little worse than Part 1.

The second half (more specifically, the last 20 or so minutes) was where the good stuff can be found.  I actually liked end quite a bit – much better than the first movie.  I won’t go into any details or anything, but it was entertaining.  I don’t know that it made up for the entire $8.50 I spent to see the movie, but it certainly helped.

If you’re a FF fan, then maybe you’ll love the movie.  If you’ve seen the other movies out right now, then might as well see this one too.  If you’re looking for the most entertainment bang for your buck, well, this probably isn’t the film for you.

Shrek the Third

I saw Shrek 3 this weekend – I wasn’t sure what it would be like…but lemme tell you, it’s good.  It was really funny – most of the humor was for the general audience, but there were the occasional parts that only the adults will get.  All in all, the storyline was decent enough – it’s more along the lines of the second movie instead of the first…basically expect more humor with a so-so story line.  There weren’t really any big surprises, but it was really entertaining.  I think my favorite part was when they meet the wizard (a close tie with some of Puss’ jokes).   If you liked Shrek 1 or 2, you owe it to yourself to see Shrek the Third.