iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part I

I bought my iPhone two months ago today, moving from a Treo 700p on Sprint. While there have been numerous posts describing likes, dislikes, and wanna haves, the majority of these have been from the perspective describing the ultimate portable computing platform. My perspective is somewhat different: I never used the Treo as a true portable computing device. I did use it as a convenient communications and storage device and as an extension of my office. My iPhone is being used as an extension of my home computer, my office computer, and my University teaching computer.

With that background, how has the iPhone stacked up? First, let's look at it by application.

SMS: I'm not a kid and frankly I don't use SMS that much. My main use on the Treo was SMS messaging to Google for directions, area code locations, weather, and similar information. Most if this has been replaced with the built-in Google maps application and the ease of use of Safari. Therefore, in two month's use, I've sent maybe three SMS messages. That is a lot of discussion to enhance this capability (such as adding MMS), but frankly, I probably wouldn't use it that much if it were there.

Calendar: I lived by my calendar on my Treo and this is probably the second most used application on my iPhone. As a general schedule keeper, the iPhone is easily the match of a Treo. I especially like the capability to set two alerts for a single appointment. Setting appointments is as easy as the Treo and the touch interface makes setting up and finding appointments a breeze.

The Treo's Todo list was not integrated with the calendar and therefore I didn't use it. The iPhone doesn't have a Todo capability, and therefore I find myself using the same workaround--my todos are listed as "all day" events. The real problem is moving todos not accomplished to the next day; it must be done manually, the same as with a Treo.

Apple, if I have one recommendation for the calendar application, add a category of appointment called "Todo," allow it to be shown with regular calendar appointments, allow the option of checking a box allowing them to automatically roll forward on the calendar, and provide a check box that will flag them as done (and show them as done on the calendar). A nice to have would be the capability to set and list todos by priority, but this is nowhere near a critical capability.

Add a button for "Year" that will display a rolling 12-month calendar. I find myself looking forward 6 months, a year, or more and moving forward a month at a time is a pain. The Treo had this capability and it was a nice touch.

Make the notes "smart" so that a phone number entered in the notes field is recognized as such and will display as a hyperlink that will dial the number when touched. The same functionality should be provided for email addresses and Web addresses. This would reduce much (not all) of the need for a cut-and-paste capability. When I set an appointment for a phone conference, I put the phone number in the location field or the notes field. Memorizing the number so I can move to the phone application is difficult at best.

I will be publishing my thoughts on the next two applications on the top row in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any comments or additional suggestions for Apple, let me know.

Walter W. Casey, Ph.D.
Sent from my iPhone