iPhone? Not My Phone.

It's slim and sleek and fits nicely in the hand. The icons are colorful, crisp and clear. It looks like a piece of art glass. It's the iPhone and many of my co-workers have purchased one. It's difficult to not want an iPhone. The screen resolution is impressive. Movies are incredibly clear. It's a work of Art meets Engineering meets Excellent Design. It has just one basic missing piece. For me, it's a fatal flaw.

I use my PalmOS handheld (Kyocera SmartPhone) primarily for making notes. I can use it to connect to the web. I can send and receive IM, email, or SMS messages. It's also a telephone. But, most of the time, I use it to make notes.

I write on it.

You can't write on the iPhone. Apple owns an impressive handwriting-recognition technology — once included in Newton, now included in Mac OS X — called Inkwell. Inkwell is not on the iPhone.

But that's not the worst part. Even if someone could port Ink or Graffiti, or a similar application to the iPhone, it would be difficult to use, because you cannot write on the iPhone.

The iPhone is not touch-sensitive. It's finger-sensitive. There's a big difference.

Press an icon (or a letter on the tiny on-screen keyboard) with your fingertip and magic happens. Press the same icon or letter with a stylus or your fingernail and... nothing.

I make notes. I don't want to use a dinky virtual keyboard whose keys are 1/3 the width of my fingertip. I want to use a "pen".

iPhone? Not My Phone. ( in category Computerware ) - posted at Fri, 06 Jul, 07:32 Pacific | «e»