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So yeah, the iPhone is pretty, but what’s the big deal. The only thing i like is the big button on the UI. My requirements are pretty specific:
The iPhone meets most of those requirements. So why won’t i buy one? Read on for more! |
touch screen
Yes, the iPhone has a big, shiny screen. Yes, it is a touch screen. even multi touch, which is pretty neat. But no buttons? the hard buttons on my phone are life savers. one physical button to answer the phone, one physical button to ignore, one to start up the camera and take a picture, a directional pad, buttons to jump right to mail/text/sms, one to open the browser, etc. All in all, there are 8 hard buttons and the 4 way directional button. i don’t have to look at the screen to figure out which way is up, i don’t have to look at the screen to answer the phone or mute it.
The biggest reason i think you NEED buttons is that the touch screen is going to drift. Its not a matter of “if”, it is a matter of when. The touchscreen on my wizard drifts all the time, and is even worse with a screen protector on it. And you better believe that people are going to have screen protectors on those screens. Look how easy ipods scratch, and you never even have to touch the ipod screen! So now imagine trying to answer the phone when the screen thinks you are touching somewhere else…at least with buttons i can navigate to the settings to get back to align the screen!
The winner here is… My phone. it has buttons. tactile feedback is a good thing. I’m sure the iphone screen will look amazing, though!
keyboard
I text a lot (well, not a TON, but enough!) that i like to have a keyboard. Its also nice for entering names into the address book, sending email, etc. i just am not a big fan of the t9 or using the phone pad to type. so if the iphone was a little thicker and had a slide out keyboard, it might make it to the top of my list!
The winner here is…My phone. software keyboard only on the iphone. Not gonna cut it!
sync
It looks like this won’t be a big issue, the iphone will sync using itunes, to it can grab my stuff. hypothetically it would sync with office/exchange, so i could get my appointments and tasks, but i’m not positive on that one. I do sync at two locations though! from work i only sync appointments and tasks, and from home i sync my contacts, notes, files, etc.
The winner here is… probably a tie. Edge to my phone because i have it! 😛
wireless, web, email
Not a whole lot to talk about here, they both have all 3.
The winner here is… iPhone probably wins with a better browser, better email.
other software
Apple has said that the phone is not running OSX, and they aren’t going to let third parties put software on them. Jobs even said something like “we’re not going to let some third party software crash cingular’s west coast network.” Uh.. yeah. I don’t think any WinCE / Windows Mobile software has crashed any cell networks… Microsoft will let just about anybody make software that will run on a windows device. And i used 3 of them (2 that were free) to make my phone look pretty much like the iPhone.
The winner is…my phone by a mlle. If the phone doesn’t do something i want i to, i can download the windows mobile sdks and make it do what i want. or i can find something that someone else has already made it do!
connector
The stupid ipod connector brings it down a big notch. why does everyone think they need a special connector? Sheesh. Even if you do, make the middle part a mini-usb! Even the Nintendo DS fails me on this one. The DS connector is SO close to being mini-usb, but noooooo. At least the 360 (and i think the PS3) have usb connectors on them. everyone has one of those usb mini cords. if i can’t find an outlet at the airport to chart my phone, i can plug it into my laptop and steal some battery power from that.
The winner here is… My phone. It has usb, so it connects to everything.
memory cards
No extra memory on the iphone? they probably don’t want you stealing more music! 8 gigs is all we want you to have! (although that is a LOT of space for a phone, so memory wise, the iphone wins here). But i have a gig card in mine, and i can swap that out with any other number of cards, so..
The winner here is…My phone. for now.
extras
My phone has windows media player, the iphone has ipod software. My phone doesn’t have gps…
The winner here is…the iPhone if it has gps. Does it?
price!
Jinkies, that iphone’s gonna be expensive…. and i already have a 30g zune, so i don’t need a new ipod…
The winner here is…my phone because i already paid for it!
What i used to make my phone look like an iPhone
My phone is running Windows Mobile 5, these are the applications i used.
- An all black default theme allBlack.tsk (free)
- the top 2 rows of icons are using the application cLaunch (free) with custom icons.
The icons themselves i found on the web. if you can’t find them, you aren’t looking hard enough.
the lock button is another free app, vjdevicelock(free) with a custom icon. - the time in the middle is using rlToday (free) with a custom skin.
- the bottom part is phoneAlarm (not free, but free trial), with a custom skin, with more icons from above.
i made a battery icon (not shown when i took that picture) myself, so that bottom right icon is a battery remaining icon instead of a settings icon. there are a couple phoneAlarm skins that incorporate icons like this. I made my own icons so that the whole icon was red instead of green when i had missed calls or texts.
Update: Here’s a pic a flickr that has notes for the various parts: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardnerjr/374223166/
Hi, I own a sprint 6700. Would you zip up your files and send to this email?
[jg:hid email. i can get to it other ways :)]
Thank you!!!
You should release a pack to let people do it to their own WM5 phones.
how in the heck did you get the “!” icon without little black dots? i made a lock bmp icon in photoshop:
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/604/lockpp8.png) and it ends up with the dots on the today screen. any suggestions would be great.
I can’t really release a “pack”, i’d have to bundle a bunch of apps that aren’t mine, etc. If you need something specific, lemme know, and i’ll see if i can find it for you / get it to you, though.
ooh, i like that lock icon! Where in the icon are the black dots? are they someplace that should be white? i had that happen too, i think for some reason the png’s think that white white (255,255,255 / FFFFFF) are transparent too. if you replace them with off white, it should work?
Hey ive been trying to do this but i was wondering if you could email me the icon set please because thats the one thing i need help with