Prior to seeing the Simpsons and after a mind-blowing afternoon on the job (i.e. playing radio at a car dealership in Port Moody), we linked up with John Biehler for some pre-movie, post-BarCampVancouver festivities.
John is one of the first folks in Canada to snag an iPhone, even though it is not officially available in this country yet. That’s not to say that you can’t use yours here if you are from the states, but no one is offering service here that allows you to activate it, yet alone use it on their network. The only reason I know that U.S. plans have working functions here is because I happened to be in the same room as the lead singer of the band Yellowcard a number of days ago, and he confirmed this to me when I noticed him fiddling with his own iPhone.
Asking him what he thought of it and using it, his repeated response was, “I just love it. Can’t say more than that.”
So having the chance to sit down with John Biehler the other evening, he put the power of grayskull in my hand. I know that sounds corny, if you get the reference at all, but this was a really unique experience that made you realize that you have a very powerful device in your hand.
John has hacked the iPhone enough to get nearly all the features to work, minus the phone, at least while he is in Canada. Memory can’t recall if he activated the phone in the U.S., where he bought it, but the session that he led at BarCampVancouver earlier in the day was all about hacking into the iPhone for those of us north of the border.
After about thirty minutes of seeing what I could do with it, minus the availability of wireless internet at the location we were at (which I can report that said location had a plentiful availability of Hoegaarden in glasses the size of my head), I was uber-impressed. Not only is it cool and/or slick, but it works. All the features make sense, applications work like I expect them to, and you quickly forget that you tapping a flat surface, opposed to the numerous buttons that exist on my Nokia 6682[wiki]. In other words, I adapted to it mind numbingly fast.
Do I have to rush out and get one right this second? No, I think I’ll be alright. I also wouldn’t be opposed to it, more so when it works in all its glory in Canada. John knows of ways to hack you way into doing this for those willing to put the work into it. I’m ok for now, but there was something incredibly cool about checking out pieces of The Matrix[imdb] on his iPhone while sitting in a pub. The resolution was astounding.
He may regret spending all that dough the first time he drops the phone in the toilet, or at the bus stop. I know my phone takes a beating and I just couldn’t imagine plunking down that much coin on something that I slide into my pocket and bang around with day in and day out.
But, then, I am very much not into the ‘cult’ of Apple, that my opinion is skewed anyway.
@GZ Expat – I treat the iPhone (and all my tech) pretty well…of course dropping it into the toilet would royally suck but that’s what credit card insurance is for 😉
Fortunately, I’ve never had an incident like that although I have dropped my Treo inadvertently a number of times and ebay has solved the dinged outer plastic shell issues quite nicely and cheaply.
The other thing to remember is the full use of WiFi. I go back and forth on this point being the one and only reason I would love to have an iPhone now, not being able to use it as a phone. It’s tempting.
Wifi on the iPhone is the main reason I got it, knowing full well that I couldn’t use it as a phone (yet)….I can use it as a laptop replacement in most cases because of the amazing email and browser support it has. As long as you know where all the open wifi spots are in your daily routine, it’s pretty easy to have full connectivity (almost) all the time.
I waited 2 1/2 years for Palm to get off their butt and make a wifi driver for my Treo but that never happened.