Test Results So Far by Barbara J. (July 5, 2007)

iPhone Testing Notes

Started testing Monday, July, 2nd.

Computers used so far with the iPhone:
1. MacBook laptop - 2gb ram, Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Running OS X 10.4.10, iTunes v.7.3.
2. iMac G5 desktop - 1gb ram, 2Ghz PowerPC G5 processor. Running OS X 10.4.10, iTunes v.7.3.

Main iPhone Applications - Comments

Email
Some trouble setting email authentication and pw. My laptop Apple Mail had Kerberos Authentication. When transferred to iPhone MD5-challenge response was selected as authentication method. Took a few tries to change to Password. May also have mistyped pw by not noticing Caps Lock on by default for first letter.

Nice touch - message sent from iPhone shows up in my IMAP Sent messages folder. No need for bcc'ing myself. Can see on other machines I use.

iTunes - Sync Settings
First set up using laptop. Synced with iTunes music, Mail, a selected iPhoto photo album.

When connected to Desktop Mac. Said could not connect to iPhone because passcode needed to be be entered. I entered passcode and iPhone still did not show up. Had to close and reopen iTunes.

When I selected a new photo album to sync it warned that the iPhone photos would be overwritten. Then it warned about phone being synced with another account. Asked if I wanted to merge or replace info. Selected 'merge information'.
Result: Did not work properly (bug?). Ended up with 2 photo albums on device, one titled Photo Library, one titled with album title. Both albums contained the same photos from iPhoto. Previous iPhoto album from laptop sync was overwritten.

Photos
QUESTION: Doesn't seem to be any way to delete a photo album, from iPhoto, on the device? This is consistent with the current iPod sync behavior.

General iPhone comments

QUESTION: How do I know what data network I'm currently using? e.g. AT&T or MIT wireless.
ANSWER: Network in use shows in upper left corner of screen. E stands for AT&T's EDGE network. Standard pie-shaped wireless signal symbol means you're on a local LAN.

Audio Out jack
Really don't like that headphones jack is recessed. My favorite, comfortable earphones cannot be plugged in properly. Why did they do this?

Nice touch. The headphones that come with have special features. You can squeeze to pause iPod play when a call comes in. Has builtin microphone to use for talking on the phone.

Battery
Since I'm using this device much more than my Treo, it seems like the battery runs down pretty quickly. Need to be able to charge the iPhone in multiple locations, office, home, car.

Would like to see a removable battery.

AT&T Network Issues

EDGE network — blech! too slow.

AT&T voice coverage not great, e.g. "No Service" in W20

Wireless Networking
At home, I'm working on a laptop and have the strongest possible wireless signal, 5 bars.
The iPhone gets a strong signal initially and then drops to one bar (looks like there's only room to display 3 bars for wireless). Still seems to work okay. Is it really having trouble holding the signal or, is the display of the signal strength inaccurate?

Things I Would Like But Don't See A Way To Do, Yet...

NO SEARCH? - need one. Especially for Mail.

Would like magnifiying glass functionality everywhere, i.e. in mailbox message list view.

Would like a delete all, or delete selected group, function. For things like deleting group of bookmarks, deleting all messages in my Spamscreen folder, etc.

Would like a separate contacts button on the main Home screen.

Would like an undo button/key/feature, especially in Mail. Very easy to delete something by mistake. If you notice it in time you can move it out of Trash. But that's too iffy.

The ability to copy and paste between applications, e.g. copy a person's name from an email to a new contact entry.

Challenges for me

Need to trust the keyboard's autocorrection features more. Be less deliberate and tentative. Just keep typing.

Also, I find that my neices and nephews, high school and college age, are MUCH better at the keyboard than me. Is this due to their gameboy experience or the fact that they are text messaging addicts?

Lack of captioning for video content. This is not an iPhone specific problem per se. However, with the gorgeous high resolution larger screen I could definitely read captions. I'm somewhat left out of the YouTube crowd because of this limitation.

Outstanding Questions

Security - What are the issues? e.g. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2153898,00.asp
Have seen mentioned on Web that it is easy to hack Cingular, now AT&T, voice mail.
Is the iPhone any less secure than the Treo?
Further research needed.

Capacity - how quick and easy to fill up. What happens when full?

Hard reset - Possible? What does it mean.

Soft reset - Possible? What does it mean.

Passcode protection - How easy is it to get around? What if you forget the passcode?

How to transfer contacts and phone log from another device.