Six Things I Hate About the iPhone

May 12

I originally thought it should be a top ten list, but after getting to number six I was just too discouraged to go on. Six items were enough. I’m afraid if I went to ten I may have ended up throwing it against the wall.

There is no doubt the iPhone is an amazing device. There is no denying the impact it’s had on the mobile phone market. It’s not perfect, not even close, to the ideal mobile phone. I will also concede that what is ideal for one user will not be ideal for another. It’s a really cool device, but it’s also like not having a Phillips screwdriver in your toolbox or missing the masking tool in Photoshop.

I put off buying an iPhone for as long as I could. I waited till Android came out and then compared it with the available smart phones. No question that the iPhone was the best product available, even with it’s limitations. I bought the 3rd generation iPhone, a 3Gs.

Still it’s a love-hate relationship. I hate stupid. And most of these are really stupid. Sure someone will come along and attempt to make some technical argument as to why some item was or wasn’t done. The bottom line is the functionality and the implemented or non-implemented functionality is plain stupid.

My previous phone was a Sony-Ericsson, that lived a long useful live. It was time to trade in/up. Newer products tend to have all the cool features of the old product plus all those cool new features. That’s not the case when it comes to the iPhone. I mean it didn’t have cut and paste until the latest version of the OS. My old phone gets mentioned several times below.

6. No data backup. I can backup my apps, but not the data in those apps. So if your phone happens to lock up on you, or it breaks, or you want to upgrade to a new model. Guess what? Buddy you’re just up the proverbial creek without a paddle when it comes to getting the data restored.

5. No memory expansion slots. I don’t think any explanation is necessary for this one.

4. My Sony-Ericsson was a better device at some things. When I plugged it into a USB port it looked just like a thumb drive. Which means in a pinch I can transfer files using my phone. Awesome! Just the way it should be, music in the music folder, videos in the videos folder, and podcasts in the podcasts folder. And I can play any file from those folders.

3. Why not any mp3 as a ringtone? My Sony-Ericsson could. Why can’t I pick any MP3 on my phone and use it as a ringtone? I know, there’s an app for that if you jailbreak your iPhone, but why should I have to do that? Instead I have to make a 30 second copy of a song I ripped off my CD, that I bought at Best Buy with my money, then convert it to another format and then give it a different file extension. All that when I should just be able to select any audio file on my phone.

2. Is it landscape or portrait? You have pictures on your computer. You have them on your Flickr, Picasa, etc account. You rotate the portrait photos 90 degrees so you can see them without giving yourself or anyone else neck problems. Why the heck can’t the iPhone figure out that it should place the long edge of the photo along the long side of the display? Period, end of story, no more rotating the photo. Even my “stupid” windows computer has applications that will intelligently rotate photos. I know I can put my thumb on the screen and rotate the phone and the photo won’t rotate. That is until I hand it to someone else so they can see the picture.

1. iTunes sucks! I cannot say it any more plainly than that, iTunes sucks! You may be wondering why iTunes made a list about the iPhone. Well, it’s because this is the only way to get content (video, music, etc) onto your iPhone. I have a folder on my computer for podcasts. When the craptastic iTunes puts these on my iPhone guess where you find them. In music. Yep, that’s right. iTunes has a podcast category, but the files show up in music. I don’t have videos in my music, why should the podcasts be in Music? I know they’re audio files and one could make that argument. If you make that argument, then why is there a podcast category in iTunes. I haven’t purchased any audio books and most likely won’t. Will these show up in music too? Have I mentioned iTunes sucks?