Flora Graham
Flora Graham can talk the hind leg off a donkey, so it's no wonder she's CNET UK's resident expert on mobile phones. Gadgets make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but she shows no mercy to rubbish technology. If you say her name three times and make a wish, her phone will ring.
Friday 13 March 2009, 11:52am
How I learned to stop worrying and love the iPhone
I'm no Mac fangirl, for reasons better explained by The Onion than I could ever do. iTunes is my most hated application ever. But I've finally caved in and learned to love the iPhone.
It's no surprise that as a phone reviewer, I'm an early adopter and I love mobiles. But I haven't been so happy with a phone since my Nokia 8210 in 1999.
Don't get me wrong, the iPhone has problems -- its inability to run programs in the background gives me actual pain. But it benefits from being in a marketplace crowded with confusing, sluggish phones with features that were released too soon. The iPhone has finally made the mobile Web work for me, and I've been bashing away at that for ten years. And unlike other touchscreen phones I've owned, it can actually make a phone call, quickly and easily.
The question is, how long will it last? At a T-Mobile G1 event yesterday, app developers told me that Google Android is a pleasure to work with, whereas the iPhone is a pain. With the developers on board, and more handsets on the way, Android phones are bound to increase their share of the pie. The iPhone leads the pack by miles now, but barring the occasional handset update from Apple, there can be only one.
But why would I put my money on Android killing the iPhone rather than Windows Mobile? Surely the PC killed Mac in the 90s, rather than Linux? It's simply this: Windows Mobile is no good. It's not the PC, it's X Windows on UNIX. Sure, some people love it. But those people are wrong.
I thought the iPhone would be another on a long list of overhyped, overpriced Apple disappointments. But now I've joined the pod people. One of us, one of us, one of us...
Comments on this post
Everyone will come around to your way of thinking, iphone was and is a revolution in the mobile phone industry everything that follows from now will be an evolution of apple's creation
Posted by Tom Carter on Fri 13 March, 2009 2:07 PM
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Ah the day when my contract will expire and I will be able to join the cool kids... it is soon. In the mean time I have an iPod touch and was wondering, with your new found iPhoneiness (meant in the best way possible), what is your favorite app, made possible by this platform and why? Convenience? Usability? Fame? Fortune?
Posted by Michael1988 on Sat 14 March, 2009 3:39 AM
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Oh... and I love the Dr. Strangelove reference.
Posted by Michael1988 on Sat 14 March, 2009 3:41 AM
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I would have loved an iphone but was locked in a long contract. I've been waiting for something like that since the days of my psion revo ! But now I don't think I'll get one, probably will go for an N97, but yeah, that's thanks to Apple showing the way !
Posted by Anonymous on Sun 15 March, 2009 10:35 PM
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The iPhone is great but I sent mine back because I couldn't live with that keyboard and no background apps. Apple makes devices that will be excellent for 20% of users and leave the other 70% to live with its annoyances or move one. That was the problem in the 90's and thats the problems now. Android will win in the long term because Apple will not compromise to make the iPhone more suitable for more people.
Posted by Daniel Baker on Thu 19 March, 2009 8:48 PM
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I was a Windows Mobile/CE user for 11 years and thought I should give the iphone a try on pay&Go. Its a joy to use and quite addictive with the App store. I do miss not being able to save email attachments/ forwarding SMS messages. I do miss a Word /Powerpoint application.
Posted by Issie on Fri 20 March, 2009 10:32 PM
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you can not run programs on the backgroud, there is FM,no MMS,no Movies, 2M Pixel Camera,very expensive app, the Iphone is just not worth it, it is a music player not more than that,,,,,,, no good for students,business men,,,,,,i prefer very much the HTC Touch HD.
Posted by Abdurrahim on Mon 23 March, 2009 8:16 PM
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Windows mobile is by far better than the iphone. Haven't used the Android platform, so can't tell whether it's any good, but most of the things I do with my HTC phone, can't do with iphone. And if I can, they are a pain... Oh, and I can use my WM phone back in Greece after simply unlocking it for £15. However, I have to admit that the touch screen on the iphone is probably the only thing I envy from Apple.
Posted by Yan on Wed 25 March, 2009 8:19 AM
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I just can't use the keyboard, constant gobbledigook produced
Posted by Andrew Hughes on Wed 1 April, 2009 9:09 AM
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In the interests of balance, it must be stated that the iPhone leads ALL other phones in customer satisfaction. It also dominates ALL other phones for web surfing - over 50% of phone web surfing is on an iPhone. Background apps? Er...actually the iPhone has email push always on, text always on, the phone, calendar alerts, etc. You want powerpoint and word apps? Look in the app store. Actually dont - use your computer. Isnt it obvious that the iPhone is a secondary computer meant to be used in conjunction with your main computer? Some of the comments here, and even the article, suggest that most of you havent really USED an iPhone..... Dont. You will only become another Apple fan, and that would never do, would it?
Posted by Dithers on Fri 24 April, 2009 6:25 PM
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Not sure on where else to query your review, but you've rated the Samsung Jet to be lower than Tocco Ultra- which you've rated quite highly. But dont you think that the Jet atleast does what Ultra does quite well?
Posted by Bankai on Wed 15 July, 2009 4:13 PM
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Articles by Flora Graham
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Photo If you put a 12-year-old Apple Newton Messagepad in the ring next to a brand-new Apple iPhone 3GS, which would win in a fight? Rory and Flora put their boxing gloves on to find out
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Crave The Nokia N900 is missing in action as Nokia delays its launch in UK stores by a week as it scrambles to get the software perfected to avoid an N97-style flop
Tesco Mobile to sell iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS by Christmas
Crave Tesco has announced it will be selling the iPhone online and in stores, raising our hopes for bargain iPhones to join the satsumas in our Christmas stockings
Carphone Warehouse stops selling faulty Sony Ericsson Satio
Crave Sony Ericsson's flagship media smart phone, the Satio, has been taken off the shelves at Carphone Warehouse until it sorts out its software problems
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Crave An update to the Palm Pre's operating system is winging its way automagically all over Europe today, bringing LinkedIn and Yahoo support and a new Facebook app
