How to survive 10 weeks without the iPhone
I’ve been without the iPhone for some time now. I miss some of the shiny apps I downloaded (they appear in iTunes every time I load it) but in all I haven’t had quite the withdrawal symptoms I thought I might. What have I been using in this time? I’m been using a BlackBerry Curve and a Nokia N900.
I’m impressed by the Curve’s battery life, granted given that the thing doesn’t do 3G. But I haven’t missed 3G as much as I thought I might. And I like the extraordinary push integration of BlackBerry and the fine, albeit small, keyboard of the Curve. I’m also a convert to the little thumb glidepad as opposed to the ball.
The N900 is a much more useful device. I love having 12 apps open and being able to Skype, email and text people and maintain many conversations going at the same time. I had initial difficulty with the user interface metaphors and these haven’t quite worn off yet. The physical keyboard isn’t a winner for me … I’m actually getting okay with the devices slightly impractical onscreen keyboard. I’d prefer this whole device was as thin as its screen, and was available without a keyboard. The screen itself is pretty good … but also not there yet. Personally, the horizontal layout isn’t a winner for me either. The device ensures that you have to have two hands available to navigate it mainly because of the range of dexterity of the thumb up-down as opposed to left-right. While media syncs right from iTunes playlists, Mac users still can’t sync contacts. Granted, these things will be ironed out but are a nuisance right now.
