Comments on: Things I'll Need in iPhone 2.0. Or, the iPhone Review That's Nearly One Year Old

By: David Young

David Young — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:54:45 +0000

@Thomas: see my earlier comment. Sorry. I was “confessing” to using the iPhone in the car to make an extreme point that the touch interface isn’t perfect. By the way, I hate when motorcyclists travel up through the middle of slow moving “cager” traffic.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:25:38 +0000

As a motorcyclist I got very hot under the collar reading this story – well over 90% of motorcycle accidents are caused by cagers who are not paying attention. In my case, virtually every time some self-absorbed idiot has pulled in front of me, cut me off, merged into me, turned left in front of me, or otherwise put my life in danger, it is because s/he is yapping on a damn cell phone. Put it down. You are not that important that you need to be gabbing on the phone (iphone or otherwise) or checking your voicemail whilst you (attempt to) drive. The typical conversation is something like “oh honey, but we decided on 1% milk, not skim, and could you check my drawer for the black socks you know the ones I wore to the Smith wedding? Yeah, uh huh, yeah I got the lawn mower blade…” If you really are that important and must use your phone to assist NASA with their latest launch codes, then PULL OVER. Remember, studies have proven that cell phone yappers drive worse than drunks. So it is only a matter of time before you crash your stupid over-sized gas guzzling cage into someone else, or worse, kill a pedestrian or motorcyclist. And your only defense to the judge will be “well I was argunig abotu what kind of milk to get.”

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:48:19 +0000

@David Different, yes, but requiring users to do stuff before dialing a number is not unique to the iPhone. The lack of tactile feedback certainly makes muscle memory a little harder. I wish they’d let you set double-tapping the home button to bring up the phone keypad.

By: Adrian Pike

Adrian Pike — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:27:21 +0000

Are you able to swap your SIM between your N95 and your iPhone?

I jailbroke my iPhone a while back, and love it. Never going back. It’ll be interesting to see how the whole iTunes app store shenanigans work, and if there will be any decent open source apps on it to play with – I’m not holding my breath.

By: David Young

David Young — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:18:18 +0000

@Tim: I disagree that press-and-hold-the-1-key works the same way. Yes, pressing the “1” goes to voicemail. It’s what’s required to get to the “1” that’s different.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:51:12 +0000

Also, your checking-voicemail-while-driving thing, while extremely dangerous, is more or less solved by the ol’ press-and-hold-the-1-key trick. Accessed that way, voicemail works like any other AT&T phone.

It’s still annoying to have to pay attention to a screen while you’re trying to drive, just like it’s annoying to have to hold a baby while you’re trying to smoke and drink a cup of coffee. But that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a design flaw with the baby.

By: David Young

David Young — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:41:37 +0000

@Kenn: you’re right. The first step is to admit I have a problem.

By: Kenn

Kenn — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:25:35 +0000

The virtual keyboard of the iPhone has been the cause of many near automobile collisions.

I have a real simple solution to this “problem” of yours. See if you can guess what it is.

Seriously, maybe you don’t care if you kill yourself while driving, but please show a little consideration for the others on the road.