iPhone

Live in Romania

After The Rolling Stones, I got to see the iPhone live in Bucharest and it was no less amazement — "the largest commercial product launch in the history of electronics" after "the world’s greatest rock & roll band". Not a bad week.

During my one-hour play (thank you Richard, you lucky dog! I evy your guts sincerely) I made some quick notes:

The indescribably good

• I thought it's larger but it's exactly the right size • I thought scrolling it's going to have a lag, it doesn't • The screen beats the PSP and it's the most gorgeous screen I've seen • Typing takes a while to get, but it rapidly improves • Photo gallery "flicking" is as natural a GUI can get • Pinch resizing just works both in photos and web pages • The web browser (Safari) is in a class of its own.

I thought i will be able to describe it, I'm not. That's how amazing it is.

The faintly bad

• Yes, EDGE is slow • Using it for CPU-intensive tasks makes it get hot • Come on Apple, send that copy-paste feature via software update, please!

Quick conclusion

• The GUI is as polished as the Macintosh GUI and it makes a world of difference • The attention to the details is staggering (and there are lots of little gems hidden in there, for instance deleting a note employs a minimizing effect animation, graphically throwing the page in the trash) • the construction is at or above the "iPod industry standard" • I'd pay double triple the price for one.

The name is misleading, it's not a phone — do not compare the iPhone with any other phones you have used or seen. It's the first of a new breed.