My love affair with Apple's iOS
When Apple released the iphone in 2007, it unleashed a veritable
tsunami on the mobile industry, so far ahead it was compared to the
competition. A couple of my friends had bought the original iphone
then through unofficial channels and the few minutes that I spent with
it was enough to get me hooked. Apple never launched the original
iphone here in India, they waited for a whole year and launched with
the iphone 3G. But, they priced it way too high at over 30K. At that
time, the max I had ever paid for a phone was 15K and my upper limit
was 20K, so I passed on the opportunity and bought a Nokia instead. Part of the reason why I didn't pay the extra 10K was that I had
partly satiated my iphone lust with an ipod touch 1st generation that
I had bought a few months back. In the two years since, I have been
extremely happy with the ipod touch and am amazed at how well this
gadget has aged. It still runs most of the apps on the App Store, web
pages still load fast, the battery still lasts a few hours and the
screen looks as fantastic as ever. Despite all these positives, I still felt that the ipod touch lacked a
few things as compared to the iphone. It was essentially a device that
was chained to the wifi in my house. It lacked a speaker, it didn't
have a camera. A good device it was, but it was no iphone. By 2009, the mental price barrier that I had set for myself had gone
up significantly and when Apple launched the iphone 3GS in 2009,
fixing many of the shortcomings of the older model, I was sure that I
would buy it once they launched it in India. But, the wait was a long
one and as the months went by, my enthusiasm waned. In January, Google
launched what seemed to be the iphone killer, the Nexus One. I jumped
at the chance to buy one and got it in February. Compared to my ipod
touch, it was a speed demon. But it had so many rough edges that I
never really felt very comfortable with it. The other major problem
was the quality of the apps that were available for it. I could
clearly see that the apps for the ios platform were far superior. So,
when my friend offered to buy it from me, I did not hesitate and
resumed my wait for the iphone. Apple did finally launch the 3GS in
May this year, but that was too close to the iphone 4 launch, so I
decided to wait and watch what Apple had in store. In January, a new phenomenon had arrived on the scene, the ipad.
Pundits were proclaiming how April 3, 2010 was a day that would be
forever remembered as the start of the ipad era, when computing
changed forever. Though everyone who had seen it and used it was
raving about it, I was skeptical. I wanted to experience it for
myself. I had a couple of opportunities to buy the ipad and get it to
India, but the logistics never did work out. When I finally got a few
days back and used it for the first time, realization struck. The ipad
wasn't over-hyped, it was under-hyped!!! The naysayers may call it an
oversized ipod Touch, but the extra real estate transforms the user
experience in a way that words can never describe. Once you watch a
video on the big screen, the ipod touch's screen feels puny. To see a
photo slideshow playing on the screen is pure magic. While the app
developers came out with fabulous apps for the iphone, the ipad
provides a larger canvas that enables them to create masterpieces. The
ipad is now my favourite gadget and in the two weeks since I got it,
my laptop and desktop have been neglected. So, what about the iphone? Earlier this week, my friend who had bought
the original iphone in 2008 got himself an iphone 3GS and wanted my
help to sell the iphone 2G. It was still on the ios 2.x firmware, so I
told him that I will upgrade him to the latest firmware after doing
some research. I managed to upgrade, jailbreak and unlock the phone
and used it for a couple of days. But the magic was gone. The camera
was awful and it had no video capture. My headphones didn't work with
it as the 3.5 mm jack was recessed into the body. The phone was slow
when compared to the ipad. So, though I had the option to buy the
phone at a fantastic price, I passed on it and returned it back to
him. My dream of owning an iphone still lives on...
tsunami on the mobile industry, so far ahead it was compared to the
competition. A couple of my friends had bought the original iphone
then through unofficial channels and the few minutes that I spent with
it was enough to get me hooked. Apple never launched the original
iphone here in India, they waited for a whole year and launched with
the iphone 3G. But, they priced it way too high at over 30K. At that
time, the max I had ever paid for a phone was 15K and my upper limit
was 20K, so I passed on the opportunity and bought a Nokia instead. Part of the reason why I didn't pay the extra 10K was that I had
partly satiated my iphone lust with an ipod touch 1st generation that
I had bought a few months back. In the two years since, I have been
extremely happy with the ipod touch and am amazed at how well this
gadget has aged. It still runs most of the apps on the App Store, web
pages still load fast, the battery still lasts a few hours and the
screen looks as fantastic as ever. Despite all these positives, I still felt that the ipod touch lacked a
few things as compared to the iphone. It was essentially a device that
was chained to the wifi in my house. It lacked a speaker, it didn't
have a camera. A good device it was, but it was no iphone. By 2009, the mental price barrier that I had set for myself had gone
up significantly and when Apple launched the iphone 3GS in 2009,
fixing many of the shortcomings of the older model, I was sure that I
would buy it once they launched it in India. But, the wait was a long
one and as the months went by, my enthusiasm waned. In January, Google
launched what seemed to be the iphone killer, the Nexus One. I jumped
at the chance to buy one and got it in February. Compared to my ipod
touch, it was a speed demon. But it had so many rough edges that I
never really felt very comfortable with it. The other major problem
was the quality of the apps that were available for it. I could
clearly see that the apps for the ios platform were far superior. So,
when my friend offered to buy it from me, I did not hesitate and
resumed my wait for the iphone. Apple did finally launch the 3GS in
May this year, but that was too close to the iphone 4 launch, so I
decided to wait and watch what Apple had in store. In January, a new phenomenon had arrived on the scene, the ipad.
Pundits were proclaiming how April 3, 2010 was a day that would be
forever remembered as the start of the ipad era, when computing
changed forever. Though everyone who had seen it and used it was
raving about it, I was skeptical. I wanted to experience it for
myself. I had a couple of opportunities to buy the ipad and get it to
India, but the logistics never did work out. When I finally got a few
days back and used it for the first time, realization struck. The ipad
wasn't over-hyped, it was under-hyped!!! The naysayers may call it an
oversized ipod Touch, but the extra real estate transforms the user
experience in a way that words can never describe. Once you watch a
video on the big screen, the ipod touch's screen feels puny. To see a
photo slideshow playing on the screen is pure magic. While the app
developers came out with fabulous apps for the iphone, the ipad
provides a larger canvas that enables them to create masterpieces. The
ipad is now my favourite gadget and in the two weeks since I got it,
my laptop and desktop have been neglected. So, what about the iphone? Earlier this week, my friend who had bought
the original iphone in 2008 got himself an iphone 3GS and wanted my
help to sell the iphone 2G. It was still on the ios 2.x firmware, so I
told him that I will upgrade him to the latest firmware after doing
some research. I managed to upgrade, jailbreak and unlock the phone
and used it for a couple of days. But the magic was gone. The camera
was awful and it had no video capture. My headphones didn't work with
it as the 3.5 mm jack was recessed into the body. The phone was slow
when compared to the ipad. So, though I had the option to buy the
phone at a fantastic price, I passed on it and returned it back to
him. My dream of owning an iphone still lives on...
