Art Of Geek

We caved…

September 10th, 2007 at 02:17pm madgunde

So for some unknown reason, I woke up at 4 am on Sunday morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. As I lay in bed, my mind wandered, as it’s oft to do when it’s bored. I started thinking about the iPhone, and some of the news I had read the week before about a software unlock possibly being released today. I also weighed the pros and cons of buying an iPod touch to keep me satisfied until the iPhone comes to Canada, or at least an inexpensive (and warranty friendly) iPhone unlock method is widely available.

If I were to buy an iPod touch, I’d of course get the 16GB model, which is $399US, which happens to be exactly the same price as the 8GB iPhone. I decided that even if the iPhone couldn’t be unlocked anytime soon, I’d still get everything (and more) that the iPod touch can do, just with less storage capacity. So my logic was that I should just get myself an iPhone, since it’s the same price, and I’ll eventually be able to unlock it to work on the Rogers network here in Canada.

It was then I woke my wife up and pitched the idea of an early morning road trip to the Walden Galleria mall in Buffalo, NY. Being a gadget junkie herself, my wife of course was all for it (yes, I’m a lucky bastard, yes, she has a sister and no, her sister is not available). So by 5:35 am, we were well on our way, equipped with Google maps directions in hand. I had checked Apple’s handy iPhone availability page to confirm that the Walden Galleria store did in fact have them in stock.

By leaving so early, we not only ensured we didn’t hit any traffic, but also that we zipped through the US Customs border checkpoint. Unfortunately, we also ensured we’d have to wait over 3 hours before the mall (and Apple Store) opened for business. So we stopped at a nearby Tim Hortons for a bite, picked up a couple of magazines at Rite-Aid and hung out at the Walden Galleria mall until it opened. Needless to say, we had time to window shop the entire mall, and read our magazines with about 45 minutes to spare. These may have been the longest 45 minutes of my life. On the positive side, we knew it wasn’t in vane, because when we first arrived at the mall at about 7:45 am, an Apple employee was already in the store. We were able to get his attention and he kindly confirmed that they did in fact have 8GB iPhones in stock. A good thing, since I had my Google maps directions to the Syracuse NY Apple Store, and was fully prepared to execute them if necessary. Thankfully I didn’t have to.

Within 10 minutes of the store opening we got up from the uncomfortable mall bench where we were perched to mark our territory in front of the Apple Store entrance, since the beginnings of what would become a small crowd started to form in front of the store. While we waited, we spoke to another couple from our home town of Brampton, Ontario, who coincidentally enough, had the exact same inspiration to take the drive to Buffalo and buy an iPhone as we did. They had somehow managed to call the store and get them to put two iPhones aside for them. As they told me this, I felt a moment of worry since the clerk we had spoken to hadn’t confirmed HOW MANY iPhones they in fact had in stock. Turns out any such worry on my part was unwarranted.

The store opened promptly at 11 am, and we were able to quickly secure two 8GB iPhones from a gentleman named Sean behind the counter, who rang us up in short order. In order to avoid having to make the drive back to Buffalo anytime soon, we opened our iPhones in the store and made sure they turned on and didn’t have any visible issues. My wife’s was fine, but mine unfortunately seemed to be frozen once it booted up, as it was not responding to any inputs. Sean force restarted it, and it locked up again. He did it again, and this time it appeared to be working. I was able to power it off and on again a few times without it locking up again. So we were on our way.

As we pulled out of the parking space, I felt compelled to test my iPhone again. I powered it on, and it promptly froze again. I made the decision to return to the store and ask for a replacement. Sean was courteous and said he would ask a technician about the issue. He returned and said that this was a known issue and that once I updated to the latest firmware, it wouldn’t happen anymore. I told him that since I came so far, I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Sean continued to insist there was nothing wrong and even made reference to me having to pay a restocking fee if I wanted to replace it, but he then quickly offered to speak to a manager without me having to ask to do so.

After about 5 minutes, Sean returned from the back room with a new, unopened iPhone and said he would replace it for me free of charge (as he should!). I promptly opened up the new one, and tested to make sure it was functioning properly. It looked great and Sean rung up a new receipt for me. That’s when I flipped the new unit over and noticed what appeared to be a little scratch on the aluminum casing. This can’t be, I thought, and promptly tried my best to remove what I was hoping was just a smudge of some unidentified goop left over from the assembly line. I tried my thumb. I tried my shirt. I tried using a little spit on my thumb, and even using my thumb nail. My heart sank as I realized it was not coming off. It was one of those little marks that was almost too small to make a fuss about, but nonetheless one that I knew was going to bother me every time I looked at it from now until the end of it’s useful life.

I motioned Sean over and with a very apologetic tone (and my most convincing puppy dog eyes), told him I was going to have to ask for another unit, since this one had a scratch. I was expecting to get a look, or a sigh, or an argument, or that he’d have to have the manager take a look at the ’scratch’. But instead, Sean just said, “No problem”. He then went into the back room for what seemed like maybe 5 minutes (probably to clear it with the manager), before returning to exchange my iPhone for the second time. I thanked him for his handling of the situation and he said it wasn’t a problem, and that my satisfaction was very important to them. We completed the transaction and I inspected the unit and confirmed, with a sigh of relief, that it was both functional and free of visual defects.

With that I returned to the car and we headed home. Not wanting to test our luck any further, we fully declared our purchases to Canada Customs and paid our outstanding taxes, which amounted to 14% PST+GST charged on the after-tax price we paid. For those curious about the total cost, the $399US iPhone was $433.91US after 8.75% NY State sales tax. Assuming a 1.06 exchange rate, that’s about $460CDN, plus another $65CDN in sales tax when we crossed the border back to Canada, for a total cost of $525CDN, or about $13 more than it would have cost us for the 16GB iPod touch at retail.

After some digging on the internet to find the appropriate software and instructions, our iPhones are now activated and hacked to allow the installation of third party apps. We aren’t able to use the devices as a phone yet though, but anticipate there will be affordable, software-based unlocking services available within the next week or two that will allow us to use our Rogers SIM cards with the unit. The only other feature we can’t use is the built-in YouTube viewer, apparently because it requires a working EDGE cell network connection for it’s first connection. iTunes syncs Address Book contacts, iCal calendars, Safari bookmarks, email accounts, music, video and podcasts as expected. I also had no problems browsing the web and sending/receiving email via our home WiFi network.

So how is it? Lets just say that all the positive stuff you may have read about the iPhone is true. It has far and away the most advanced user interface ever implemented in a consumer electronics device, and is an utter joy to use. Surfing the web is fantastic, with web pages rendering identically to the way they do in Safari on the Mac. It is the best damn iPod Apple has ever made and watching videos and podcasts on it’s large screen is a treat. But I have to say, as awesome a product as the iPhone is, it’s made even more awesome with the help of all the unauthorized third party development being done for the device. I have already installed an ebook reader, a terminal shell, an ssh client and server, an AIM IM client, RSS news reader, Minesweeper game and IRC chat client. All of the third party apps I’ve installed have fantastic user interfaces, although some are a little buggy. The best part of it all is all these apps can be easily installed, updated and uninstalled using another unauthorized third party app called AppTap by NullRiver software, which installs an iPhone app called “Installer” that presents you with an up to the minute list of applications that you can install over WiFi. No muss, no fuss. This is a very unique situation where the open source community has been able to deliver a better application deployment, update and uninstall environment than ANY consumer electronics OS vendor has ever done. This is, in fact, the way every open smartphone should handle third party app installation.

Caveats? Sure, there are a few. For instance, there is a possibility that Apple will release a firmware update that locks out third party software hacks and SIM unlocking methods, but I’m confident that Apple is more interested in selling iPhones than blocking their most enthusiastic iPhone fans. The iPhone isn’t perfect either. There are areas where it can see improvement, like in text editing, copy & paste, voice dialling, etc. But those have all been covered before by countless bloggers, and I agree with the majority who say that the iPhone’s shortfalls seem insignificant compared to it’s overall functionality and usability. Besides, Apple has a history of, and has gone on record as saying they plan to improve the iPhone over time via software. Like for the iPod before it, I’m looking forward to every firmware update Apple releases to see how they improve usability and add functionality. In the meantime though, I’m very impressed with what Apple has been able to deliver thus far.

Entry Filed under: Apple, Gadgets, iPhone