The iPhone has become a very important tool for my business in the last few months that I use it. With every firmware it’s getting better and it’s running quite smooth and stable now. Still discussed are the lack of some features (like copy-paste, MMS etc.) and the performance of the built in rechargeable battery. I’m OK with the limitations that the new iPhone 3G still has. For me the advantages are way bigger than the limitations.
Even if it is said that the battery performance of the iPhone is comparable or even better than of other smartphones, it is better to be prepared. If you charge your iPhone every night, the battery should last long enough for normal use. But in heavy use or on a very long day (shooting a wedding, anybody?) it might run out of battery.
Some time ago I bought an USB charger from Philips with a built-in rechargeable battery. So if there’s no power outlet around out in the field, you still can charge your iPhone. Great idea! It’s called: ‘Philips Power4Life SCM7880 USB Charger/Back up battery‘ and just received one of the ‘iF product design awards 2008’. It works very well. Fully charged it stores enough energy to charge the iPhone up to about 75%. Enough to survive.
Recently I found something maybe even better on USBfever.com It’s called ‘USB AAA Battery Charger with Torch‘ (I opened the battery cover in the picture above to show the 4 AAA batteries). It’s smaller, cheaper, weighs less and has a built-in LED torch. But mainly it uses replaceable AAA batteries instead of a non-removeable reachargeable battery like the Philips. You can buy AAA batteries everywhere or carry some spare batteries with you for multiple charges of your iPhone. And the USB charger has USB power IN and OUT. Means that you can either charge the 4 AAA batteries in the device by using an USB cable (power IN) or you can charge an USB device like the iPhone from the 4 AAA batteries through an USB cable (power OUT). Really sweet!
I fully agree with the usefulness and greatness of the iPhone, though it still amazes me, how the phone is incomplete in some parts of its design. You can’t exchange the battery – every other phone can. You can’t send MMS (ok, apple means we should just e-mail, ha). You can’t synch to Outlook (this is no Mac. vs. Win flame), only to the expensive server-versions. It’s promoted for visual and multimedial greatness, but has a totally crippled camera (ok, I have better ones, but still). It does not accept any memory-card format.
Look at any other smartphone and it will be differentiated in all these aspects. And if you look at the HTC models, iPhone interaction and touch-screen-handling isn’t that unique anymore. The new HTC Touch HD coming end of October will in fact even have a bigger display than the iPhone with more than twice the resolution (480x800px). Hopefully some pressure on Apple to make the real one, though they will probably still ignore it.
As said, I don’t doubt the usefulness and may even buy one, being a Mac user and following the mac-evangelists;-)
Thanks for the tips, Daniel!
Too bad I didn’t see it until now. :(