Skip to main content

I Hate My iPhone 4

A couple months ago I needed to get a new phone in Korea, but Galaxy S2 wasn't out yet, and the only carrier willing to sell me a phone was SKT, so I decided reluctantly on an iPhone4. It is to date my most regretted electronics purchase ever, but I'm stuck with it. Here are some reasons why I hate my iPhone 4:

1) It friggin' sucks as a phone.

Okay, call me old school, but I firmly believe that voice is by far the best way to convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. And unfortunately, my beautiful iPhone is near worthless as a phone. For some reason, iPhone on SKT is a terrible combination - reception sucks, 3G always drops out, and if I hold my phone like, well, a phone, the call drops. Sure, I can stick a lame bumper on it, but that's like buying a Ferrari and putting cardboard on the doors to protect it from scratches.

2) The UI is great in some places, terrible in others.

Why isn't it obvious how to mute an incoming call (I Googled it, but I shouldn't have to). How come the entire UI freezes at inopportune moments (today it froze as I accidentally dialed a recent number, and I couldn't cancel it)? Why is Maps so much worse than Android? And for god's sake, why do I have to switch entire keyboards to type mixed language messages? I know I'm a rare user, but these things annoy the hell out of me.

3) The Contact list is worthless.

I can't tell who on my Contact list actually has a phone number, cause I synced my contacts, and the UI doesn't convey any useful information besides the name.

4) I can't call someone from Messages.

Why not? Isn't that a common use case?

5) For some reason, iPhone on SKT has the worst failure case for text messages.

If your phone can't send a text due to size issues, either you receive absolutely no indication that it wasn't sent, or you receive a bounce 24 hours later. For one thing, why should I have to know whether the recipient can receive an oversize text before I send it? Why doesn't that *just work*? And if you're gonna be lame about it, then how come there's no character counter in Messages? I'm supposed to count myself? Gimme a break.

---

It's the little things that make or break a user experience, and I'd have to say that the more I use my iPhone, the more I can't stand it.

I miss my little robot.

Comments

  1. You are a biased.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I sort of feel the same Darren, a few years back I bought and used an iPhone 3G for around 18 mths and thought after using a Sony Ericcson phone that the iPhone was the coolest shit ever! well after using a non smartphone I s'pose it would!

    Anyway, eventually sold the 3G as I got bored with it and moved to a T-Mobile BB Curve bought from Asia (better than UK version because of 3.2MP cam and better features) loved that phone to death, seriously cool phone but screen too small, so I decided to keep it and purchase a tablet to play with as well so I bought a Galaxy Tab 7" with Froyo 2.2, I shit you not I absolutely loved it, android is unbelievably cool, and well dont start me on the apps.....awesome.

    So now we get to the point, sorry for the long intro. I have now come home to the UK after many years overseas and having now sold both the tab and the BB to get some money together I was able to get a free phone here on contract, so what did I do.....yeh that's right I went and bought a bloody iPhone 4 stupid stupid stupid Aaaarggh I should be shot! The Samsung Galaxy SII is miles better as is the Android OS and I knew it!

    I am not a skilled reviewer so in basic terms here is why I loved the Android OS so much:

    Google Navigation
    Note Everything
    Just Pictures
    Thinking Space
    Ulysses Speedometer
    Power Amp, and many other cool applications which you cannot get in the Apple store :(

    The ability to drag and drop any files from anywhere to anywhere
    SD Card
    Faster responding camera
    Flash browsing
    Louder speakers
    Huge choice of options when touching and holding items within any app; example, touch and hold a music track and you can set it to do whatever you want....ringtone, text tone, alarm tone and more, simplicity itself!! not so with iPhone.
    The 5.1 surround option on Android with TV and movies....excellent!
    No case required to compensate for a stupid design fault!

    The iPhone 4 is a work of art as far as design goes and is better looking that the Galaxy SII, that much I will give it because its fair and true, those of you have lived with Android for awhile will understand my points I am sure, those of you who have not will not fully understand until you have.

    I just know what I like and its not Apple, I am stuck with this damn phone now for 2 years, no offence intended to iPhone users, a personal insight only.

    ReplyDelete
  3. what is the best thing to do? I am in the exact same situation. I really like it as a mini me computer, but I hate it as a communications device, which is what I really need. Even the guy at apple who sold it to me said he waits til he's on his regular computer to surf the net and avoids overage fees (which you are encouraged by at&t to "frequently check." also annoying). SELL the iphone 4 and get the samsung, or just return it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

영어가 모국어인 사람들은 왜 한국어를 배우기가 어려운 이유

이 포스트는 내 처음 한국어로 블로그 포스트인데, 한국어에 대하니까 잘 어울린다. =) 자, 시작합시다! 왜 외국사람에게 한국어를 배우기가 어렵다? 난 한국어를 배우고 있는 사람이라서 이 문제에 대해 많이 생각하고 있었다. 여러가지 이유가 있는데 오늘 몇 이유만 논할 것이다. 1. 분명히 한국어 문법은 영어에 비해 너무 많이 다른다. 영어는 “오른쪽으로 분지(分枝)의 언어"라고 하는데 한국어는 “왼쪽으로 분지의 언어"이다. 뜻이 무엇이나요? 예를 보면 이해할 수 있을 것이다. 간단한 문장만 말하면 (외국어를 말하는 남들은 간단한 문장의 수준을 지낼 수가 약간 드물다), 간단한 걸 기억해야 돼: 영어는 “SVO”인데 한국어는 “SOV”이다. “I’m going to school”라고 한국어로는 “저는 학교에 가요"라고 말한다. 영어로 똑바로 번역하면 “I’m school to go”이다. 두 언어 다르는 게 목적어와 동사의 곳을 교환해야 한다. 별로 어렵지 않다. 하지만, 조금 더 어렵게 만들자. “I went to the restaurant that we ate at last week.” 한국어로는 “전 우리 지난 주에 갔던 식당에 또 갔어요"라고 말한다. 영어로 똑바로 번역하면 “I we last week went to restaurant to again went”말이다. 한국어가 왼쪽으로 분지 언어라서 문장 중에 왼쪽으로 확대한다! 이렇게 좀 더 쉽게 볼 수 있다: “전 (우리 지난 주에 갔던 식당)에 또 갔어요”. 주제가 “전"이고 동사가 “갔다"이고 목적어가 “우리 지난 주에 갔던 식당"이다. 영어 문장은 오른쪽으로 확대한다: I (S) went (V) to (the restaurant (that we went to (last week))) (O). 그래서 두 숙어 문장 만들고 싶으면 생각속에서도 순서를 변해야 된다. 2. 첫 째 점이니까 다른 사람을 자기 말을 아라들게 하고 싶으면, 충분히...

10 other things South Korea does better than anywhere else

Recently this article about 10 things that South Korea does better than anywhere else  has been making the rounds on social media, but when I first read it, I couldn't tell if it was sincere or satire. A few of the items on the list are not very positive, such as "overworking" and "using credit cards". So, I thought I would try to put together a better list. Here are 10 other things South Korea does better than anywhere else: 1) Small side dishes, a.k.a. " banchan " (반찬) Banchan are by far my favorite aspect of Korean cuisine. Rather than the "appetizer and main dish" approach of the West, a Korean meal is essentially built around small dishes. Even a 5,000 won (about $5 USD) meal at a mall food court will come with two to four banchan in addition to the "main", and often people will actually choose restaurants based  on the banchan (e.g., seolleongtang , or beef bone broth soup, places tend to have the tastiest kimchi). Ther...

"Gangnam Style" English Translation

I finally got around to looking up the lyrics to Psy's "Gangnam Style" last night. I couldn't find any English translations that I liked, so I decided to make my own. Disclaimer: I don't speak Korean. It's not my first language. It's not even my second or third language. But I did used to live in Gangnam, and the Internets abound with dictionaries, so I decided to give it a go. Incidentally, this is also my first foray into Korean-English translation. The translators out there will know - translation is as much art as science. If you translate directly, you end up with overly awkward constructions. But if you vary too much from the direct translation, you risk losing the original intent. So, in some places below, I've taken some poetic license to make the translation sound better. For example, "놀 땐 노는 여자" literally means "a girl who plays when it's time to play", but I changed it to "a girl who knows how to get down"...