The Hindu Business Line : An i on this phone

I had finally succumbed to temptation after the newspapers were filled with news about the release of the iPhone earlier this year, and went across to have a look for myself.

Unlike the new Batman movie, Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 and the Matrix sequels, Apple’s iPhone actually lives up to the hype.

I told Steve-the-sales-executive I had no intention to buy an iPhone, but simply wanted to have a look at it. I expected to be thrown out summarily, albeit with traditional British politeness.

But fortunately for me, Steve’s love for this new toy was such that he was happy to show it to anyone. In fact, he was one step away from accosting people on the streets of London to tell them what a great product it is.

And the product did not disappoint. The size is the first thing you notice — slim and broad. Comfortable to slip into your pocket, not so comfortable to hold in your hand. But the touchscreen capability, and the visual sensor make up for the latter.

Because there is very little in terms of actual buttons, most of the controls — the numbers, the menu button and the ‘cancel’ button — are on the screen itself. This allows the screen to dominate most of the phone. The screen is about the size of your palm, which is ideal for viewing.

The visual sensor means that if you’re holding it the usual way, the screen is like the usual phone.

If you hold it sideways, it changes to a widescreen. The widescreen is perfect for watching video clips, browsing through photographs, and typing messages.

Pure poetry

Which brings us to the next feature — the touchscreen keyboard. For me, a journalist, this is the best feature on the iPhone. I couldn’t quite get to grips with it with Steve jumping up and down behind me, but a few days later my friend Alex Naray left his iPhone in my care while he went back to Switzerland, his home country.

Why he did not want to show off his new toy to his fellow Geneva-ites, I have no idea. But it gave me the opportunity to try typing a few messages. Though the touch screen keyboard is quite small, it is remarkably intelligent. You think you must be pressing the letters ‘q’ ‘w’ ‘e’ ‘a’ ‘s’ ‘d’ all at the same time, but almost always the phone picks the right letter.

I immediately had roseate visions of typing out a story while sitting at the back of a press conference and sending it within seconds through the 3G capability to the newsdesk.

When Alex came back, he gave me the dubious pleasure of showing me pictures of himself and his girlfriend on an earlier trip to Scotland. The Edinborough cathedral and Ileana grinning at the camera with the Scottish countryside as backdrop all left me cold. Though Ileana did look dead pretty, it was the way you can toy with the photographs on the iPhone that excited me more than anything else. It’s pure poetry.

If you put the tip of your finger to one side of a photo, and flick at across the screen — as though you are turning the page of a book — it moves to the next photo in the gallery. Put your forefinger and your thumb together and place it on the screen. Move them apart — as though opening a tiny pair of curtains — and the photograph zooms in. Move them back together, it zooms out. Tap it twice, and it shows you icons of the gallery.

And Apple’s coup de grace is the tie-up with Google maps. Though India isn’t on satellite navigation yet, this could still come in handy provided you know where you are. If you have the 3G version, even better.

Some bumps too

But it can’t be all good, of course — one tiny metal-and-plastic thing can’t have all these features and not be flawed.

One problem is the 2 mega-pixel camera. You can easily get a 5MP camera with another high-end phone which probably wouldn’t cost as much. But this is a trade off for the gazillion other features.

The other more serious problem is the battery. It cannot be removed. So if it conks out you have to send it to Apple to get it fixed, and make do with a less exciting phone in the meantime.

Until this problem is sorted out, buying the iPhone may not be quite the thing for more conservative buyers.

But in terms of price, Indians have a good deal. In the UK, you have to shell out 270 pounds and get on a 35-pound a month contract with O2. This may sound alright, but the thing is, in the UK, you can get a high-end phone — the latest Sony Ericsson K850i, for example — for free with a 35-pound a month contract.

In India, at Rs 30,000 odd, it is an excellent price. As a friend of mine pointed out, you can well buy it instead of a handycam. True, you have to get on contract with Airtel or Vodafone, but even otherwise you would have to buy your own phone and pay a monthly bill anyway.

Yes it has flaws, but it is a thing of beauty, and as Keats reminds us, that’s joy forever.

Or at least until iPhone 2 comes out.

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