Life is full of little ironies. They run the gamut from amusing, to wry, and even bitter. One such irony happened today, when I tried to call my mechanic in Boulder, Colorado from an office in Palo Alto, California. Palo Alto is within a short drive from Cupertino, Apple’s headquarters. Apple built my 3G iPhone. The call got dropped three consecutive times after about four seconds of conversation.
Now, I know AT&T’s network isn’t based in Cupertino, and I grant you that this was more likely a network issue than a phone issue. Still, you would think that if the latest high-tech phone doesn’t work in the very heart of Silicon Valley, mere miles away from its manufacturer’s headquarters, then it’s clear that we still have a long way to go in making cell phones work as well as wired phones. (I was ultimately able to speak to my mechanic via land line. The repair bill is $600. I am bummed.)
The iPhone is remarkable in many ways, but not as a phone. The volume is too low in noisy rooms, even at the maximum setting. It can’t beep periodically to alert you if you have voicemail; heck, my trusty old Motorola cellphone could do that (as can virtually any non-i-phone). As is so often the case with multifunction devices, the quality of the individual capabilities suffers compared to dedicated devices. Readers of this blog understand the syndrome well in the context of servers hosting too many different roles. You just can’t optimize a machine like that.
The iPhone is great for finding the nearest library or carwash in a strange town, and I’m sure not giving it up. One of these days, however, I would like to have a phone that works brilliantly as a phone. Am I out of line here?
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