Steven’s Notebook

All the cool kids are blogging about their newest toy this week, Apple’s iPhone, but for me the launch was a non-event. It’s fun to read about, of course, and I’m as interested as anyone in how well they’re working, but for now I’m not a purchaser.

I like Apple products, I use my PowerBook and iPod every day, and the iPhone ads make me drool. Trust me, I want an iPhone — or at least want to want one. From what I’ve seen though, it just doesn’t do enough. Yet.

I know that much of the iPhone’s “cool” factor outweighs its function for some, but there are things I require in a walking-about-device. I “live” by my company email, calendar, contact list and tasks. The iPhone can use IMAP and I’m pretty sure I could get our IT guy to enable it on our server, but I don’t believe that Exhcange server supports iCal, even in one direction much less synchronizing with an external device. I could be wrong though. From the various blog posts etc. that I’ve seen so far it’s unclear if there’s a way to sync Contacts either, and the iPhone doesn’t even have a task list application.

Maybe at some point there will be an Apple-supplied, Microsoft-supplied or third-party tool for hooking the iPhone seamlessly to an Exchange server. I’d really like to see one of the two first, though I realize that either is pretty unlikely to happen any time soon. Please, MBU, prove me wrong. After many years of dealing with devices running the Palm OS & applications and PocketMirror, I’m not terribly interested in third-party tools. Most things would sync - enough to say that it “worked,” - but the little things add up to be very annoying.

I have a device that does sync perfectly with our exchange server. That means that I have my calendar, email, contacts, tasks… all synchronized seamlessly, accessible all the time from my desktop or “phone.”

Unlike the iPhone, I can copy-and-paste in most of the applications.

I can set my ringtones to use a song if I’d like, and I can dial by voice.

I can edit Word and Excel files if I really want to, and can even view PowerPoint presentations.

I can use Google Maps’ mobile edition on it, and though its browsing isn’t perfect, neither is the iPhone’s.

It ain’t quite as pretty as an iPhone, but it does what I need it to do.

Maybe at some point my needs will change. Certainly the iPhone’s capabilities will grow. And then I’ll be happy to get one.