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iObservations

This week I finally upgraded to a brand new iPhone 5c after almost 2 full years of use on my trusty iPhone 4s. I’ve now spent a couple days with the new device running iOS 7 and wanted to share some random observations (both good and bad) for what they’re worth. As with anything, your milage may vary.

The Good

AT&T LTE – I mean just look at it!

Siri’s new voice – It’s so much better than before. Feels very Star Trek.

New ring and alert tones – There’s been some fun made of these but overall I really like them. The majority have a light, fun feel that seems to fit perfectly with the new iOS 7. My ringtone is currently set to Sencha and my alert tone is Chord. Groovy!

OS 7’s folders – Worlds better than the one in use in iOS 5 & 6 the new folders are clean, easy to manage & hold more apps.

Background refreshing – We implemented it in Twitterrific and I can already tell it will be one of my favorite features of the new OS. Having content ready for you when you wake the device is killer. Jury’s still out on how it will affect battery life however.

The feel – The feel of the 5c in the hand is just as I imagined it would be. It has the smooth, comfy feel of the 3gs without the extra bezels. It feels rock solid in your hand, not like you’d expect from a plastic phone.

Use of color – Much has been made of the, let’s just say “bold” use of color in iOS 7, some good, but mostly bad. Personally I love it. I love the way your wallpaper setting for instance changes how interfaces like the dialer screen looks. Make an overall change here and the whole user experience feels fresh. Bravo Apple.

Command Center – Being able to turn off blue tooth at will as well as quick access to a flashlight (don’t laugh, it’s useful!) is just great. I can’t wait until I have a use for sharing a file via AirDrop.

Multi-image emails – The ease of use selecting multiple images from your camera roll to attach to a single email is simply fabulous.

The Not-So-Good

Missing share buttons – Apple removed the ability to tweet and post to Facebook right from Notification Center for some reason. I’m not sure why, but this was a great way to quickly get a tweet out without any fuss. You can still do it via Siri, but it’s too prone to errors. Hopefully these controls will be coming back.

Multiple chargers – I like the new smaller, 10 pin charger but my iPad 3 still uses the old 30-pin version. This means I have to keep two different kinds of cords around my home to charge my devices. This stinks. Speaking of charging…

RIP iHome Clock – It will no longer work with my new iPhone 5c’s 10-pin charger port. This makes me very very sad.

RIP Olloclip – Designed for my iPhone 4, my Olloclip is now a useless hunk of metal and glass sitting on my desk. Again, sad.

The feel – Yes, I love the feel of the new 5c, but even though it feels super awesome, it’s also super slippery in the hand. As my wife said, it feels like it’s “coated in butter”. I immediately went out and bought an ugly Apple case for it simply because I just knew I’d eventually drop it. I hate to cover the wonderful plastic up but i’m scared it will slip right out of my hand. I sat it on the arm of my couch and watched it sloooowly slide right off into my lap. It’s crazy smooth.

Ugly icons – I realize I’m being a kind of icon snob here, but I just can’t warm up to the horrible Settings and Safari icons. The fact that they are two of the most important destinations on my iPhone means I have to look at them all the time and I just cringe when I do. Really hope the designers at Apple re-visit these at some point.

Overall I’m extremely happy with with my iPhone upgrade. There’s no doubt that it was time to replace my 4s. The only real choice was if I wanted to move to a 5s or a 5c. I’m extremely happy with how the new phone feels in my hands. The plastic case is top notch and doesn’t have the kinds of beveled edges that made my 4s hard to pick up and hold. Will I miss the finger print scanner, better camera and 64-bit processor of the 5s? Probably, but I’m betting a year from now we’ll see a new model that will have all of these things plus a larger screen and maybe the awesome case of the 5c. If you currently own an iPhone 5, then the 5c may not be the way to go, but if you’re like me coming from the previous model, you just might consider taking the colorful path to plastic town.

7 Comments

  1. Re: missing Tweet/Facebook links in Notification Center, if you cancel voice dictation, you can then type your post instead.

    Have you decided what you’re doing with your Oloclip lens yet? Does it fit a 5s? My presumption is that the lens placement and shape has remained the same from 4 to 4s to 5 to 5s.

  2. > • Missing share buttons – Apple removed the ability to tweet and post to Facebook right from Notification Center for some reason.

    A little surprised that you would have ever used that interface…? I would have figured there was no tweet too small for Twitteriffic.

    I had disabled those buttons in iOS 6, so I don’t miss them now. Notification Center felt (and still does feel) too overloaded, so I’m more than happy for it to do less, not more.

  3. > • The feel – Yes, I love the feel of the new 5c, but even though it feels super awesome, it’s also super slippery in the hand. I immediately went out and bought an ugly Apple case for it…

    Also surprised by this. You bought the 5C for its plastic exterior, but then you covered it up. Do you feel like purchasing a 5C for the reason you did was a mistake?

  4. Greg,

    Even though Twitterrific is indeed great for sending even short tweets, when I launch the app I have a compulsion to read through my timeline and get to the top. There are times when I just want to send something and not bother reading, and that’s when I would use the built-in share buttons.

    As for the 5c case, I don’t know yet. I may go back to being case-less but I’d have to do a better job of being mindful of it when it goes in and out of my pocket, or I put it down on a surface where it can move like my couch or my leg or whatever. I dont’ regret it for sure, but the jury’s still out on using a case or not.

  5. Hi–I have an iPhone dock too, and just bought a 5S. It looks like the iHome you have uses a universal dock adapter: I found a FlyBridge 30-pin to Lightning adapter that fits in the universal dock adapter and supports your phone (you also need the apple adapter, this sits on top of it).
    Flybridge sells them direct, but they are slightly cheaper if you buy on Amazon (still shipped from Flybridge)

  6. Correction to my earlier comment about hitting cancel to be able to type a tweet into Siri instead of dictating. Hit the text composition area, not the cancel button.

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