A few weeks ago, I busted my Samsung Galaxy S-III pretty good. Without an insurance policy and being only 10-months into my 2-year contract with Verizon, replacement options were limited to buying a) a brand new phone through Verizon (approx $499+), b) a refurbished phone through Verizon (approx $249+) or c) a used/refurbished phone through a 3rd party vendor (starting around $139).
I chose option C. Which was an iPhone. And after two weeks, I can honestly say that I don’t like it.
It should be noted that it was an iPhone4. It should also be disclosed that my familiarity with, and tolerance of, any Apple product is pretty low. I have an iPad and an iPod and am not overly thrilled with either. And no. I don’t like Mac’s.
Still. For $149 I figured that buying one of America’s most highly sought after brands of phone would be more than sufficient. Oh how mistaken I was…
Maps and Directions
The biggest complaint I have with the iPhone4 is its inability to provide me turn-by-turn – voice – directions. As someone who gets lost frequently (I flunked flank), I depend on the calm, friendly, computerized voice guiding me to various destinations. With the iPhone, I have to hold the phone and read the directions while driving – which isn’t very safe.
Oh! And should I deviate from the original route, the iPhone doesn’t seem smart enough to adjust my map.
Face Dialing
I get that I have a fat face yet I can’t recall a single time since owning a smart phone that my cheek has hit the ‘speaker’ button or other key on the number pad creating a loud, ear-bleeding, beeeeeeep to both myself and the person on the other end of the line.
Looking online, do you know what the solution is for this? To create a black picture/image and to display it on your screen immediately after dialing (or picking up) a call. Therefore making your (or in this case my) cheek bump against the picture and not the keypad.
iTunes
I just want to install “It’s the wife!” ringtone.
The need to hook up my phone with a desktop computer in order to do virtually ANYTHING is ASININE. I downloaded a ringtone app the other day, for my phone mind you, yet cannot use it because, and I quote, “To get ringtones, you must sync with iTunes. It’s not a ZEDGE thing, that’s just how it works.”
This is wrong.
Oh. And the other day I downloaded an app in iTunes and was having issues syncing with the iPad. Yet after an hour of trying to figure out what the hell was going on – I noticed the app was installed on my phone. So I now I have to experience a near-daily fight among a pair of 6-years olds who want to play ‘Angry Birds GO!’.
Camera Settings
On my Samsung Galaxy, I was able to choose between a low-resolution pictures and videos and a high-resolution with several in-between options. This was good for both posting images and videos online and saving them for other purposes offline. Now I can only choose between HDR-on and HDR-off (in which I have no idea what either option does.)
Miscellaneous
To top it off, I have no Siri. I can live with that, but the expectations of owning an iPhone – even an iPhone4 – is the ability to screw with artificial intelligence. The battery life is also questionable and I can’t always tell when I’m on WiFi or if WiFi is available.
And last, but not least, is the various notifications – the buzz, dings, vibrating, volume, etc. Maybe I just need more practice messing with the settings. Or maybe Apple needs to get bent.
One of my favorite memes.
Yet somehow it could all be worse. Going nearly a week and half without a phone wasn’t easy (first world problems, I know.) I can still send/receive text messages, post annoying stuff on Twitter and ridicule people on Facebook who often post vague status updates soliciting attention from others. (Oh. You know who you are!)
I just wish Verizon could’ve done more. I think what really bothered me was their continued, yet eerily positive, message that I wasn’t due for my upgrade for another 14-months. Which was basically a nice way of saying, “You must wait until your contract is up before we can help you at all.”
Ha! Upgrade my ass.
