Control

The control of Apple devices is legendary in itself, and the iPhone shows that this is not without reason. Take SMS messages, for example. Why has no one else thought of what the iPhone has introduced (except for one alternative program for Palm devices): SMS messaging in the form of a chat? Yes, Nokia allows this, but as soon as you exit the application, the entire context is lost. The iPhone always shows the conversation between you and your contact in a very clear graphical format.

The same goes for searching for a phone number. When you have a lot of them, it’s a real problem, no matter how you sort them. Apple has created an interesting algorithm for this, which allows you to navigate a comprehensive list quite easily: by moving your finger across most of the display, you can scroll up or down through contacts sorted alphabetically, but if you want to quickly jump to a certain initial letter, just move your finger on the right side of the display, where the letters are displayed, and you will immediately jump to names beginning with that letter. And you can keep moving here; it’s like a fast lane for browsing the phone book. What’s missing—and it’s a shame, but hopefully it will be added in a decent form later—is search.

A nice touch is that when you receive a call, you not only see the caller’s profile, but you can also set up a conference call and perform other tricks. Let’s be honest, who knows where to find that in their phone’s menu? I certainly don’t.

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Control

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