iPhone Experiences and Reviews

One day after the iPhone release, and the reviews and impressions are rolling in. Reader reviews are being posted to this thread with other areas for iPhone Accessory, iPhone Application, iPhone Help/Troubleshooting discussion. We've also had regional discussion about buying an iPhone at the Apple Store, with our own Katie's buying experience at https://www.macrumors.com/iphone

Despite with what appears to be a high number of sales, iPhones are still available at most Apple Stores (check availability) -- though we have heard that several AT&T stores sold out last night due to minimal inventory.

John Gruber posted his first impressions of the device:

Overall day one impression: the iPhone is 95 percent amazing, 5 percent maddening. Im just blown away by how nice it is very thoughtful UI design and outstanding engineering. It is very fun.

I havent found a single element of the iPhone UI that doesnt feel super-snappy.
Can rotate to landscape in either direction.
Notes app is lame (photo)
Calendar is "very nice".
"When youre done with an app, you just tap the Home button. What happens to apps when you do this is not exposed; theres no concept of quitting or closing, just switching. I think this is a great design, Im just having trouble getting used to it."

Support pages at Apple with tech notes and troubleshooting have appeared. The biggest issue that has plagued people has been activation problems. Users have been discussing the problem, but Tech-Recipes spoke to AT&T support last night who unhelpfully advised: "they were having bugs with validation and that we should retry every 30 minutes or so until it works."

More galleries: Disassembly photos from ThinkSecret, ZDNet Unboxing.

Web developers can take note that Ajaxian.com has compiled some impressions of the Safari browser with respect to web development:
Safari sets default width as 980px if width not set.
Drag / drop elements based on mousemove events don't work since dragging one finger around causes iPhone Safari to scroll
You do not get mousedown when you touch the screen. You get mousedown and mouseup at the same time when you release your finger. The mousemove event does not seem to fire at all.

Perhaps most interesting is that PCWorld has tried its own stress tests on the iPhone (Video). They put the iPhone through Scratch Tests and Drop Tests.

Scratch Test: When the iPhone emerged with its screen just as pristine as when it went in, we then attempted to gouge the screen with one of the keys. We were very impressed that even this deliberate attempt to scratch the screen completely failed.

Drop Test: The iPhone not only continue to work after each drop test, impressively it still looked good as well. The only obvious damage suffered was a few gouges along its metal edge from the concrete drops. But it came out without a scratch on its glass screen, despite our best efforts to mar it in repeated tests of both types.

We'll be compiling ongoing iPhone notes and developments at https://www.macrumors.com/iphone/

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

Delta Feature

Delta Game Emulator Now Available From App Store on iPhone

Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Friday April 12, 2024 11:11 am PDT by
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
iOS NES Emulator Bimmy Feature

NES Emulator for iPhone and iPad Now Available on App Store [Removed]

Tuesday April 16, 2024 11:33 am PDT by
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
iGBA Feature

Apple Removes Game Boy Emulator iGBA From App Store Due to Spam and Copyright Violations

Sunday April 14, 2024 9:22 pm PDT by
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
iPhone 15 Pro Action Button Translate

All iPhone 16 Models to Feature Action Button, But Usefulness Debated

Tuesday April 16, 2024 6:54 am PDT by
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
iGBA Feature

Game Boy Emulator for iPhone Now Available in App Store Following Rule Change [Removed]

Sunday April 14, 2024 8:06 am PDT by
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...