Are you into the iPhone hype? A lot of people are still in a daze on how many applications this smart phone can do. Yet there are still a couple of limitations, which may let you think: did I make the right decision or is the 8525 Pocket IE’s way better.

It’s just dual-band phone. This means that your smart phone isn’t 3G unlike any other average phone sold in the market today. It may be equipped with a Safari web browser, which is itself a piece of wonder, but it’s nothing because of bad EDGE connection. The 8525 Pocket IE seems backwards. Nevertheless, the UMTS connection is definitely high speed, which compensates other weaknesses. But it will work better if you have another add-on called PiePlus installed.

It takes more than just a click to perform a function. iPhone boasts of a one-button interface, yet it’s still loaded with too many cumbersome functions. One is that you practically have to do a lot of clicking—or, in iPhone’s case, finger touching—just to run an application or a program. Other phones such as the 8525 are full of buttons that are sometimes too hard to press, yet they can be programmed so you can automatically open applications with ease and one press.

There’s no way to have it customized. The iPhone is a web browser, iPod, and an average phone all in one. But you can never have the chance to change its default settings or to tweak the applications, unless Apple decides to open the platform to other software developers. The 8525, on the other hand, can install any third-party toolbar, along with the installation of PiePlus.

There’s no such thing as to-do list. It has a calendar system, address book, and highly advanced e-mail and call messaging option, but there’s no way that you can find a to-do list in an iPhone. This is completely heartbreaking for businesspeople and other professionals who are completely dependent on a checklist. You may compensate that with any web-based tools, but they don’t function unless you’re connected or using the EDGE technology. The 8525 has a useful to-do application, even if it’s crude. If it doesn’t work properly, then you can always choose to download other third-party options.

You’re stuck with a two-year contract. The buy the iPhone at such an expensive price is one thing, but to be tied to its two-year contract. The 8525, meanwhile, can be available at a price of $80.

With all the iPhone disadvantages, it still deserves a chance. After all, it hasn’t celebrated its first birthday. Who knows what other software upgrades Apple can offer pretty soon?

Let’s talk about the advantages of the iPhone. It has a very big screen, compared to any ordinary phones. This means that you can view text messages and images with clarity. Its colors are very sharp and very vivid.

I really don’t know how you’ll classify its touch screen system. Sometimes I find it fascinating really, since I don’t have to constantly bring the stylus or tire my fingers with the keypads. But since it’s a relatively new technology, this means constant practice is still needed. Nevertheless, finger pressing seems a lot of fun. In fact, there are already iPhone tricks that you can do.

Iphone allows everyone to connect to the Internet in a variety of ways. You can go for WiFi connection or utilize its EDGE technology. But if you’re previously using a 3G phone, iPhone may fall short as it’s only a dual-band phone; data transmission can be much slower. Its Safari web browser may not be at par with the one you have in your PC, yet it’s still very impressive. What other phone can allow you to look at web pages as they are?

The iPhone is also a true blue handheld video player that allows you to view TV shows, movies, and listen to music without any trouble. Of course, it also holds up to its very decent music player. But you can’t download music, and that’s a big hassle for anyone.
Phone functionalities are not compromised. In fact, you can now synchronize your address books so you can have your own one large database. You can select voice mail messages the same way you do for e-mails. So skip those unwanted phone calls. You may also synchronize your e-mails so you can receive messages in real time.

AT&T, its exclusive network carrier, doesn’t have any sufficient support when it comes to data network as well as for the lack of IMs and office applications. Handsets can get too warm when used constantly and the iPhone is very prone to smudges, requiring you to wipe it frequently.
One of the biggest iPhone drawbacks is its price, which is quite expensive at $599.
Is the iPhone worth to be loved or hated?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Don’t Use Its EDGE technology. If you don’t want your friend to frown or worse never permit you to use the iPhone again, avoid using the phone’s Internet browsing technology unless you are near any WiFi connection. EDGE system of AT&T is slow with regards to data transmission. You shouldn’t tell your friend about this; else, he might think that you’re only trying to criticize the phone.

Avoid checking e-mails. When you’re using somebody else’s property there’s the temptation of perusing another persons missives—in this case, e-mail accounts. If you press the Mail button found in the iPhone, you’re given immediate access to your friend’s e-mail messages from Gmail, Yahoo, as well as other accounts. Hotmail, fortunately, gives you no easy option.

Do not surf porn in the iPhone. Maybe for curiosity’s sake, you decided to browse a porn site utilizing the Safari web browser of the phone. You think you can get away with it, but think again. Like any other web browser found in your PC or notebook, Safari has its own History function that can make it very easy for your friend to check the sites you’ve visited. Surely, he’ll know what you did.

If you can’t stop it, however, make sure that you clear History and cache before returning the iPhone. You can do that by pressing on the Home button. Go to Settings, look for Safari, tap it, and scroll down. Tap on “Clear Cache” and “Clear History.”

Avoid smudging and sneezing. Before you ever lay your fingers on the iPhone, wipe your fingers ahead. The screen may be superb and shiny to look at, but don’t coat it with grease. Turn your back or cover your mouth when you’re about to sneeze. If you think finger prints are bad, a sneeze residue is far worse.

Read the manual. There’s a reason why it has a manual, and it’s opt to be read. So do that. Ask your friend to read through the manual before you decide to operate the iPhone. Just a few hints, though. Don’t place the iPhone in any external heat source to dry the phone. Also, avoid crushing, bending, puncturing, shredding, microwaving, painting, disassembling, or inserting any object into the iPhone.

Unless you can’t follow this, then better get your own.

Despite the many features iPhone have, others are still digging deeper, hoping to discover a lot more interesting stuff—and they are successful. A system preference file has actually unveiled the many possibilities of using more widgets and applications for the iPhone. It’s just that one need to wait for another firmware upgrade before they can be unlocked.

This system preference file is known as the Default ApplicationState .plist. This contained not only a number of commonly used applications such as MobileiPod, Phonebook, and Weather, but also other interesting features such as Radio, Unit Converter, and Translation. These three are not currently offered by the iPhones sold today.

Everyone can simply deduce that the Translation widget may be for translating various texts in different languages and that the Unit Converter is simply a conversion application. However, what one should be excited about is the Radio. It has been a long time since iPod incorporated this feature into their unit. This function was recently introduced only with the release of the iPod’s remote accessory known as iPod Radio. Thus, the chances for Apple to integrate Radio to the iPhone may be quite slim.

All hope’s not gone, however, if you will rely on the system preference file. We can just simply look forward to the time when Apple will introduce mobile radio streaming on iPhones very soon. Another source of hope could be the mere fact that this is included in the firmware list. It may indicate that these programs or widgets will be unlocked following an update in the firmware.

In the meantime, iPhone is just relatively new. It hasn’t been like a month since people got hold of it and enjoyed and explored its capabilities. Nevertheless, one should not deny the fact that if Apple wants to maintain that edge over all other mobile carriers, it must constantly update its firmware and develop more built-in tools.

The Helio Ocean is great at areas where the iPhone is at its weakest. For example, when it comes to 3G network, you can connect through it with lightning speed. It has a unique dual slider system where numeric keypads are revealed when you place the phone vertically and a QWERTY keyboard when positioned horizontally. The minor glitch, however, there is that you can’t open both simultaneously as they belong into separate layers.

Ocean also finds its edge in terms of its e-mail messaging services. You can integrate almost all known mail services in the web such as MSN Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail in one messaging dashboard. Latest buzz is that Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync program may just find its way to Ocean, synchronizing contacts, calendar entries, and corporate e-mail. It also makes instant messaging a lot easier through its Presence Detection feature. You can type the name of your contact in the home screen. Helio’s Smart Dialer will then reveal complete contact information of the person as well as icons that indicate if your friend is actually online.

If all these highly efficient features are already provided by Helio, what’s the iPhone for? For one, it isn’t simply an ordinary phone. It can also function as an iPod. It has a very wide screen complete with touch controls which allow you to enjoy any form of media to your heart’s content. This includes videos, TV shows, music, movies, and audio books. Through its Safari web browser, you can view any web page exactly as they are. You can zoom them by merely tapping with your finger its multitouch display.

The iPhone is for multitaskers. It tries to imitate the sophistication and power of any advanced operating system like widgets, calendar, text messaging, and Notes, among others. This means you can download an e-mail while you surf the Web.

The phone is equipped with its own built-in sensors. A simple rotation of the device will automatically convert its setting from landscape to portrait. This also changes the way images and texts are displayed on screen, so it will use the entire web page width. So which one is better? Honestly, only time can really tell.

If you want to crate word contractions such as “We’ll” and “He’ll,” you need to make sure that the apostrophe is inserted. However, adding one can be such a hassle. You still need to press the punctuation button and then the apostrophe to form the correct word.

But there’s another simpler and faster way: you can just simply add another “l” into the word, as in “helll.” The keyboard software will suggest “he’ll.” The same goes with the word “we’ll.”

The alphabet keys and the punctuation keys actually belong to 2 various kinds of keyboard layouts. If you want to create a comma or a period, for example, you need to do a three-step procedure:

1. You tap in the lower left the following keys: ?1123. This is to invoke the appropriate punctuation layout.
2. Write the period.
3. Press the ABC key found in the lower left to go back to the alphabet layout.

Yet the entire process is too cumbersome. What if you’re going to write “D.O.E. of the U.S.A.” To avoid hurting your fingers from pressing too many keys, you can do a single gesture: long press the key until you can select the correct punctuation, such as period or comma.

The iPhone’s Web browser can function just like any other desktop Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. You actually don’t need to type in the entire URL, along with the .com extension—just write the URL and then press Go. The highly advanced and dependable Safari Web browser will directly add the extension for you. You may think that it’s not a hassle since it’s just a single button press. But hey, isn’t that enough energy saving for you?

The many different tips and tricks are made to fully maximize your use of the iPhone, most especially of its keyboards. But like any other new tool, definitely there’s much more that you can discover from it. Just be smart and be observant.