I’m totally loving my iPhone, so far. Wine Dog is right about power. I think I want two, one each for in- and out-bound calls. But it’s so far beyond any other phone I’ve ever had, I would never even think of stepping back to yesterday’s phone.
I have a piece of software called HandBrake for the Macintosh. It will convert DVDs to other file formats. It’s how I made this clip of Pleasantville last Summer. In early July, I ripped a full copy of Pleasantville in the iPhone’s ideal video format. I just watched it now. Excellent video, and theater-quality sound through the headphones. I’m ready to convert a DVD a night, while I sleep, and park them on a big hard disk for easy syncing.
I had calls drop today when I was in the mountains — nothing new for Phoenicians. Otherwise, the iPhone was fault free, and it works beautifully with the Jawbone headset. I do see power as being an issue, but it was with the Treo 650, too. I often drive for part of the day with my phone plugged into the cigarette lighter (what’s that?). With a hands-free headset, it doesn’t matter. Give me a strong voice dialer, and it will matter even less.
The Jawbone is so much better in sound quality that I’m thinking of pushing a lot more work toward Jott or other transcription software. Cathy is playing with OmniFocus, an iPhone-optimized GTD app. The iPhone is a software universe, rather than simply a set of tools like an ordinary smartphone, so there are almost unlimited horizons for us to discover.
My biggest challenge, I think, is to get Cameron interested in the iPhone SDK. Brian already has a project, and we can come up with dozens more. It’s not that this is the ultimate computing solution — far from it. But in many ways it is the optimax solution, the tool that offers the most, the most-flexible and the most-available computing power relative to its portability and form factor.
An example: I was talking to a reporter today from a business magazine about the availability of flexMLS, our new MLS system, on the iPhone. It’s not a sexy implementation at all, but, when you walk out of a house and the buyers point at the sign across the street and say, “What about that one?” — you have the ability to show them on the spot that it’s too small, too expensive and has no pool. Until now, that was always a follow-up chore.
Don’t tell me you coulda done that on your tablet computer. Your tablet computer is not in your shirt pocket — ready to screen Pleasantville if someone keeps you waiting.
I know there are limits that I will run into, limits that I will not love. But there are so many things that I will be able to do tomorrow, because of the iPhone, that I couldn’t do yesterday, that I may run out of implementation time before the next generation of iPhones cures some or all of my objections.
I’ve been preaching about the iPhone as the ultimate Realtor’s phone since it was announced, and the iPhone 3G offers few disappointments and a lot of satisfaction in that role.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Brandon Weber says:
Without a doubt, the iPhone is the best Realtor phone. I have had mine since the first week it came out in July 07 (don’t ask what I paid… but still totally worth it!). I am a cell phone junky and always had the latest and greatest, spending $500-800 every 4 months or so (yeah, my wife loved that). I can’t see any reason to replace this phone (except to trade it in for a 3G).
Oh, and, a vote here for OmniFocus and Jawbone, too.
August 21, 2008 — 11:29 pm
Sean Purcell says:
I haven’t yet drank the iPhone kool-aid (and you’re making it sound awful refreshing) but I do use the Jawbone. I have a serious volume problem with this phone. Turned all the way up I can barely hear the caller if there is anything more than ambient noise around me and you can forget about the caller hearing me. I am seriously thinking about going back to the wired headset it is so bad. Anyone else having this problem?
August 22, 2008 — 6:24 am
Todd says:
The iPhone is a beautiful piece of hardware, yes, but I promise that Android will be an order of a magnitude more useful to real estate agents. Oh yeah, how much does Android cost? $0.00 😉
August 22, 2008 — 6:24 am
Greg Swann says:
> I have a serious volume problem with this phone.
Take it back. Because of the bone conduction on the outbound side, the Jawbone should be remarkably better than any other Bluetooth headset. I tested ours with Jott when we got them, and dictation was flawless, a signal marker. It’s plausible to me that it might not be fitting your head, but it seems more likely that you have a defective unit.
August 22, 2008 — 6:48 am
Greg Swann says:
> I promise that Android will be an order of a magnitude more useful to real estate agents.
I hope you’re right. When the original iMac came out, it drove other electronics manufacturers to build the same old crap in lollypop colors. If someone builds something better than the iPhone, it will drive competition that much further, that much faster.
August 22, 2008 — 6:53 am
Will says:
I won’t say I could pull out my tablet to show them the property is too small or whatever… though I could… but why would I when we got pocketinterface which works brilliantly on pocket internet explorer and the blackberry browser (I do not know if it works on iPhone’s flavour of safari).
Oh… I can watch pleasantville if I wanted to but with unlimited data I’d rather browse my google reader or play a game of texas holdem.
I’ve seen the iphone. I’ve played with one. Maybe I have to actually have one with me for a while to appreciate how much more it costs over my current treo. Up here in Canada the iPhones and their plans are just not that attractive pricewise. Must be why I don’t see so many people running around with them yet everywhere I go I hear that all too familiar Treo default ring (why don’t we change them?).
August 22, 2008 — 9:30 am
San Antonio Lawyer says:
I am a fan of the Iphone for many obvious reasons, but I feel there has gotta be something out there that is a bit better. Something with the iPhone is missing, I just don’t know what it is yet.
September 3, 2008 — 4:02 pm