Why didn’t anyone tell me…

The iPhone isn’t perfect. It’s convenient in some ways. It’s shiny. It’s got that “new device” feel still. Things are responsive and smooth. But there are a couple things the plain old iPod still has over it.  I have edited this post, having finally found the iPhone manual online and discovered you can squeeze the microphone (HOW do they fit a button in there?!) to start and stop the music. I like it, but I’d still prefer the same old remote you could get on the first generation iPod, even as an addon. But there are a couple things still not to like. I still carry my Garmin iQue 3600 becuase it has an “offline” todo app that syncs with my desktop. And while it does have maps, it doesn’t have “where am I now”, which the Garmin has over it. And there are a couple unsolved mysteries for me. I want offline access to some books and reference materials. I can’t wait for some of these things to surface after they finish the development kit, because I had an unabridged dictionary offline and in my pocket on my Palm that was wonderful when you catch a new word in your audiobooks.  The battery life is still an unknown quantity to me, and I’m still getting used to the small space available to me.  I’m also working on the idea that iTunes for video is a single list with checkboxes versus the wonderful UI that they present for music. Is it so hard to use the same UI for videos? Genre, Title, etc. could easily be the browsable categories. All I get is a single, undersized checklist. Oh, and trying to put them in a playlist to sync down? Sorry, no good. How foolish to make video a second class type in what is ultimately becoming a media library catalog and sync application. You listening Tim?