Review: Apple iPhone as a tool for journalism or PR – epic failure

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved the potential of mobile communications for professional communicators including journalists and PR types. I remember in 2000 sitting with glee at getting a Nokia 6210 to work with a Targus folding keyboard and a Handspring Visor. I loved using that kit in the field. Others used the Nokia Communicator for similar results but back then the Communicator was a pricey piece of kit.

Fast forward to 2009 and there’s two real contenders out there for journalists wanting as much of an all in one solution as possible: Nokia’s N97 and Apple’s third stab at the iPhone, the iPhone 3GS.

Last year I had the chance to go up to the music festival T in the Park and put the N95 through a heavy duty field test. Since then I’ve also had a run-through with the Flip and Qik. This year’s T in the Park gave me a chance to test Apple’s latest hyped phone and, as you may have guessed from the headline, boy was I disappointed.

Note: Lots of video and pic links after the jump…

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: yes, I am an Apple fanboi but I have my limits. My home kit has always been Apple but this was my first iPhone (picked up in Carphone Warehouse after some atrocious customer service in O2) as it seemed unworkable prior to this with a poor camera, no video and no MMS.

Anyway, set off on site on the Friday afternoon and I was excited. I wanted to see if the iPhone would be a little mobile office for me. I could send stories by email, check Twitter (via Tweetdeck) for updates, use Shazam to get song titles for songs I didn’t know, send some Audioboos, take audio and video and upload it. This was going to be it. A pair of funky shades and I was all set to be the music Spider Jerusalem.

So let’s break this down into video, audio, pictures and other issues.

VIDEO:

First diappointment came when I discovered there were no T in the Park apps I could install, but in the grand scheme of things that was minor, so it was down to business with a general establishing shot of the flags in the main area:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZBhVqDOGKI

And that looks OK in YouTube. The colours are fresh enough, you can hear a soundcheck on the main stage as well as the wind, so a promising enough start. Camera was easy enough to use and responsive when turned on.

There were three main areas for the iPhone to be tested as a reporter’s tool and it was outside during the day, outside at night and inside a tent. I’ll post some videos and then add my thoughts:

OUTSIDE IN DAYLIGHT

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5NKrsEqqJI

Streets fans running into the Slam tent after ripping up the metal fencing from outside the full tent.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWNb8NAkZ8

The Script playing on the main stage

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp_AvnhTTsk

Calvin Harris on the main stage on the Saturday

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOTJxsd7RN8

Bjorn Again playing Abba

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j_tR0lJRTI

Keane on the Radio 1/NME stage

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-EbLG6Ccc

Crowd panning shot

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Vl1q4ZrZc

Later shot of the flags as the weather darkened

In each case it captures the colour OK but the sound is awful – and that’s quite a bit back from the main stage in most of those shots. It’s also obvious that the weather played a large part – when it’s cloudy some of those shots are really poor compared to the brightly-lit ones.

Where it did do well was in catching the tail-end of the action when The Streets fans pulled the fence out the concrete supports to force their way in to a full tent. The camera turned on and was recording a good 3 or 4 seconds than the N95 would have managed.

For daytime video it was decent.

OUTSIDE AT NIGHT

For context, these were all taken between 10:30pm and 11:30pm on a cloudy Sunday night.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaMzok2JDCM

Blur singing Parklife

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sunyysgLTfI

More Blur

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QGT–eQW3U

Blur with the camera held the wrong way (hope SimpleMovieX can fix that)

In short, that’s awful. The camera struggles with being near the back of the main stage area, the lights blind it, the sound is atrocious.

IN A TENT

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAMz6GlN6g

Glasvegas (or rather their fans)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJhF66VPq7Y

The Noisettes – look to the slight right hand side of the Welsh flag flying on the left hand side of the video. You can’t see her, but the lead singer is about one-third up that scaffolding)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncr4kue1Wns

More Noisettes

Where to begin? The sound is awful from two different parts of the tent – the King Tut Wah Wah Hut tent – and the picture is almost as bad. There’s no focus. If Shingai Shoniwa had fallen to her death you’d have been lucky to catch it, even looking straight at her.

There’s nothing there better than the N95 from a year ago. In fact if anything, the sound and picture quality is worse.

AUDIO:

PICTURES:

Here’s a couple of various shots from across the weekend:

[flickr pid=”<3716764654>” size=”<medium>”]

OTHER ISSUES:

So what are the main areas the iPhone fails on?

• The lack of 3G coverage (and this is something that’s going to be ongoing, not just at T in the Park) is a total swine. You can blame O2 for this instead of Apple if you want, but Apple chose them as their partner so the blame goes to both. The Register says there may be other networks offering the iPhone soon so be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
• The battery life is worse than pathetic – and the lack of swapping is equally bad. How BlackBerries can have such a decent life but this doesn’t – and Apple are normally great at battery life on portable devices – baffles me.
• The camera(s). I know the iPhone is designed for the US market where cameras have been retarded on phones since the idea first took off, but I was surprised at how bad some of the shots were. And 3.2 megapixels is a poor show in a premium device. (though we all know that it lets Apple call next year’s release of the iPhone the iPhone HD by giving it better cameras)
• No kind of zoom – this kit offering an iPhone case that takes camera lenses might be the answer to that – if the lenses are decent.
• No flash for the camera. WTF?
• No multitasking on Apps can be a problem as well if trying to go between web pages and tweets.
• No external keyboard? Technically not Apple’s fault but I get the impression they must be holding one back because it’s the obvious addon.
• No recording of phone calls/upload of voice memos facility. Fortunately Griffin’s iTalk does have (for voice memos anyway – would love a phone recorder).

(There are other things that bother me about the iPhone – attaching songs as ringtones, SMS forwarding and so on, but they aren’t relevant to here)

PHONE 4 U (OR ME?)

I know I’ve hammered the iPhone here, but it’s not going back to the shop for a few reasons:

Events like Balado are, for me, very rare. If there was more of them in my working life then I’d get an external keyboard for my N95 or pick up one of the newer Nokia’s that can take an external keyboard.  I’m mostly in urban areas and normally near electricity. The apps that do work on it when it is in civilisation also make it very useful.

It’s just a shame because this is a phone that could clean up in the PR/journalism market with a few tweaks (and an external keyboard) but I think that for many, it will be a cool phone that just doesn’t live up to potential.

(and next year? Can someone else do an iPhone review please? I’m tied into a two-year contract 🙂 )