What You Can and Cannot Do with an iPhone on an Airplane

Traveling to Nashville on Sunday I had a chance to experiment with what the iPhone can and cannot do in airplane mode. Here’s my list in iPhone Dock (main screen) order:

SMS: I can read prior messages but cannot reply while in airplane mode. I tried queuing up a message thinking I could send the next time I got a connection. After entering my message and hitting send while still in airplane mode I got “Error Sending Message” which kicked me back to the message reply screen.

Calendar: I am not using the iPhone Dock calendar but it appears to work. Mike Q is using Gsync to two-way sync his Google calendar with iCal on his MacBook. This then syncs with the iPhone calendar. I had tried GSync before and had some issues with it and ended up using Calgoo. I believe I can do something similar with Calgoo and will work on this week when I get a few minutes. I'll also take another look at Gsync.

Photos: I can view all of my photos stored locally on the iPhone.

YouTube: Does not work and produces message “You must disable airplane mode to access data” and displays a Cancel and Disable button.

Stocks: Same response as YouTube.

Maps: Same response as YouTube. I did have a map of Nashville that was still displayed from my last connection. I could pinch zoom the map.

Weather: Same response as YouTube. I could flick through all of my city listings. They displayed the weather from the last time I had a live connection and got an update.

Clock, Calculator and Notes: All work fine.

iTunes: Does not work and requires a WiFi connection. iTunes also does not work with just an EDGE (cellular network) connection.

Phone: I can access all of my contacts, add, make changes, etc. I could also listen to voice mail.

Email: I could read messages that were stored on the iPhone the last time I had a connection. I could also reply to any messages – they went into the outbox and were sent the next time I got a connection.

Safari: If I did not power the iPhone off the web browser allowed me to view sites I had looked at and left open the last time I had a connection. The sites did go away when I powered the device off and on.

Overall Impressions
Email works great and I love the ability to listen to voice mail without having a connection. Not being able to access my favorite Mockdock applications, including Engadget, Digg, Chess, Bejeweled and especially Google Reader (that I use to read RSS feeds I subscribe to) is disappointing. I’ve got to do some research on Google Gears and determine whether I can get the feeds offline. I’m looking forward, with the release of the iPhone SDK, to applications that run off the main Dock. And… yes – I realize I could have just put the iPhone in airplane mode to run these tests – I did not have to get on an airplane!

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled Apple, Microsoft and Google Updates linked here.
Listen directly in your web browser by clicking here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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5 Days with the iPhone

I've been relatively quiet here about the iPhone I purchased last Saturday evening. I did mention it in a podcast with Mike Q last weekend and I did tweet I got one on my Twitter micro-blog earlier this week. Overall I have to say I am very impressed so far. Here's a quick rundown of my initial impressions:

WiFi: Performance/range is good and comparable to my MacBook.

AT&T EDGE Network: Used when out of WiFi range, I find it performs well. I don't find myself getting impatient with the slower bandwidth (EDGE runs at a maximum of around 180Kbps).

Safari Web Browser: The browsing experience on the smaller screen works well and comes very close to a larger screen experience. I'm looking forward to a Firefox version next year!

EMail: I'm using my GMail address as my primary account and have enabled IMAP. Over the course of an average day I find myself accessing email via a web browser on various machines, via Entourage on my MacBook and via Mail on my iPhone. IMAP has allowed me to better keep track of what I've done using different access devices and applications. For example, if I read and delete a message on my iPhone the message does not appear if I go to another device (like it will with POP access) and access the account.

Attachments: I can view email attachments (pdf, doc, docx, etc) with the iPhone but cannot edit them. I do have iZoho - iPhone Office, an office app that runs on the iPhone, linked on my Mockdock (explained below) but have not used it yet.

Calendar: I'm accessing my Google calendar using Safari on the iPhone. The Google mobile calendar interface takes some getting used to and it is time consuming to add calendar entries. I also cannot delete Google mobile calendar entries.

Some of my favorite applications:

Mockdock.com is a website designed for the iPhone that allows you to add application buttons - the screen mimics the iPhone dock. If you don't have an iPhone you can still access Mockdock from any PC browser.

Twitter: I can tweet from my iPhone. I've got Twitter on my Mockdock.

Google Reader: Another application that runs in Safari and is also on my Mockdock.

YouTube: All I can say is WOW!

Things I don't like/need to be improved:

The Battery Indicator: I have a hard time determining how much charge I have left. Give me a button I can push quick that is big enough to see!

Cutting/copying and Pasting: Can't do it on the iPhone... yet.

Google Calendar: I already mentioned I find adding entries time consuming and items cannot be deleted. This goes for any mobile device running Google Mobile Calendar so it is a Google issue and not an Apple one. I'm sure this is a feature/function Google is working on. I have not used the Apple calendar application that comes on the phone.

Things that have surprised me:

The Virtual Keyboard: I'm getting used to it and am getting pretty fast. It is a major improvement over mechanicl keyboards forund on other devices (in my opinion).

SMS: I've never been much of a "text'er" but the interface is really slick. I've been using it.

Battery Life: I have not killed it yet and have used it extensively for voice, iPod playing and data. I like the fact that I can plug it into the USB port on my computer and charge it that way.

If I had to estimate I'd say I can do 80-90 percent of my PC-type work effectively and efficiently with the iPhone. It also has replaced the Cell phone, digital camera and iPod (along with the different chargers) I've been lugging around for the past couple of years. Overall I am really impressed.

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled Apple, Microsoft and Google Updates linked here.
Listen directly in your web browser by clicking here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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Mike Q's Podcast Interview: One Week with the iPhone

Listen to our latest podcast where we take a look at the iPhone from a users perspective after 1 week. Find it at www.nctt.org/podcast and also find it on iTunes by going into the Music Store, going to the Podcast section and searching on "Snyder" or "Qaissaunee".

You can also listen directly to the stream by turning up your speakers, following http://gsnyder.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=232754 and clicking on the little grey POD icon. The interview is a little over 34 minutes long.