In: Reviews

iPhone unlocked in Australia

The iPhone is out and anyone adventurous can get it working with most Australian networks. But is it worth it? Find out here.

Using a regular Optus simcard

There's a lot of hype around about Apple's iPhone and for good reason. It's slick, gets attention, and does some really useful stuff. It's yet to be released in Australia, so you'll need to get one that's unlocked or unlock the iPhone yourself.

I traded some work for a US client for a couple of iPhones shipped to Australia and have been using mine for a couple of weeks as of writing this review. They're not cheap and there are no payment plans, but if you need a new phone like I did it's a far easier decision. Got a friend coming back from the US? Get them to bring you one - US$399 plus unlocking is a steal at the current exchange rate.

I really recommend the iPhone based on my experiences to date. Read on for more specific details.

Note: Previously, I had a fairly basic phone - monochrome screen, no camera, the up button didn't work and SMSs were a trial to delete. I didn't know what I was missing. The iPhone in comparison is more useful and more fun.

What doesn't work yet in Australia?

In the US with AT&T, the iPhone uses an "EDGE" network to expand the abilities of the phone when you're out and about. That doesn't appear to be available with unlocked iPhones here, so some functions are limited to when you have wireless internet access.

For example, Google Maps will cache data you viewed when you had access, but will not work when you're away from wireless points. Same with the Stocks feature, Safari, Mail, YouTube and the Weather component. Stocks and Weather aren't big issues as you can check Weather in the morning and it will cache for the day. If you spend the bulk of your time at home and the office with wireless access, you'll live.

Are these dealbreakers? For me, not at all.

The one function I can think of which is completely unavailable appears to be "Visual Voicemail" - doesn't bother me to be honest.

So, what does it do?

It makes and receives calls. It sends and receives SMSes and strings them together in a cool conversation per person. It has a calendar, camera, calculator, notepad, etc. But there's more:

Camera

The iPhone camera has no flash and so is quite average in low light but performs well outdoors, especially on well lit days. In good conditions it can take a shot that you wouldn't be ashamed to print and give to your mum. The lens is unobtrusive (even barely noticeable) and the single control is activated by touching the screen. You can keep, discard, zoom, email and set photos as wallpaper.

Browsing photos is also decent - zoom out or in using a pinching gesture on the screen, flick through a gallery, and they auto-rotate with the phone. It's impressive.

YouTube

When you have wireless access, YouTube on the iPhone works fine. Search, watch and bookmark videos. I don't use it much, but it's there when needed.

Stocks

It's easy to quickly set up the stocks you want to track (use BHP.AX to have your iPhone find BHP on the ASX, for example), follow them during the day (rise/fall as either percentage or in dollar value) and select any of them to see a graph from one day out to two years. I use this a lot.

Google Maps

If the iPhone had GPS and wireless access everywhere, it'd be brilliant. It doesn't, but you can still muck around with Google Maps, set routes, find businesses, etc. Set a route and scan through it to have the phone cache details for you to review later.

Weather

Simple but effective. Add in the towns/areas you want to track and get a decent forecast for them all that's easy to flick through, complete with obligatory sun/moon/cloud/rain icons.

Clock

Sounds simple and boring but for me it's been a great upgrade. I have 5-6 clocks set for capital cities where family, friends or clients are. The clock faces change colour depending on the time of day at that location. Nice. Also has a Timer and Stopwatch that are easy to use as well as a great Alarm set up. You can run multiple alarms, each with their own sound and details. e.g., I have one that runs every Sunday morning to remind me of a TV show. Another one is set to run only on weekdays and allow snoozing, but with a softer warning tone.

iTunes

Shop for music and listen to previews when you have wireless access. Works well.

iPod

Pretty much everyone's seen an iPod recently and this works the same. 8GB is enough for a good subset of your digital library (current favourites, etc). Coverflow is slick and the controls work fine.

One great thing is its integration with the Phone component. If you're listening to music while receiving a call, the music auto-pauses and you can answer or reject the call. Once completed, the music automatically resumes - first time you do this, you think "Wow".

The supplied iPhone headphones have a little mic and clickable button on one side - it was so small I didn't even pick it for the first few days. It enables you to take/receive calls via the headphones or control the iPod via the tiny clicker. Click it to pause or play, and double-click it to skip to the next track - underrated functionality, I think.

Note that many unofficial headphones do not fit the recessed headphone port of the iPhone. I think this was done on purpose to sell third-party adaptors, so screw that! Many people are shaving their headphone connectors so they'll fit the recessed port. Others are buying cheap iPhone headphone adaptors on eBay.

Safari

Safari on the iPhone is one of the things I hadn't imagined I'd use. Turns out that I use it all the time. Sleeping in and couldn't be bothered getting out the laptop to check the news? Bring up the browser and away you go. At the other end of the house from your computer and want to check sports scores? It's perfect for that. Easy to browse around and zoom in to read text, even easy enough to admin sites or post to your regular forms if need be. The on-screen keyboard is useful especially when you're in landscape mode. It doesn't support Flash which is a bit poor, but I've only come across one site where that's been a problem.

Installer

My unlocked iPhone (probably the case for most?) has the Installer app that you can use to find more apps, games and the like. For something that's been hacked together, it's really very good - I have a wireless network stumbler, Pong, a beatbox, Tetris clone, Minesweeper clone, pedometer, e-book reader, ToDo list app, Blackjack, Solitaire, Sudoku, and so on. Some need work but they're all a bit of fun. Grabbing weDict can give you searchable English-French translators or the CIA World Factbook ready to call up as required - could do with some formatting work, but otherwise it's great. Can't wait for someone to put together a wine dictionary - imagine doing a quick search at a restaurant to get a review of something on their wine list?

Best thing is that these apps are only going to get better with time.

Gripes

While it's a great phone, there are a number of gripes that I have. Some may be easily fixed with future updates, so we'll see. I've made bold a couple that I think are places were Apple have really dropped the ball for now.

List of Gripes

• Doesn't sync with Google Calendar or my Outlook 2000
• No native To Do app (though the hackers version works fine)
• Can't type SMSes in landscape mode
• Can't batch send SMS
• Can't forward an SMS
• Camera can't take video (yet?)
• A shopping list app would be great (remember frequent purchases, group into categories, etc)
• Pain in the arse to get your own ringtones on there (I haven't even tried)
• Would be good to be able to group contacts in the Address Book - clients, family, friends, etc
• No Flash support in Safari
• Recessed headphone port is lame

Upsides

Looks great, gets attention, easy and fun to use; Safari on a wireless network is really useful.

Downsides

Probably a bit expensive for some people, screen is a haven for fingerprints, really needs batch send and forwarding support with SMSes.

Overall

If you like gadgets and need a new phone, the iPhone is definitely recommended.