Potential buyer – 8 questions I can’t find answers for in the reviews

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Level 1

5 points

Potential buyer – 8 questions I can’t find answers for in the reviews

Folks,

I’m seriously considering getting an iPhone in the next few days and after doing my homework I have a few questions I didn’t quite find the answers in the reviews I’ve read/watched. Could anyone comment on them? Some may sound silly 🙂

1- VNC – Has anyone used the version from NateTrue over EDGE? Is that usable? I basically want to use it to access a remote library reference app running on a PC (link: http://cre.ations.net/creation/webvnc---remote-desktop--vnc-on-your-iphone)

2 - PDF viewing – Can you view PDFs that are stored on websites or just attached to emails? Also, if the PDF has only the image of scanned text, can you still pan/zoom in?

3 - PDF #2 – Can you search within the PDF doc you’re viewing?

4 - Alarm - How loud is the sound of the alarm? Any former Treo users (650) who can compare the two?

5 - MP3s - If you tap on a link to an mp3 file in the browser, will it play?

6- Podcasts – Does Safari play podcasts using any of those web-based players you see in site wuch as twit, applephoneshow, etc?

7 - Contacts – I use the Palm Desktop + Treo and have my contacts in there. I don’t use outlook or other apps. Can I just export my contacts in .csv format and get them into the iPhone? Any suggestions? How about exporting/importing calendar events?
+
8 - Bonus question 🙂 3rd party apps – long shot, since the SDK is not out yet – Does anyone know about 3rd party apps DATA? I am really hoping that iSilo will release an iPhone version of its reader since I am a heavy user of a research library I use for my congregation activities (a modern translation of the Bible + lots of other publications) and I wonder how/if that’s going to work.

Many thanks in advance for your comments.

Regards,

Ismenio

PS: If anyone has traveled to Brazil with their iPhone (especially in the Northeast), could you comment on the experience? EDGE availability, call quality, etc? You can contact me direct on this one

Posted on Jan 31, 2008 5:41 AM

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Answer 1

Paul Judd

Level 6

13,420 points

Jan 31, 2008 5:47 AM in response to ismenio

*1- VNC – Has anyone used the version from NateTrue over EDGE? Is that usable? I basically want to use it to access a remote library reference app running on a PC*

I doubt that it will work very well.

*2 - PDF viewing – Can you view PDFs that are stored on websites or just attached to emails? Also, if the PDF has only the image of scanned text, can you still pan/zoom in?*

I don't see why not

*3 - PDF #2 – Can you search within the PDF doc you’re viewing?*
No. The iPhone does not offer search

*- MP3s - If you tap on a link to an mp3 file in the browser, will it play?*
No

*6- Podcasts – Does Safari play podcasts using any of those web-based players you see in site wuch as twit, applephoneshow, etc?*
No, all of these would rely on quicktime, which doesn't really work. The iPhone doesn't support streaming audio very well.

*7 - Contacts – I use the Palm Desktop + Treo and have my contacts in there. I don’t use outlook or other apps. Can I just export my contacts in .csv format and get them into the iPhone? Any suggestions? How about exporting/importing calendar events?*

No you cannot

*8 - Bonus question 🙂 3rd party apps – long shot, since the SDK is not out yet – Does anyone know about 3rd party apps DATA? I am really hoping that iSilo will release an iPhone version of its reader since I am a heavy user of a research library I use for my congregation activities (a modern translation of the Bible + lots of other publications) and I wonder how/if that’s going to work.*

Sorry, we cannot answer any questions about the SDK because no details have been made public as of yet.

Message was edited by: Paul Judd

Message was edited by: Paul Judd

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Answer 2

ismenio Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2008 5:52 AM in response to Paul Judd

Wow! THAT was fast 🙂 Thanks for the reply Paul.

Best regards,

Ismenio

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Answer 3

Jan 31, 2008 6:05 AM in response to ismenio

ismenio wrote:

7 - Contacts – I use the Palm Desktop + Treo and have my contacts in there. I don’t use outlook or other apps. Can I just export my contacts in .csv format and get them into the iPhone? Any suggestions? How about exporting/importing calendar events?

You can use Chapura's Pocket Mirror ( http://www.chapura.com) to sync your Treo contacts to Outlook, then sync the iPhone to Outlook. Chapura also has a copy tool that just copies the contact database from Palm Desktop to Outlook. If you are only going to do it once you can use the free trial version. If you want to keep them in sync and still continue to use Palm Desktop (rather than Outlook) There is a produced called SwitchSync ( http://www.livepim.com/switchsync/) that will allow you to sync to both Palm Desktop and Outlook.

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Answer 4

ismenio Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2008 8:09 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Great tip! Thanks so much for sharing that Lawrence!

The more I research the iPhone the more I see it as one of the best, if not THE best, mobile computing tool out there but I don't quite get why Apple released it with so many limitations. I'm tempted to bite the bullet and get it hoping that we'll see apps from the developing community that will fill the gaps 😉

Ismenio

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Answer 5

mehfisto

Level 1

15 points

Jan 31, 2008 10:29 AM in response to ismenio

Here are my replies to what I have experience with:

*1- VNC – Has anyone used the version from NateTrue over EDGE? Is that usable? I basically want to use it to access a remote library reference app running on a PC*

This is pretty useless over EDGE. If you're near a wifi spot it's decent for doing very basic tasks, but if it's an important system (i.e. you're trying to do troubleshooting of a server remotely) I'd wait till you can get to a computer to do that.

*3 - PDF #2 – Can you search within the PDF doc you’re viewing?*

I have never seen a feature that allows you to do this.

*4 - Alarm - How loud is the sound of the alarm? Any former Treo users (650) who can compare the two?*

It's loud enough to wake me up. I use it daily and find that it's plenty annoying. =]

*6- Podcasts – Does Safari play podcasts using any of those web-based players you see in site wuch as twit, applephoneshow, etc?*

iPhone doesn't support flash. Most of those players are, but if they aren't YMMV.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 6

DaVBMan

Level 6

9,292 points

Jan 31, 2008 10:40 AM in response to ismenio

7 - Contacts – I use the Palm Desktop + Treo and have my contacts in there. I don’t use outlook or other apps. Can I just export my contacts in .csv format and get them into the iPhone? Any suggestions? How about exporting/importing calendar events?

Can also (since you mentioned you know how to export to .csv file, just do that, and get Outlook Express (free and since you said you don't use Outlook, no real need to install such a huge app) then import the .CSV into Outlook Express's Address Book. The iPhone can sync to it as well.

As for limitations on iPhone currently, yes it does appear they couldn't get in all they wanted before release, but with the SDK and the fact updates will keep coming, I do feel confident gaps will be filled in quite nice.

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Answer 7

gray_bry

Level 1

26 points

Jan 31, 2008 10:47 AM in response to Paul Judd

you cant listen to music over the Safari browser? i can. From SeeqPod.But maybe those songs are of mp4 format.

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