sems.org | iPhone in Canada

iPhone in Canada

Del.icio.us

There is a lot of hype and myths going around related to iPhone. You should see some of the articles Canadian papers and sites publishing. For example:

"Odette Coleman, a spokeswoman for Rogers Wireless, warned IPhone fanatics that the phone could be nothing more than an expensive paperweight in Canada right now. It costs $499 to $599 US, depending on model.

"Since the IPhone has been optimized to function on the AT&T (Cingular) network, we don't know the issues the customer would face," she said."

Holly schamolly, you'd think then no tourist can bring any foreign device to this country, because "they haven't been tested". Wasn't the promise of roaming that it should work in any country where roaming agreements in place?

In any case, I can tell all of you several things:

1. The unit works just fine in Canada. The roaming rates are of course can be costly. But still, overall it works just fine. Also you can use wifi, you don't have to use Edge/Gprs connection. Also the phone portion is just fine too. Again 59c/minute rates can be preventive, but if you want to grab an iPhone and use it, don't let Rogers spokespeople fool you.

2. Activation works in USA - Again this is complete bs. I had a unit for a friend of mine and we activated it on a computer running with Canadian IP. Of course having an account previously from Cingular helps, but if you have a US address, you are just fine.

3. There was huge crowds, finding unit is hard - If you really wanted to have a unit on day one, it was a possibility. I got it within the hour. I was in line around 6:30, there was only 9 people ahead of me. My guess was the store had at least 30 units on launch. And I was able to find another unit on Saturday at a different store. It all boils down to location. You'd have better luck with smaller cities. They may still have some.

First impressions:

- With these said, it is a great little device, very easy to use. However, documentation is scarce.

- You cannot drag and drop songs/videos. You'd have to "sync" them. While this may work with some users, if you have multiple computers you'd like to use your iPhone with, you are SOL. It allows only one PC to sync with your iPhone (though apparently you can sync multiple iPhones with same PC, but what good is that - i mean how many people have multiple iPhones.). See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305741

- Every Internet enabled app, like Weather, Stocks, Emails will update themselves automatically once you run that app. So if you are not using your iPhone in US, be careful. Make sure you are connected to a wifi access point first, so that you don't rack up GPRS roaming usage.

- I still haven't found how to purge messages via IMAP4 (I admit, I haven't googled it yet, but wasn't the interface supposed to be very easy???)

- The touch keyboard works very nicely. As you type, the letters raise up, so you can see what you typed. You can quickly get used to typing with it.

I love the unit so far. I wish they'd have a nice unlimited Canada plan. I'll be one of the first to signup for it. They have a plan for North America, around $100, for 100 Mb, but I don't know if you can get it for your iPhone.