Having played with the iPhone for a few days I’m *jaw-dropping* impressed! However I do agree with Chad’s points it could be a little more deaf freindly but all the other features really makes you forget the things it lacks and lets face it, no phone is perfect for the deaf, no matter what you pick there’s always the “deaf-friendly” issue.

I think the keyboard will get mixed reviews depending on the person. Chad took 2 weeks to get used to it, for me it only took a couple of days, you have to hold the iPhone right and tap lightly, if you smash your thumbs like you would on SK then you’ll make more mistakes and get frustrated but you barely need to touch the screen and you’ll make no more mistake than you would on any other pager. I make more mistakes on my BlackBerry than I do on the iPhone now so the “keyboard drama” isn’t an issue at all for me.

Anyway, the iPhone blew me away and I’ve showed to a lot of skeptical deaf people to insisted that Curve was better, now they’ve changed their mind, the iPhone will make all other pagers and deviced look and feel very old. I hate my BlackBerry now :).

BTW, I have several movies on my iPhone with subtitles, all you need to do is convert your DVDs to iTunes compatible movies and enable subtitles on a converter (I used Hand Brake).

David

many thanks for the clarify of the blackberry. Look like Tim will do the report on that soon.

I can say right now that the iPhone keyboard is faster for me than the Treo and Blackberry keyboards. It just requires a change in how you approach the typing. Ill share my observations with the rest of you. I actually now prefer the portrait mode over landscape mode for keyboarding right now.

With Sidekick, Treo, Blackberry, we have become accustomed to PRESSING keys. If you try to migrate that same behavior over to the iPhone, it will still work, but you are only wasting energy and effort in two ways. a) attempting to press down on a key that doesnt need pressing, and 2) expending energy to stabilize the iPhone with your hand when pressing down with your thumb.

What you should do INSTEAD, is just hold the phone in one hand and with your thumb, simply and lightly touch the keys to type. A very light touch is all is necessary. With a little practice, you’re able to type much faster and more efficiently. You’re spending less energy and time on each key, and you’re able to use your hand to help move the phone around to make it easier for your thumb to reach those far-off keys, now that you dont have to hold the phone so tightly to stabilize it if you were pressing down on keys.

Give it a try, you will be quite pleased with the improvement!

On a side note, there is another excellent alternative to BeeJive chat for AIM. Check out http://www.flickim.com – it is an all javascript solution for AIM.

Cheers,
-tim

@Cousin Vinny: Communication is my #1 priority, too. It provides me the necessary communication tool just like any other mobile devices. Nothing different or unique about it except that it has excellent user interface (touch screen) and ability to read MS Word and Excel files. The biggest lacking feature from iPhone’s email interface is the ability to enter BCC addresses. Apple mentioned that it will be added, hopefully in the next version. Additionally, I am a person who relies on productivity tools to help me go around my daily task efficiently and quickly. iPhone is basically my smallest computer in my pocket, hence mentioning all the “making my life easier” features with communication on top of everything. I am happy. :)

@JFLMad: I wasn’t neglecting the Blackberry device. I simply never owned nor used one so it wouldn’t be fair of me to compare. Sidekick, I have been using it since it first came out. If anybody here has an iPhone and used Blackberry in the past, I definitely welcome his or her review. Anybody?

Thank you for your iPhone report. IMHO, having a phone is all about communications. The ‘desireable’ features you listed about the iPhone is all about making your life easier. Kinda misses the mark, wouldn’t you agree, about having it in the first place?