by Lillian Jensen

Created on: August 25, 2009

With sales of Apple's iPhone 3g and the new 3gS on a fast incline, it's hard not to catch the iPhone fever. Many were able to resist the temptation after the initial release back in June of '07, but the new 3gS promises updated features and speed, thus spurring a new wave of gadget-loving techies and non-techies alike heading to the nearest Apple store. If you are considering purchasing an iPhone, you should be aware of both sides of the coin.

First, there are a few disadvantages to the iPhone:

*Not easily customizable without "jailbreaking"

Out of the box, the iPhone is not the ideal phone for IT professionals to use as an on-call phone. The iPhone does not allow you the option to change the New E-mail notification sound. The sound that comes stock is one note, which is not enough to wake even the lightest sleeper. With SMS notification, you have five options, all of which carry the same problem in that they are not loud enough. This is important when a critical system outage occurs at 3am. IT professionals should be prepared to jailbreak the phone, which will then provide the option for applying other sounds to SMS notifications and New E-mail notifications.

For non-IT folks, the iPhone does not allow much customization on themes. Apple is proud of their proprietary products and therefore basically places them on lock-down (unless you jailbreak, that is). You're limited to changing the wallpaper and the order of the icons. That's about it.

*Does not multi-task well

Unlike the Palm Pre, the iPhone does a terrible job at multi-tasking. On the Pre, you can easily switch between checking e-mail, browsing the web, flipping through pictures, etc. In contrast, the only multi-tasking you can achieve on the iPhone is playing music on the iPod while you do other tasks. It will continue in the background. However, if you then want to browse your pictures, you first must hit the Home button, then the Pictures icon. Next, say you want to open a web browser and perform a Google search. To do this, you have to hit the Home button again and launch Safari. To go back to the pictures, it's back to the Home button yet again then the pictures icon to go back to where you were instead of just a quick swipe across the phone as it is with the Pre.

*Camera is not of high quality

The old Pam Treos had better cameras then the iPhone, and that is not saying much. The pictures come out very grainy and pixelated. To capture important moments, carry another camera around if you want any

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