The iPhone is a mediocre iPod

I have to add this one to iPhone notes you won't read elsewhere.

The iPhone/iTouch are surprisingly mediocre iPods.

They share the erratic control problem with everything else on the iPhone – that’s one demerit. (Due to OS issues iPhone app controls are unpredictably but transiently non-responsive. We all hope this will get fixed soon.)

Worse, there’s no wheel for navigating within a sound or video stream. I miss this tons. It’s darned near impossible to accurately navigate a podcast, and of course one’s figure often obscures points near the start or end of the timeline.

Not only that, but I swear the iPhone randomly forgets my spot in a podcast and restarts at the beginning. Then I curse the timeline UI.

Podcasts are, surprisingly, a big part of the value of the iPod. That means the iPhone is a mediocre iPod. For now.

I hope Apple isn’t running into a patent issue that prevents implementing a virtual version of their own iPod wheel!

Update 11/9/08: On an iPod the alarm clock can wake to a play list. On an iPhone the alarm clock only plays ringtones and the like. No playlist!!