Generally rave review of the "The iPhone User Experience" from Tog, including this very astute criticism:

What is startling is the apparent hard separation of email, SMS, and voicemail.  What I would want is a single list, defaulting to the newest and unread/unheard first.  I don’t care about the medium, and neither should iPhone. Of all the iPhone features, this is the one that seems to have completely missed the target.  It would be like Blackberry having three lists:  One for mail with more than 100 characters, one for mail with fewer than 100 characters, and one for mail sent from more than 3000 miles away.  What sense would that make?  What Apple has done, when you think about it, is just as random in terms of the user. I should be able to read a voicemail in my list, using speech-to-text, highlighting any word that isn’t clear to hear the original.  I should then be able to write an instant message, having it route via Instant Message or SMS, whichever is available and cheapest.  Having then discovered the person is not responding, I should be able to convert the message into an email, recognizing, since I know the person has Yahoo mail, it will be pushed and get his attention. I should not have to visit three different places on my phone every few minutes to see what is happening.

Comments

[Chris M.]

Baby steps. Can't freak people out all at once. It's a good idea though.

[pwb]

I think I disagree. Different things are sometimes best segregated.

[Michael Hart]

I disagree as well.

As someone who now uses a Blackberry, I receive email from 5 different accounts and the Blackberry mixes in SMS messages with those, so its nearly impossible to respond to one in a timely fashion.

SMS has a different context than email, as its basically "chat on a phone", and as such is used in an instant message context, rather than one where the sender doesn't assume you will answer any time soon. :)

Same with voicemail. You need to quickly be able to get to a message, as it may be urgent.

In any case, I'll reserve final judgement until get my hands on one and use it in the real world.

[jean pierre flores pavez]

Dear Sir:

The reason for my letter is the following one, I am going to be to him frank and direct, since that its time is valuable in addition that my problem is enough serious like covering it in flatteries, you criticize, etc… and to give returns before raising my situation to him: I am in a quite serious problem to which one talks about economically, I have too many debts and I do not have way to leave them at the moment. I am a Young person of 23 years of age that it wants to fulfill the dream to leave ahead next to the person who master, but I cannot do it by economic reasons and of health since my even return time of Argentina and has not long ago not been able to find a job to sustain its expenses in medicines due to an accident that happened to him in that country and I leave it with an operation in the column. Single I can say to him that I do not know to who to go, sometimes I think that the best thing than can happen to me is to request a life insurance and to force suicide on to me so that it at least leaves to the love of my life without the debts. I hope that this letter really arrives to him at the heart, since at least to me, it has been having to me without being able to sleep for but of 3 months, thinking about like being able to obtain food and silver for the leasing of my home. I wait for You you help me, would be thanked for it as nobody has never done it, I request it putting its hand in the heart and thinking about that at some future date that writes to him it will be thankful to him of by life his aid. I need one hundred thousand chilean pesos (USS 185) before the 25 this month to be able to continue sleeping in my home and to buy foods. Hoping that the present has a good welcome and it arrives to him at the heart takes leave

Atte.

Jean Pierre Flores Pavez

Chile

Phone: 56 09 8 2589095
mail: jeanpierre.fp@vtr.net
msn: jeanpierre.fp@hotmail.com

[Marla Erwin]

I can see the point and I agree in theory, but in real life -- at least MY real life -- each medium is reserved for a different set of people. Only my spouse and the babysitter are allowed to text-message me; phone is for friends, family, and established work contacts; and email encompasses everyone from close friends to potential clients to spammers begging for 100,000 Chilean pesos. It's rare that I would want to mix and match, and the separation gives me a mental hook for prioritizing my response -- I can safely assume that SMSs are essential, phone calls can wait if I'm busy, and emails can just plain wait.

I think it's kind of silly to be dinging Apple for having "completely missed the target" on a phone that looks to be revolutionary in so many ways, including visual access to your voicemail AT ALL.