PRODUCT REVIEW
iPhone Goes to the Movies

The biggest issue is that most every time you want to use it for watching videos, you have to hold it. If you're holding it, eating popcorn is more of a challenge than it's worth -- while fingerprint smears on your iPhone screen aren't a big deal, popcorn butter is just plain nasty stuff.

The Logistics

To watch TV shows, movies,and music videos on your iPhone, you'll have to transfer them to the device via iTunes. While you can't drag and drop an .mp4 file onto the iPhone, the iTunes interface works well. Once loaded, it's simply a matter of tapping the intuitive touch-screen navigation to select the video you want.

Once you start a movie or TV show, the 3.5-inch widescreen is stunning. The 480-by-320 pixel resolution at 160 dpi (dots per inch) is astoundingly sharp and bright -- so much so that when you're done leaving fingerprints and smudges all over the screen, you don't even notice them as you're watching a video. I watched a portion of "CSI: Miami" outside in bright light -- though not in direct sunlight -- and it was possible to see the little guns pointing at bad guys.

Widescreen Movies

If you want to retain the widescreen aspect ratio of a movie, you'll have to sacrifice overall display size on the top and bottom. If you want to view faces up close, for example, you can tap the scale button to automatically crop the movie and fill the entire screen.

To get movies, you can download them from the iTunes store starting at US$9.99. This is by far the easiest way to get movies to your iPhone. If you have a movie on DVD, however, you've got the option to download DVD-to-iPhone applications that rip the DVD, remove pesky copyright/Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections, and enable you to load what is usually an MPEG-4 file into iTunes.

Both the legality and risk of ripping movie DVDs (that you already own) to your iPhone are questionable -- it's mostly illegal and mostly low-risk. As long as you're not stealing movies you rented, stealing movies from your friends, or stealing movies from a file sharing network , at least the world of common sense will be on your side, if not the law.

Incidentally, the music industry's independent labels, as well as powerhouse label EMI, have started offering DRM-free music downloads that let you create copies of songs that you can play on any of your personal devices. You can't legally give songs to your friends, but you can load them onto any device you want, including your iPhone. Hopefully the movie industry will someday see the light as well.

In any event, to rip a DVD, it can take almost as long as it takes to download a full-length movie, which is usually at least an hour, but often longer depending on your connection speed and the length of the movie. Plan ahead.

TV Shows and Video Podcasts

The nice thing about iTunes is that you can buy your favorite TV shows, which is particularly handy for episodes that you missed during the regular season. At a $1.99 an episode, you can get up to 44 minutes of TV show at a price-per-minute ratio that's more cost-effective than buying a 90-minute movie for $9.99. The ratio is steep again for a 22-minute comedy, but you don't have to watch any commercials, and heck, I can watch every episode of "South Park" at least twice.

The video podcasts you might subscribe to or find online are often free, but they also come with lower production values, so the video is usually grainy, poorly lit or blurry. But hey, they're free, and presumably focused on a topic that interests you.

No Small-Increment Rewind

Watching a full-length movie on an iPhone is enjoyable, but you never forget that you're watching the movie on your iPhone. You've got to prop the iPhone up at a good angle, buy a combination case/stand for it, or simply hold it. While the iPhone isn't exactly heavy, holding any device for two hours in the same spot is close to impossible. Inevitably you'll shift position and maybe miss something.

If you do miss something, and you want to rewind, you can do it quickly with the touch screen, but there's one problem: It's difficult to rewind the exact right amount. Using the tiny progress slider bar at the top is even worse than rewind -- it's almost impossible to move forward or backward by only a few seconds, so you end up re-watching a minute or two of video just to get to the spot you missed.

Likewise, sharing the iPhone for movie watching, while possible, is more troublesome. It's one thing for you to move the screen when you shift positions, but it's really annoying for your partner.

Excels in Short-Term Situations

I'm totally hooked on watching video when I'm standing in lines, waiting in offices, or simply burning a few minutes during lunch or waiting for an appointment.

The brilliance of the iPhone is that it handles interruptions so well. If you get a phone call, you can easily go back to your movie. If you're in an airport waiting to board your plane, the iPhone is much easier than digging out your laptop just to pack it all up again a few minutes later. Once you're on board, you can leave the laptop in the overhead compartments and watch videos while you wait for the plane to fill. When it comes time to take off, it's easy to stop the iPhone and hold it for 10 minutes before starting it up again.

I will never travel by plane without having a fresh movie or two loaded on my iPhone. It's easy, it's handy, and it's all about immediate gratification.

Mixed Results With YouTube

YouTube access comes built-in, and navigating through YouTube videos is easy. The search feature works well enough, and the interface is intuitive. The videos, by the way, are amazingly clear. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) , which owns YouTube, has been encoding the videos in the H.264 format, and the results are boggling. YouTube videos on my iPhone are much sharper than the versions I get on my MacBook laptop. Go figure.

The downside is the download. Even when connected to a WiFi network -- instead of the slower AT&T (NYSE: T) EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) network -- YouTube videos are often painful to download. For me, it's almost always been a several-minute waiting game. If you start the video too soon, you'll catch up to the download and pause.

The instant gratification is lost, but at least YouTube videos are free.

Even though I don't spend much time watching YouTube videos on my iPhone, I'll browse through them and then e-mail myself links to the interesting ones.

Beyond YouTube

I expect that due to the initial success of the iPhone, we'll see some new iPhone-focused video sites that will let you download free videos, rather than simply stream them. Maybe they'll be embedded with ads, maybe not, but I'm willing to bet that by the end of the year, iPhone users will be a catalyst for new mobile phone video download sites and services.

The first few days, while I was still worried that my iPhone would break at the slightest sneeze, I wished I still had a small, durable cell phone that I could throw across the room to the couch or bed and not worry about it. However, after having the video features available on the iPhone, I can't imagine going back to a small-screen cell phone. I've integrated mobile video into my daily life ... and I like it.