when it's 20,30,40+ pages? good lord you're a dense one...

2/26/2007 6:27:42 PM

isn't this thing supposed to come out next month? i haven't heard anything about it in a long time. is june still correct?

5/18/2007 9:52:25 AM

as far as pricing, this thing is no different then an ipod. its actually way cooler. So for people to bitch that they won't pay $500+ for it is dumb, because they've paid that for ipods in the past. Just becaues it has a phone attached to it, people demand discounts.

5/18/2007 9:55:10 AM

uhh...okay. that wasn't my question but thank you for responding. $500 isn't that big a deal.

5/18/2007 9:59:06 AM

^uhh...this thread is like 4 pages long, i was responding and continuing the discussion from the previous page.

5/18/2007 10:01:56 AM

yeah, still planned to.
the FCC just gave approval for it, and there was a hoax that Engaget mistakingly reported yesterday that said the iPhone was delayed until October (and OS 10.5 until next year), and Apple made a statement that everything was still on schedule for next month.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/05/17/fcc-gives-iphone-the-stamp-of-approval
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/16/iphone-delayed-until-october-leopard-delayed-again-until-januar/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/17/regarding-yesterdays-apple-news/

5/18/2007 10:03:09 AM

Reviews are trickling in

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/technology/circuits/27pogue.html?ex=1340596800&en=98d00bf6e780b2be&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

6/26/2007 6:42:38 PM

more reviews
looking good
"The iPhone Is a Breakthrough Handheld Computer" http://solution.allthingsd.com/20070626/the-iphone-is-breakthrough-handheld-computer/

"Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-06-26-iphone-review_N.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19444948/site/newsweek/page/0/

btw - if anyone missed it, here are the calling plans. All of them include unlimited data, so really, they are very competitive with other calling+data plans
http://www.apple.com/iphone/easysetup/rateplans.html

another great thing is that phone activation (including number porting) is through iTunes, so you can just buy the box at the AT&T or Apple store, then do everything else at home.

.... i can't wait until generation 2 comes out, then i'll be all over it.

6/26/2007 10:37:25 PM

Completely unusable internet functionality without WiFi access is a HUGE killer

No copy/paste

OSX uses 700mb of the 4gb of memory?

No voice recognition OR contact search functionality? That would rule me out of this phone IMMEDIATELY. Only scroll through them?? that's insanity.

Camera has no video functionality. yet another huge disappointment, being that is has Youtube as a main application.

No video capability in the web browser? Another huge miss.

Cant set music library to ringtones?

No A2DP support is yet another huge miss.

All that and only average reception and call quality.

6/27/2007 12:34:42 AM

The EDGE is slow, but not "completely unusable."

I don't think most people would care about the rest of things you mention.

6/27/2007 1:06:18 AM

who is buying this thing? techies. techies care about everything

6/27/2007 1:13:25 AM

actually, the things noen mentioned are VERY important.

i feel the phone lacks thing very things it is supposed to embody. that is innovation.

for the price i feel it should possess video and the capability to upload, Wi-Fi, contact search, etc...

hopefully v2 won't be as rushed and they'll actually spend time developing what people want.

of course a lot of the problems can be solved with simple software and firmware updates.

6/27/2007 1:21:32 AM

I don't think it's mostly techies buying this, and techies clearly aren't the target market. I think it's middle aged people with money to burn who care about ease of use.

They're not going to be putting tons of music on it, don't care about recording videos, have YouTube to satisfy their web-video needs, and don't care about goofy ringtones.

And this phone is definitely not rushed. It's clear they've put a ton of time in to the UI though, at that sacrifice of a lot of bells and whistles (which v2 will take care of).

As Lowjack said in another thread...

Quote :

" 1. Nerds fume in disgust over version 1. 2. The rest of the world will lap it up because they doesn't give a fuck about GSM vs CDMA. 3. Apple will address nerd complaints in later versions, as economics justify further developments. 4. Nerds grudgingly succumb to the Apple juggernaut. 5. Steve Jobs drops LSD with above average hookers. "

6/27/2007 2:44:36 AM

“No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”

Geeks have no clue how far out of touch they are with everyone else.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 4:21 AM. Reason : It’s hardly got any features! It’s just well-designed!]

6/27/2007 4:17:14 AM

Quote :

"I don't think it's mostly techies buying this, and techies clearly aren't the target market. I think it's middle aged people with money to burn who care about ease of use. "

You would be dead wrong.

The target market is the business techie and the hipster techie. Your average middle aged person doesn't give a damn about it, because they don't spend money on cell phones.

This thing doesn't even come CLOSE to competing with the Blackberry or most PDA phones for business use. No contact search, no mobile IM and no MMS are big problems. Not being able to edit basic documents is another big business problem.

For the hipster techie, all the retarded worthless features do matter a LOT. What's the point of unlimited data plans without high speed connectivity?

Quote :

"The EDGE is slow, but not "completely unusable." I don't think most people would care about the rest of things you mention."

Even in a 3G phone, in a 3G area, mobile internet is slow. Like ISDN, almost not even worth it slow. Waiting more than a minute for a page to load is effectively unusable.

Quote :

"And this phone is definitely not rushed. It's clear they've put a ton of time in to the UI though, at that sacrifice of a lot of bells and whistles (which v2 will take care of). "

The keyboard is terrible. They fubared the most key element of the UI, the damn keyboard. Most of the UI is a big step forward I agree. But to say that you sacrifice features (and a lot of these are not bells and whistles, but really standard cell phone features) for the UI tells me the UI really wasn't that well designed after all.

Seriously, if you want to call someone named Larry, you havent had to scroll to the middle of your contacts list since the mid 90's. You push L-A and send. Or, you use the damn voice dial that has been a standard feature for the last 5 years too.

And while you might think ringtones are silly and useless, it's a multi-million dollar industry. HUGE. To actively PREVENT a user from using the music they've already purchased to go ON the phone, from being used as a ringtone, is pretty shitty.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 9:56 AM. Reason : .]

6/27/2007 9:49:18 AM

Quote :

"actually, the things noen mentioned are VERY important."

Completely agreed.

Despite having almost no use for the damn thing I can't help still wanting one. I'm still firmly on the fence, but reading noen's post almost sealed the deal for me. I'll most likely wait for the 2nd gen at this point.

6/27/2007 10:52:52 AM

Anyone with even a shred of techie in them would be retarded to buy that, or the first version at least...

i'd agree that mostly apple fanboys and people with more money than brains wanting desperately to be hip are going to jump all over this release.

I still refuse to drink jobs' kool aid...

6/27/2007 11:11:19 AM

Quote :

"Seriously, if you want to call someone named Larry, you havent had to scroll to the middle of your contacts list since the mid 90's. You push L-A and send."

It's almost incomprehensible to me that it wouldn't have a feature like that. That's like a basic function of spotlight.

6/27/2007 11:24:37 AM

Actually a lot of the connectivity issues are solved by WiFi.

Tech oriented business users will spend a majority of their time in a hotspot.

That being the case, this phone blows everything else out of the water.

6/27/2007 11:24:42 AM

Maybe it's just me, but if I'm near a wi-fi spot, I'm gonna use my laptop. It's the times that I'm not near a hotspot that I could see having a full featured browser on your phone coming in handy.

6/27/2007 11:28:46 AM

yeah, Noen raises a lot of good points, but you can see from the reviews above, who aren't just coming from the normal Apple fanboys, that the iPhone is simply a step above anything else that's out there, at least for what it does.

It's still lacking many key features for me to buy it - that's why I'm waiting for Rev 2 or 3 when I'm pretty confident that it will have: GPS, camera w/ zoom/flash, video camera, 3G, double or 4x the storage space (i'm looking at 32GB as a 1 year target), iTunes Music Store integration, flash support

Quote :

"The keyboard is terrible. They fubared the most key element of the UI, the damn keyboard."

i don't think you can say that without using it. Most of the reviewers had the same reaction, but they said they generally got used to it within a couple days. hey, maybe it won't become your favorite keyboard ever, but i don't think you can dismiss it as terrible without even using it.

Quote :

"but if I'm near a wi-fi spot, I'm gonna use my laptop. It's the times that I'm not near a hotspot that I could see having a full featured browser on your phone coming in handy."

ummm, yeah.... i guess that works. if you carry your laptop in your pocket.....


and anyone who doens't think this is targeted, or at least expected to sell to initially, to hipster geeks is fooling themselves. Do you think middle-age businessmen are the ones lining up outside of Apple stores already? haha

6/27/2007 11:34:07 AM

This phone doesn't really do it for me, but I tend to just make calls with my phone, and use the calendar function.

As an AAPL shareholder, i hope it sells like a motherfucker though.

6/27/2007 11:34:27 AM

Quote :

"i don't think you can say that without using it. Most of the reviewers had the same reaction, but they said they generally got used to it within a couple days. hey, maybe it won't become your favorite keyboard ever, but i don't think you can dismiss it as terrible without even using it. "

Your selling a phone touting it's web interactivity. All 3rd party apps will have to be web based. Your touting email, calendaring, and a rich interactive experience.

And then you give people a keyboard that you expect people will "get used to". Every review I've seen has said even after you get used to it, it's still slow and awkward to use and thumb-typing is all but impossible. Thumb typing is FAST for mobile, quasi-querty configurations.

Heck, if they just put the keyboard into a landscape mode and made the keys large enough to thumb-type with it, just that would make it 10 times more usable.

6/27/2007 11:40:51 AM

^ i've wondered about landscape typing. It's not mentioned a single time in the video overview or any of the reviews. I wonder what happens when you turn Mail horizontal or if you hit the URL bar in Safari while in landscape mode....

6/27/2007 11:43:49 AM

I remember some guy made a thread a week or so ago saying that he worked for Cingular and to send him a PM if you knew you wanted an iphone but I can't find it, anyone know who I'm talking about?

6/27/2007 12:24:01 PM

whatever it was, it was probably bullshit. if you want one, go get in line with everybody else, or order one at apple.com

6/27/2007 12:26:16 PM

I'm easily excitable when it comes to tech gadgetry, and I was pumped when this thing was announced.

The iPhone leaves me completely flaccid.

6/27/2007 12:28:20 PM

Question, I'm already with Cingular but have 7 months left on my current contract......can I purchase the phone and add 2 years to my contract, what's the deal with that? I know there have to be a lot of people in that position it's not like everyone who wants an iPhone is either with a provider other than Cingular or at the end of their current Cingular contract.

Nevermind I found the answer on the Cingular website:

Q. I just upgraded my phone recently. Are there any penalties or restrictions for upgrading to iPhone right away?
A. No. Everyone can upgrade to iPhone right away.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 1:06 PM. Reason : ]

6/27/2007 1:02:21 PM

they told me you can upgrade your phone after 21 months. not sure what the upgrade credit is, but...

6/27/2007 1:05:46 PM

There are so many things I love and hate about this phone that it all equals out to a phone I might spend $100 on. For $500 bucks it needs to be damn near perfect or be able to give handjobs.

6/27/2007 1:45:22 PM

RE: The keyboard

http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/keyboard_medium.html

6/27/2007 2:12:05 PM

crap, still not even a mention of typing in landscape mode....

6/27/2007 2:23:22 PM

there is no landscape keyboard input

Quote :

"Making a call, though, can take as many as six steps: wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name. Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal."

Quote :

"The browser can’t handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos. "

Quote :

"Then there’s the Internet problem. When you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, going online is fast and satisfying. But otherwise, you have to use AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem. "

6/27/2007 2:54:28 PM

No 3G
No A2DP
No Significant amount of storage
...
No Thanks

6/27/2007 3:18:06 PM

Quote :

"No Significant amount of storage"

What? It has 4 or 8 Gb. That's like an order of magnitude more than any of the competing smart phones.

6/27/2007 3:35:58 PM

so OSX takes up 700MB? That means on the $500 version, you get less storage than $100 will buy you in MircoSDHC. Can't record video? Can't use a song as a ringtone? What else can they screw up? Oh, how about no MMS and no voice dialing?

I almost want to go to AT&T stores on Friday to just point and laugh.

^sandisk just announced a 8GB MicroSDHC

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 3:37 PM. Reason : ^]

6/27/2007 3:37:22 PM

Quote :

"sandisk just announced a 8GB MicroSDHC =/= built-in storage"

I don't consider built-in and expandable storage to be directly comparable. On almost every mobile device I've ever owned, interacting with the external storage has been a pain in the ass.

6/27/2007 3:41:41 PM

once again, not worth the money. of course people are going to buy one just to have one but ya..

6/27/2007 3:42:30 PM

Quote :

"What? It has 4 or 8 Gb. That's like an order of magnitude more than any of the competing smart phones."

Smart phones don't sync to iTunes. Smart phones don't give you the out-of-the-box experience of full length movies, tv shows and massive mp3 libraries.

500 songs, 1 movie and a tv show will fill the phone.

^^And there's no external option on the iPhone, so its a moot point

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 3:48 PM. Reason : .]

6/27/2007 3:47:04 PM

Quote :

"500 songs, 1 movie and a tv show will fill the phone."

You are incorrect.

6/27/2007 3:49:04 PM

Quote :

"Smart phones don't sync to iTunes. Smart phones don't give you the out-of-the-box experience of full length movies, tv shows and massive mp3 libraries. "

my years old smartphone syncd to wmp, and it came with 32mb

6/27/2007 3:50:45 PM

Quote :

"Can't use a song as a ringtone"

Where did you hear this?

6/27/2007 3:51:04 PM

They have announced you can't use songs you already have for ringtones.

However, its almost guaranteed that the iTunes store will begin selling ringtones.

6/27/2007 3:53:47 PM

Malice:

Quote :

"Our test $599 model held 1,325 songs; a dozen videos (including a full-length movie); over 100 photos; and over 100 emails, including some attachments, and still had room left over."

that's 7.3 gigs.

the $499 has 3.3gigs free out of the box.

Which is about 500 songs, a movie and a tv show. No not literally, but you are looking at using almost all of your media storage space with that.

And I don't know about you, but I get upwards of a hundred emails PER DAY, with a number of PDF and image attachments.


^iTunes is going to start selling $.99 30 second CLIPS of every song from its library. You will have to buy the SONG and the CLIP separately. Absolutely fucking absurd.

6/27/2007 4:14:05 PM

we stretch it our own ways

you stated 500 songs, without mentioning it was the 4gig version

so I said you were wrong, citing the 8 gig version




The iPhone comes down to this, anyone actively DEBATING it is a fanboy. Its apple fanboys vs non-apple fanboys. Why is it though that people arent like OMGZ THE NEW BLACKBERRY 8300 doesnt have coverflow and doesnt sync with my iTunes and Address book and Mail settings?!?!!?!?

Because no one gives a shit about cold, sterile, IT Professional equipment. Does anyone wait in line for the new top of the line thinkpads? No, fucker. All your Palms/Treos/Blackberrys are fucking boring. At least the iPhone has excitement, and you know what, fuck it, its a status symbol too.


You people wouldnt care if this thing had landscape typing, 3G, songs for ringtones... you'd still either be for it or against it in the same way.

6/27/2007 4:31:28 PM

Quote :

"Does anyone wait in line for the new top of the line thinkpads? No, fucker."

Eh, when T61 ordering opened at the bookstore there were about 200 orders the first day. Sure nobody stood in line, but nobody had to.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the iPhone and think the interface is pretty amazing. The lack of an SD slot though pisses me off enough not to get it. If the second generation has a flash slot I'll get it.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 4:53 PM. Reason : ]

6/27/2007 4:52:00 PM

what do you want a flash slot for?

2gb flash cards are smaller than 4 or 8gigs built in

6/27/2007 4:57:20 PM

because you could double the size of your iPhone storage...maybe, just maybe that's a good reason...a 16GB phone might start to get me interested.

6/27/2007 5:41:02 PM

Quote :

"The iPhone comes down to this, anyone actively DEBATING it is a fanboy. Its apple fanboys vs non-apple fanboys. Why is it though that people arent like OMGZ THE NEW BLACKBERRY 8300 doesnt have coverflow and doesnt sync with my iTunes and Address book and Mail settings?!?!!?!? Because no one gives a shit about cold, sterile, IT Professional equipment. Does anyone wait in line for the new top of the line thinkpads? No, fucker. All your Palms/Treos/Blackberrys are fucking boring. At least the iPhone has excitement, and you know what, fuck it, its a status symbol too. You people wouldnt care if this thing had landscape typing, 3G, songs for ringtones... you'd still either be for it or against it in the same way. "

Palms/Treos/Blackberrys don't claim to be the second coming of Jesus. Apple (aka Steve Jobs) has hyperolled this device as if it's going to revolutionize the cellphone.

I absolutely care about it having the features I mentioned. I think in MANY aspects it IS revolutionary. But I feel that they completely missed the boat on a few critical elements, as well as intentionally locking out other features that should be open.

I'm not an Apple fanboy what-so-ever, but I do think they stand the best chance of changing the mobile paradigm into something truly better.

It's the same thing with the iPod for me. Yes I own one. I bought it because it is a great device that did what I wanted it to do without any bullshit. Not because it was exciting or a status symbol. I'm probably in the vast minority there, but such people do exist.

^Exactly. External storage means you can swap out multiple cards. I can carry a couple of 4 or 8gb cards with me in addition to the internal storage without any issue.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 5:47 PM. Reason : .]

6/27/2007 5:46:27 PM

^^^ 4+2=6. 8+2=10.

Plus, standard sized SD cards come in 4GB as well. For 30 bucks off amazon you could double the size of the cheaper iPhone. The 8GB ones are a bit more, coming in around 70-80 but that's still reasonable. Add to that the fact that you could have a couple of the cards around; maybe one with video or some different music. Most people wouldn't do that, but the option of doubling your available memory for 30 bucks would be nice.

[Edited on June 27, 2007 at 6:01 PM. Reason : ]

6/27/2007 5:46:53 PM