iPhone tour

[Harold Tuttle]

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

[Antibubba]

This is going to be a fiasco.  Apple develops out a cutting-edge cool multimedia phone, and puts it on Cingular's pokey data service.  Imagine playing HALO online with a dial-up connection.

[Fly320s]

Gee, that's nice. 

I'd like my cellular phone to be a cellular phone, and nothing else.  If I want a camera, I'll get one.  Same goes for a MP3 player and computer, too.

[Manedwolf]

This is going to be a fiasco.  Apple develops out a cutting-edge cool multimedia phone, and puts it on Cingular's pokey data service.  Imagine playing HALO online with a dial-up connection.

Exactly. Sprint's data service is, in fact, much faster than Cingular-sucked-up-by-AT&Ts' painfully bad service. I can actually watch live streaming video on my phone without hangs and caching pauses. But Sprint has no iPhone.

No idea what they were thinking.

I'd like my cellular phone to be a cellular phone, and nothing else.  If I want a camera, I'll get one.  Same goes for a MP3 player and computer, too.

No offense, but that just means you're not in the target market, which is people who are interested in convergence devices. There's a big market for them, if they work well. Smartphones are selling well, but as Jobs said, there seems to be this idea that when you move a PC application to a phone, it has to be crippled, it has to be slow, and it has to suck. Whoever changes that is going to make lots of money.

[AJ Dual]

I'm glad it exists, as it'll launch the smartphone/convergence device into the mainstream.

Eventually, there will be better, cheaper, non-proprietary, and user modifiable devices that will allow you to use applications without extra fees. I imagine that to use every feature/application the iPhone offers, your bill would probably hundreds of dollars a month... 

[Firethorn]

Gee, that's nice. 

I'd like my cellular phone to be a cellular phone, and nothing else.  If I want a camera, I'll get one.  Same goes for a MP3 player and computer, too.

Honestly enough, I'm mostly this way, but ended up getting a camera phone because I wanted bluetooth for the cordless headset capability.  It also has a MP3 player, but in trying to use it, it doesn't want to see the songs on the memory card I put in it, sometimes it copies them all to the internal memory, etc...  It acts wierd.  Oh yeah, and the internal memory isn't much use, there's only 40 MB of it.  Fine for a few pictures, but not to be used as a media player.  Oh yeah, and it doesn't support stereo bluetooth headsets...  still need a wired headset for that...

I figure the camera phone capability might be usefull occasionally, if I ever run into a situation where I could use a camera and didn't bring my dedicated one.

[PPGMD]

Problems with the iPhone.

Optical glass as the screen and is not beveled so it lays against the glass, it will scratch in minutes, it since you look in the same area you touch, it will need to be cleaned daily.
No Buttons, try dialing that without looking down.
$500 device that is not compatible with Exchange the most popular business e-mail server, the largest market for $300+ phones.
It's not Windows Mobile, like it or not the world is dominated by Windows, that's why Palm's are running Windows Mobile.
It's $500, even Motorola's Q was about $200 with a service plan when it was released.
It's AT&T/Cingular only, it's a large network, but it's still only on a single network for the next 5 years.
Finally Jack of all trades, master of none, iPod was popular because it's the most refined MP3 player, good device user interface, good computer user interface, and it's truly plug in play after you set it up. The iPhone is a crappy phone, crappy Smart Phone, crappy Mobile E-mail device, and a crappy iPod (it has full size iPod features with Nano sized memory).

[Firethorn]

Problems with the iPhone.

From what I understand, the optical glass will actually help prevent scratching problems.  Glass is actually pretty hard to scratch, optical quality(IE glasses) even more so.

From what I've heard, it's going to be more restrictive than most phones, only work on one network, cost a load of money, doesn't have many of the features of other phones...

I figure it's going to have disappointing sales until a version or three down the road.

[jeepmor]

Typical Apple, make something great, and pick some loser provider to offer the service.  I agree w/ AT&T/Cingular as a lame, lame carrier.  I get dropped calls all the time with signal strength going from great to bad in less than a 5 foot physical move.

At least it's got Intel chips in it, you can rely on them.

I like the integrated features, but it's an apple, easy to use, but they try to wiggle into their own space and create markets because they have this pretentious attitude that they're better.  If they were, they be like Intel and own 80+ percent of the market.  Let's face it, they don't, and for good reason.

One hit wonder comes to mind.

[PPGMD]

From what I understand, the optical glass will actually help prevent scratching problems.  Glass is actually pretty hard to scratch, optical quality(IE glasses) even more so.

It still scratches, all my lens are optical glass and many of them have gotten scratches in them, and I baby them compared what myself and others do to their phones. I also don't purposely touch the glass on my lens, and they often have a lens hood between them on objects that may hit them.

If it had some sort of bevel at least it wouldn't lay directly on the glass and would offer some level of protection.

[Manedwolf]

It's not Windows Mobile, like it or not the world is dominated by Windows, that's why Palm's are running Windows Mobile.
It's $500, even Motorola's Q was about $200 with a service plan when it was released.

Windows Mobile is a flawed abomination that needs to die. Anyone who offers something better will get the users to migrate to it very, very quickly.

What the hell do you call an OS that, for the longest time and STILL on many devices has no "exit" from programs, but keeps them running till you manually go to the settings, memory, and shut down the process? I'd call it "broken".

[PPGMD]

Windows Mobile is a flawed abomination that needs to die. Anyone who offers something better will get the users to migrate to it very, very quickly.

What the hell do you call an OS that, for the longest time and STILL on many devices has no "exit" from programs, but keeps them running till you manually go to the settings, memory, and shut down the process? I'd call it "broken".

Windows Mobile ain't the best OS, but at least it's open unlike OS X on the iPhone. Also some of those problems come from the devices implementation of Windows Mobile, why Microsoft didn't include a close application button I have no idea, but I think it might have something to do with multitasking.

Finally Palm not only was around it was the dominate OS before Windows Mobile showed up.

[Harold Tuttle]

The iPhone is closed right now because Apple can not afford for 3rd party apps to crash their baby.

It will be open and multinetworked once they get established

[Vodka7]

You forgot the biggest problem with the iPhone:  it's freakin' HUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE.

Me, I'll take the nowhere-near-as-nice MP3 player on my Verizon LG with its tiny 2gigs of microSD memory over the iPhone any day.  Why?  It's so thin it fits in my *watch pocket*.  I carry too much crap every day to devote an entire pocket, ugly bulge and all, to this monstrosity.

[PPGMD]

The iPhone is closed right now because Apple can not afford for 3rd party apps to crash their baby.

It will be open and multinetworked once they get established

I highly doubt it based on Apple's history. Apple only opens things up, when they are forced to by market forces. Apple has done more monopolistic pracitics, it's just that they weren't succussful until iTunes and the iPod came out. Even then they were forced by declining sales of both music and the players to remove the DRM.

Apple could have easily established a 3rd Party Program certification program. Companies send their applications to Apple to get tested, and if approved Apple allows them to be installed.

[Antibubba]

Windows Mobile is a flawed abomination that needs to die. Anyone who offers something better will get the users to migrate to it very, very quickly.

Not that I need a PDA, but if I did it would run on Palm OS.

[Manedwolf]

Windows Mobile is a flawed abomination that needs to die. Anyone who offers something better will get the users to migrate to it very, very quickly.

Not that I need a PDA, but if I did it would run on Palm OS.

The original PalmOS is dead. They stopped doing development on it years ago, hence why it never had a standardized media player. They've also announced that all support for it will go away, and they're moving to a new Linux-based OS instead.

[cordex]

What the hell do you call an OS that, for the longest time and STILL on many devices has no "exit" from programs, but keeps them running till you manually go to the settings, memory, and shut down the process? I'd call it "broken".

I hated that as well, so I downloaded an add-on application that overlays the default menu bar with a fully customizable menu application which includes the ability to stop processes.

[Silver Bullet]

http://yahoo.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2007-07-12-iphone_N.htm?csp=1

Early iPhone owners are overwhelmingly happy with their devices, a survey out Friday says, and Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) are luring customers from rivals as a result.

In one of the first such studies, 90% of 200 owners said they were "extremely" or "very" satisfied with their phone. And 85% said they are "extremely" or "very" likely to recommend the device to others, says the online survey conducted and paid for by market researcher Interpret of Santa Monica, Calif. The firm surveyed 1,000 cellphone users July 6-10.

The findings are "pretty much off the charts," says Jason Kramer, Interpret's chief strategy officer.

[Manedwolf]

Someone in my office had one, so I messed with it.

It's sleek, yes, and the UI is crafted like a Swiss watch, but there are serious faults.

For one thing, Safari totally fell down if you tried to visit a Flash site. No flash. What were they thinking there?

[Bogie]

I've got an LG9800.
 
Flipphone, full keyboard.
 
Guys, tiny only goes so far. I would not mind a larger phone if it meant a larger keyboard and screen. I don't want something paperback sized tho.
 
Don't really need a mouse either. Just e-mail capabilities... Or, wait a minute... If you could have easy connectivity for a "data port" dealie, maybe with a larger HD, rodent and screen adapters...
 
Heck, the main thing I hate about this phone is that the earplug connectors are smaller than normal, so regular ipod 'phones won't work.
 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I heard that Cingular's data network tripled in capacity the night before they released the iPhone.  It may have been a crappy service before, but I doubt it's half as crappy now.  I bet it'll get better still in the coming months.  Say what you will about Apple and Steve Jobs, but they aren't stupid.  If they trust the Cingular network to be good enough, then I'll believe 'em.

[Manedwolf]

EDGE is still far slower than the 3G EV-DO used by Sprint and other providers. There's no getting around that. It's the last generation of tech, that's all there is to it.