iPhone

[hype]

just watched the keynote speech, nice product. shame about the size of the memory, my 10gb iPod needs changing for a bigger one so ill give the iPhone a miss

[oliB]

I must say it looks pretty nice and the screen appears to be awesome. There will be one problem though, fingerprints. With fingerprints all over it, it's gonna look a whole lot less sexy. I also think this huge glossy surface will be prone to scratching and maybe a little fragile like all touchscreens.

Other than that I'm not impressed, although I want one. Might go for the second gen model someday.

Originally Posted by ArosaMike

And who needs 3G when it has WiFi? Free calls on Skype and free internet anyone?

Well, that's nothing new, is it? There are several phones on the market that are Skype, VoIP, 3G and WiFi capable. And I'm seriously disappointed by the lack of 3G. Plus, while the Google deal sounds good, without integrated GPS it doesn't make that much sense

Here's what my new phone has, should be out any day now:
Quadband
3G with HSDPA (up to 10 times faster than regular 3G!)
WiFi
Skype and VoIP functionality (over WiFi and 3G)
5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, flash and video recording in 640x480@30fps
Integrated shutter to protect the lens
Integrated GPS
Bluetooth (with A2DP) and Infrared (of course)
dedicated media player controls
dedicated 3D graphics chip
TV out
regular 3,5mm stereo jack
mini USB port
integrated stereo speakers
Direct upload to Vox and Flickr
integrated Podcast fetcher/app
100s of 3rd Party applications to choose from
sync with Windows and Mac
Word, Excell, Powerpoint, PDF viewer and editor
Integrated Email client
Full web browser
Expendable memory via microSD
Smaller form factor than the iPhone, although not as slim and I gotta admit not as stylish

Beat that!

[ArosaMike]

People are missing the point though. Yes, phones exist now that have these features and more, but they're all so terribly integrated. My SPV has the same functions but it's crap. It takes forever to navigate web pages, the MP3 player is slow, it takes about 2 mins to load a photo, it slows down to a crawl after using 3 programs and needs rebooting and it crashes constantly. Bluetooth also won't work half the time and it takes 5 mins to try and get it working.

The whole aim of the iPhone is to take existing smart phone tech and make it usable. It automatically switches between GSM/EDGE/WiFi without any user interaction so if you walkin into your home that has a WiFi network, next time you go to look on the net it will use your 2Mbit or whatever speed it is connection automatically. Any Windows based smart phone would require you to manually go and enable WiFi, input the IP address and DNS servers, wait about 5mins with the egg timer going for it then to say 'could not connect to network. Host timed out'.

There's always gonna be people who just dismiss it as rubbish because for whatever reason they assume you can't have great functionality with style. The reason millions of people have brought iPods is not necessarily because it's the 'in' thing, but because it's actually miles better than the competition. It's easy to use, it sounds great, it looks great and it's well built. I couldn't care less what people think about my iPod. I have it in my pocket most of the time and have Sennheiser 'phones so I could have anything from a CD player to a mobile phone in my pocket. The fact is, I love it for what it does. I brought the first ever 5Gb iPod when it came out for Mac only and about 1 or 2 magazines had reviewed it. To me it seemed to do everything I wanted an MP3 player to do.

As for the touchscreen btw. This is the next generation. Think Minority Report and you're on the right track.

[oliB]

Originally Posted by ArosaMike

The whole aim of the iPhone is to take existing smart phone tech and make it usable. It automatically switches between GSM/EDGE/WiFi without any user interaction so if you walkin into your home that has a WiFi network, next time you go to look on the net it will use your 2Mbit or whatever speed it is connection automatically. Any Windows based smart phone would require you to manually go and enable WiFi, input the IP address and DNS servers, wait about 5mins with the egg timer going for it then to say 'could not connect to network. Host timed out'.

Well, maybe you should switch to Symbian then.

The new Nokia N and Eseries devices do the automatic switching as well. Whenever your home network or an open one is within range, it is using that for any type of data transfer instead of 3G. (This feature can be disabled, of course.) Podcasts can be fetched automatically too, along with RSS feeds, etc.

Originally Posted by ArosaMike

People are missing the point though. Yes, phones exist now that have these features and more, but they're all so terribly integrated. My SPV has the same functions but it's crap. It takes forever to navigate web pages, the MP3 player is slow, it takes about 2 mins to load a photo, it slows down to a crawl after using 3 programs and needs rebooting and it crashes constantly. Bluetooth also won't work half the time and it takes 5 mins to try and get it working.

Again, maybe you should switch to Symbian. It's pretty stable and especially the newer devices are plenty fast.

Originally Posted by ArosaMike

There's always gonna be people who just dismiss it as rubbish because for whatever reason they assume you can't have great functionality with style. The reason millions of people have brought iPods is not necessarily because it's the 'in' thing, but because it's actually miles better than the competition. It's easy to use, it sounds great, it looks great and it's well built. I couldn't care less what people think about my iPod. I have it in my pocket most of the time and have Sennheiser 'phones so I could have anything from a CD player to a mobile phone in my pocket. The fact is, I love it for what it does. I brought the first ever 5Gb iPod when it came out for Mac only and about 1 or 2 magazines had reviewed it. To me it seemed to do everything I wanted an MP3 player to do.

The iPod is miles better than it's competition? Let's just say many people would disagree. And I think many people did in fact buy it, because it's the "in" thing and maybe the only mp3 player they know.

The omission of 3G is really surprising I have to say, especially considering the fact that Apple is marketing this is an Internet device. In Europe 3G is very common and in Germany for instance there's really good coverage. WiFi isn't really an alternative, cause free WiFi everywhere you go is still a pipe dream.

I'm no Apple basher and, as I said, I think the phone looks appealing. I'd rather wait for the second generation though, hopefully with at least 3G and integrated GPS to fully use that Google maps feature.

Originally Posted by ArosaMike

As for the touchscreen btw. This is the next generation. Think Minority Report and you're on the right track.

I have nothing against the touchscreen, as long as it's durable and scratch resistant.

[vRS]

Really like the sound of this, looks great, slim, loads of memory and a decent camera. It seems Apple is targeting the Walkman phone with this , although the price seems really steep and I recon this "virtual keyboard" will cause problems to start.

[oliB]

Originally Posted by vRS

Really like the sound of this, looks great, slim, loads of memory and a decent camera. It seems Apple is targeting the Walkman phone with this , although the price seems really steep and I recon this "virtual keyboard" will cause problems to start.

Decent camera? Where does that statement come from? So far I haven't seen any pictures taken with the integrated camera. With 2 megapixels the resolution is pretty low, although the quality of the lenses and components is more important than the pixel count...

And you are right, it does look great and is very slim. However it is pretty wide and tall (because of the screen obviously) and heavy, heavier than most current smartphones and much heavier than those style-phones.

[sandor_]

Originally Posted by epp_b

Palm has been doing the phone/camera/PDA/audio-player thing for years, and for a couple hundred bucks less.

Oh, right, but this says "I'm hipper than you".

no, this is about ease of use, better navigation, awesome integration with iCal, Address Book, iTunes, iPhoto, Mail, etc. My wife and her brother have been trying to get their Palm-based Tre 650's to work nicely with OS X for about 8 months now and are having little luck and much frustration. This device is just another thing to make Macintosh the better choice for small businesses - Apple products have a way of negating the need for full time IT employees, which is very nice for a business with under 20 employees.

[NecroJoe]

Originally Posted by Prost264

sexy

oh wait, I have an MP3 player, and a good cell phone, and I dont need the internet wherever I go.. meh

Soo...you wouldn't want something that combies your mp3 player and cell phone so you don't have to carry around two devices, not to mentione keep them both charged up? And when you're listening to music and you get a c all, now you've got to switch devices, pull out your earbuds, etc...I think I'm the last Californian without a cell phone, but even *I* see the advantage in that...

Originally Posted by Prost264

They chose one of the worst cellular providers..

Cingular all around is terrible (dont try to argue with me, I have had them all and there is plenty of data to back me up, unless you have Sprint ) They should have stuck with unlocked phones to force providers to accept locked phones.

So far, you're the only person I've meet who isn't happy with their Cingular service. Maybe they just suck where you live, but I hear the best comments about Cingular. When I need to get one for work in February, it'll be Cingular.

Originally Posted by CyberMonkey

Icigarette!

Right, this is thé way for big tobacco to make smoking cool again. It could be their biggest breakthrough since the Marlboro Man.

I could just imagine...I bet they'd make it white!

Originally Posted by epp_b

Palm has been doing the phone/camera/PDA/audio-player thing for years, and for a couple hundred bucks less.

Oh, right, but this says "I'm hipper than you".

No, it's a pretty inventive breakthrough...it's not like the iPod which offers less and charges you more. iPod is nothing without iTunes, but there are other mp3 players...I'm going to stop right there...no need to start a iPod vs the world thread...anyways... It's got a pretty innovative piece of kit...

[Buktu]

Originally Posted by oliB

I must say it looks pretty nice and the screen appears to be awesome. There will be one problem though, fingerprints. With fingerprints all over it, it's gonna look a whole lot less sexy. I also think this huge glossy surface will be prone to scratching and maybe a little fragile like all touchscreens.

They can make it scratch and fingerprint resistant. Hopefully they will, since the screen is such an integral part of the phone.

I really like it.. It's not all about what kind of technology it contains, i'd probably only use the MP3 player, and use it to call and write SMS. It's really just as much a fashion statement as anything else. And for me, and a lot of other people, that is quite important. There's a reason i bought a 5.5g iPod instead of any other MP3 player.. And it's not because i think it's "miles ahead" of the competition.. It's because i want something that's stylish, as well as functional. Having more features is second priority to me..

I want this phone because it combines a phone and a MP3 player.. Right now i'm walking around with both my phone and my iPod in my pocket.. And it does take up a lot of space, and isn't really that practical..

It's only the price that's holding me back.

[FATMOUSE]

Apparently Cisco doesn't like this iPhone name business.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/...ss/6250511.stm

[evoWALO]

Haters should watch the keynote http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/ There a lot of things it can do that other smartphones can.

That being said I wouldnt get one for at least 2 years for the simple reason that I dont want to pay to become a beta tester.

[Hidden_Hunter]

wasn't there a sony ericson p900 or something that had a touch screen similar (it had a stylus but it wasn't required) and a flip keypad.

[KaJuN]

For all of you like me who are tired of all the i stuff from Apple, I give you the iPoop.
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/IPoop


I suppose this is why Apple has a claim over Cisco for the iPhone name.

The iPoop is prefixed with the letter "i" because Steve Jobs is so selfish he thinks his products actually speak for him in the first person. Insofar as they are overpriced and prone to underdelivering, he is correct.

And like most of Apple's products, you can take this one with you!

The iPoop is also commonly integrated with those really crappy Opel and Saab pieces of shit that they use to haul something like 15 old people at once.

[oliB]

Originally Posted by evoWALO

Haters should watch the keynote http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/ There a lot of things it can do that other smartphones can.

I watched the entire keynote and you are right, there are a lot of things it can do that other smartphones can do as well.

Now in case you were trying to say it can do stuff other smartphones can't do...nah, not really.

Also, check this out:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/0...-a-smartphone/

[The_Finn]

how can it not have intergrated GPS since that is a requirement for Phase 2 E911 by the FCC? unless they have another way to pinpoint a phones location down to 300M. infact i think aGPS has been a requirement in all new US handsets since like... 2001 or 2002

[stuntfreak]

nice design

[oliB]

Originally Posted by The_Finn

how can it not have intergrated GPS since that is a requirement for Phase 2 E911 by the FCC? unless they have another way to pinpoint a phones location down to 300M. infact i think aGPS has been a requirement in all new US handsets since like... 2001 or 2002

I'm not familiar with the FCC, but if you mean there must be possibility to track or locate the phone: That's probably done via the cellular network. You can't pinpoint the phone, but you can tell in which area it is. It's not totally accurate and depends on how many transmitters are around, but you can get it down to a couple of hundred meters.

I highly, highly doubt the iPhone has integrated GPS, i.e. tracking via satellites. I've watched the entire keynote and you bet Jobs would have mentioned it. It wasn't mentioned anywhere else either. Furthermore, I guarantee you that not every cellphone sold in the US today has GPS. Much less devices dating back to 2001 or 2002!

Today, Cellphones/Smartphones with real integrated GPS are still pretty rare. There are only a handful of devices around and most of them came out in the last couple of months.

EDIT:
Just did some research on this E911 Phase 2 thing and found this article on the Sprint homepage:

Phase II, being implemented now with staggered deadlines through 2005, requires that wireless carriers provide more precise information about a caller's location—Automatic Location Identification (ALI)—within 50 to 100 meters in most instances. To support ALI, carriers use either handset-based solutions like assisted global positioning systems (GPS) or network-based solutions like time difference of arrival, or TDOA, which sends timing signals to different antenna towers to triangulate location. Phase II also requires wireless carriers to sell E911-capable handsets.

So there you have it. It can either be done via GPS or network-based solutions. I'm pretty darn sure it's done via the network on the vast (!) majority of devices sold today.

[Firecat]

Well, since they are with Cingular they most likely use TDOA to pinpoint a location. I don't know if it's accurate to 300M or if they plan on changing though....

Regarding the iPhone, the major drawback has to be the short battery life (5 hours?!?).

[oliB]

Firecat, looks like you were faster. But we're on the same page. It is nowhere close to being as accurate as GPS and AFAIK cannot be properly used in a navigation device. If it's only accurate to a couple of hundred meters for instance, it's totally useless in the city with streets only being a couple of meters apart. The device does not exactly know which street you are on and therefore cannot give you precise directions.

[ArosaMike]

Christ that's nuts! Why is a requirement for the mobile company to know where you are?!