Apple iPhone

[Stargate199]

Its finally official, the Apple iPhone will be released. I like the idea, but think it's a waste of money. I personally would of like to see that time be put into making a really cool computer. Anyone thinking of buying one of these when they come out in June?

[rkawakami]

At $500 for a 4GB iPod/phone? No. Although I would hope that Cingular will subsidize some of that cost and make it a little more attractive, say around $199 with a two year committment. At that price I may consider dumping my Sprint PCS account and joining the rest of my Cingular family account (wife and daughters). And it sorta depends upon the way you transfer music, videos, pictures. I would prefer that it be done with removable media (i.e. SD card) than with any wired/wireless method. The only USB 2.0 computer I have is an iMac .

(edit: Been trying to access the Apple iPhone site (www.apple.com/iphone/) for a few minutes now and I keep getting application error messages, usually when clicking on a link to a new page. Using Quicktime 7.0.2 and Firefox 1.5.0.9 on an A31 running Win2K. What I've seen so far is pretty slick but still hasn't gotten me to thinking about whipping out the credit card.)

(edit2: Note: "iPhone" is a registered trademark owned by Cisco and currently has filed suit against Apple for infringement.)

[Turbo Audi]

If the iPhone is as reliable as the 3 iPods I have owned, Ill stick with my 2-year old i860.

[schen]

This thing strikes at the heart of my personal rebellion over the course of the last few years. Like a lot of people (especially people like me who worked in IT), I kept myself on a path of constant technological upgrades/integration in pursuit of "cool" technologies. After a few years, I came to the realization, that although the concepts were good and the technologies, cutting edge. They seem to accomplish very little other than to cut down the number of devices that did their jobs very well, for a smaller number that did nothing well.

The whole "Crackberry" craze of "Hip Urbanites" is an excellent example. The vast majority of users don't NEED to connect in that manner. They do it "because they can". I guess I'm a purist, I like technology which is not only functional but elegant while doing their jobs. ThinkPads and most Macs come to mind, as do the RAZR, iPods, Leicas and BMWs.

I'm not really an elitist, we shop at walmart and Sams for our basic needs, but when I can, I'd prefer to pull out my ThinkPad for computing, iPod for music on the go and use my old Handspring Edge. Not some teched out combination of the 3 that doesn't do any of it well.

[pianowizard]

The screen resolution is supposed to be only 320x240, which is 1/4 as many pixels as my Dell X51v PDA's 640x480. It would be a pain to view web sites on the iPhone, i.e. lots of scrolling around.

[Manarius]

500 or 600 for a phone? Umm, no thanks. I'll keep my money. Especially a Mac.

[Stargate199]

Apparently Apple did not sign the papers to Cisco before revealing the iPhone, so Cisco is taking Apple Inc. to court over the name for which they (Cisco) has the ownership to. Cisco was going to let Apple use the iPhone name, not anymore. Let's see, will it be called the Apple Pone now?

[NS]

500 or 600 for a phone? Umm, no thanks. I'll keep my money. Especially a Mac.

You can get a decent camera at that price and you can use the remaining sum of money to get some of IBM?lenovo notebook's accessories.

I will wait for complains from the users before jumping in for a conclusion.

[dsigma6]

The screen resolution is supposed to be only 320x240.

The screen is 320x480. The T-Mobile Dash has the resolution you mentioned, and it's clearly much smaller when looking at the pictures (Dash). It's a huge screen, which is great and all...but n**** please. I think it's corny. Most people already have a phone that can be their main mp3 player, video player and mobile internet browser.

I swear about two weeks ago a company got the copyright on "iPhone" and it wasn't Apple. So much for believing the tech news.

edit- I knew I was right about the copyright thing! It was Cisco:
http://tinyurl.com/yzxmud

[pianowizard]

The screen is 320x480.

That info wasn't available on apple.com when I posted yesterday! "320x240" was from a non-Apple site. The official specs have now been published. 320x480 is still only half as much as what my Dell Axim X51v has.

I agree $500 is a lot of money (exactly twice of what I paid for my X51v), but for someone who doesn't already own a digital camera, MP3 player or cell phone, it's not too bad.

[AnandC]

I agree, it's a lot of money. But I figure, I paid $300 for an iPod a couple of years ago (I've had NO problems with the iPod), and at 2.5 years, my Nokia cellphone is getting old. So I'd consider buying an iPhone. I'd wait for 2nd gen, to let the bugs get worked out, to be sure. But I'm not averse to paying good money for things that work well and are stable, like my old iMac (*and* my new ThinkPad!) If the iPhone works as advertised, I think Apple has done a really good job of integrating different devices, and should be applauded. Next step: add GPS functionality....

[pianowizard]

Next step: add GPS functionality....

That's a good idea! Maybe camcorder as well!

[christopher_wolf]

edit- I knew I was right about the copyright thing! It was Cisco:
http://tinyurl.com/yzxmud

Yeah, like this

Infogear, to my knowledge, has been making iPhone branded products for quite awhile now; since they are owned by Cisco, which bought them and hence the trademark in 2000, that would make sense.

[pianowizard]

"iPhone" isn't the best name for Apple's new device anyway, because it's much more than a phone.

[bigtiger]

I will have to wait for confirmations of the voice quality. Modern cell phones are everything but a cell phone, as far as sound quality is concerned. I know FCC has a strict regulation standard on radiation but that should not be a reason for designing a cellphone with poor sound quality.

I have used a ipaq 6225 pda phone, motorola C610, V300, I heard a lot about motorola V3. All those phone have very bad sound quality. I finally bought a 6 year old motorola V60. Finally it is a phone that I can hear and I do not need to reboot every few hours.

[ronbo613]

One of these days, I might buy a cell phone.
$5 or $500, I'll probably lose it, regardless of features.

[pianowizard]

One of these days, I might buy a cell phone.

You can usually get a free one when you sign a new contract. I've gotten three free cell phones from Verizon since Sep 2001. The first two were crapy but the current one is pretty nice.

[BillMorrow]

i looks neat..
but is probably too big..
my razr is just fine..
but the software looks nifty..
so, i will await a deal from cingular..
as my last two year contract was up some time ago, i will see what the 2nd generation offers are..

still, i like it as a neat device..

i wonder though, is not the connector off center..?
if so this will not fit all those ipod accessories..?

[rkawakami]

i wonder though, is not the connector off center..?
if so this will not fit all those ipod accessories..?

Ahh... Apple's way of making you buy more accessories for the aPhone (since Cisco has the "i" trademark for now...). Sorta like when the new 80GB iPods came out that none of the existing hard cases would fit the VERY slightly thicker case. Ran into that one when the older daughter got her birthday/Christmas present.

[christopher_wolf]

I know, isn't that incredibly fun?

I guess it won't work with all those Bose, Altec Lansing, and other sound docks either although they did do a good job keeping the base connector the same from the minis all the way to the current line of Nanos and iPods (except for the shuffle).

[kulivontot]

My beefs with the iphone:

1. Touch screens suck. It's a cool idea, until you try dialing a number while driving and you realize you need to use both hands and look at the display because there is no tactile feedback at all. Yeah, there's voice recognition, but I have that now and I still prefer to browse through my contact list. Tablet PC's, UMPC's and most touch screen devices in general have failed because the inability to feel what you're typing/touching completely throws off the experience. The exception of course is PDA's, which generally use a stylus, which feels more natural. Nobody writes with their fingers.

2. No software support except itunes? This means you can't sync with outlook, lotus notes, or anything but itunes and your pop3 or imap e-mail server. This is key since business users do this all the time. Appointments, reminders and such probably won't be all that useful. Also, does itunes even support calendar functions and the such? In my opinion it's a poor music library player at best, let alone an application to synchronize all your contacts, appointments etc.

3. Price. That's a lot of cash.

4. Cell phone displays have a tendency to get greasy or oily when placed up against your head. Maybe I just have bad skin, but placing an all glass display against your head would mean that you would constantly have to be wiping fingerprints and oil off of the display.

5. No Word, Excel, Outlook etc... In fact no third party applications at all. If you're going to be using this device for productivity purposes (and I would assume you would be if you're going to be forking out this much cash for a smart phone) you want to be able to be productive. This means, if a co-worker e-mails you a file, you want to at least be able to open and read it, if not edit it. Sure, apple may provide some similar applications with the phone, but they probably will not be compatible with well-used formats.

Now, I think the idea of the iphone is pretty sweet. We've been waiting for a smart phone/camera/ipod combination for awhile now. I just think the usability of the smart phone portion of the phone is kinda lacking.

[pianowizard]

5. No Word, Excel, Outlook etc...

Are you sure about that? The lack of these critical productivity software makes the iPhone infinitely less appealing to me. Apple will have a hard time competing with other smartphones and PDAs, which usually have such software.

[benplaut]

Oopsie!
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 12/0430200

[christopher_wolf]

Oopsie!
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 12/0430200

Yeah, I caught that too....Doesn't seem like a bright move; unless, of course, Apple wants to make its own apps for it to create a device/service presence in the mobile market. Although, if that was the case and they wanted a truly useful product, they should have just brought back the Newton (provided they don't mess with it, of course).

[Nigellus]

The whole "Crackberry" craze of "Hip Urbanites" is an excellent example.

I have a dislike of Blackberries simply due to the fact that one of my clients feels a need to send me e-mails via the device. For some reason, no matter when the e-mails are sent, they are dated January of the previous year, so they appear several pages back in my e-mail. Since I get between four and 10 spams every couple of days, it's hard to remember how many e-mails should be in my inbox based on the last time I logged in, so I never notice his e-mails right away.

I suppose I could move all my business e-mails that I'm saving out of my inbox, but it's really annoying to have to change my filing system for one lawyer who doesn't know how to set the date on his Blackberry.

[GomJabbar]

What? No 3G!

Whatever were they thinking?

[brikeh]

What? No 3G!

Whatever were they thinking?

Exactly!! No 3G/HSDPA in a "smartphone" 2007, that doesnt fly with me. Also, here in sweden we probably wont see the iPhone until december and by then these specs will be soooo outdated, they kinda are already but hey. Yeah it has a cool UI and all but....naaah. I'll pass. And that 500 pricetag is WITH a 2 yr contract right?

[MichaelMeier]

What? No 3G!

Whatever were they thinking?

I guess, it goes something like this: hm, lets add 3G next year and sell to the same people again and then some.

[brikeh]

What? No 3G!

Whatever were they thinking?

I guess, it goes something like this: hm, lets add 3G next year and sell to the same people again and then some.

Hahaha....

[pianowizard]

Did any of you watch Steve Jobs' keynote speech where he introduced the iPhone? I watched the whole thing last night and must say it's an amazing device! This is the first time I've been so impressed by an Apple product.