The iPhone is out and about, and everyone waiting in line for hours/days got one (including Woz, and the mayor of Philadelphia who apparently had nothing better to do). Unboxing pictures here, dissecting pictures here, PDF manual, and one of the best-designed iPhone web apps can be found here: the iPhoneAppsManager (requires a Safari/Webkit browser to work). Update: Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Update 2: It is claimed Apple UK will announce a 3G iPhone on Monday, as well as deals with Vodafone and T-Mobile. Update 3: Lots of screenshots reveal no “weekend/weekday” recurrence in the alarm app.
iPhone Unleashed
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
An anchorette couldn’t figure out how to accept a call in iPhone: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/easy-real-easy/today-show-host-fumbles-w…
Thats a phone i really like
It has wavetable soundchip like old sonyericsson t610 unlike sonyericsson putting crappy soundchip and exusing it with mp3 playback on new models, not ok.
I like that my midis will sound ok with iphone
Wifi I can surf around with safari No big deal that java aint supported just install opera if i need it that bad.
Touchscreen now thats what i really love i wanna develop my own buttons and appz
watching rockvideos , movies , play chess or anything like that’s a bonus when im on long journeys
here comes the bad part :
I still live in europe Sweden.
No sign of iphones in our stores.
i guess that stinks
Edited 2007-06-30 00:51
That’s the problem. The iPhone seems to be a US-only product for now. It might take some time until it shows up in stores in the rest of the world. I wish these large companies unleashed their products world-wide simultaneously. The iPhone looks pretty cool, I saw on the web that you can even watch a movie on it…
In the meantime, here’s some fun 🙂
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif
Apple stuff are quite fun to play with Appletv with macosx on it which produces a cheap mac
Well since iphone is true macosx maybe a bit stripped out of computer hardware features it makes things easier to install stuff i imagine.
Rumors that dont scare me off:
1. MMS feature , there is officially no Mms on the iphone but how hard would it be to make a 3rd part mms sender?
2.lack of 3g, so what? never used that network would probably be overestimated with its built in wifi:D
3. 3g circuits consume alot of power but you never know if someone will make a software solution to that.
For me playing midi files properly is the best in the phone its a proof of good soundchip , and i like that the phone has mp3 player seperately from ringtone midis
so music fades out and ringtone plays , after the call music smoothly fades in from where it got interrupted.
>3rd part mms sender?
Very. Impossible without an SDK. There are no companies I know that would pay the MMS price for you, just because the app can’t “talk” to the phone to send an MMS.
Very. Impossible without an SDK. There are no companies I know that would pay the MMS price for you, just because the app can’t “talk” to the phone to send an MMS.
Actually, this is not correct. The iPhone permits you to create a Javascript application with asynchronous http (AJAX in, other words). You could thus easilly build an MMS application using any gateway that support an HTTP interface (there are quite a few of those).
]{
I’m just waiting for a similar software solution that will upgrade my dial-up internet connection to DSLAM. There must be a piece of freeware out there?
Well we will see about it when iphone comes to europe , i heard mms isnt widely used in USA
“Well we will see about it when iphone comes to europe , i heard mms isnt widely used in USA”
Here in Germany, the mobile phone market is primarily targetted at youths from 10 years up. To them, the iPhone might look appealing, allthough it’s too big (for their little fingers) and too expensive (for their parents). MMS is widely used to interchange video clips (especially on schoolyards where the clips show sex and violence). You think I’ve not got a very positive opinion about youths and mobile phones in Germany? You’re right.
To commercial users, the iPhone might be interesting because it covers many important functionalities into a handy interface (form factor and GUI), so there might be a market.
I’m very excited how the iPhone starts selling in Germany. Will people sleep infront of the stores in order to get one? Or will it just reside in a niche of the shop (such as Apple computers sadly do) or will everyone want to have one?
By the way, mobile phones are called “Handy” in Germany. Have you got a Handy? No, my Handy is ringing! 🙂
Edited 2007-06-30 15:13
your “appz” will be browser based. And probably suck compared to native running apps. I wish Apple would allow real programs to be programmable for the iPhone. Oh well, I don’t plan on ever owning one
Give me a Nokia brick or treo and day.
*any day…
Missed the edit time window
Apple employees have confirmed that carbon/cocoa programs (one of the two, I forget which) will soon be supported.
http://digg.com/apple/Third_Party_Cocoa_iPhone_Apps_Coming_Soon
oh ok, cool. I didn’t know that. The iPhone might be good then
“your “appz” will be browser based. And probably suck compared to native running apps. I wish Apple would allow real programs to be programmable for the iPhone. Oh well, I don’t plan on ever owning one
Give me a Nokia brick or treo and day.”
Yea…. I agree… How can we expect to get the flakey crash prone, virus infected garbage we are used to with our current hardwear if apple keeps prying fingers out of the iPhone Ecosystem! I mean seriously… i WILL NOT STAND for this quality user experience that they keep talking about!
Wow, pathetic attempt at sarcasm
Just because a vendor controls all aspects of a devices hardware/software does not mean it’s going to be perfect. It doesn’t mean jackshit if the provided software is lacking and/or unstable itself. Lots of people don’t mind the occasional crash if they can enhance the devices features. My Treo hasn’t had a crash/reset in over 2 months. Last time was because I loaded up an older game I used to play and it didn’t sit well with the phone. And there really haven’t been any ‘viruses’ for phones of any OS that I know of besides a few proof of concept things and some REALLY isolated ‘worms’ that would spread through BT.
Sure, the iPhone is great for people that don’t need/want advanced features like say, an SSH client or nonweb based games or a keyboard that shows lower case AND caps when you hit shift (I can’t believe they didn’t do a shifting keyboard on the iPhone. I hope a ROM upgrade fixes that ‘feature’…). It would be great for my sister who just wants a ‘phone’ that happens to have a few cool features.
Hell, I’m in canada, and no sign of the phone in our stores.
Although hopefully when it goes international, we will get a better provider then AT&T, which is pretty much the worst in america.
I remember seeing somewhere that this 1st generation will be on US GSM bands only (1900, 900?), which is why it’s not due to be in europe (1800) or canada (was it 1850?) for a while.
no. The box clearly states that it is quad-band GSM.
The only provider in Canada that can accept the iPhone is Rogers, which I’ve heard lots of horror stories with them.
Actually, Canada needs more mobile competition. The only GSM provider here is Rogers (Rogers brought Fido), so not a lot of choice (Telus and Bell uses CDMA).
Plus, the iPhone is locked with an integrated sim card. Quite unusual for a GSM phone, which can be compared to a CDMA phone. Which means you can’t unlock it and use it with another provider by changing the sim card.
Unless you reinstall OSX
If it is in fact true that the iPhone is locked to an integrated sim card (I’ve read conflicting reports on this) then that is something that they’ll have to fix before they start selling to europe. In many countries it is illegal to sell locked phones and in others the phone must be unlockable for a service fee.
While I have also seen the conflicting reports, from forum conversations, it’s starting to look more and more like it is completely locked in its current incarnation. I’m guessing that the European version may be unlockable, but that the process would require actually tacking the phone to a store in Europe, or in the case of iTunes, have a credit card with a European billing address the way they limit the various iTunes media stores.
But if I cannot remove the sim card, I cannot put in a new sim card and thus I cannot change carriers. And that would be illegal in many places.
Edit: OK it seems the sim card is easily removed and swapped. Should have check Google before posting.
Edited 2007-06-30 11:24
Yeah, I was wrong, you can easily change the sim card…
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3025&p=3
Unfortunately i found out that they blocked OSX from running programs , but since its iphone we have ipodlinux distro that maybe will become iphonelinux. Or in best cases someone will release a crack that people will apply for running shiira and other osx software.
This Safari lockdown reminds me alot of Internet Explorer and active desktop its the worst you can do with the Os so i demand i run the OS of my choice on iphone.
Edited 2007-07-02 04:54
The funniest thing I’ve seen all week was a line of freaks all sitting on beach chairs in front of an at&t store. It was so pathetic that it curbed my enthusiasm for the iPhone. It was just sad.
hehe reminds me of sweden rock festival but without the whiskey and partytents
But i’m getting one anyway. the phone sences when you turn it and turns itself that means alot…
Edited 2007-06-30 01:51
It is a phone.
It is more than a phone. That’s where the market goes. Saying that something is “just a phone” is not true anymore. Not in this day and age.
But the point he was trying to make (I assume) is all this hype really warrented for a device which is merely a glorified phone? I mean, it does 100s of things in a half assed manner.
I remember purchasing an expensive phone through Vodafone – it was a complete joke, 100s of features each crappier than the last. The sound quality of the mp3 player was abismal, the ‘3G’ speed, I can assure you, I wasn’t feeling the ‘G’ when surfing, or more like, crawling the web.
Don’t get me started on the quality of the signal. I’m sitting smack bang in the middle of Christchurch CBD and the signal is crappy at best.
I’ve since sold that, got my self an el-cheapo $179 CDMA flip-phone Sanyo through TelecomNZ, and have not had a single problem yet. Crystal clear signal, fast internet speeds – all this from an elcheapo phone.
The storage – maxes out at 8GB IIRC, sorry to rain on anyones parade, but if I were to replace an ipod with that, I would expect minimum that it allows me to explain beyond 8GB using standard SD cards or otherwise I might as well just stick to owning an iPod and phone seperately.
Sure, there will be giddy school girls out there skipping off all excited about this new gizmo, but for most of us bitter old farts like me, we’ve seen this crap come and go; the youngsters slirp down the kool aide only to find indigestian is soon to follow once they find out the limitations of it.
Somebody who understands!
I mean, it is a phone and a PDA and it gets massive news coverage.
If people want one, no skin off my nose. I just don’t get all the press for a phone.
I would mod you up but… I bought one, and you are just wrong. I don’t feel a need to explain why. Go see for yourself.
I’m wrong? It is not a phone?
It’s a PDA (in fact it’s a little Mac*) not just a phone
* running Mac OS X using a different user interface because of the small form factor
What I’m wondering is if it still uses the Darwin kernel. It just doesn’t seem like something that would scale down to such small devices. What’s also interesting is that the next generation iPod is also supposed to run a scaled down version of OS X too.
Good question (IMHO)
Will Leopard be running the Darwin/XNU kernel ?
This contradicts with the fact that Leopard will be fully UNIX compliant
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/technology/unix.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XNU
I guess we’ll know everything about it only when it’s released …
Running the same O.S. (and kernel for that matter) from iPod to XServe only simplifies things for Apple !
The kernel itself doesn’t really determine if it can officially be called Unix compliant. Even Windows could be made Unix compliant.
My friend just got his and briefly showed it to me on the way home.
Meh.
When I asked why exactly was worth the millions of dollars of paid for media hype from Apple he really couldn’t give a reason. The day I picked up an iPod for the first time it was immediately obvious why it was so much more popular than other players. The iPhone was a completely opposite reaction, I was completely unimpressed with how it felt and operated.
EET magazine for engineers will almost certainly do a tear down of this device to see whats inside, can’t wait for that.
Don’t have a cellphone myself, and wouldn’t have any need for even a cheap one but every geek can appreciate the quality of design none the less. I’d like to see the fly wheel in a lot more GUI apps too.
My daughter & I went to the local Apple Store tonight to check out the iPhone (and get some ice cream). After each of us used one for several minutes, we both came away with very positive thoughts about the device.
The store had around 30 iPhones set up for people to use. Testers were able to connect to the ‘Net with the store’s internal (high capacity) Wi-Fi Network. The connections were ultra-fast.
When those who actually purchase the iPhone want to get on the ‘Net when there isn’t a Wi-Fi to connect to they’ll be using the AT&T/Cingular “EDGE” GPRS Network. This is considerably slower than Wi-Fi, so this has to be taken into account. I know this as I’m an AT&T/Cingular user.
My thirteen year old daughter only needed about 1 minute to look like she’d been using the iPhone for a year. I needed more time to get up to here level. Using the iPhone is pretty intuitive and everything is laid out nicely and quite easy to figure out.
All in all, I was quite impressed with the iPhone. The picture, video & audio quality is superb. Making a call is a snap.
But the price! YeeeeOUCH! Even with the high price tag, it looked like the store we visited may very well sell all that they had before they closed. Behind the register counter was a very long row of each of the two models that kept getting shorter and shorter and shorter…..
Yes, there were that many purchases in the 45 minutes we were there.
After using one I can see what all the hype is all about.
No, I didn’t purchase one. Just wanted to check it out.
It sounds like a pleasant, uncrowded, unrushed experience, visiting a store on the evening of the launch. Drop by, take 45 minutes to play with a demo phone, people wander in and buy them, others wander in and try them, don’t buy them.
Were they serving coffee?
Interesting. Very interesting.
Of course, this was the evening of the launch. Would you consider going back at the same time next week and give us an update on how crowded it is then? It will probably take a while for the buying frenzy to build up. One imagines that next Friday it will be impossible to get in. Lines running around the block and one or two hour waits, stock running low….
Yes, that’s what it will be like.
“Of course, this was the evening of the launch. Would you consider going back at the same time next week and give us an update on how crowded it is then?”
Well, I’ve got three Apple stores near me in Seattle (and Bellevue) and I’ve NEVER seen them without quite a few people in them. This was –before– the iPhone launch. Quite a few being at least 10 people in the Apple mini store in the south end (South Center) mall and at least 20 people at the one near the University of Washington college and the one in the mall in Bellevue, WA. Obviously you’ve never been in an Apple store.
Nothing more than a status symbol. When the RAZR first came out, it was a select group who had them, those who could afford them, and this is no different. Someone else said it best long ago, this phone is for those with more dollars than sense. (and yes, I know I’ll be modded way down for this, but I don’t care).
And, as someone else already said, it’s not a very impressive device. It’s not the revolution that Apple makes it out to be. The blackberry was the revolution that this hinges on, and that came out several years ago. All the iPhone does is evolve that. Those who already use a blackberry might find it cool, those who just want a freaking phone will never get one.
That’s just silly. The iPhone is not a revolution in every way imaginable, but it is a revolution in so many ways that it is justified to call it a revolutionary device. The interface is a phenomenal improvement, allowing far more power and ease of use. For example, Safari completely dominates the Blackberry’s web browser. Admittedly, if you’re not in a WiFi hotspot, it’s slower, but EDGE has some advantages too. It consumes less power, the chips are smaller and most importantly, EDGE is ubiquitous while 3G is immature with far smaller coverage.
The whole package together is impressive. It is not about any status symbol it is about REWARDING INNOVATION and having a really cool convergent device that actually does what it claims with no headaches. I guess the mouse was no revolution either, after all, you can do almost everything with the keyboard too. Word, managing files, etc. changed in the way they were used, not so much in their features.
Except that iPhone’s browser is just a blatant rip-off of Nokia S60 browser which has been available for at least a year. And in addition Opera has had a very very similar browser available for any Java supporting phone for a few weeks now (and to remind you, iPhone doesn’t support Java or any other programming language or platform at all; by the way, the last one of my phones which didn’t support Java programs was made in 2000).
I wouldn’t call iPhone revolutionary. Sure it’s one hell of a good-looking device which has plenty of great features but yet it is only a collection of ideas which have been implemented before. All that Apple did was to gather these ideas and put them into a very very sleek looking package.
“Except that iPhone’s browser is just a blatant rip-off of Nokia S60 browser which has been available for at least a year.”
Unbelievable!!!!! I love watching fools physically inserting both feet in their mouths! Does’nt the S60 run a “web kit” based browser? Hum? i wonder who created Web Kit?
while 3G is immature with far smaller coverage.
not here in europe..
“Reminds me of a RAZR” & “And, as someone else already said, it’s not a very impressive device.” & “The blackberry was the revolution”
LOL…. i have just one question. Are you an Ostrich?
A witty retort, I bow to your genius. I have one question in response: Can you come up with anything intelligent to ask?
“A witty retort, I bow to your genius. I have one question in response: Can you come up with anything intelligent to ask?”
Yea… I do! are you an ostrich?
Jeff Atwood (aka Coding Horror): http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000896.html
Choice quote from Jeff’s post:
“If you think reliance on WiFi is an advantage of the iPhone, check your reality distortion field. I’ve lived the WiFi lifestyle when I’ve travelled, and it’s not pleasant. Free, public WiFi points are a dying breed. Most WiFi points these days are locked down tight with passwords and encryption. And if they’re not locked down, they want to charge you exorbitant rates for a few measly hours of WiFi access.”
That’s a deal breaker for me. That combined with no ‘native’ applications will be a deal breaker for many businesses as well. I’m personally holding out for iPhone v2.0.
I will say this in Apple’s defense: Had any other manufacturer released a phone this crippled, they would have been crucified by the tech news sites…because Apple is, well, Apple…they have still managed to pull this off, and the majority of the public is uneducated enough to not know what they are missing.
If I did get one, I’d use it as more of a portable web browser than anything else. That being said, I’d still prefer a full on smart phone.
Wifis arnt dying here in Sweden , free public wifi points are found just about everywhere , with the iphone it will be even more fun to trace them up and find a fine spot
3g on the other hand is good if you have unlimited supply of cash .
But most of all is that im getting the Iphone because its
not really a phone its an advanced computer that is programmed to behave like a phone .
Edited 2007-06-30 06:16
I’ll be heading back to states in August and will be in the market for a new phone. It does look interesting, but there are a couple of problems, but quite a few pluses too.
The biggest is that it’s AT&T only. It’s not by first(or second) choice as a carrier, but at least I’m not tied to any one carrier yet, so that’s a plus. Being that it’s AT&T only the lack of 3G is really a non-issue for me since their 3G network isn’t very widespread, now if this was a Sprint phone with out EVDO, then there would a problem.
The MMS doesn’t bother me since I’ve never used it, and a real mail client is immensely more important to me, and the iPhone looks like a damn good device for mail. What does bother me is the lack of real instant messaging. Luckily this is an area where web based clients can be almost as good a real client, except for receiving messages when I’m not already actively using the IM “application”.
Along the lines of email and IM, the thing that still bothers me is the lack of a “real” keyboard. So far from what I’ve read is that it does take practice to get used to, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it and it works fine. Either way the touch screen keyboard looks far superior to crappy regular phone keypads.
One of the biggest strengths I see so far is the web browser. I’ve hated every phone browser I’ve ever used, and that includes Opera. Considering that 90% of my laptop usage is for mobile web browsing and e-mail, this thing could actually replace a laptop for me.
While having an iPod nano in my pocket along with my phone has never taken up too much space, it’d be nice to be able to condense them together. The iPhone looks like a very competent iPod replacement, though I’ll still keep my shuffle around for the gym.
One that that’s helping the iPhone for me is the relative weakness of the competition.I like the Blackberrys, especially the 8800, but since web browsing is one of my big concerns, the Blackberry falls short, and the lack of WiFi on the weak GSM data networks in the US it just gets worse. The e-mail just dosn’t do enough to out pace the iPhone for me. The next big competitor for me is the Treo. I am a long time Palm fan, before they even made phones, but these days PalmOS is feeling like MacOS 9 and Windows Mobile hasn’t really ever set well with me, especially on phones. What keep the Treo interesting is the pending release of PalmOS X, or what ever they plan to call the new Linux based variant, by the end of the year. It’s this one variable that’s keeping me from jumping on the iPhone bandwagon with both feet.
And of course the most important thing about the iPhone, it just looks so f–king cool. Finally a touch screen device designed for your fingers and not a damned stylus. I’ve always wanted something like that ever since I saw them on Star Trek. The iPhone interface is really what sets it apart. While it may look like a superficial change at first, I think over time it will start to look like the change from the command line to the GUI on PCs all those years ago. I thinks it’s all the small things combined which will gradually make the iPhone really stand out as a revolutionary device.
I find myself that the OLPC project is much more interesting than the iPhone. The iPhone is for peoples who own too much money. OLPC is for helping people.
And there is nothing wonderful about iPhone. People seem to forget that what imports is “life”. If you buy an mp3 player, you buy something to relax and listen to music. So why searching so long for a mp3 player which have feature X like “display pictures” ?
If you buy an iPhone, you will end up for an electronic gadget to listen to music, surf the Internet and … of course, phone. That’s it. It won’t make your happier. You might spend a better afternoon by cooking together with your wife than by standing in front of an apple store for waiting for the last nec-plus-ulta phone.
The iPhone is for peoples who own too much money.
So how much money is too much? Is having money left over after rent is paid and basic food bought too much? If you also have money to go out eat on occasion or see a concert or take a holiday is that too much?
I’m only asking because I’m grad student with a fairly minimal income and I could afford an iPhone if I wanted to. Sure it would mean some sacrifices, but it’s not like I’d starve to death. The iPhone may be one the more expensive phones on the markets, but when compared to laptops, dv cameras and high end digital cameras it’s a fairly cheap piece of consumer electronics.
There are a lot of other things that might not make your life happier. Like your car, or even the OLPC. Wouldn’t the OLPC get little kids glued to their small computers when they could be playing?
That is not the point here. The point is the evolution of technology, building a better product.
Not the OLPC per say, but the ASUS Eee PC could play a major role in my next mobie web/email purchase with its low price and small size.
As if many 3rd world kids just pop out to the street and play with their friends…
As for evolution: it’s years late.
Congratulations to Steve Jobs and Apple.
I’ll be very curious to read the reviews that will be coming in. The device certainly looks intriguing. I hope it will be released worldwide at some point. As a Canadian I’m observing with interest:-)
I blogged about all this craziness:
http://cogscanthink.blogsome.com/2007/06/30/how-stupid-we-people-re…
Really, it seems like a nice device, but was it really worth all the craziness and hype? I’m sorry, but I’m still seeing very little to justify it all.
The stock market next week and next month will surely tell the final story?
The current price of AAPL discounts very strong iPhone sales. If the price takes off again post-launch, the sales will have turned out to be even stronger than forecast. That would be a true business phenomenon, once in a lifetime. Amazing. If it craters, we will know the thing is a bust.
I’m sceptical. Like Thom, I can’t see why sales should exceed the hype, or even match it. But we’ll find out together. Apple or SJ may know something we don’t.
Interesting times coming. Looking forward to Leopard, as well.
As I put in the title of my post, I don’t get it.
I say “It is a phone”. And people jump on me. “It is more than just a phone! It is a PDA!”
woopee.
It is a phone and a PDA. So what…
Is the Motorola SLVR L7
It is a “not-that-smart” phone. It is not 3G, but can be EDGE enabled, so it is 2.75G.
It has 10MB RAM, but can take upto 1GB microsd
Features include
It can send MMS
It can use Opera mini for web browsing
Built in email client
Built in instant messenger client
Java compatible
Built in REAL iTunes
it can be iPhone skinned
it can be bought for about £50
and you press one button to take a call !
Crap 640×480 camera, but it is a phone !
Edited 2007-06-30 12:47
I’ve used the iTunes on Mororola phones, and it’s not much more real iTunes other than the fact that it can play protected iTunes content. The e-mail client and especially the web browser are quite weak. Also, while the touch screen keyboard may not be as good as a Blackberry but it a hell of a lot better than a regular phone keypad. While there are many phones that individuals may be able to argue are as good as or better in some ways than the iPhone, but that’s not one.
it was sarcasm. sorry, it was wasted.
Hard to tell around here some times. There are people who would argue your point seriouly.
and the exploding face battery lawsuits begin….
this is not good, how did this happen ALREADY? its been out for a day!
I’m holding off till Apple can release an iPhone that supports 3G (HSDPA), not just EDGE and can handle push email similar to what is offered on a RIM Blackberry. I do hope Apple will consider in the future adding a front camera for video conferencing and a flash for the rear camera. After all when comparing the iPhone the to the HTC TyTn I’d opt for the TyTn due to features available for similar price.
The killer app for me would be a bit torrent client that would add albums automatically to the phone… Of course I would go over board and get kicked off the network for going over the data limit.
Edited 2007-06-30 15:18
I like what I’ve read so far, and might go looking for one today to try.
But until they get minor annoyances straightened out, and have some more apps (iChat, maybe) available, I’m not ready to spend $500-$600.
Its quite unlikely that Apple UK would announce a 3G iPhone, simply because it would slow US sales. A 3G phone in Europe means that it would eventually reach US. Smart consumers would wait for 3G.
to believe the hype. It meets all the hype and more. The user experience isn’t like any other phone/ipod/pda.
I just laugh reading all the comments here. The comments for the original iPod were pretty much the same attitude. Of course the iPod turned out to be flop.
No wait, they sold at least a few of those. Why? The interface. THAT is the difference. For all of you nay sayers you have to TOUCH it and USE it to get it. Once you do (and not just for 10 seconds) you will start to understand what is different about it.
As for the keyboard. Again, check out the newest videos on the Apple site showing the person typing with two thumbs. I can type 70 wpm (words per minute) on a computer and I swear that person is typing at –least– as fast as I can. I don’t make many mistakes while typing but the iPhone would make me make even less mistakes since it automatically reduces you changes of hitting the nearest wrong key because certain letter combinations are very unlikely are some are very likely. The iPhone knows this and give the appropriate letters a bigger virtual area as you are typing. Again, look at the videos and you will see.
Some of you people must have just crawled out of a cave based on the incredibly ignorant comments you are making about the iPhone. Get out of your holes (meaning in the ground) or caves and go to Apple’s website before posting here so you don’t look so stupid.
“I just laugh reading all the comments here. The comments for the original iPod were pretty much the same attitude. Of course the iPod turned out to be flop.”
Yeah, indeed, iPod and iPhone is pretty much in the same situation. I mean, sure, most people never heard of iRiver or Creative Nomad or Archos or Rio when iPod came out. But I’m sure, so very sure, if you go out to the streets, people would go, “Noki-what?”
“No wait, they sold at least a few of those. Why? The interface.”
What a tosser. Sure, I haven’t tried the iPhone (I’m in Asia), but there are at least two reviews up there that show the iPhone user interface isn’t God’s gift to mankind. http://daringfireball.net/2007/06/iphone_first_impressions for example – and he bought an iPhone
“As for the keyboard. Again, check out the newest videos on the Apple site showing the person typing with two thumbs. I can type 70 wpm (words per minute) on a computer and I swear that person is typing at –least– as fast as I can.”
Uhm, firstly, its pretty much an ad. If life were just like the ads, wouldn’t it be peachy? And if I counted properly, it was 12 words for 22 seconds – or 33 wpm (it was the last part of the “iPhone keyboard” video). That’s a bit off from 70 wpm, aye?
“I don’t make many mistakes while typing but the iPhone would make me make even less mistakes since it automatically reduces you changes of hitting the nearest wrong key because certain letter combinations are very unlikely are some are very likely.”
Great for the non-English speaking world, eh? Granted, the iPhone is a US-centric phone for the time being, but the iPhone assumes everyone is monolingual in English. For a $500 phone, I would have expected at least an easy-to-access option to turn of the “intelligent” part of the keyboard.
“Some of you people must have just crawled out of a cave based on the incredibly ignorant comments you are making about the iPhone. Get out of your holes (meaning in the ground) or caves and go to Apple’s website before posting here so you don’t look so stupid.”
Because surely, Apple’s website has all the relevant information, positive or negative, about iPhone.
See how the iPhone holds up in scratch tests and drops (conrete). http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html
While there is no “Weekday” “Weekend” function, you have more functionality in my opinion. You cal select each day you want the alarm to go off – which works out great in my case becuase Mon – Thurs I need it going off, but Fri-Sun I don’t. This is the cell phone I’ve owned that has allowed me to pick specific days of the week. Excellent.
While you say is true, there are cases where the whole weekday or the 2 day weekend is needed to be checked automatically, not manually. Adding these two options should be really easy for an engineer. A matter of a few minutes in fact.
True, I see what you mean. The lack of the choice is rather confusing.
I had just gotten the sense that having an alarm go off on weekdays or weekends wasn’t possible (1 day only or something) by reading the update in the topic.
I don’t think the iphone is all that great. the web browser doesn’t support Java or Flash and it’s kind of hard to read the webpages with really small text. i wonder why it is using EDGE and not 3G and for $500 I would like the phone to come with built in GPS,etc I have to admit the phone looks great but i dont think i would want to spend over $500 just to watch youtube or have access to google maps,etc even the built in ipod sucks.
* No instant messaging
* No way to IM pictures, videos, sounds (i.e. no MMS)
* Can’t cut and paste
* Can’t edit or save Word, Excel, PDF documents
* Camera can’t record video
* Can’t play Web pages with Flash
* No access to iTunes Music Store
* No games
* No way to download contacts from old phones
* Can’t turn contact lists into e-mail distribution lists
* Can’t turn iPod songs into ring tones
* No way to search phone book or song lists
* No voice dialing
* No quick way to move up or down pages
* Not clear if there is support for Microsoft Exchange
* No other carrier except AT&T Wireless
* No AT&T Wireless insurance
* No way to change SIM card or battery except through Apple
* No GPS or real-time navigation system
* No access to a fast, 3G network
Edited 2007-07-01 12:52
A-ha. How does the built-in iPod “suck”?
I prefer the N95 anytime although the interface is not that bling bling.
N95 is more expensive as both 4Gb and 8Gb iPhone
N95 is more expensive as both 4Gb and 8Gb iPhone
N95 Unlocked: $679
iPhone Tied: $599 + $59.95 for 24 months (Total: $2039)
You tell me which one is more expensive.
IMHO the iPhone is a joke. No GPS, only 2mp camera (!), No MMS, Non-removable battery, no real 3rd party apps (This is not a smartphone by my standards) etc. You cant even use your mp3’s as ringtones! The list is huge. You cannot compare the iPhone with the n95.
And why do you think it comes with a 24 month plan?
Let me tell you: It would look bad if Apple launched a phone costing $1600 or more, so they had to make an agreement with ATT to get the money elsewhere.
I’m willing to give iPhone only one thing; It has a nice screen. Too bad what’s behind is no more than the phones of the 90s.
I know this is a long shot, but does anybody know if you can sync this device on Linux?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes, you are wrong. It is not just a phone, it is also an iPod and to a sertain extent a PDA.
I had a chacnce to play with one Friday night in an Apple store, and no I did not have to wait in line. I walked into the store at about 6:30 and while there were a lot of people lined up at the cash register I only had to wait about 5 minutes to get my hands on one of the demo units.
All in all I would say it is a very nice package. The touch screen is very nice and easy to use. Despite what you read so many times in here I think the device will be quite succesful for Apple. What most people here fail to realize is that OSNews readers are not really the intended niche of this device. It is aimed at the same crowd that made the iPod so successful. That is people who want a devices that is very easy to use, don,t care if it has every arcane feature in the world, and who don’t want to have to pack around a 10 pound manual just to figure out how to accomplish something they don’t do every day.
I will proabaly get one when the next model comes out. Afterall, it is just a tool and it seems to have the features I want at a price I am willing to pay. I never did like devices that tried to be everything to all people anyway. 🙂
CALL us ‘Naive’ but everything within us detects a flaw in the logic. We expect at some point the North American cell phone/internet communications will undergo an attack. Pershaps not the year 2007 but in these years to follow.
http://www.iphone-converter.org/
Ok a lot of people are saying that the iPhone is not for them, and thats good, we all like different things. However even for these people the iPhone is a good thing.
My impression of the Mobile Phone companies is that the phones they release are untested and rushed out. Ive used Sony’s P9xx series, I own Nokia E61 & sony K550i, ive used motorola and the Windows Mobile Platform and they all had one thing in common. They are all crap.
Now i use the word crap in the sense that for some the menu’s are no very intuitive, the phone is unstable, crashing when i get a call, crashing when i get a text, slowing down and crashing just in standby, problems with low memory. However we just put up with these problems, we work around them.
I love the promise of these phones to be able to do this and that, but for many of the phone manufacturers they just don’t care, once the products out they are rushing to throw out some other phone as soon as they can.
Now we have the iPhone with intuitive menus and stability, we have competition. This is a great thing, im hoping to see features from the iPhone in all of the other phones, hopefully Sony, Nokia etc will look at and build upon the iPhone’s features. I think it’s an exciting time in mobile phone technology.