iPhone unleashed, Treo and Blackberry cry in fear.

Whoa, no need to defend yourself. I wasn't trampling your comment or taking it out of context. Your original comment was that you were angry because people need to realize that a phone is just a phone, implying that either no one needs a phone with all the bells and whistles or that there is something wrong with people who want/have them . My comment is that some people want them, if you don't, then simply don't buy one.

I'm sorry that happens in Area 51. In Louisville if you try to do that, you either get punched in the face, or you get jacked for you fancy phone depending on which side of town you happen to be on.

Beleive me, I'm almost embarrased to be paying $500-$800 for a phone/internet device. Last night when I went to my first class, I didn't know which room I was in because our online scheduling system has been f*%#%$ed for the past week. So when I get to the library, I see the sign showing how to get your class # based on your online profile. The problem: like always, something has to be wrong with half of the computers in the library and the few that were working had a line behind them. I didn't bring my laptop because I was afraid of getting jacked (I was on that side of town). A pocket internet device would have worked great since there was wi-fi in the library. After getting to class late, and getting our shortly thereafter, my gfriend calls and wants me to hang out with her and her friends. The problem: I have no idea where she is at, she can't give me directions other than the name of the place, and the bus driver had no clue what I was talking about (turns out she was only 5 blocks from my class). Google maps would have been great for this.

Is it expensive and bulky? Yes. But I get myself into situations where it would be a lifesaver. I'm more concerned with stuff like that than showing it off.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/some-hands-on-time-with-the-iphone/
"Apple went through numerous iterations of the glass surface, trying to find one that’s not too slick or too rough, or that shows grease and fingerprints too much. You still get finger streaks, but they’re relatively subtle and a quick wipe on your sleeve takes care of them."

Sounds like pretty much every other phone/pda that i've used.

I'm not sure why this keeps getting drug up. 5 hours "usage" time (15 for ipod mode). Is that really that bad? My phone currently gets 3 on a newer battery. The p990 gets between 3 and 9 depending on network. I'm sure there are alot of phone out there (plain vanilla ones) which get much better talk time, but I still think 5 hours is decent.

EDIT: I admit, that p990i is looking pretty nice. If the iPhone doesn't end up being all its cracked up to be, I may consider this if I can be conviced it has a bug free interface.

 

ridiculous to call this phone...maybe iSmallMac would be better or something...

 

who said I slept with her in particular? I just said i m a fun person!

US due to currency, and the exclusion of tax from the displayed price, seems always cheaper than europe and especially UK

 

Whoa, hey I like how you can TELL ME WHAT MY OWN POST IS ABOUT! My original post was in agreement with mairsil that I prefer just a regular phone. I never mentioned anything about being angry with people or implying that no one needs a phone with all that extra stuff. That's something you assumed, and therefore, took my original post out of context. That's what happens when you assume.

I bet! Louisville is just one big face punching town, you can't walk a block without getting punched in the face. Hey, you got to watch your step in Area 51 too! You might get blasted with a laser beam if you're not careful. Those extraterrestrials can be pretty feisty sometimes!

 

I'm all about using a phone for talking. The only reason my phone has a camera/MP3 player/SD card slot/dishwasher/etc. is because it was given to me. Personally I don't give a shit about what "features" someones phone has. If it allows me to talk to people and looks fairly decent, then that's about all I need. The touchscreen looks like it is going to be a bitch to take care of, too. This is why I like flip-phones, the last two "candy-bar" style phones I had got fairly scratched up without a case.

With that said, the iPhone is an interesting little gadget. If you are into paying $400-500 for a phone, more power to you. Not for me, though...

 

Mairisel wrote "Or that people finally realize that a cell phone should just be a #%@#$^! phone..." Guess what? This statement != "I prefer simple phones". Far from it. Since your quote was "One hundred percent agreed!" then I don't even need to assume, its implied, that both of you think phones should only be simple plain ones and that EVERYONE needs to realize that. If that statement does not reflect how you accuratly feel, then you shouldn't have "agreed one hundred percent". Don't get pissy with me about it, theres an edit button that lets you change what you've typed.

This makes zero sense.


So anyways back to the iPhone topic. Theres interesting speculation in the macrumors.com forums about having different carriers available at a later time. Cingular apparently only has a 6 month lock on it.

I agree with the "iSmallMac". If apple releases an api toolkit for this in xcode, it will be quite nifty.

Same thing happened to the first candy bar phone I got. Thats why I went to ratshack and bought a pack of those cheap generic screen protectors (the static cling ones). I use them on just about every electronic screen I've got, phones, cameras, video cameras, gameboy, etc.... Just cut out a template the size of the screen with an exacto and then use scissors to cut out the screen protector. This obviosuly doesn't protect against impacts, but you can kiss the scratches and smudges goodbye.

 

Dunno, they say the screen has the same polycarb from the iPod, so its going to be a fingerprint magnet...

BTW, here's an article about how Windows mobile already does everything the iPhone does

I think this another situation of "its cooler, that's why" like, the iPod wasnt the first HDD player, but it was the first with a sleek design and that didnt look like a kid's toy.

 

Come on now, take a step back and look at what you are arguing about, it's a fucking phone, who cares if you want it just to make calls or to fellate you while playing the latest RnB tracks off iTunes. Quite arguing semantics and the morals of it all and just either buy it or don't.

 

Well, I concede that it will certainly pick up greasy fingerprints and scratches and whatnot. But again, just put one of those plastic protectors on it. It shouldn't inhibit the touch controls any.

I like the article about the WM phone, especially the second to last paragraph:

"But you know what? Even though WM has all of these same apps, they're not as usable, not as complete, and generally not as good as Apple's solutions. That's why the iPod "won" the MP3 player race, and that's why the iPhone is going to win over Windows Mobile—not to mention all other smartphones."

I think that about sums it up for me, although I know that it isn't a universal feeling. It kind of suprises me that no one has taken the initiative to make something like this before. A large part of it is the OSX'ish interface, but still you would think someone could make something close to it in functionality.

Edit: after reading this again, does WM really rely on the Opera browser for websurfing? That seems bizzare.

 

I see it being more close to a PDA-phone than say, a nokia/SE touch-screen phone. My primary use of a phone is in its phone capacity. The full keypad of the P990i and M600i for numeris is that exact thing. A phone!

As for myself, I like having a seperate music box, and not to rely on the same battery for both functions. I save my phone batter , usually, because my phone I use as a tool (although it can play mp3,whereas, being all day out, I can afford to run out of music juice

 

You're an idiot, don't try to tell me what I think and what I imply. You may take it whatever way you want, but that's not what I meant, end of story.

My way of saying I don't believe a word you said.

 

I disagree, in fact I'll go as far as to say most apple's solutions are crippled when compared to Windows ones.

Plus WM is a standard, like windows in PC, while the iPhone (as every apple product coming from apple since 97) is entirely in-house, and ONE model cant compete against all the WM based phones out there.

The iPod had a decent functionality, but unless widgets in the iphone evolve to the level of most apps in WM then sales will suffer, mainly becos a smartphone, unlike a trendy music player, is all about functionality....

BTW, there's a phone made by a small company that has a much more sleek design, a bigger screen and it runs entirely on flash. The music player for example works entirely on the basis of drag&drop, pretty cool to see...

 

I guess this is the difference of opinion between what particular people find useful. I on the other hand think windows solutions (for the most part) are bloated, poorly implemented, and try to offer too many features that only a small select group will ever use.

Whoa, what standards committee ratified that? I see alot of popular embedded operating systems, several of them specific to consumer handhelds. Just because apple takes a different approach to the same task (making hardware/software in house and not licencing) doesn't mean they can't compete. It means they will have a significantly smaller market share, but that doesn't mean it won't be profitible (in fact I predict the iPhone to be extremely lucrative).

True. But at the moment we're not sure what type of expanidbility (if any) will be included. Somebody has pointed out that at another conference, Steve told developers to start preparing for "resolution independent" programing. This would be a good starting point since it's 160dpi. I also fail to see with this running an embedded osx with at least some level of api, that people won't be hack it apart and write homebrew for it.

Could you post name/link? I'm certainly open to a non-apple phone if it can match its features and usuablility (style not a main issue). The flash thing kind of throws me off, but whatever works works. Especially if it would be cheaper than the iPhone.

 

*whistles*

Look at my fucking title and listen, give it a rest, it's a fucking phone!

 

I respect your title. We're just having a discussion about the iPhone. I know its a pretty insignificant piece of hardware in the grand scheme of things, but I'm interested in other views (particularly the phone shadow layer is talking about). Is there something we are doing wrong?

 

WM is a standard since there's a lot of companies making phones that cant work on other OS since the specs are different (button layout, screen, etc....).

3 or 4 years ago nobody gave a rat's ass for WM but today is so big that even palm made a version of their most (and only) sucessful model, the treo, with WM instead of palmOS.

The iPod, no matter what some haters say, was groundbreaking, but the iphone on the other hand looks an awful lot like that Kyocera from 2001, the P series from SE and those Linux smartphones from motorola. To make it short, is a fullscreen smartphone, and those came before the blackberry (which every smartphone out there today looks alike) yet failed becos the screen couldnt replace a good keyboard.

I've been looking for it for the last 2 hours at gizmodo yet I cant find it, sorry.

It was really cool, like a long black glossy screen that (apparently) you can fold (it seems theres 2 screen that form one when open) as a clamshell. The UI is minority report like, or in other words, what tablets should do to be worthy of those pricetags...

 

As a long time P900 user, I'm not really that impress. The only impressive thing I find about this phone is the multi touch.

Everything else seems pretty much the norm on high end smart phones (WinCE or Symbian UIQ).

 

Yeah, in fact those screens are pretty new, I think the only consummer electronics to have these before the iphone were those highend DJ boards, at $4K each...

About the aqua-like (cuz we dont know if can pull all the tricks) GUI, it can be done anywhere right now, the problem is that palmOS is kinda obsolete and has no eye candy at all so when treo users see this they'll go crazy for it.

 

What about web surfing? Looking at pics of opera mobile, it doesn't appear to quite the same.

Looks like we might not be calling it the iPhone after all: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphon...le-over-iphone-trademark-violation-227834.php

 

If you guys want to keep this up with name calling theres going to be some bans dealt out here. Take it to PM's if you are this spazzed out about a phone.