hmmm…interesting.
i hear you on the 12 inch thing. but i like the idea of phone + all that jazz. we’ll see generation 2; and thanks for mentioning the online tour; i hadn’t really thought of looking at that–nor did i know about it. duh on my part, eh! lol.
i’m looking at something for 2008.
“thanks for mentioning the online tour; i hadn’t really thought of looking at that–nor did i know about it.”
Have you gone to see it?
anybody buy one?
if so, what’s the review?
FWIW, my husband has snagged my laptop. it is no matter, i hardly used it (because that is not a good travelling device for me–it’s too big, etc).
i have a blackberry that is only mediocre. some emails don’t come through; email was the point of getting it in the first place. i like the idea of a small device doing alot of things. that’s what i need.
even though tech stuff doesn’t jazz me; i’m a 1 person shop, and need effective equipment to manage everything i need to do. iphone would probably do alot more for me; internet; email; pics, etc, than the blackberry (which hardly works but costs nearly as much as iphone).
it’s about time to from the blackberry, so that’s the purpose of my asking. i was thinking of waiting until the 2nd iphone version comes out…whenever that is.
I have an iphone that I bought on impulse the first weekend they were out . . . I’m happy with it so far, here are some random thoughts:
My iPhone replaced a Motorola razor. The two phones are almost the exact same depth and height, the iPhone is about 20% wider. I do not mind having it in my pocket when wearing the dress slacks I wear for work or the cargo shorts I tend to wear on the weekend, although it probably won’t be very comfortable in a jeans pocket.
The Edge network that the phone uses to do e-mail, web surfing, etc. is very spotty. Sometimes very slow, sometimes surprisingly fast. Could be a problem if you are in a situation where you absolutely have to have it working. The wifi feature is nice, but there appears to be a bug (the only real bug I’ve found so far), and sometimes it does not connect to the wifi network correctly. This happened on my home network and I was able to fix it manually, but there have been other networks where I couldn’t fix it. It does not happen all the time, I’ve not discovered the pattern yet. Also, if network speed is your big thing, I think the second version which will probably be another year +/- 6 months will be 3G compatible and be many times faster. 3G is the only major thing I wish the phone had that it does not have.
I think the overriding value of the phone is the iPod, which is awesome. I only had a nano before, but I understand the highest-end iPod is $400 alone with a shitty 3" screen to-boot. I’ve converted my daily commute from reading the newspaper while on the subway to listening to random podcasts while walking to/from the train and watching video podcasts of the news while I’m on the train. Very cool. BTW, there is a tri podcast I listened to for the first time today that is awesome . . . found it on itunes but if I remember correctly the website is tri-talk.com
The google maps feature is beyond sweet. I’ve used this a hundred times already. Once I even used it exactly like the commercial to find a restaurant and call for reservations while out and about with some visitors I had in town. I love this feature.
E-mail doesn’t work great with a pop3 server connection, which is what gmail uses. You should definitely prefer imap. So be prepared for e-mail “issues” if you are on gmail. I ended up forwarding all of my g-mail to a different address I had that supports imap. Can still check using a regular computer using gmail’s site, but the e-mail actually works with the iphone.
Battery life . . . if you use it a ton for surfing and video, it will need daily recharging. If you don’t use it that much besides making phone calls and occasionally checking e-mail then you could probably go 3-4 days without charging. I charge it daily anyway because I download new podcasts every day.
People have complained about audio quality of the actual phone calls. I guess if I think about it, it might not be as nice for phone calls as my old phone was, but it is okay and I would have never thought twice about it if I hadn’t read so many reviews that said call quality was poor.
That’s about all I can think about for now. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the product. I’m not sure I’ll get my $600 + $20/mo (I was already on cingular) worth that it costs, but it sounds like you have a greater need for it than I do.
I got to play with one for quite a while the other day. The screen looks amazing, very sharp and bright. It is also fun to navigate around by sliding things around but I’m sure that novelty would wear off after a while. Typing wasn’t as bad as I thought in terms of hitting the right letter but I wasn’t able to easily hold it with both hands and thumb type which is what I’m used to on a blackberry type of device. I had to hold the iphone with one hand and type with one finger on the other which I thought was a bit slower. It’s pretty cool but it’s not the Jesus phone.
thank you so much! your #5 and #7 are deal breakers for me. i cannot have sloppy email or audio; so it is absolutely a no go. maybe the 2nd generation will be better. the rest of it sounds cool…but honestly; i’m striving for exceptional email, audio, connectivity over the other (neat but not totally necessary) features.
thanks again.
and lauren thanks for the link.
I got to play with one for quite a while the other day. The screen looks amazing, very sharp and bright. It is also fun to navigate around by sliding things around but I’m sure that novelty would wear off after a while. Typing wasn’t as bad as I thought in terms of hitting the right letter but I wasn’t able to easily hold it with both hands and thumb type which is what I’m used to on a blackberry type of device. I had to hold the iphone with one hand and type with one finger on the other which I thought was a bit slower. It’s pretty cool but it’s not the Jesus phone.
Agree on the typing. I have small fingers and cannot do the two thumbs thing effectively. Mostly use the index finger and type one letter at a time. I don’t send that many e-mails, so it doesn’t bother me, but if you send 20 e-mails per day on the thing, it could end up sucking up quite a bit more time than a blackberry.
love mine. Just read this whole thread and replied - using nothing but the iPhone!
Just went and played with it for a few minutes at the Apple store. It’s an incredible piece of technology and design. I don’t know if it will fit your needs, but the UI is beautiful. This is what Apple does best, and it seems they’ve hit another home run. I’m still a little giddy.
Meow,
Here is a review that was half decent. Some of the reader comments are also helpful. The general consensus among nerds is that it is an amazing device that is missing many things. Some of these can be added through a firmware update, and some will have to wait until iphone gen 2.
A good friend of mine has one and I have played with it. There are a few things that would have to be added before I would pay that much for it. But it is fun to play with.
Here is another review.
CNET
that’s all i needed to know. thanks! for discussion sake, what things would you like that it doesn’t have?
I don’t understand this at all. Why do you need to put all three seasons of the office on your ipod at once? I mean, if you wanted to dedicate 4GB to video, you could put 16 episodes of office (or any other 30-minute TV show) on at any one time. Something tells me that you/anyone can survive on that.
I wouldn’t need all 3 seasons at once. I just don’t understand memory being fixed at 4 or 8 gigs when they have an 80 gig v ipod.
I agree that the next version will probably be in the 20 to 40 gig range for the high end.
However, I also agree - why do we need that much space to begin with? If they build we will we come. So if they expand it, we will fill it?
On my 8 gig, I have 763 photos, 10 videos (which includes one full length feature movie and 4 episodes of the Office) and around 750 songs.
Because the sync to iTunes is so seemless, it’s a breeze to add/delete/change stuff.
I have a 4 gig Nano that has 3 gigs free on it. I just change up the music.
Nothing wrong with wanting more space I guess, but I just don’t see that as a “must have” or a slight on the iPhone necessarily. Certainly I would have rather them gone with a 3G provider instead of 2G if they were going to make any difference at all.
I wouldn’t need all 3 seasons at once. I just don’t understand memory being fixed at 4 or 8 gigs when they have an 80 gig v ipod.
Two reasons: battery life and form factor. My guess is that iPhone will always use flash memory. Perhaps one day they’ll add an memory card slot. Perhaps someday memory flash will allow the iPhone to be 40gb. Who knows?
here is an interesting article about what the iphone is lacking.