iphone
 

Anyone got the new iphone and would care to share their experience with it? I'm thinking of getting one but not sure if I should wait for the second gen. Thanks! :D

Not yet, and maybe never if the battery can't be replaced by the user. I just read about a lawsuit because Apple requires the phone to be sent to them for battery replacement, charges $79 and takes at least 3 days for turnaround. Nice toy, but not the most user friendly. Oh yeah, they'll give you a loaner phone for an additional $29. All this and ATT, too!

I have an 8GB on order, and have several friends who camped out last Friday to get theirs on opening day. Let me just say this is an AMAZING piece of electronics. All the functionality of a Blackberry, and more, with an INGENIOUS interface.

Yes, there will be a 3G version coming down the pipe, but unless you spend most of your time in a major metropolitan area you'll be using EDGE anyway, so thats not such a big deal to me.

To me, its worth it to have a phone, PDA, and iPod all in one box that is always with me. And yes, for those who have iPod integration in their cars, the iPhone plays friendly with them as well.

Patrick

I gave one a look and test drive this weekend at the Mac store. It's definitely cool but inmho not worth the price.

What I cant believe is that REAL phone companies like LG, Motorola, Blackberry and Nokia have missed the boat on providing unique phones or ideas. The interface on the Iphone is incredible.....

I got one, and I thought it was pretty cool initially.. but after a few days of using it there are just so many tiny things about it that are extremely well thought out.. every day I have been running across things that just make stuff that was a PITA on my blackberry a snap. Well worth the money in my opinion, and being it's essentially a baby mac the software updates and advances will probably be awesome over time..

I'm buying one and I don't even have AT&T!

you'll be able to make free international calls
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14144/

prOk: I'm curious about how long the "charge" on the phone lasts -- especially since there is so much (apparently) that you can do on the phone. My Razr is pretty good, but if I start using MP3s, camera, games, etc. -- you know those 5 minutes or so before a movie starts, the battery runs out fast. How is the iphone?

I'm curious too about the web surfing and internet capabilities. Is it fast enough? Is there a lag?

OK.. i'll try and answer the questions below :)

Speed wise, AT&T's EDGE service isn't the speediest, but it's adequate for routine web browsing. However, the iPhone will automatically switch to wireless networks (802.11) when one's in range and things are very snappy from there.

Battery wise, I bought mine Saturday in New York city.. Charged it once that day, watched a movie on it on the plane ride home to Orlando and never plugged it back in to power until Thursday.. so that's not bad.. 5 days of use, watching a movie, connecting to wireless networks, listening to music and just plain being on standby. They claim 8 hours of continuous use on the batter and I think I read somewhere that it was confirmed.

Now, for the browsing experience.. let's just say there's not a phone on the planet that comes close in that respect. The only thing lacking is Flash support which I hear is coming with the first update to the software. Web pages are viewed exactly the same as they would be on your desktop at home, you just use taps to zoom in and scroll where you want to see.. very very cool.

Thanks for the info! Helps a lot! :cheers:

Anyone know how it works with the becker iPod hack?

I picked up a 4gig iPhone yesterday afternoon. I had checked the Apple site to see if any Apple stores would have any in stock. None in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana or New Mexico! I decided to swing into the nearest AT&T store (that was out of stock on the 4th) just to see if they had gotten any. Asked the guy, and he said they may have an 8gig model, but he'd check. Came back out with a shiny new 4gig iPhone box. They JUST got some in.

Got it home and got it activated. Synced with my contacts in Outlook, so I instantly had all my phone numbers. SCHWEET! It imported the one POP mail account I had set up in Outlook (I use Thunderbird as my primary mail client), and imported calendar events. I like the calendar, since I use Yahoo Calendar a lot, and can sync that with Outlook, then in turn sync it with my iPhone.

Everything on the phone runs well... the email client is a bit simplistic, but it works. Text messaging is very neat with the way it groups incoming and outgoing message by who you're 'talking' to.

Typing on it isn't that difficult, actually. On the occasional fat finger, if it's on a word in the normal dictionary, it autocorrects, and it does pretty well.

Google Maps is nice, it's easy to zoom in and out and move around. Would be nice if it had a GPS receiver, or could at least use a bluetooth GPS receiver. Also the map right around where I live is probably 4 years old.

Looking up a business on Google Maps is nice, since it will show you all the locations. You can click on one, it will take you to a screen with the address and phone number. Click the number and it dials automatically. Sweet!

The camera isn't too bad, but there are NO settings you can tweak.

Viewing pictures is nice. The screen is BEAUTIFUL!

The browser is nice, and will load whole pages just like on a PC (although no Flash support).

I have made a couple calls, and the sound quality and volume is good. Not great, but good. Did have some popping and crackling earlier today, but that could have been on the other end since I was talking to a friend on her cell. I was also able to easily pair my Motorola BT headset with it. Got voicemail setup, but haven't received any yet.

I only put about 700MB of music on it. Found how to download the album art so when holding the phone horizontally, you can scroll by album. It runs VERY nicely. Sound quality is on par with the 4GB Nano I had a while back (gave it to my little sister in NYC).

All in all, I dig it bigtime. It wouldn't work well for power users who need a productivity device. Stick with your crackberries if you need that stuff. But for a phone, a music device, and some other communications, it's very nice.

I worked in the computer industry for 15 year before retiring. I would rather have a high voltage line shoved up my culo before owning anything by Apple that could be of importance. Sure, I own 3 Ipods, but those are only for entertainment. A phone is something I consider a business application not a toy so the Blackberry will be just fine. I also consider all Mac computers to be toys for woman and children. Like I said, 15 years in the computer industry and I watched Apple do everything backwards for all of those 15 years.

I got the 4 gig yesterday. Easy tohook up. trouble sending aolmail, wifi doesnt work yet. couldn't hear device till i removed plastic. :cheers:

How exactly did Apple do everything backwards for 15 years?

I own both a MacBook and a Sony laptop, the mac does everything the sony does and more, and in better style.

Im very tempted to get an iphone when it comes out in Australia. Great idea as it means I dont need to carry an ipod, a phone and a DC around everyday.

fat finger typing trouble? LOL

be warned you will have to completely discard your long practiced two handed texting method. The buttons are very close to each other so you will have to hen peck the buttons with your index finger. A really uncessary change in my opinion
but this is only Iphone 1.0
there will be allot of changes and it will only get better. This phone is on whole different level to anything by Blackberry, Samsung, LG, Sony-E. etc.
I hope those guys are working weekends to catch up.

my GF got the iphone recently so i played with it a bit and i think its great, it has a lot of capablities and is def. way ahead of the other phone companies. Someone mentioned it not being a good business tool, my GF owns two businesses and depends on her phone pretty much 24/7 and so far its serving her good, she did keep the blackberry for just in case but looks like she wont be needed to switch back to the blackberry for work purposes

If you need to manipulate things like Excel and Word... or if you have an Exchange server set up to push mail to your Crackberry - you're out of luck.

If you just need to call people, the iPhone will work OK. It's great for grabbing numbers out of business listings from Google Maps, text messages and emails (a buddy emailed me his phone number... I went to email, to the message and tapped the number and it dialed). It's damn handy if you came from JUST a phone.

Part of the beauty of the iPhone is it's software.. features it doesn't have today can come over time.. Exchange push capability is already announced by august and editing office docs is also just around the corner.. those are the basics, cool things are yet to come!

Cartagena- your response is typical of people that are 'in the computer industry 15 years'... very closed minded and stuck in the past. The apple of 15 years ago has nothing to do with today. Everyone acknowledges that apple fell off the deep end in the 90's, but the MacOS of today is as advanced if not moreso than any OS on the market. Macs are based on the same bloody chips, drives, memory and standards as the best pc's you can buy. The difference is, apple pays close attention to the marriage between hardware and software which yields a much smoother user experience. Let go of past predjudices and take an unbiased look at what apple offers today, you might just be surprised. (I too have been in the 'computer industry' for 15+ years).

Computers are meant to do work. If you want to use it for a toy then lets call it a video game. Computers should not have little happy/sad faces for an error message. If my Unix systems have a problem I can go look at an error message, I do not know what a sad face means.

I can assure you I am not living in the past. Apple makes machines for a "special" market of people. About 12-13 years ago I started my first Internet company. This is when I was first exposed to the dreaded Mac users. I could always tell they had a Mac before they said so since they always yelled in the phone "My Internet is not working!" in a voice resembling someone with Down Syndrome. Of course though, Mac users all think they are special. Steve tells them so and they believe it. Basically Steve's motto is "hey losers, buy my crap and you will be special!" He makes the super-uncool think they are cool.

I can just imagine the people who lined up for an Iphone. I bet they were societies outcasts, -rejects who justify their existence by buying a phone. They think they are "in" and "cool" and "special" and "cutting edge".... :barf:

I could go on and on with this topic but I think it is best I stop. Not only is it off-topic but I am going to have nightmares tonight now that I have recalled my first experiences with Mac users. I thought I had blocked that ugly memory out of my mind but unfortunately it remains.

My opinion of Mac is not from the 90s. It is from the crap they are producing now. If you want a computer to do a real job then use some flavor of Unix. If you want a computer for work then use Windows. If you want a computer so you can feel "hip" and "cool" with all the other societal outcasts, well there is Apple.

This is nothing directed against you personally. I have just met too many Mac users to think of them as normal.

Went to an Apple store this afternoon and played around with one of the test units and I must say that I am totally impressed! The interface is fantastic! I did have a little bit of a problem with the qwerty keyboard but no big deal really. I must say that I have been waiting for a gadget like this for years but still I feel like I should wait for the next generation to come out because I know that it will be even better than the first one. I have never really been an Apple person (I don't even have an Ipod) but truth be told, the iphone is making a believer out of this person! :cheers:

To comment on the "typical Mac user" of today, I find the previous statement rather insulting, and quite a bit off base. I agree with you, that if you want to do some serious computing, run some flavor of Unix. Well, OS X is some flavor of Unix.

I've gone back and forth over the years running Macs and PCs (let me mention that I am a creative professional and thus expect a lot out of a machine, i.e. the ability to work on large (up to 1GB at times) image files in a timely fashion) and at this point, you couldn't give me a PC. The current Mac Pros and MacBook Pros are just amazing machines. Just crack the case on a Mac Pro (or a G5, or go back to a G4 for that matter) and compare that to the priciest PC you can find and tell me who put their money into packaging/engineering. Add to this the fact that I just rebooted my MacBook Pro the other day for the first time in about a month, never worry about viruses or spyware, never have to defragment a drive, etc. Of the time my Macs are running, they are doing work 100% of the time and thus have zero time alloted to maintaining a machine. Find me a Windoze install (I don't care what version, and I'm including Vista in that statement) that can do that and I might be interested.

The Mac users that I know are highly educated professionals, who simply got sick of playing fix-it with PCs and want something that works. Heck, I even got my father to convert to a Mac.

With regard to the iPhone, what sets it apart from the rest of the smart phones is the interface. Period. Add the fact that is also contains an iPod, and you truly have a unique and functional product.

If you think those that are buying them are "uncool, scum of the earth who want to be cool" and bought an iPhone (or any other Apple product, for that matter) to be "cool," thats your opinion, but I don't consider myself, nor any of the other Mac users that I know, both personal and professional to fall into your classification.

Patrick

Here is a funny cartoon:

One of my favorite articles about Mac users is on the link below. Please note that there is some vulgar language in the link so if you are easily offended (as most Mac users are) or too young to be reading such things, then please do not click on the link. Click here to read the article!

Apple/Mac has it's advantages - mostly with a simple interface. Sometimes that's a great thing to have. But Apple/Mac do have their elitist fanboys. They're nice machines, but the word 'proprietary' really turns a lot of people off.

(My first computer was an Apple - ye olde IIe)

You want some power, and the ability to tweak it, and get lots of free stuff for it?

LINUX

I would run Linux on my box at home, save for the fact that there are a couple things (mostly games) that won't run on it. (yes, I know about WINE, and I also run VMWare Server, so I could set up a VM running XP to do my bidding, but games just wouldn't work well).

I recently bought a new laptop, and went with a Dell. It has XP Home on it... I haven't thrown Linux on it, because I haven't found a way to get my AT&T Wireless modem to work. (there may be some modem strings that can be used with it, but I haven't found any yet)


ANYWAY... this discussion should be about the iPhone itself, not bashing Apple or the Mac, regardless of your past experience.

I have to say this about Apple and the iPhone - they did VERY well on a v1.0 product. I can't wait to see how they tweak it to make some things a little more full featured, and it will be interesting to see what iPhone 2.0 does!

+1 :cheers:

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I could not disagree with you more.

I make a fine living in publishing with my Apple computers. And I've been publishing books and a quarterly periodical with it for many years. Apple computers aren't toys.

You may not like the way they come at programming from your own background, but that doesn't mean its wrong or bad. It's just different. Which brings me to an older byline they used to use: "Think Different."

BTW, Apple has always lagged behind PC's in the gaming industry... essentially proving that a PC makes a better "toy" than a Mac.

Just wait... the iPhone will probably become as common as the crackberries seen around airports everywhere, or all the other manufacturers will start releasing phones that are iPhone knock-offs to regain lost marketshare.

lmao, you must just be bitter for having to wait all the way until october: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/technology/unix.html




t,ftfy ;)