Topic: iPhone

[gpw11]

Thoughts?

I think it looks awesome and the interface seems to be really good.  As a phone I'd probably pass it up personally just because I don't need or want a smart phone but it still seems pretty sweet, especially the google maps feature (which will be available on future Samsung phones as well aparently).

[Quemaqua]

iCouldgiveashit

 ...

Damn it.  I'm trolling again, aren't I?

[beo]

i'm not a mac fan by any stretch of the imagination, but i love gadgets. this device looks like it has some innovative features and knowing apple they'll implement them all superbly. the only thing that doesn't seem that great is the camera. i know 2 megapixel is fine, it's what i'm running at the moment - but that's the point, this is a new phone that hasn't come to market yet, so i would expect a minimum of 3.2 megapixels. it's not something that would bother me in the slightest, but with everything else about the phone looking like the next leap forward, it's a little bit of a shame they didn't go the extra mile on that.

[iPPi]

Meh.

[Pugnate]

I am very disappointed. I expected a $500 phone to have at least 10GB.

We already have phones of that capacity with better cameras.

[beo]

yeah, you know it isn't going to be $500 in real money though - i'm willing to bet that it'll be free on most contracts within 6 months (in the uk at least).

[iPPi]

The touchscreen keyboard is gonna be a pain to use.  Also, it's a pretty big and bulky phone.

I dunno... it looks slick and has some decent features, but it also seems to have a lot of weaknesses as well.

[Cobra951]

iCouldgiveashit

 ...

Damn it.  I'm trolling again, aren't I?

Me too.  Sorry . . .

[Schlotzky5]

I just got a phone, and there is no way that I would buy a phone without contract. It looks pretty cool, but I think the whole 'do everything' phone has a ways to go.

[DrSbaitso]

It certainly looks very pretty, but I'll bet that screen will be a magnet for fingerprints and scratches.
I also would have liked to have seen 3G, and a better camera.

[iPPi]

Cisco sues Apple over the iPhone name infringement, which Cisco has the rights to.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/10/cisco-apple.html?ref=rss

[gpw11]

You know, the more I think about the iphone, the more I think that it's something that probably won't be all that great for the first few revisions.  It needs to be 3G, it needs more (or expandable) storage, it's going to need a longer battery life, and so on and so forth.

But out of the two announcements at macworld, it still kicks the pants off of AppleTv....which is just so poorly executed it probably should even exist.

[Cobra951]

I just got a phone, and there is no way that I would buy a phone without contract. It looks pretty cool, but I think the whole 'do everything' phone has a ways to go.

Same here.  Mine does most of that stuff anyway.  No GBs or high-res, but hey, it's just a cell phone.

[scottws]

What the heck is 3G?

[DrSbaitso]

What the heck is 3G?

The third generation of mobile technology. It provides much faster data transfer rates than before, so you can do video calls, download music, watch TV, etc. on your mobile.

[Quemaqua]

Does anyone actually give a fuck about listening to music or watching video on their phone?  No, seriously.  Does anyone?  I can't imagine ever, ever using that in my life.  Ever.  At least not in the shitty capacity most phones have.

[iPPi]

For short trips I don't bother bringing my mp3 player along with me since it's an extra device, and I'll just listen to music on my cell phone, since I've got a 1GB card in it, effectively making it a 1GB mp3/video player.

Obviously, for longer trips, I'll use my mp3 player since it's got more music.

[gpw11]

Does anyone actually give a fuck about listening to music or watching video on their phone?  No, seriously.  Does anyone?  I can't imagine ever, ever using that in my life.  Ever.  At least not in the shitty capacity most phones have.

It's the way of the future my friend, the way of the future.

[idolminds]

You know what I want? An MP3 player with a built in camera. Kinda like this, minus the phone shit.

[poomcgoo]

None of you can deny that it looks slick, though.  That's a cool looking toy, and it has some sweet features on a really cool, functional interface.  If you check out the video on the iPhone site of the presentation, it really looks like they nailed the interface.  Before I watched the video, all I could think about is how I'd prefer real buttons as opposed to digital ones that you can't feel.  How accurate could that be?  Watching the video, though, it looks like it really works well, and he's typing pretty quickly with no errors.

It's also really cool how it has all those proximity/motion sensors and can tell when it's in ypur pocket, on your ear, or whether you want to view the screen in landscape mode and normal.

The camera should be better though, and watching the presentation really shows why it needs the 3G support, because you can tell the slower speeds are why the images and shit on the web browser are hitching up so much.  Also, it kinda sucks that it'll be hard to add third party software due to OSX.  Unless I happen across one for super cheap and I'm in the market for a new phone, I probably won't ever have one.  It looks like a pretty cool gadget though.

[gpw11]

Well, you might not be able to add third party software at all.  There's a good chance it's a locked system since it's not a regular implementation of OSX. 

As for the presentation, I like how they bust out a graph showing how regular phones aren't so easy to use....wait,  what?

[sirean_syan]

Yeah. If they were hard to use all the idiots wouldn't be glued to them all day.

I've watched some of the presentation and I really have my doubts about all those sensors and stuff. Nothing has ever worked on that level or as well as they like to say.

Hearing people talk about this for the past couple of days has had me thinking: I fear the day the church of Apple attempts to become a real religion. It'll almost be as bad as the coming war with Scientology.

[gpw11]

Did you notice the crowd shot when they announced it?  People went crazy.  There was guys jumping to their feet and fist pumping....over a phone.

I don't know what it is about Apple, but some people really do treat it like a religion.

[Jedi]

Did you notice the crowd shot when they announced it?  People went crazy.  There was guys jumping to their feet and fist pumping....over a phone.

I don't know what it is about Apple, but some people really do treat it like a religion.

Bill Gates wishes he could get that kind of reaction and religon... oh I mean following.

[JacksRag(e)]

Cisco sues Apple over the iPhone name infringement, which Cisco has the rights to.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/10/cisco-apple.html?ref=rss

I think it won't really matter so much anymore, since the name is already in people's heads.  They could call it whatever the crap they want, but people everywhere are still gonna call it the iPhone.

And idol, they have made an mp3 player/camera.  The discontinued Olympus m:Robe 500i.

[Pugnate]

It looks pretty cool, but I expected a bit more on functionality. Then again I see that the 8GB version is $600 MSRP, so that's not too bad I guess.

2MP camera isn't brilliant though. But it looks really sweet...

Did you notice the crowd shot when they announced it?  People went crazy.  There was guys jumping to their feet and fist pumping....over a phone.

Did you notice the crowd shot when they announced it?  People went crazy.  There was guys jumping to their feet and fist pumping....over a phone.

That both amuses me and disgusts me.

[gpw11]

That both amuses me and disgusts me.

Kind of like when I just noticed I wrote 'There was guys...'

[Pugnate]

This reminds me of this vid I saw of a Blizzard convention where they talked about the features in the upcoming WoW expansion. People in the crowd went ape shit; jumping around, screaming and waving fists.

It was one of those moments where I was really scared for the human race.

I admit, that previews of certain games I've been looking forward to have gotten me excited. But watching millions of nerds overjoyed over an imaginary world was just frightening.

[iPPi]

Haha.

[Cobra951]

It looks pretty cool, but I expected a bit more on functionality. Then again I see that the 8GB version is $600 MSRP, so that's not too bad I guess.

$65

My cell phone was basically free with the Verizon plan.  I think the street price on the VX8300 without a plan is around $150-200.  "Music Essentials" kit (USB, decent earbuds) is $30.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I can't imagine people getting pumped up over a phone.  WoW is at least mildly understandable, even though it's sad to watch nerds get excited about games.  Especially since two people I really used to like have gotten so addicted to WoW that I can't even talk to them anymore because I think they're pathetic.  It depresses me a bit now.  But yeah... this whole phone craze has just got to fucking stop.  People need to be learning how to shut the fuck up and learn something, do something with their lives, not chat with other people just as stupid as they are.

Oh, and earbuds, that's the other thing I fucking hate.  You get absolute shit sound out of pretty much every earbud I've ever tried when compared to real headphones, even expensive earbuds, yet nobody will use anything else these days for fear that they'll look less cool than the other motherfucking idiot standing next to them.

Man.  I'm so full of hate.  It's probably just as pathetic that I'm bothered by people liking this stuff as it is that people like it in the first place.  I need help.

[Pugnate]

Well I love cellphones as gadgets. They do so much for me. But on earbuds, I can't use them without getting some insane earache.

[gpw11]

Earbuds are the only thing I use for my mp3 player.  Why?  They fit in my pocket while my Koss headphones definitely do not.

On the iPhone:  Jobs was quoted as saying something along the lines of:

"You don't want your phone to be an open platform  You don't want your phone to be a pc, you need it to work when you need it.  You don't want to install three third party apps and then find out you can't make calls, and Cingular doesn't want to loose their entire West Coast Network because some application went haywire on the user's end." 

Beyond the WTF part at the end there, this pretty much kills it for me (and more importantly, a lot of people who actually might have bought one).  I mean, why buy this when you can get a Treo for cheaper that does support a ton of third party software.

Again, I'm getting less and less impressed.  The widescreen is awesome, some of the features and the design is great,  But $499/$599 on a two year contract is a shitload of money to pay for something that isn't quite as functional as smartphones that are a lot cheaper.  Sure, none of them will have the great interface, but at least you can put whatever you want on them. 

But I wonder what's going on over at apple.  They changed their name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. and the two things they debuted at Macworld are products outside the computer realm (Did I say that AppleTV is a joke?  A Slingbox that only plays ipod compatible formats?  What's the fucking point when you can just buy a cable to hook your ipod up to your TV?  Oh, and its not compatible with SDTV).  I wonder if Jobs is on another ego trip, beating his wife/girlfriend again (we all know he did it), and creating another giant schism at Apple.  Now, I can't say for sure, but Pirates of Silicon Valley makes me think he might be somewhat unstable.