iphone aint so hot after this review

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/t...1182895716-7f7K2JmqQTyFeBItNN4dBg&oref=slogin


• No GPS

We know.

• Rated battery life under-par (not a real surprise considering the MBPs rating)

Has NOTHING to do with the MBP,. Besides, the battery life is great considering what it is.

• No expandable memory (we knew this already, but if a chip goes bad, all your data is gone and you are screwed because you have to send it back to apple and you will have no phone)

Ever heard of syncing?

• No Instant messaging (at all)

Yes, slight disappointment, Web Apps will be coming for it...

• No Voice dialing (even the 4 yr old nokia 3390 had this)

And how many people actually use this gimick?

• No MMS (cant send rich emails to your friends phones since they don’t support it)

No MMS, because you can frieking EMAIL.

• No Camera options for high speed shutter (all your photos will be blurry)

O NOES!!!11 What shall we do?!?!
• No LED light (night shots will be crap)

• No 3G or 3.5G radio at all, stuck with 2 generation old EDGE (2.75G)

This is WELL established. Wait for revision 2 instead of bitching about it.






Overall, shut up. You're not bringing anything new to the table.

Honestly, you're just trolling, this is what you always do. Just don't buy one, it's really as simple as that.

 

[Me1000]

after debating with myself, I have decided that I need to reply to more of your points,

No editor for Word
No editor for Excel
No editor for Power Point
No editor for PDF

why would you want to edit a powerpoint? do other phones let you do this?

No GPS
No GPS Support in google maps? (the article more or less implied it)

same thing!
a drawback, but not a deal breaker!

Rated battery life under-par (not a real surprise considering the MBPs rating)

but better than most any smart phone!

No expandable memory (we knew this already, but if a chip goes bad, all your data is gone and you are screwed because you have to send it back to apple and you will have no phone)

that is just a fact of life...
but your data syncs

No Instant messaging (at all)

already online versions of IM clients.

No Voice dialing (even the 4 yr old nokia 3390 had this)

Never used this at all, guess it is a bit of a drawback

Cannot install 3rd party programs (you lose so much functionality if its locked down)

meh... disappointing, but great for web developers

Browser cant do flash

disappointing, but easily fixed! defiantly not a deal breaker!

Cant do Java Applets

the only site i know that still uses java is the NWS, and they have a non java version too
Java is too clunky, not fun to work with at all!

No MMS (cant send rich emails to your friends phones since they don’t support it)

that was a point in the keynote! rich emails... watch the keynote friend

No LED light (night shots will be crap)

never seen a phone with that, but again it is a phone. I have a camera for pictures

No video capture (kinda though that but this proves it, also means you cant receive 3gp files from your friends because the iPhone cant decode it, it can only do h264)

sad,

None replaceable battery (you will be screwed if you are in the middle of no where with a non replaceable battery)

agreed!

No 3G or 3.5G radio at all, stuck with 2 generation old EDGE (2.75G)

EDGE sucks, 3G sucks... a downside though, yes

Slow browser, apparently the safari browser requires additional time to load a page because it may need to process the page before displaying it. Most likely because of the zoom feature, opera mini needs to do this as well but not opera mobile. We don’t know what the CPU is in the iphone however other pda phones that do not process the page appear to be faster

meh, it will be slow anyway

No Copy and Paste (that really sucks for website addresses you want to send to people)

easily added, but really not sure when you would use that...
Google references are pretty easy!
L

oss of space (700 MB is almost 1G of space missing from 4 or 8, that’s ¼ space GONE)

figures

No A2DP (what a waste of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR)

Since I had to look that up before I even knew what it was, defiantly wont think about it twice

No personal RING TONE SUPPORT!!!! (the ones built in fracking BLOW in the demo, why cant you use your own itunes BOUGHT songs?)

personal ringtones will be supported! maybe not a launch, but we have already seen the ringtones tab in iTunes!

Around 400 charges and the phone’s battery is poof, but you cannot replace it, you lose it for a couple days if not weeks to get it replaced costing you an arm and a leg with shipping parts and labor

downside yes, but you would loose the phone anyway because you would still have to order a new battery.




Yes it is a 1.0 product, but it is a hell of a 1.0 product!

EDIT: Why do people always beat me to my points? lol!!!!!!!

 

[eddietr]

no, all the points im saying is because im comparing it to exsiting or current phones, as well as phones that are 1-2 years old. all the phones im comparing it to are cheaper if not free, most even unlocked and unbrande without a contract.

So I'm curious, which phone would you buy if you were to buy a phone this Friday? I'm sure it has no flaws at all, yes? Right now I'm using a Blackjack, for instance, and for all its cool features on paper including 3G, I can't wait to throw it the front door on Friday night. It's an extraordinarily annoying phone. And I don't like carrying and juggling two devices (iPod and phone). So what would you recommend?

This first version of the iPhone has flaws. And the next version will be better (duh!)

But right now I can't think of another interface or another iPod/phone I'd rather be using from this Friday until iPhone II comes out. It's that simple.

 

[103734]

I agree I have a motorola Q and windows mobile sucks so much, its slow, the internet sucks, programs dont actually close when you exit them you have to go into task manager. The whole dam windows mobile is a piece of garbage and there are very few good 3rd party aps that don't cost a arm and a leg

 

[asherman13]

Who said something about not being able to track Santa?

 

[TenaciousPZ]

Multimedia Messaging Service

coolosxapps

aka the current technology in use on many other mobile phones, which from my experience is one small step above useless.

Apple is out to re-invent the phone... not simply improve current phones. That means introducing new ideas.

 

[eddietr]

I agree I have a motorola Q and windows mobile sucks so much, its slow, the internet sucks, programs dont actually close when you exit them you have to go into task manager. The whole dam windows mobile is a piece of garbage and there are very few good 3rd party aps that don't cost a arm and a leg

Well, be grateful it isn't a Blackjack, because then you can add to that the joy of the phone forgetting the mail settings every couple of weeks without any warning. You go a couple of hours without mail and then you realize that's odd. So you check the mail server settings under activesync and they are completely blank. Nice little touch there.

Then there is the daily issue of the browser bringing up blank pages. Which, in classic windows fashion, can only be solved by rebooting the phone. Love that one. At least my first, second, AND third Blackjacks were consistent there.

Then there is the 3G that lasts on average about half an hour before auto-reverting to EDGE. Which actually should be considered a feature I guess because 3G browsing on the blackjack means you will NOT make it through the day on the battery any way.

Other than those items, and the absolutely horrific interface design, this things been a pleasure.

Man, is it Friday yet???

 

[Me1000]

Who said something about not being able to track Santa?

I is sorry!

 

[TenaciousPZ]

This first version of the iPhone has flaws. And the next version will be better (duh!)

Unless you want to keep your blackjack until late 2008/early 09, don't wait around for iPhone v2. The roll out process for this product will take a long time given Apple's approach, and you won't see a new model until thats complete. At least 18-24 months.

This product is full upgradable by apple via software update. The whole thing IS software, a beautiful mix of it... and we'll see great new things for it.

 

[lilnyc]

• no life raft
• no built in solar panel
• no inflatable girlfriend
• will NOT survive 10 story drop
• no AI that surpasses human intellect
• no all in one web design app
• no video editing app
• no 3d holographic projectors
• no support for MS DOS
• no pacman (yet)
• no remote for your personal jet
• no bit torrent client
• no custom color cases
• no auto thesis app
• no time machine
• will not allow covo's with ET
• cannot track santa

What??? No time machine?? Aww, FUDGE!

 

[OutThere]

What??? No time machine?? Aww, FUDGE!

DAMN. Dealbreaker. It's basically featureless now. I mean, WTF is apple thinking? This thing is so not going to sell.

 

[janey]

bank websites require a minimum 128bit encyption for the page to even load. you want to try cracking 128bit encryption before the timeout of the session?

One of the weakest points in online banking is when the user signs in.

As in, this has nothing to do with the bank website (almost) or the website's encryption or your ability to crack the encryption, it's all about the user.

Man-in-the-middle, social engineering, link manipulation, XSS, CSRF, physical access...nevermind that it's already been shown to death that most users don't even care for things like SiteKey that might cut down on the number of successful phishing schemes.

Soooooo many different ways to get around things that don't involve cracking encryption...mmm. I don't have to deal with encryption at ALL if I felt like getting your info. The easiest way to get it is to get it from you

 

[mpw]

So I'm curious, which phone would you buy if you were to buy a phone this Friday?...

Maybe not this Friday, but certainly before the iPhone is available worldwide the Nokia e90 will have it beat on the feature list.

It won't sync as happily out of the box, but it'll be the better all round smartphone IMHO

It'll keep the OP happy I'm sure:

• No editor for Word
• No editor for Excel
• No editor for Power Point
• No editor for PDF
• No GPS
• No GPS Support in google maps? (the article more or less implied it)
• Rated battery life under-par (not a real surprise considering the MBPs rating) No idea, but it's predecessor didn't have an issue and I'm confident Nokia know their stuff.
• No expandable memory (we knew this already, but if a chip goes bad, all your data is gone and you are screwed because you have to send it back to apple and you will have no phone)
• No Instant messaging (at all)
• No Voice dialing (even the 4 yr old nokia 3390 had this)
• Cannot install 3rd party programs (you lose so much functionality if its locked down)
• Browser cant do flash
• Cant do Java Applets Not sure
• No MMS (cant send rich emails to your friends phones since they don’t support it)
• No Camera options for high speed shutter (all your photos will be blurry)
• No LED light (night shots will be crap)
• No video capture (kinda though that but this proves it, also means you cant receive 3gp files from your friends because the iPhone cant decode it, it can only do h264)
• None replaceable battery (you will be screwed if you are in the middle of no where with a non replaceable battery)
• No 3G or 3.5G radio at all, stuck with 2 generation old EDGE (2.75G)
• Slow browser, apparently the safari browser requires additional time to load a page because it may need to process the page before displaying it. Most likely because of the zoom feature, opera mini needs to do this as well but not opera mobile. We don’t know what the CPU is in the iphone however other pda phones that do not process the page appear to be faster

EDIT: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/0...first-reviews/
Not sure on this yet, but it has been improved.
• No Copy and Paste (that really sucks for website addresses you want to send to people)
• Loss of space (700 MB is almost 1G of space missing from 4 or 8, that’s ¼ space GONE)
• No A2DP (what a waste of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR) Don't know what that is??
• No personal RING TONE SUPPORT!!!! (the ones built in fracking BLOW in the demo, why cant you use your own itunes BOUGHT songs?)
• Around 400 charges and the phone’s battery is poof, but you cannot replace it, you lose it for a couple days if not weeks to get it replaced costing you an arm and a leg with shipping parts and labor


Of course there IS stuff the iPhone will do that the Nokia can't, but not a lot. And there's plenty more to add to the list that the Nokia CAN do, not to mention that it'll be available to more people sooner than the iPhone being worldwide and not locked to any network.

 

[thekeef]

With ample light, the iPhone's pictures are actually quite impressive.

David Pouge took this picture:
Image: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/26/technology/26pogue.slide10.jpg

Full gallery Link: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/06/26/technology/20070627_POGUE_SLIDESHOW_1.html

All a LED flash would do is waste more battery life and add bulk to the iPhone. They're weak and don't help unless you're about 5 inches away from your subject. The lack of video isn't a surprising announcement because so far there hasn't been a way to play back movies in the iPhone not from iTunes. Perhaps a software update can add video?

GPS would be waste battery, add bulk to the iPhone, and would be utterly pointless. Nope, GPS is just another stupid feature buzzword that in reality has no good practical purpose. The Google Maps App is already like a fake GPS, giving directions, and even showing traffic! Are you really going to be adventuring in the wilderness, iPhone in hand? I don't think so. Besides, similar to the Palm TX an external bluetooth GPS attachment could easily be released in the future for people who need this.

3G support would also only serve to kill the iPhone's battery. My phone lasts a grand three hours connected to Verizon's EV-DO. ATT's 3G service is also hardly available. The technology simply isn't ready yet.

No expandable memory seems like a downside, but with thinking the reason becomes obvious. The iPhone's internal memory, like the iPod's, is tightly integrated with iTunes for memory management. If iTunes synced your library to half your phone's internal memory, and half your card, how the hell would that work? Think about it. iTunes is designed to only work with one storage medium, scattering its content across memory cards would not work at all with the current system. Can you also name any other US phone in existence that has more than 8GB of storage? Didn't think so. Also would make the iPhone thick and bulky.

Having a replaceable battery makes phones more fragile, bulky, and ugly. Besides having options like iPod external battery packs, the iPhone's battery life is already way better than any other toy 'smart'phone. I say fragile because, have you ever dropped your phone to have the battery come flying out? iPods have had this non replaceable battery 'problem' forever and that didn't stop it from selling 100 million copies.

Lack of MMS? Good. I personally never ever use this 'feature' and don't know anyone who does. Slow, bloated, expensive, pseudo-emails? No thank you.

All the rest of your complaints are misguided mumblings or can easily be fixed in the future with a software update.

Yeah that's right, the iPhone can be made even more awesome with a OS update. This even includes real 3rd party apps. Huh, maybe if you weren't in such a anti-apple frenzy.


The main problem that people have is trying to compare the iPhone to a Windows Mobile device which is just idiotic. Windows Mobile is doing everything wrong, why should Apple copy them! Besides having horrible ease of use and memory problems, the device's OS isn't even remotely related to desktop Windows unlike the iPhone which actually does run the kernel of OS X including core technologies and Cocoa.


In short:
The hardware features missing on iPhone are mostly pointless and inflated.
The software features missing can easily be added in the future.


And lastly, if you even read the article that you kindly linked to you'd realize that David Pouge's review makes the iPhone even MORE hot and is actually overwhelmingly positive.

Oh and by the way, hi everybody. Ooh and didn't realize these boards don't use html.

 

[HiRez]

It is crippled (no using your own music as ringtones, no iChat because AT&T wants the SMS revenue), but mostly it's just incomplete, just like every version A Apple product. Some of these things will be remedied with software updates, and some with he next generation hardware. Me, I'm going to wait for the 2nd generation, which will hopefully have 3G support, GPS, real chat capabilities, and camera flash at least. I'm disappointed in much with the iPhone, but it's also very cool and revolutionary in many ways. Most everyone (including myself) predicted the iPod would be doomed when it came out too (overpriced, underfeatured), how did that work out? This looks like it might be similar.

 

[janey]

I'm not quite sure I get all the flaming going on from both sides.

So someone thinks the iPhone is lacking in apparently necessary features. And others don't really care about the lack of said features. Some people are inbetween.

Isn't that enough?

Like, so what? If you don't like it, don't get it - there are a LOT of other phones out there to choose from. If you like it, can afford it, and want it, then go for it. If you like it and want it but you want some other features as well, then go and either work on a web app that does that if possible or go submit bug reports and feedback to Apple and the iPhone team (and get other people to submit them too).

 

[mpw]

...GPS... ...would be utterly pointless. Nope, GPS is just another stupid feature buzzword that in reality has no good practical purpose. The Google Maps App is already like a fake GPS, giving directions, and even showing traffic!...

To get to the cinema do I turn right or left?

Oh you need to know where I'm coming from to give directions do you, oh hold on, errrr I'm near a Starbucks and a church.

 

[Deanster]

This is another post I just don't understand. Folks seem somehow to be upset that this isn't the perfect phone that will allow them to never own another phone for the rest of their life. It needs to do everything a phone can possibly do, whilst consuming no power, blah, blah, blah.

It's a product. All it needs to have is a somewhat advantageous feature mix and price point relative to competing products. The price is high, and in some ways it has an attractive feature mix. It's got a very attractive interface, iPod function akin to the top of the nano line, with the ability to play some video on a screen twice the size of a 5G iPod. It's got 4/8gigs of onboard RAM, which is equal to or 2x the size of the largest possible card for most smartphones.

It's got a big display, and much better browser and potentially better e-mail than even very good smartphones (is it better than Chatteremail on my Treo? We'll see).

Point being, it can be the overall best smartphone in history, without being better on every single point of comparison. Will people continue to buy other phones? Yes. Will Palm and RIM benefit from the discussion of the value of smartphones, and the strong step into the mainstream? Yes.

Is the phone coming out on Friday the ultimate evolution of the phone concept? Heck no.

If it doesn't meet your needs, keep your $600, and spend it on something that does, or hold onto your money until the phone you want comes on the market. Manufacturers release hundreds of phones a year that don't meet your needs - why sweat this one?

 

[janey]

To get to the cinema do I turn right or left?

Oh you need to know where I'm coming from to give directions do you, oh hold on, errrr I'm near a Starbucks and a church.

As much as I'd like GPS on a phone, I already have GPS nav in every car I drive and a portable one as well.

Even if gmaps on the iPhone is limited and can't tell you to turn right or left judging from where you are and what direction you are currently going in, you can still use a couple brain cells to look at the map, pinpoint a couple of streets in the area, and use a couple more brain cells to figure out the direction.

 

[HiRez]

Who said something about not being able to track Santa?

Haha, but you still can't cause the site is in Flash!!

 

[mpw]

...Even if gmaps on the iPhone is limited and can't tell you to turn right or left judging from where you are and what direction you are currently going in, you can still use a couple brain cells to look at the map, pinpoint a couple of streets in the area, and use a couple more brain cells to figure out the direction.

Still not as easy, or as safe when driving, as doing nothing but follow the big arrows is it?

 

[janey]

Still not as easy, or as safe when driving, as doing nothing but follow the big arrows is it?

I know, but that's what the expensive GPS dealie in my car is for, not the phone

The phone would be for when I'm stuck without anything else, and if I had to use it for directions, I would either get someone else in the car to do it and read the directions, or I'd pull over. I've done fairly well with Mapquest and gmaps printouts before which you could argue is just as unsafe.

 

[mpw]

Really don't want to make an issue of this, but I not slept so am in the mood not to let stuff go (it's a character flaw);

I know, but that's what the expensive GPS dealie in my car is for, not the phone ...

Oooooooo, get her all la-de-da with her posh car (that's a joke)

...The phone would be for when I'm stuck without anything else, and if I had to use it for directions, I would either get someone else in the car to do it and read the directions...

I have nothing else, and I have no real friends, so if there's anybody else in my car they're hiding on the back seat with a ski-mask and a knife...

...I've done fairly well with Mapquest and gmaps printouts before which you could argue is just as unsafe.

Those printouts are fine, but you may as well use a normal road atlas, in the UK the Google map directions I've used have been practically useless, although I can imagine they work OK on the US road system with it's city grids etc.

 

[janey]

Really don't want to make an issue of this, but I not slept so am in the mood not to let stuff go (it's a character flaw);

Oooooooo, get her all la-de-da with her posh car (that's a joke)

I can't go without one. I drive a lot, and given this is LA, I drive extra. Plus I'm shopping for a few big things right now that involves driving to all sorts of places. I cannot name the number of times it's come in handy, it's well worth its weight in gold (figuratively, that is...it probably weighs more literally).

Those printouts are fine, but you may as well use a normal road atlas, in the UK the Google map directions I've used have been practically useless, although I can imagine they work OK on the US road system with it's city grids etc.

Well yeah, but gmaps in the US seems to be a lot better and works in general. Except in newly constructed road areas and the middle of nowheres I haven't had much of a problem.

 

[Vinom]

It's a Ferrari, not a mini-van...

I know that the original author (that's a stretch) of this thread wouldn't understand this, but what this phone is really about is the UI. In the same way that a Ferrari isn't the perfect motor vehicle for every use, it is amazingly fun to drive because of the user interface. I know that the kids can't sit in the back watching Shrek on the video monitor while driving 700 miles without a refill. You cannot fit all of your drunk college buddies in the back and hit the beach. You cannot go off-roading to the top of a mountain "because it's there." Ferrari's just aren't good for that sort of thing.

What a Ferrari is great for is sliding through traffic in such a way that your senses are heightened, your adrenaline is flowing, you think it and the car does it. You are experiencing life at a higher level than most mortals are ever allowed.

This is what the iPhone experience is about. In my brief use of the iPhone last week, I felt like I was driving a Ferrari. Everything flowed like my brain told me it should. I thought it and the iPhone did it. AND it did it in a thrilling way that left me wanting more.

If you want a Buick of a mobile phone, buy the Blackberry. If you want the mini-van... buy the Treo. If you want to experience the exhilaration of a Ferrari every day, buy the iPhone, but don't expect it to be a mini-van.