More Official iPhone Reviews

[travishill]

That concerns me slightly, isn't a typical battery 1000 or so? Of course I may be wrong.

He should have been more clear. It is 300 to 400 *cycles*, not charges.

A cycle is one complete charge/discharge cycle- so if you only use 20% of the power, and charge back that 20%- you'd have to do that 5 times to count as a full cycle.

Apple has a nice page about this:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

 

[awal]

MSNBC Loves the iPhone too

That's got to be killing MSFT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19444948/site/newsweek/page/0/

 

[dashiel]

Because EDGE is really that bad. From the article:

The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo, two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.

EDGE is not really that bad. it's not broadband, but it's faster than 56K, closer to ISDN speeds. what sucks is as broadband availability has increased, web developers have jumped on board as early adopter and the page sizes have exploded. unfortunately only about half of connected americans have broadband.

there was a time not too many years ago when the first page of a site couldn't be more than 30K, now pages like cnn and the new york times are hitting the half a megabyte stage.

 

[travishill]

I am in the Bay Area though so maybe the EDGE network out here is better.

Same here in Utah / Salt Lake City, it is much better than Pogue reported. I think the New York area EDGE needs some serious help...

 

[Poff]

That concerns me slightly, isn't a typical battery 1000 or so? Of course I may be wrong.

300 cycles would last you a couple of years. Most phones will start to loose their charge after a couple of years.

 

[darwen]

I pretty much want to know if my existing AT&T phone line on my existing family plan will have to be eligible for an upgrade in order to activate my iPhone. What do you guys think?

This has been discussed. YES ALREADY! It was a rumor that it wouldnt.

 

[3282872]

I think everyone knows by now that it will not have 3g so why keep bringing it up?? Apple designed it knowing this and i'm sure once we get the phone in our hands we will forget all about 3g

Not necessarily. In places that lack open WiFi (most wireless networks are either pay for use, such as those in Starbucks through T-Mobile, or secure connections, making WiFi difficult unless one is always home using their iPhone), the only option for web connectivity is EDGE. Not including 3G is a BIG mistake.

 

[nw_mike]

Ouch

"But you can't do that with the iPhone, because it can't send picture messages. (It sends photos only by e-mail, which most phones can't get.)"

and

"AT&T’s EDGE cellular network: "excruciatingly slow""

These are 2 really disappointing aspects of the iPhone.

 

[Airforce]

It's nice looking, but I don't see the appeal. You can't carry an extra battery, slow internet when off wifi(even though it cost an arm and a leg), call quality is said to be "ok", and you can't even toss in a flash card of any kind.

 

[Apple!Fre@k]

"HE'S GOT AN IPHONE!" Charge!!!!

Hahaha! David Pogue is so funny!

 

[hotdamn]

VERY disappointing to see the slow EDGE speeds. 55 seconds for NYT, 100 seconds for amazon... sheesh. How could you browse the web with those speeds? I wonder how YouTube videos will stream.

oh my god.
Seriously, have the guys at Apple tried this and given their OK? This sounds horribawwwwwl

 

[haiggy]

LOL That video made me laugh so hard... amazing!

 

[plumbingandtech]

3G is a BIG mistake.

This has been gone over and over for the past 6 months. There are pluses AND minuses for going 3G.

Battery drain.
Cost of parts.
Lawsuit that stopped some 3g chips from coming into the country.
Battery drain.
Coverage (I live in an realtively alfuent dream apple demographic of L.A. and 3G does not cover us.)
Miniaturization of parts.
Battery drain.

It will get here soon, if it is a big problem for you wait till Jan. and buy Rev B.

 

[Airforce]

This has been gone over and over for the past 6 months. There are pluses AND minuses for going 3G.

Battery drain.
Cost of parts.
Lawsuit that stopped some 3g chips from coming into the country.
Battery drain.
Coverage (I live in an realtively alfuent dream apple demographic of L.A. and 3G does not cover us.)
Miniaturization of parts.
Battery drain.

It will get here soon, if it is a big problem for you wait till Jan. and buy Rev B.

Hell, the time to load a page alone is going to drain your battery more than 3G would.

 

[MrCrowbar]

"or via AT&T's cellular network... which is slow, and horrible" LOL

 

[plumbingandtech]

Hell, the time to load a page alone is going to drain your battery more than 3G would.

Check the other comments that say that is too long and in their area it loads faster.

I know you're kidding but it would not as the 3g is always on and draining not just the X secs. it takes to download the NYT.

 

[mrrory]

I think the camera shots are pretty good. MUCH better than my SK3.

 

[brandon6684]

Well it looks like I may be leaning towards the iPhone again. Apparently it does live up to some of the hype and the keyboard, which I was very worried about, does seem to work according to current reviews. I was also worried that the cheapest plans would clock in at $80-$90, but at $60, I can handle that. There are still a couple of things that trouble me. First, I'll be in an area with excellent 3G coverage by Sprint, so EDGE looks pretty crappy right now, and getting nickel and dimed to death by WiFi hot spots is a poor option. Then next major concern is the lack of an IM client, but I'll just hope there are decent web options. Since my main focus will be on email and web browsing any way, the iPhone is looking like a winner.

 

[dogtanian]

This has been gone over and over for the past 6 months. There are pluses AND minuses for going 3G.

Battery drain.
Cost of parts.
Lawsuit that stopped some 3g chips from coming into the country.
Battery drain.
Coverage (I live in an realtively alfuent dream apple demographic of L.A. and 3G does not cover us.)
Miniaturization of parts.
Battery drain.

It will get here soon, if it is a big problem for you wait till Jan. and buy Rev B.

I don't mean to have a dig but I believe people defend apple to the death sometimes. I love the iPhone too but it should have 3G. My Sony Ericsson K800 lasts ages on the battery and its 3G. It's also a lot cheaper than the iPhone. My point is that for the iPhone to be loved by Europe/UK, we need 3G! (And MMS )

 

[Random Ping]

i dont know, what if the iphone has 3g built in but its turned off by apple until att gets there 3g up to speed around the country and then for a 5$ fee unlocks it for you

Or if the software on the wireless chip can be upgraded by flashing it.

One thing Apple did recently is announce that it would upgrade both the iPhone and AppleTV over time, and at that time, pundits speculated this was to overcome the $2 fee fiasco that Apple went through to upgrade/activate the 802.11n capabilities already built into some WiFi chips.

Now, if it is possible, Apple could upgrade/activate hardware on your iPhone (i.e., converting EDGE to 3G) without running into trouble with the "generally accepted accounting principles".

 

[thuff13]

"But you can't do that with the iPhone, because it can't send picture messages. (It sends photos only by e-mail, which most phones can't get.)"

and

"AT&T’s EDGE cellular network: "excruciatingly slow""

These are 2 really disappointing aspects of the iPhone.

At least with AT&T, MMS enabled phones can receive emails with photo attachments. You simply send the email with the attachment to theirnumber@mms.att.net. So that's really not an issue. It is the same thing but you only have to use one interface whether you are sending it to a phone or a computer (or both at the same time?).

 

[3282872]

This has been gone over and over for the past 6 months. There are pluses AND minuses for going 3G.

Battery drain.
Cost of parts.
Lawsuit that stopped some 3g chips from coming into the country.
Battery drain.
Coverage (I live in an realtively alfuent dream apple demographic of L.A. and 3G does not cover us.)
Miniaturization of parts.
Battery drain.

It will get here soon, if it is a big problem for you wait till Jan. and buy Rev B.

1) Battery drain: Insignificant and mostly depends on the phone itself, NOT the chip (but regardless, I'd rather take a possible "battery drain" over a lack of WiFi coverage and an "excruciatingly slow" EDGE network).

2) Motorola RAZR has 3G chips, as do many phones, without any "added costs" (the new 3G RAZR is going for $49.99 on ATT with rebates).

3) That lawsuit didn't come into fruition and the judge didn't order Qualcomm to stop distributing 3G chips until a few weeks ago, if that, long after Apple began iPhone development.

4) Battery drain (again? that was number 1, perhaps you're losing points? )

5) Funny, my friends in LA who work in high stress jobs that require constant use of their smart phones, etc. use 3G in just about every area (on Cingular/ATT and Sprint), no problems. Where is this "area"? Bakersfield, CA? lol

6) Miniaturization of parts? What? Seriously? If they can fit a 3G chip into a RAZR or KRZR I'm sure there wouldn't be an issue with working one into an iPhone.

7) battery drain? LOL If you're trying to be sarcastic, your battery drain point is erroneous. Again, I have a RAZR 3G and I use the web on it for a few hours a day, no issue. I'm certain with the combination of WiFi AND 3G, as well as improved battery performance, the iPhones demands of high bandwidth would be easily met without taxing the battery (and besides, are you surfing the web in your sleep? let's be realistic about how much battery usage is necessary).

So, sorry, those arguments don't hold much weight. Unless Jobs had Ms. Cleo tell him a judge will order Qualcomm and other 3G chip manufacturers to halt 3G production, there really isn't a reason why Apple neglected its usage (and the lawsuit filed in May 2005 doesn't necessarily mean a judge will order a halt in 3G production in the near future, if that were the case then ALL other phone manufacturers would have compensated for such and implemented WiFi over 3G, which isn't the case).

 

[plumbingandtech]

I don't mean to have a dig but I believe people defend apple to the death sometimes. I love the iPhone too but it should have 3G. My Sony Ericsson K800 lasts ages on the battery and its 3G. It's also a lot cheaper than the iPhone. My point is that for the iPhone to be loved by Europe/UK, we need 3G! (And MMS )

It will. No doubt.

I think apple is behind the 3g tech by six months.. if the phone was released in Jan. then the US would have been too.

Oh well. I would rather have my 2.5 g now and then I can buy the 3g in Jan.

 

[dogtanian]

It will. No doubt.

I think apple is behind the 3g tech by six months.. if the phone was released in Jan. then the US would have been too.

Oh well. I would rather have my 2.5 g now and then I can buy the 3g in Jan.

I'm hoping 3G will be seen as uber important by the time it gets across the pond to us here in the UK...that is if they can find a network (Or carrier as you crazy yanks call 'em )

 

[Project]

"Movies can eat up a lot of space. When I finished watching A Bug's Life, iPhone offered to remove it from the device to free up some."

Nice.