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The iPhone was supposed to revolutionize our lives. Why is it ruining mine? (Salon.c)
- Thread starter phoobo
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Good. This is the sign of a successful product.
I love Apple stuff. I want them to make more stuff. I am thrilled that they've finally made it big enough to get stories like these. It's like they're finally a real company or something!
You didn't get this kind of stuff back in the early iMac G3 days because nobody cared about Apple back then. I lived through that and I'm much happier with Apple here in 2009 then I was in 1999.
I love Apple stuff. I want them to make more stuff. I am thrilled that they've finally made it big enough to get stories like these. It's like they're finally a real company or something!
You didn't get this kind of stuff back in the early iMac G3 days because nobody cared about Apple back then. I lived through that and I'm much happier with Apple here in 2009 then I was in 1999.
All I have to say, after wasting precious moments of my life reading the article, is just buy a new phone and call it a day. I think people just love to be able to complain about things. You bought a product you believe to be of poor quality, sell it and carry on.
Actually, the problem is that Apple, RIM, and Palm are training people that they need to cary a $500 device around in their pocket.
When has that ever been true before?
These aren't just new phones. This is the era of mobile computing starting, and it's very, very different from what we had before. (When explensive computers were big and didn't move much.) Even laptops used to weight 6 or 7 pounds! It was a lot harder to just sit on a $500 computer back then.
So this is society adjusting to something new. It won't happen overnight.
When has that ever been true before?
These aren't just new phones. This is the era of mobile computing starting, and it's very, very different from what we had before. (When explensive computers were big and didn't move much.) Even laptops used to weight 6 or 7 pounds! It was a lot harder to just sit on a $500 computer back then.
So this is society adjusting to something new. It won't happen overnight.
The more popular something gets (and therefore exposed to a more "mainstream" audience), the more people bitch.
Imagine if Ferrari came out with a $15,000 car ....
"Hey Ma! Git off the dang roof and try this car!"
"Well hey now! This here ferrari ain't go no radio! The steering wheel ain't powered y'all! I gotta fill up with premium fuel! Everyday!"
(just a joke guys ... not meant to be a perfectly sound analogy)
Imagine if Ferrari came out with a $15,000 car ....
"Hey Ma! Git off the dang roof and try this car!"
"Well hey now! This here ferrari ain't go no radio! The steering wheel ain't powered y'all! I gotta fill up with premium fuel! Everyday!"
(just a joke guys ... not meant to be a perfectly sound analogy)
And if you go into MR forums, you'll see the same. SO? The ones that are happy with a product don't normally flock to forums to say "Look at me, I'm so happy with my this or that." I'm thinking the article writer owns stock in Palm, TTYTT.
I've not had my iPhone too long, but I've had an iPod touch for over a year, use it nightly in bed and more than once ended up sleeping on top of it or pushing it off my bed onto the floor (in my sleep, of course). I've carried it in my pocket, in the car, it's ended up on the floor countless times. My screen doesn't have a single scratch, let alone a crack. Sure, the back is a little scuffed, but I never used a case with it. How anyone can fault the build or material quality on an iPod Touch or iPhone is beyond me.
Go to the Palm support forums and you will see people complaining about scratched screens, a touch screen phone that bends and many other problems. It's funny how this happens with every cell phone on the planet. You can't make everyone happy no matter what phone they may have.
While all in all I do love my iPhone, it kinda sucks as a phone. But this isn't Apple's fault. I believe AT&T plays a big part in this.
Dropped calls, spotty indoor service, super slow data (ask any New Yorker) and other network issues are a big cause of complaints. And while AT&T is good in some places, its clearly not "more bars in more places."
While I still have my iPhone 3GS, I also now have a Verizon Blackberry Tour. I've had an iPhone since launch day 2007. I've upgraded from the original 8GB to a 16GB 3G to a 32GB 3GS. But at least around where I live and work, AT&T's network is crap. The iPhone drops a call at least once per day. The Verizon Blackberry Tour hasn't dropped a single call in over 5 weeks.
Dropped calls, spotty indoor service, super slow data (ask any New Yorker) and other network issues are a big cause of complaints. And while AT&T is good in some places, its clearly not "more bars in more places."
While I still have my iPhone 3GS, I also now have a Verizon Blackberry Tour. I've had an iPhone since launch day 2007. I've upgraded from the original 8GB to a 16GB 3G to a 32GB 3GS. But at least around where I live and work, AT&T's network is crap. The iPhone drops a call at least once per day. The Verizon Blackberry Tour hasn't dropped a single call in over 5 weeks.
Complainers are always louder and talk way more frequent that the satisfied do. Its true with everything in life.
That's true, studies have proved this too. People are more likely to tell their friends about complaints they have about a product or service then they are about compliments and how great something is.
The iPhone, like everything, has it's problems, but it's a loooooot better than the other phones out there. I got annoyed at my iPhone 3G so I sold it for a 5800, but I'm now selling that 5800 to get a 3GS! You don't know what you got until it's gone, seriously!
Wow the author of that article has to be one of the stupidest people. SHE damaged 4 iPhones and blames it on Apple? Amazing.
I'm really glad, Apple does some research on this, so the customers who actually take care of their products don't have to pay for these idiots.
Honestly, my 4-year-old Sony Ericsson was better as a phone. Damn thing was bulletproof and had great reception. But I love the iPhone's other features so much that I'm willing to put up with its minor (to me) flaws. I didn't expect perfection from the iPhone. I expected something really cool and fun and useful, and I got exactly that.
The author is an idiot. She rambles around with little direction in her blog/article. Does she really admit to being at fault? Does she think Apple is at fault. She's on the fence wobbling back and forth too much.
It's like your drunk friend talking out a problem and convincing themselves that they should do (A) or (B) and that both are great ideas.
It's like your drunk friend talking out a problem and convincing themselves that they should do (A) or (B) and that both are great ideas.
You're wrong. It's a good essay.
You have confused an article raising questions with an article that provides answers.
Clearly you like the 2nd kind of article more (as is common with the sort of technical people attracted to boards like this) but it is not the only valid kind.
Well written? Sure. But, good ... ?
I mean, so Apple's the bad guy because they made a "very good" phone/mobile platform and not the "WORLD CRUSHINGLY BEST ONE"?
There was a lot of hype, but so what? What should Apple have said instead? "Listen guys, you're getting pretty excited for our exciting new product. Tone it down, will ya? This thing is only going to be okay, so don't freak out over it."
It didn't change our lives - neither did the segway (as she points out). Neither did the PS3. Neither did vista (or windows 7). Neither did the Prius. Neither did Gmail. Neither did netbooks. Neither did the i7 processor. Neither did ....
i carry an iphone and a blackberry
the BB gets better reception in the middle of a 16 story building i work in twice a week. and it's faster to check email on it and the battery lasts longer on it if you only do email.
otherwise iphone beats all the other phones on features and vesatility
the BB gets better reception in the middle of a 16 story building i work in twice a week. and it's faster to check email on it and the battery lasts longer on it if you only do email.
otherwise iphone beats all the other phones on features and vesatility
I'm not wrong. You have a different opinion. That doesn't make me wrong. And given that I'm a professional journalist. I think I'm qualified to determine (at least for myself) what is and what is not a good article/blog entry.
I'm well aware of the style it was written in. I don't care for her writing or how she conveyed her ideas - which were a muddled mess.
I don't see the article that way at all.
I see it as an exploration of our culture's belief that an single item can fix our lives. That the iPhone was the greatest invention that would solve all our problems. And like every other "this will change your life" device before it, this was of course not really true.
Rather than simply explaining that in the rather boring way that I just did, she explored it from the first-person perspective.
I agree with it. There's not a "perfect cure" or "get rich quick scheme" out there, but every year we all flock to something else, hoping it will fix our lives. Eventually we figure out how stupid we were being. This was the story of that experience for the iPhone. This didn't happen to those of us who didn't think it was the Jesus-phone, but many folks did think that. I find their story very interesting.
I'm sorry so many here think of them as fools to the point where you don't even want to know they exist, but I find this kind of thing very interesting.
You said it had little direction. I thought it was quite clear, as I've just explained above.
If you say something isn't clear, and I say I understood it perfecly then that doesn't seem like an opinion to me. It's just an opinion that I understood it? That seems more like a fact.
But ... how is any of that Apple's fault?
Or, do you believe, the author is just using the iPhone as a "MacGuffin" in this article? And she could have as easily used some other over hyped piece of modern society?