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What the iPhone REALLY is

JNB

JNB

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 7, 2004
6,872
9
In a Hell predominately of my own making
It's not a business unit - by design (not a Crackberry)
It's not a laptop replacement (WinCE? Win Mobile? Palm? Puhleeze!)
It's not just an iPod (More than tunes)
It's not just a phone (Beyond voice)
It's not a tablet (Too small, and too useful)

It's an EXTENSION of my Mac. (i- or -Book).

It's what I can actually USE, dare I say, really need?

It allows me the full functionality of the phone I have (whose "features" I gave up on months ago) and more.

It allows me to grab my mail, change my flight, hotel, or rental car effortlessly - at least compared to firing up the Dell in the airport, or punishing myself with the Sprint network on the 650.

It allows me to ditch my 4GB Nano and Treo, and consolidate my gadget bag.

It lets me carry ALL my tunes, photos, contacts, calendar, mail, a few shows to catch up on, maybe an audiobook or two. In one device. That will FINALLY FREAKING COMPLETELY AND SEAMLESSLY SYNC WITH SOMETHING!

I spend over 150 days a year on the road, >500 hours a year in a plane, countless hours in between flights cooling my heels, tens of thousands of miles in rental cars.

If it saves me just 10 minutes a day in frustration, and gives me a piddling extra 10 minutes in convenience and enjoyment, that's 20 minutes a day to my benefit, that's 3000 minutes a year, just on my travel days. 50 hours a year - minimum. At my current salary, that's at a value proposition of at least $1500.

Is it perfect? Not even close. It's just so much better (if only in concept, granted) than anything else out there I have tried and suffered with. I'll spot $600 for a couple year's trial, easy. I've had $650 phones that totally sucked, so how bad off can I be?
 
psychofreak said:
Small music library? Low quality video? Magical powers over NAND flash memory?
Click to expand...

Valid points for those that have more than a few thousand songs or depend on a handheld device for their video collection. Other than the complete Weird Al collection, I have a more eclectic (read: scattershot) and "sampler" collection ranging from 1926 to 2006. I just don't have that big of a library, nor do I have the time anymore to devote to it.

The video aspect is one that is more of a "during-the-flight-catching-up-on South-Park" preference. Movies I can keep on DVD and toss in my bag for watching in the hotel room on the MacBook.

By no means am I attempting to state that it's the be-all, end-all device, and certainly worthy of no more than a "1.0" designation. I just reviewed my particular needs, and had a minor "apostrophe".

After putting my hands on one after release, I may actually decide it's just not ready even for a fanboy like me. Wait, I'm over 50, I can't be a fanboy. Fanoldfart?

Oh, screw it. I admit to being sucked in to the RDF - again. It's just too damn cool, and I know I'm going to upgrade it (like everything else) in a couple of years. I'll probably be dead in a few years anyway, and I plan on doing so completely broke.

My Name Is John, and I'm an Appleholic.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
Valid points for those that have more than a few thousand songs or depend on a handheld device for their video collection. Other than the complete Weird Al collection, I have a more eclectic (read: scattershot) and "sampler" collection ranging from 1926 to 2006. I just don't have that big of a library, nor do I have the time anymore to devote to it.

The video aspect is one that is more of a "during-the-flight-catching-up-on South-Park" preference. Movies I can keep on DVD and toss in my bag for watching in the hotel room on the MacBook.

By no means am I attempting to state that it's the be-all, end-all device, and certainly worthy of no more than a "1.0" designation. I just reviewed my particular needs, and had a minor "apostrophe".

After putting my hands on one after release, I may actually decide it's just not ready even for a fanboy like me. Wait, I'm over 50, I can't be a fanboy. Fanoldfart?

Oh, screw it. I admit to being sucked in to the RDF - again. It's just too damn cool, and I know I'm going to upgrade it (like everything else) in a couple of years. I'll probably be dead in a few years anyway, and I plan on doing so completely broke.

My Name Is John, and I'm an Appleholic.
Click to expand...

That was an entertaining read and quite true. Your last comment made me chuckle.
 
fall3n said:
How is 4G of music a small library? Do you really need 40,000 songs on your damn phone?
Click to expand...

Agreed.

It seems to me like people have developed this horrible sense of quantity over quality when it comes to music. If people actually took the time to listen to and understand/appreciate every track in their library, they would not have these gigantic song collections. I have a 4G nano and I don't have enough good music on me to fill it. I'm a musician and I listen slowly. :)
 
Not to mention that you can CHANGE the songs whenever you need to. I also have a 4G iPod and it's still got 500mb free, but my music Library on my iMac well exceeds 20G
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
It's not a business unit - by design (not a Crackberry)
It's not a laptop replacement (WinCE? Win Mobile? Palm? Puhleeze!)
It's not just an iPod (More than tunes)
It's not just a phone (Beyond voice)
It's not a tablet (Too small, and too useful)

It's an EXTENSION of my Mac. (i- or -Book).

It's what I can actually USE, dare I say, really need?

It allows me the full functionality of the phone I have (whose "features" I gave up on months ago) and more.

It allows me to grab my mail, change my flight, hotel, or rental car effortlessly - at least compared to firing up the Dell in the airport, or punishing myself with the Sprint network on the 650.

It allows me to ditch my 4GB Nano and Treo, and consolidate my gadget bag.

It lets me carry ALL my tunes, photos, contacts, calendar, mail, a few shows to catch up on, maybe an audiobook or two. In one device. That will FINALLY FREAKING COMPLETELY AND SEAMLESSLY SYNC WITH SOMETHING!

I spend over 150 days a year on the road, >500 hours a year in a plane, countless hours in between flights cooling my heels, tens of thousands of miles in rental cars.

If it saves me just 10 minutes a day in frustration, and gives me a piddling extra 10 minutes in convenience and enjoyment, that's 20 minutes a day to my benefit, that's 3000 minutes a year, just on my travel days. 50 hours a year - minimum. At my current salary, that's at a value proposition of at least $1500.

Is it perfect? Not even close. It's just so much better (if only in concept, granted) than anything else out there I have tried and suffered with. I'll spot $600 for a couple year's trial, easy. I've had $650 phones that totally sucked, so how bad off can I be?
Click to expand...

may i ask the reason for evaluation of iphone at such a personal level on such a public platform?

other than you-know-what ofcourse ...
 
iShak said:
may i ask the reason for evaluation of iphone at such a personal level on such a public platform?

other than you-know-what of course ...
Click to expand...

Well, seeing that all the evaluations thus far have been personal evaluations (opinions) on the capability, specs, and perceived usefulness, I thought that actually stating a personal opinion from a personal perspective might be somewhat refreshing.

But, in the final analysis, isn't that what the purchase decision of something along these lines is, after all? Completely and unashamedly personal - and not a small bit emotional, as well.

I grant a huge "We're Not Worthy" to Steve and the marketing gang in Cupertino. The business wet dream of creating this level of buzz - a perfectly emotional response - cannot be bought for any kind of money. A lot of it has to do with the fact (if you'll allow me so definitive a word) that Steve is simply a single-minded genius, and the rest of us WISH we could imagine and see to fruition a fraction of his product vision.

Do I rationalize? Of course! But, I do try to temper my "wanna wanna wanna!" inner child with at least a semblance of sense and decorum, and a reasonable value judgment.

Bottom line, it looks like it'll work for me. Maybe not, but I believe so. I hoped that sharing my thoughts (and maybe an itsy-bitsy insight), others might be able to fill out their own personal balance sheet if they were undecided.

If perchance I have made myself a fool in this public forum, at least I won't stand out as much anymore! ;)
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
My Name Is John, and I'm an Appleholic.
Click to expand...

all: "Hi, John."

I agree - you can't take it with you, so get it now!

I liked your examples of your travel incidents. When we were going through the metal detectors/inspection/etc. in Houston while returning from Cancun, we only had about 25 minutes until our flight departed for Birmingham AL. It was quite a long line. I told my wife she should pull out the Blackberry and call her travel agent to check our departing flight, and to let them know we were tied up. She thought I was being silly. I was thinking if I had an iPhone, I would have known that the flight was delayed an hour and we wouldn't have run through the concourse and could have started our leisurely lunch 15 minutes earlier. She can also sign up for email alerts from her flight plans.

Anyway, I don't have a real need for an iPhone. But it sure will be convenient when I get one! ;) :)
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
It's not a business unit - by design (not a Crackberry)
It's not a laptop replacement (WinCE? Win Mobile? Palm? Puhleeze!)
It's not just an iPod (More than tunes)
It's not just a phone (Beyond voice)
It's not a tablet (Too small, and too useful)

It's an EXTENSION of my Mac. (i- or -Book).

It's what I can actually USE, dare I say, really need?

It allows me the full functionality of the phone I have (whose "features" I gave up on months ago) and more.

It allows me to grab my mail, change my flight, hotel, or rental car effortlessly - at least compared to firing up the Dell in the airport, or punishing myself with the Sprint network on the 650.

It allows me to ditch my 4GB Nano and Treo, and consolidate my gadget bag.

It lets me carry ALL my tunes, photos, contacts, calendar, mail, a few shows to catch up on, maybe an audiobook or two. In one device. That will FINALLY FREAKING COMPLETELY AND SEAMLESSLY SYNC WITH SOMETHING!

I spend over 150 days a year on the road, >500 hours a year in a plane, countless hours in between flights cooling my heels, tens of thousands of miles in rental cars.

If it saves me just 10 minutes a day in frustration, and gives me a piddling extra 10 minutes in convenience and enjoyment, that's 20 minutes a day to my benefit, that's 3000 minutes a year, just on my travel days. 50 hours a year - minimum. At my current salary, that's at a value proposition of at least $1500.

Is it perfect? Not even close. It's just so much better (if only in concept, granted) than anything else out there I have tried and suffered with. I'll spot $600 for a couple year's trial, easy. I've had $650 phones that totally sucked, so how bad off can I be?
Click to expand...

i can somewhat agree with most of your points. at the same time; however, they can also be the iphone's weaknesses.
 
There was a Macworld from sometime back in the 1990s that suggested that the computer of the future would be like this-- you'd have a desktop computer (actually the computer *was* the desktop), and then a small removable pod that acted like an extension of the computer when you were out and about. Fascinating to see that in some ways this is coming to fruition.

Personally I don't think I *need* to have an extension of my computer with me at all times, but it's interesting to see that many people seem to want that.
 
iSaint said:
Anyway, I don't have a real need for an iPhone. But it sure will be convenient when I get one! ;) :)
Click to expand...

Whatever, I need one. I can easily adjust my life so my wants become my needs. Ha! I don't 'need' one either, but... I do! Everyone in my family expects me to get one cause I'm the tech geek... so in a way, I do need an iPhone.

My name is Joel, I too am an Appleholic.
 
It is *expressly* because of posts like this that I check out these forums. Great read and I couldn't have said it better! I'm 47 and if it means standing in line at midnight to get my hands on an iPhone.....so be it.
 
chatster18 said:
Same, except Ill go for v2, since my neighbor is getting one when it comes out ill be able to play with it and see how it works!! :)
Click to expand...

Yah, the adult in me is telling me to wait until the Gen2 or even 3, but dammit, I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna!

Mark my words, a 1st gen iPhone will reside in the Smithsonian some day. What's the phrase? Defining a new paradigm? (What do bankrupt philosophers ask? "Buddy, can you paradigm?").

That's the problem with it. We're buying into the promise more than the reality. We want to be part of a tectonic shift of technology utility and convergence, even if the individual components aren't necessarily that impressive.

It's the whole package, and we enhance our participation and membership (members hip?) in the New Flesh, validate our gearhead creds, by possessing this talisman of the bloody edge of design & technology combined.

Or, it's as simple as, "I've got a cooler gadget than you do, nanner, nanner, nanner!"
 
fall3n said:
How is 4G of music a small library? Do you really need 40,000 songs on your damn phone?
Click to expand...

I hope you are implying that 40,000 is a ridiculous amount, not that 4 GB is 40,000. (My library is 4000 songs, and it's 15 GB. Not counting music videos (another 1 GB,) audiobooks (1.7 GB,) Podcasts, movies or TV shows.

But I do understand. My main use iPod is a 2 GB nano, which is just fine 95% of the time. It's just when I really want to find some esoteric song I haven't heard in a while that I miss the capacity of my full size iPod.
 
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