Anyone iPhone yesterday ?

faceking

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There are a lot of shortcomings, both real and perceived, to the features of this phone for sure. I wound up grabbing a Razr last month, just before Razr2 will be introduced. Perhaps I could've waited, but I found an ebay auction @ around $ 100 delivered and no new contract. It's a decent phone, I tend to take good care of them, so they last me for as long as I want the one I have. Funny, the plan I have is archaeic in terms of features and total minutes, but it's all I need, and I'd be paying at least $ 10 more a month for another 2 years, so buying a new phone was the most economical of solutions.

If you need a bluetooth headset, ebay is the way to go there as well. Mine was under $ 15 delivered, that same item retail would've been over $ 80.

As a RAZR owner... the iPhone and RAZR couldn't be more different. Comments about it being an expensive phone, et al.... then you have zero business even considering this computer/phone/media player. I'm a PC purist, but Apple quality is excellent, and their near-no-questions asked customer service policy helps justify the price of much of their hardware. Ask the GAZILLLLLLLLLION iPod owners.

I don't own an iPhone, but going to call out the myriad of ppl speaking negative about it. It's like class-envy... similar to what I see on blathering about SUVs/Escalades/Rovers...
 

faceking

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Okay, since I laid out my opinion.. lol...

Slow data over EDGE: Yeah, I know. That'll be upgraded eventually. Apple's with AT&T now because 1) they needed a worldband phone, and neither Sprint nor Verizon have capable networks; 2) German-owned T-Mobile didn't want to sign on because they still want whatever revenue they can get by selling their own content; 3) AT&T was willing to make the compromises that Apple demanded, including hurrying up on network upgrades, allowing visual voicemail, and keeping their grubby paws out of the iPhone's operating system & application list (there's not a single AT&T logo to be found anywhere).

A 3G version is on its way -- that's a given. In the meantime, I'll still be able to use it when going overseas, and there's no way I could do that if I were still with Sprint or Verizon.

Other headphone jacks might not fit: Sure. I get along fine with Apple's earbuds, though. If I want to use something else, I could either shave down the excess rubber or get one of the adapters that's already available. It's not a problem like some people are saying.

AT&T's data plans have sucked before: Yes, but these new plans make a lot of sense. I'd even save money compared to what I have now with T-Mobile. In fact, if I have enough time left on my T-Mobile contract, I could take the $200 penalty hit for early cancellation, get on the cheaper AT&T iPhone plan, and still save money in the long term. I could even sell the Pearl and further defray a bit of the iPhone's hardware cost.

Its capacity is a "mere" 8 gigs: So what? Adding more flash memory will just make it even more expensive, and hard drives are not nearly as durable. The iPhone is about as skinny as it's going to get, too, and a hard drive will add just enough bulk to give potential buyers second thoughts.

The virtual keyboard sucks: No, it doesn't. My first experience wasn't perfect, but then again, its predictive text is a lot closer than what my Pearl tries to do. The Pearl somehow tries to make guesses based on typical spelling & speech conventions, but the iPhone picks from the dictionary (something built into OS X, ya know). Whereas my Pearl can come up with some unintelligible "words", the iPhone's a lot better.

Can't add third-party apps: What would I want to add? I haven't added much of anything to my Pearl in the ten months I've had it, and the only useful thing is a software reset -- which the iPhone has anyway. There are web-based chat programs out there, and within three days of the WWDC keynote, somebody scripted up a little browser-based grocery shopping list creator. I can see the point of keeping apps off the iPhone itself -- the OS is kept bolted down, and by using Safari bookmarks, you could potentially have a few dozen "applications" available without having to waste space on the phone.

What I want to be added: Voice dialing, primarily, and if it's beneficial, the ability to swap in a prepaid SIM card.

Voice dialing isn't far off. The Mac OS has had built-in voice recognition for a while already, and it'll probably take a simple software update (which, in typical Apple fashion, would be much less of a pain in the ass than it's been for my Pearl) to enable it in the iPhone's version of OS X.

A prepaid SIM card would be my way of getting cheaper calls when going to Europe. The iPhone won't work at all with a non-AT&T card, though. But, since I don't go over there much anyway, it doesn't hurt me at all to pay for five or six minutes of international roaming calls (which is all I've used in a combined four weeks in France and Germany).

So, anyway...

The iPhone does everything that I use my Pearl for, but it doesn't piss me off in the process. Of course I want one.

I've yet to get voice dailing to work correctly on my RAZR... so I just don't bother. Agree on memory... my Mp3 player has 4GBs and I'm always swapping albums, I'm rarely past 2GBs.
 

faceking

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Just noticed they are going for about $650 on eBay. Good to see some jamokes with minimum levels set not hitting.... they should take what they can get. 10 million units does not equal scarcity IMHO.

10,000,000 x $600 + service kickbacks + accessories = AAPL stock (whoooohoooo)

I'm going to get one, that's for sure. It makes my Blackberry Pearl seem like a decade-old pile of shit.

I can't believe people are trying to sell them on eBay, either. It's not like there's a shortage.
 

vince

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I'll wait until the iphone is under 8mm thick and sorted out. Last January I bought a Samsung D830 all black flip phone. I love the screen and the feel of the thing. It's like a solid block of alloy, if you wing it at somebody, it'll hurt. Since it's unlocked and uses a SIM card, I can buy a plan for it from any of 4 or 5 carriers where I live. Then I can roam anywhere, or buy a card locally if I am staying someplace for a little while. The last phone (samsung) was stolen. So what I like about this one is, is that if a thief puts a another sim card in it, the phone sends a private SMS message to two other phones I nominate. From the number of the new SIM card we can trace it to a billing address. I don't know if other phones have this feature, but they should.
 

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ridiculous pricing....too much to pay for a T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E

Of course it's too much to pay for just a telephone. But...

Smartphone = $200, give or take (usually more, especially for brand-new stuff)

4 GB iPod nano = $200; 8 GB iPod nano = $250

PDA = $99 to $400 (although, really, smartphones are filling the role of the PDA anyway, so this additional cost doesn't count, IMO)

Touchscreen web browser device = not much of an equivalent; maybe a mini tablet PC or a Palm? Name a price, then.

Touchscreen "6th generation" iPod video = not out yet, even though the iPhone has reduced capacity; the current video iPods are between $250 and $350 anyway. Subtract the iPod nano cost if you choose this instead.

Added together, the iPhone is priced pretty well, and right about where it should be.
 

LeeEJ

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Right--Apple can charge obnoxious amounts of money because they supposedly have good customer service?

Riiiiight.

My experiences:

My first iPod's Hold switch quit working. Took it to a store, and they literally handed me a new one. I still have it.

My first-gen iPod Shuffle quit, well, shuffling. No idea why; restoring its software didn't help. Took it to a store and they gave me a new one.

My 800 MHz G3 "ice"Book had the same video issues that plagued that model. They fixed it twice under warranty, and it was never out of my possession for more than three days each time. After the third time, they replaced it with a brand-new G4 iBook. That was while I was on tour, far from home, which meant that they emailed me a shipping label and sent out the new one as soon as FedEx picked up my broken one (they didn't even wait for it to arrive in Cupertino). The remainder of my AppleCare extended warranty was then applied to the new G4 iBook.

So far, my experiences with Apple's customer service have been fantastic.
 

LeeEJ

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I've yet to get voice dailing to work correctly on my RAZR... so I just don't bother. Agree on memory... my Mp3 player has 4GBs and I'm always swapping albums, I'm rarely past 2GBs.

I know what you mean about voice dialing. When it works on my Pearl, it's pretty cool, considering that I didn't have to teach it anything. When it doesn't work, it's just moronic. "John Smith" is not supposed to be confused with "Pizza Hut". :wink:

My 4-gig iPod nano gets used for the few podcasts that I listen to, some jogging tracks, and a few favorite artists. The 60 GB iPod stores my complete archive. An iPhone has plenty of space for how I'd use it.
 

Lex

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Of course it's too much to pay for just a telephone. But...

Smartphone = $200, give or take (usually more, especially for brand-new stuff)

4 GB iPod nano = $200; 8 GB iPod nano = $250

PDA = $99 to $400 (although, really, smartphones are filling the role of the PDA anyway, so this additional cost doesn't count, IMO)

Touchscreen web browser device = not much of an equivalent; maybe a mini tablet PC or a Palm? Name a price, then.

Touchscreen "6th generation" iPod video = not out yet, even though the iPhone has reduced capacity; the current video iPods are between $250 and $350 anyway. Subtract the iPod nano cost if you choose this instead.

Added together, the iPhone is priced pretty well, and right about where it should be.

My thinking begins with the fact that I think the iPod is overpriced.

I've yet to get voice dailing to work correctly on my RAZR... so I just don't bother. Agree on memory... my Mp3 player has 4GBs and I'm always swapping albums, I'm rarely past 2GBs.

My voicedailing on my RAZR works well. I even use it with my bluetooth in the car at times.

Voice recognition software still has a long ways to go and is not the fault of any phone company, I would add.
 

chico8

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The rollout was pretty smooth and Apple's definitely got a winner.

All the real reviews have been positive and the $50 million that AT&T pumped into upgrading the EDGE network seems to give satisfactory speed.

I'm waiting until October to get mine. Financial reasons more than anything else.

My iPod's 3 years old now and despite lots of drops, scratches, etc, it's the best investment I've ever made when it comes to music.
 

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As a RAZR owner... the iPhone and RAZR couldn't be more different. Comments about it being an expensive phone, et al.... then you have zero business even considering this computer/phone/media player. I'm a PC purist, but Apple quality is excellent, and their near-no-questions asked customer service policy helps justify the price of much of their hardware. Ask the GAZILLLLLLLLLION iPod owners.

I don't own an iPhone, but going to call out the myriad of ppl speaking negative about it. It's like class-envy... similar to what I see on blathering about SUVs/Escalades/Rovers...

OK, so since you've decided that I'm against iPhone, I'll play the role. In the end, and from what I've always measured computer, phone and media player, the iPhone will not measure up.

Let's start with computer, the iphone will never be a notebook. Screen is too small and I don't care about touchscreen/pad, you need a keyboard or a mouse. PDA's and blackberry's suffer this same shortcoming, so it's hardly Apple bashing. I know there's the on-screen keyboard, but put that on the display and you have even less display to work with.

Take a media player, well, mp3's the iPod, even iPhone lives up to that. Again, we're back to broadcasting video though and again, iPod or iPhone comes up short on that. Diagonally it's 3.5 inches. How can I say this again and be perfectly clear, "THE SCREEN IS TOO SMALL !", no matter how clear, to be generous, it's not even a credit card sized display as a widescreen. Better than prior generations of iPods, still inadequate for what I'd like to use. At best, it's a previewer for anything.

So that leaves the iPhone as a phone, which is more in line of what something this small is supposed to be. Where does it fall short here ? In an acronym, AT&T. Not everyone wants to be pigeon-holed into AT&T service. It's very doubtful every other carrier drops off planet Earth and everyone switches over to AT&T and an iPhone, because iPhone is introduced.

At any rate, I use the best tool for the need, a notebook for computing and media playback. A cell phone for mobile calling. And that's when I don't have the luxury of a real media system/television, desktop computer or fixed phone line.
 

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My voicedailing on my RAZR works well. I even use it with my bluetooth in the car at times.


I have a Motorola Ming (A1200 purchased grey market, as it's usually not available in the US).

The voice recognition on this thing is fantastic. Unlike some older voice systems, you don't have to record a tag for each number, it will recognize automatically, and will also use voice dialing for particular numbers. It has numerous other voice activated features as well, such as reports on battery status, roaming status, etc. All very handy when you're in a busy place and using a bluetooth headset, I can do almost every function of the phone without pulling it out of my pocket :).

It will also play MP3 (using Real Player no less), runs on a Linux based OS, is touch screen only, etc. It will do damn near everything the iPhone will, just not as fancy and not as much storage (uses MicroSD card, so 2GB max as far as I know).

It's also available unlocked, so can be used with any GSM provider, quad band, so can be used worldwide, and is under $300 most places.

So, I get good VR, good MP3 player (with stereo bluetooth which the iPhone lacks), PDA functionality, the ability to add new software, the ability to access my POP3 e-mail accounts, instant messaging, and numerous other software abilities.

I think the only thing I'd gain by getting an iPhone is more storage and a bit better sound quality for the mp3 player.

I'll stick with my Ming for now.
 

transformer_99

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I have a Motorola Ming (A1200 purchased grey market, as it's usually not available in the US).

The voice recognition on this thing is fantastic. Unlike some older voice systems, you don't have to record a tag for each number, it will recognize automatically, and will also use voice dialing for particular numbers. It has numerous other voice activated features as well, such as reports on battery status, roaming status, etc. All very handy when you're in a busy place and using a bluetooth headset, I can do almost every function of the phone without pulling it out of my pocket :).

It will also play MP3 (using Real Player no less), runs on a Linux based OS, is touch screen only, etc. It will do damn near everything the iPhone will, just not as fancy and not as much storage (uses MicroSD card, so 2GB max as far as I know).

It's also available unlocked, so can be used with any GSM provider, quad band, so can be used worldwide, and is under $300 most places.

So, I get good VR, good MP3 player (with stereo bluetooth which the iPhone lacks), PDA functionality, the ability to add new software, the ability to access my POP3 e-mail accounts, instant messaging, and numerous other software abilities.

I think the only thing I'd gain by getting an iPhone is more storage and a bit better sound quality for the mp3 player.

I'll stick with my Ming for now.

A guy I know has a Pebble and the voice dial works flawlessly bluetooth with his Infiniti G35. Yeah, that mght be because of the Infiniti, but it still has to operate thru the Motorola Pebble phone.