We've been hearing an awful lot about the iPhone haven't we? But what's your take on this holy grail of phones? Ranging from 4GB to 8GB the iPhone has a host of features including widescreen iPod, touch screen display, desktop class email, full QWERTY keyboard and WiFi (for more see their website here) Are you desperate to get your mitts on one or had enough of it already? Yay or Nay and why?
Last week I asked you about Sumvision's Platinum Pro £30 MP4 player. You certainly weren't perturbed by the manufacturer not being a big name like Apple's iPod and were definitely intrigued by the super low price. The only thing that put you off was that there aren't any reviews to be had. Not to worry, because I'm so good to you (and not entirely because I like to while away my hours playing with gadgets) I'm on the case.
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Big nay. But, the drones of society will buy it like hotcakes.
Reasons:
1) It's ugly, and I hate candy bar style phones.
2) Battery life: 5 hours or less, reportedly. Suck. My ipod's battery dying is fine, but, I'd prefer to at least have a working phone when my car's in the ditch.
3) Touch screen. EW. Didn't we learn ANYTHING with the PDA's of 1999? Double ew.
4) Again, ipods have very easily scratched screens.
5) The internet, etc. is likely to be a premium service with Cingular-- similar to the Blackberry internet service, according to other tech sites like Gizmodo.
6) Price. $499 or $599 WITH contract for something that'll be outdated-- and likely broken/sucky battery life/etc.-- within 1-2 years? No thanks.
Next.....
Super Yay. I for one LOVE candybar phones. And have you seen the interface for the images area? Super Sexy!
OH HELL FLIPPIN' YAY!
I never understand why people hate on Apple. I guess people like life to be difficult so they stick with the same hard to use OS and technology for years.
Has anyone seen the capabilities and the innovation the features of the iPhone will offer? ESPECIALLY VISUAL VOICE MAIL AND THE NEW WAY TO TEXT MESSAGE??? That should be enough! I have a SE P910 and its crap. I paid $400 when it first came out. And I get about 5 hours talk time a day and it has nothing like the iPhone has. YAY! YAY! YAY!
PS the Nokia 8801 was super expensive at about $500 when it came out. It came with 2 batteries because you could only get like 3 hours talk time. Why are people hating on the iPhone when it's obvious it's a better than any phone ever made?
Camilla, May be discount Camille as s/he has posted strident anti-Microsoft comments elsewhere on your blog.
I'll be totally honest - I hate Apple with a passion, as their crapness used to cause me hours of extra work at uni when the computers crashed in a whole new way every week, locking and deleting files, just as I was putting the newspaper to sleep.
Saying that, there are some really cool features on the iPhone - the pinching interface, the proximity sensor, and the visual voicemail.
But the iPhone still gets a big NAY from me, as the battery life is beyond poor, the lack of 3G or GPS seems to be a moronic oversight, I don't like the idea of being tied to a single supplier for the rest of my life (in hyperbolic phone terms, natch), and the lag time between announcement and UK availability means that a lot of the cool features will inevitably be picked up by (who I consider to be) more reliable manufacturers.
Apple is uber-trendy, but that doesn't make up for the high purchase prices and proprietary software, IMHO.
I have heard the reasons why people say yes and no to the iPhone. And I never say I would "discount" anyones opinion, i may disagree but I won't "discount" them for what they think. I really and truly think the phone is cool and when it comes out it will be the true test.
This is HARDLY innovation.
Touch-screen.. cough.. PDA. Text voicemail is cool and unique, I admit. But, it's not voicemail translated to text-- it's just a list of your voicemail on the screen that you press the screen to hear each one. There's a service (non-USA) that actually converts your voicemail into a text message and sends it to you so you can read your voicemail. The iPhone cannot do this.
Take a walk in Japan and you'll realize that this isn't particualarly amazing. Or, even a look at some of the USA phones-- you can have a bettery battery life, cheaper price, and still listen to music, text message, etc. Visual voicemail aside, the iPhone hardly does much more than a smart PDA. And the iPhone's goal is to be locked down. Unlike a treo, you can't (without, potentially, hacking) install 3rd party apps so you're stuck with what may or may not end up on the final iPhone when FCC/etc. approved. Sure, the interface is cool, but PDA's have touch screens, have "outlook express" type e-mail, video players, music players, etc. They're just not apple branded, but top in features.
My 4+ year old PDA can play videos, music, on-screen/touch-screen navigation, etc. Add a data card and it can dial.
Use third-party free service and I can see all of my voicemail in my e-mail-- and click each one to play it.
That's not to say that the iPhone has NOTHING.. but it's just not as impressive a feat as many believe. It's like Windows Mobile-- except Apple. Whoopee.
- No replaceable battery and a measely 5 hours battery life, reported by cingular.
- Could have the same errors and hardware failures are iphones.
- Smudges and scratches. Take a look at Steve Jobs simply touching the phone and you'll see huge smears.
- Pricey. $499 or $599 for a phone is overkill. You could get a blackberry and an ipod and still have money left over. Sure, some phones may be more, but I would not pay $500-600 (minus a buck) for a phone. No way, jose. The drones of the public will, in mass, I'm sure. May as well take a lighter and burn your money. I still can't believe I paid $300 or $500 or however much it was for a PDA. F*in idiot for doing that.
Andrew - Please keep your comments on topic.
"Why are people hating on the iPhone when it's obvious it's a better than any phone ever made?"
Sorry, but it's not better than ANY phone ever made. NO PHONE is the best ever made.
There's not ONE phone-- iPhone or anything else for that matter-- that is "obviously" the world's best phone. Different people have different phone needs. The iPhone might cut it for you. But, it won't cut it for me and some other folks. We all have our own needed features. If this particular item meets your indvidual needs, great. It doesn't meet my standards, such as battery life, proven history or few errors and longevity, lower price point with contract, etc.
It's not "obvious" because it's not factually proven, and there are phones with comparable features and product markets. There's simply not a single "best" phone out there. It's a step in the right direction. But, other phones have similar-- if not more-- features and third-party apps and plug-ins that can make them do more things such as GPS, remote desktop to corporate PC, etc.
Still will be a huge seller, clearly.
OK Claire, you've made great points. And I respect that. And you are right when you say:
"It's not "obvious" because it's not factually proven, and there are phones with comparable features and product markets. There's simply not a single "best" phone out there."
You got me there. But like I said I am very excited about this phone. And I'm anxious to see if it is going to be everything I hope it will be. I thought my P910 was going to be all I ever needed, but it hasn't. Out of fear of wasting money again, I'd put off buying another smart phone until something better came along. And for me.. the iPhone looks promising.
Personally, I say NAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.
My (Microsoft) phone has more features and then some.
Visual voice mail?? I get my voice mail (for personal and work) emailed in a nice and tidy wav format that also states the number that called and the date/time stamp. Nothing new.
Replaceable battery, non proprietary software, 3g, gps, lower price, (my phone DOES NOT need to be an MP3 player, I have an MP3 player for that reason... I can go on and on and on... my post for a nay can be read in the shiny forums.
As a side note, this IPhone isn't any thing new or revolutionary. The technology this phone utilizes have been around for years... the only difference is that apple managed to put a pretty new face on it, with half as less features, and an expensive price tag.
Nay.
Waste of Money.
I can't make it a day through classes at the uni with this phone's horrible battery life.
But as everyone else has stated, people will buy it. Simply because its Apple.
Nay for me for the reasons mentioned above
however, again, people will buy it because Jobs is extremely charismatic....
If i were to finance a war, i'd ask Apple to advertise for me