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  • #16
    Re: Who bought an iPhone?

    Caught on tape!

    Hey, if you don't want an iPhone, you don't want an iPhone.

    Yes, the "Rev 1" of any new device, particularly a company's first foray into any new market, is guaranteed to have issues. There's nothing wrong with not being an early adopter. You have fewer headaches that way. But, if you have that gene, well... you also know what you're getting into. It comes with the territory.

    No doubt there'll be a new iPhone with 3G and all the bugs worked out. Oh well, them's the breaks. In technology, you're obsolete before you pull out your wallet. The way my wife looks at it is, it just means she'll be getting an iPhone soon (when I move on to the next one).

    Yes, AT&T is such an evil company, Satan is a major stakeholder. Hey, if I could choose who Apple's partner was in this, it wouldn't be the Death Star. But, well, I'm hoping my admiration for Apple and satisfaction with its product line will outweight the AT&T issues.

    The EDGE connection isn't fast. But I was used to browsing the web on my Treo 700p, and that was no Ferrari. And it had to "connect" every time, like dial-up. And I had to stick to "mobile" versions of websites to get around. The iPhone feels just as fast, with no "connect" process, and when a page loads, it's the real web page. Portrait or landscape, zoom and scroll, it's just like the commercials. It's fantastic.

    Yes, most people don't need an iPhone. If you're happy with the phone that your provider gave you for free for a one-year contract, keep it! If you just make calls and send an SMS or so a week, hell, the iPhone would be a waste. But if you make heavy use of a smartphone, if you actually use all those features... the iPhone integrates them beautifully.

    For me it comes down to my belt. For a long time, I had a basic cell phone, a PDA (a Palm Pilot, Palm III, Visor Prism, Sony Clie), and an iPod on my person. When the Treo came around, I finally got to combine my phone and PDA. And frankly, the Treo 700p remains easily one of my favorite pieces of technology ever. For the last few years, it ran my life. But, it still had to share my belt, my desk, my power strip with an iPod. Finally, the iPhone comes, and shrinks down three devices to one. And, most importantly, each of its elements -- the phone, the PDA, and the iPod -- are all individually improvements over the individual devices I used to have. The fact that I'm a Mac user is a big part of that, but... contacts, bookmarks, calendar, music, podcasts, whatever, everything works seamlessly.

    And no, I didn't need to stand in line. Hey, I don't need to stand in line for an Apple Store grand opening, either. Is a T-shirt worth six hours being silently judged by passers by? Would I lose the ability to enter an Apple Store if I wasn't among the first few hundred to cross the threshold? No. What can I say, it's a social occasion, a special event. You know the people around you share at least one ridiculous bond, and I've yet to come away from one of these things without a new friend.

    Yesterday? I got to know a Gundam-loving, Starbucks-working kid named Michael with whom we took turns watching stuff so the other could get food or take a bathroom break. I took his photo in line and with his iPhone so he could send it to his Mainland friends. There was the guy from a cement company on Sand Island who paid his secretary to hold a spot, and he talked for hours about skiing with another guy, who in turn asked me all about Macs and talked himself into making the switch (and took my card for some consulting). And a nice old lady who was in line to get two iPhones for her kids, except one of them called her from Seattle with his new iPhone, but she didn't care because by the time her husband arrived they both wanted one for themselves.

    Anyway.

    Trust me. Apple lines are different from, say, those lines for the Nintendo Wii. I mean, in most cases there's a serious scarcity issue, so people sleep outside WalMarts out of desperation. People got beat up over Wiis! (I almost understand, though. I love the Wii!) The iPhone? Apple's got as many as three million units in the pipeline. You could walk into the Apple Store today, no lines or crowds, and buy an iPhone off the shelf. I expected that. But I wanted to be there, for the fun and insanity of it all. I realize how ridiculous it is to be cheered like a rockstar for walking out of a store with a small black box, but I loved it anyway.

    I've only had the iPhone a day, but so far, even with all the caveats, "yeah buts" and well-worn disclaimers about what it doesn't do? It greatly surpasses my expectations. It's elegantly designed, it's sturdier than I thought (yes, I've already dropped it -- one reason I'm glad it's an 8GB flash device and not a 30GB hard drive), dead simple to use (I never opened the manual)... I'm not just satisfied. I'm downright elated.

    You might not want an iPhone, and you probably don't need an iPhone. But I'm absolutely convinced that this thing changes almost everything about mobile phones and devices in general. Whatever your preferred carrier, brand, design... finally companies will begin to invest and innovate seriously in this space. So things will get better for everyone, even if you're not an Apple fanatic like me!

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    • #17
      Re: Who bought an iPhone?

      Originally posted by tikiyaki View Post
      [...]2 rules I live by with Apple
      1. NO version 1 products brand new on the market
      2. ALWAYS buy apple care

      I say wait at least 6 months before looking into an iPhone.

      But, that's just ME.
      Me, too! But I carry it a little further! My first iPod was a 3G. My first iBook was purchased in 2003! Once the MacBooks came out I bought a Powerbook! My contract with Cingular/AT&T was up earlier this year and I intentionally moved over to Hawaiian Telcom so I wouldn't be tempted by the iPhone for 2 years!!! I don't handle glitches and bugs very well, being the untechie tutu that I am!

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      • #18
        Re: Who bought an iPhone?

        talk to me about the lack of thumboard, please. That feature is way more important to me than cruising the net or touching my music (I loved how SJ said that at the Expo). I can take my treo and thumb blindly under a desk in a mtg and I daresay that email, sms, docs2go, entourage-syncing calendar are the most critical elements of my phone use, outside of the actual phone feature.

        How does it communicate? Is it odder or easier than you anticipated?

        pax

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        • #19
          Re: Who bought an iPhone?

          Originally posted by Pua'i Mana'o View Post
          talk to me about the lack of thumboard, please. That feature is way more important to me than cruising the net or touching my music (I loved how SJ said that at the Expo). I can take my treo and thumb blindly under a desk in a mtg and I daresay that email, sms, docs2go, entourage-syncing calendar are the most critical elements of my phone use, outside of the actual phone feature.

          How does it communicate? Is it odder or easier than you anticipated?
          I was wondering the same thing. I love my Ipaq for the ability to type.

          Does the iPhone have a stylus and pop up key board? What is the input method on it?
          flickr

          An email from God:
          To: People of Earth
          From: God
          Date: 9/04/2007
          Subject: stop

          knock it off, all of you

          seriously, what the hell


          --
          God

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          • #20
            Re: Who bought an iPhone?

            It's easier than expected, but you won't type blind on this thing. It's a beautiful glass surface... but forget any tactile feedback (beyond a subtle clicking and the occasional quick vibration). Even the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg said in his review that the keyboard made him want to throw the iPhone out the window three days in. By a week in, though, it was no problem at all.

            It's partially 'predictive text,' which I generally dislike, but it's smarter than anything else I've used. Easily 90 percent of the time, I can just type away, and when I type 'yekepginr' it becomes 'telephone' and I didn't even notice. But you need more deliberate entry for proper names, and it autocapitalizes (which my Treo also did), which has always been a UI pet peeve. People need to learn to capitalize correctly on their own, for crying out loud!

            I'm already typing faster than I thought I'd be on day one, but I know I'll never get up to Treo speeds. Do I prefer a physical keyboard? Yes. So I don't see the Treo becoming a suit-and-tie business device (though the PDF and Office document reader is a nice touch). But so far, it's a fair trade for the full-surface screen, for the other things I do.

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            • #21
              Re: Who bought an iPhone?

              per Ryan:
              Yes, AT&T is such an evil company, Satan is a major stakeholder. Hey, if I could choose who Apple's partner was in this, it wouldn't be the Death Star. But, well, I'm hoping my admiration for Apple and satisfaction with its product line will outweight the AT&T issues.

              What is the big problem with AT&T? is it service, coverage, cost? or is it the corporate mentality? somebody please, explain to this very slow & apparently dumb person why everyone on here hates AT&T except me?



              (and yes, I really, really REALLY want an IPhone!)
              "Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be."
              – Sydney J. Harris

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              • #22
                Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                Hoping not to turn this into an AT&T thread, speaking for myself I'll say that the service level is fine (most of my AT&T/Cingular friends are satisfied), and the cost is actually cheaper than what I paid for my Treo. So my objections, at least, are more ideological. Google "AT&T" and "evil" and you'll find a lot of material. Then again, you could probably type any company name and get a mountain of "they suck" rants.

                Practically speaking? I'd say the iPhone is 80 percent Apple, 20 percent AT&T. I'll give Apple's contribution an A+, and AT&T's a B-. On balance, a winner.

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                • #23
                  Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                  What I'd like to see is a cell phone that when in the car becomes the stereo's faceplate allowing in-car hands free calls. When you get to you destination you take the faceplate off and it becomes your MP3 capable cellphone.

                  You take it home and slip it in a docking cradle connected to your Media Center PC and it becomes part of your home entertainment center and integrates to your home's Skype telephone system. It could also TiVo programs to be viewed later on with the detached faceplate much like a video iPod.

                  While it's docked it syncs your calender and phone functions downloading all of the missed phone calls while you were out so you can retrieve them while on the go. While docked it also can download more music or even podcasts to be played in your car stereo when attached or unattached when in the office or out of the car.
                  Last edited by craigwatanabe; June 30, 2007, 08:01 PM.
                  Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                  • #24
                    Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                    Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                    What I'd like to see is a cell phone that when in the car becomes the stereo's faceplate allowing in-car hands free calls. When you get to you destination you take the faceplate off and it becomes your MP3 capable cellphone.

                    You take it home and slip it in a docking cradle connected to your Media Center PC and it becomes part of your home entertainment center and integrates to your home's Skype telephone system. It could also TiVo programs to be viewed later on with the detached faceplate much like a video iPod.

                    While it's docked it syncs your calender and phone functions downloading all of the missed phone calls while you were out so you can retrieve them while on the go. While docked it also can download more music or even podcasts to be played in your car stereo when attached or unattached when in the office or out of the car.
                    Wow Craig, sign me up....will it open my garage door and do a load of,laundry too ?

                    Ryan...You go with your bad techie self....SOMEONE has to procreate the iPhone hysteria, it might as well be you

                    I'm sure we'll ALL have iPhones in a few years, and will be asking you how to use it.
                    http://tikiyakiorchestra.com
                    Need a place to stay in Hilo ?
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                    • #25
                      Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                      well i got one! i'm a early adopter as well. my first impression is that all the pictures, videos, and commercials do not do it justice. when you actually start using it, you see how awesome it really is... the multi-touch interface (which is highly patented) is amazing. i'm sure this phone is not for everyone, no product is, but it is a breakthrough product.

                      >id predict that the price on it will drop, especially in conjunction with a 2 year service plan

                      it's a apple product just like an ipod, the price will drop when the new version comes out at the same price point... they will also start making different versions, just like there are different versions of ipods.

                      >I heard that the iPod has more capacity in donwloading music than the iPhone itself.

                      The iPhone comes in 4gb and 8gb versions. so minus the operating system y our looking at approx 800 (4gb) and 1800 (8gb) song capacities



                      As for price the 4gb is $500 so if you look at it at $199 for a 4gb iPod Nano, then the phone is $300 with full widescreen multitouch, wifi, etc... and $600 for 8gb, so minus $250 for 8gb iPod Nano you got $350 for the phone. RAZR's were selling for that much when they came out...

                      I've never had any problems wtih AT&T/Cingular so i can't complain there.

                      >I'm reading of a number of short-comings to the phone. Part of me has to wonder if this 1g iPhone won't go the way of the Newton. Revolutionary, yet in the end it's impact was more on what features it introduced and forced the competitors to do then what itself did.

                      I guarantee this will NOT be a newton, first off they've already sold over 300,000 of these for the first weekend and they are also ipods.. people i think forget that. as for shortcomings.. do you have examples? they are minor and remember this is OSX OS that will be updated often to add features, etc.. (there's already works to add MS Exchange use for corporate email) any application that can be created as a web2.0 based can be added to iPhone, so the sky's the limit for these type of apps. also remember that the Newton was not Steve Jobs baby, he killed it off once he took over Apple again in the late 90's


                      If you really sit down and use it you'll see why it's so great.... on the other hand if you are just fine with a basic $50 phone to make calls then this phone is definitely overkill. I need a great PDA/Smartphone for email, web, calendars, etc and so far it fits my needs perfectly.


                      Maybe i'll try to do a updated review after a month of use.
                      website - http://www.brianhancock.com
                      blog - http://blog.brianhancock.com

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                      • #26
                        Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                        So funny hearing the justifications behind buying it.

                        "Tell that to my wife"
                        sigpic The Tasty Island

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                        • #27
                          Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                          Originally posted by Pomai View Post
                          So funny hearing the justifications behind buying it.

                          "Tell that to my wife"
                          like what? any luxury purchase you make you have to justify.
                          website - http://www.brianhancock.com
                          blog - http://blog.brianhancock.com

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                          • #28
                            Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                            Typical. Frankly, I'm hearing more about the iPhone from people who probably won't ever get one from those who are genuinely interested. A couple of weeks ago, a former coworker of mine crossed the street downtown to talk to me about it... but all he really wanted to say was he thought it was stupid. Heh.

                            MonkeyMan asked for impressions and reviews. He got 20 posts of people explaining why they're uninterested or why the iPhone is too flawed to consider. Two of us who did get one actually had some experiences to share, however. But we're just amusingly "justifying" ourselves.

                            LocalMotion and I have both explicitly acknowledged the ways in which the iPhone won't work for many people. There are lots of phones that do a lot more than the iPhone, just like there are lots of digital audio players that do more than the iPod. But what Apple does, it does well -- it does what it needs to do, but keeps it simple and sexy. I just thought I'd answer MonkeyMan's original question, since I actually had some thoughts to share.

                            I knew I should've saved my energy for my blog. Real geeks read that!

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                            • #29
                              Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                              I can't see myself (or other phone geeks) getting the iPhone - primarily we know that there's a few phones that are better than the iPhone.

                              Hopefully I can bring myself to an ATT and/or Apple store w/out arguing with another salesperson about phones long enough to see the iPhone.
                              How'd I get so white and nerdy?

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                              • #30
                                Re: Who bought an iPhone?

                                Originally posted by LocalMotion View Post
                                like what? any luxury purchase you make you have to justify.
                                Whoah brah, no get mad! Nah, I jus' jealous you get one and I no moah one. Gunfunnit.

                                I love that iTunes album cover thumb-through/song selection thingee feaure (forget Apple's technical name for it). Way cool.

                                Knowing Ryan, he already mastered the device, having every family and friend's photo assigned to the address book, and Hawaii Threads admin tools ready at an iPhone's wireless moments notice in case any of us HT clowns (like me) get out of hand here.
                                sigpic The Tasty Island

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