Apple Iphone

[Chronus]

Yes, I have an iPhone, and I love it very very much, but (and thats a big BUTT!) I paid 300Euros for it and I have my own contract (which is much much cheaper than t-mobile).

I dont like beeing forced into an expensive contract for 2 years. Especially not if I'm paying so much money for the phone!

Can I not have this phone and say that it wont be a success at 400Euros + at least 50Euros/month for the contract? Please keep in mind, 50Euros a month buys you 50 Minutes ONLY in germany. Its expensive and it was not a success. No wonder why.

Who pays 50Euros for 50 Minutes + Internet? I have an HSUPA flatrate (7.2mbit/s 3G) for 39Euros and for 10 Euros I get at least 100 Minutes. So I'm paying 50Euros for 100minutes and unlimited 3G (and not unlimited EDGE - which is like 0,3mbit/s -) AND I can use the data flatrate on my notebook aswell. AND I have unlimited IN-calling.

T-Mobile are a bunch of bloodsuckers (in germany). Period.

PS yes, i'm drunk, so mea culpa for typos etc.

You're right about that, I hear the plans are pretty poor over here too, they charge you more than usual and give you fewer minutes. it's on o2... that's why i cant get rid of my 3000 minute deal on t-mobile... that's been good to me

[Chronus]

Yes, reading it in one sitting does give that impression. Now check the date stamps.

Yeah, but none of those is what the iPhone is about. You're probably better off with something like the N95 with more features, if features are what you're looking for.

I saw the date stamps... someone revived the thread yesterday and it appeared on the newest updated threads and as you know I've had an interest in how this iphone develops to see if it's for me. I think what attracted me most to it was the large screen size for viewing webpages. Music, VOIP, msn/yahoo messenger, skype, GPS, etc I can do on my n82 which is pretty much a repackaged n95 8gb edition in candybar form, but with a xenon flash (something i wanted) and memory card slot. The new n96 looks good too, but i'm not sure about slider phones... knowing me i'd play around with it way too much and end up breaking it.

anyway, after looking at the iphone (and LG Viewty), and hearing what my brother has to say about his blackberry, I'm waiting on the new one. I don't currently use email on the go, i'll check it up on a computer, but like everything, it would be nice. A long time ago, a mobile phone was never a necessity.... I can't imagine many people wanting to be parted from theirs nowadays.

It looks like iphone supply is backed up until August which is great for me, means I don't become and early adopter and the Blackberry should be out by then.

I know it's a bit of a luxury to have 2 phones... n82 will be the main one... if i get the iphone, it will be my internet/mailing phone... but hey, it's free

[Chronus]

I'm still open-minded on the iPhone... so Pug, if you can lend yours to me for 1-2 weeks, I'll loan you either a Sony Ericsson k800i or w800i... you pick

[Shundi]

Sidenote...Jott for the iPhone is pretty cool...so is Cro Mag racing, Bloomberg, and remote. Super Monkey Ball is alright, not worth the money and AIM is buggy as all hell...

[TwoTone]

I know it's a bit of a luxury to have 2 phones... n82 will be the main one... if i get the iphone, it will be my internet/mailing phone... but hey, it's free

Sounds like your status has changed since we last visited Chronus...

Feel free to PM me for the Upgrade link...

Double T

[slay]

Just got a few new numbers.

According to an internal t-mobile report they only sold 70.000 iPhones (the old one) within the first 11weeks in germany. Thats the poorest numbers compared to all nations where the iPhone has been sold (and I think germany was the 2nd largest country where it was sold).

In Austria it was even worse, they only sold 8.000 iPhones in 6 months.

50Euros is 80$ per months. Does ANYONE think they would have sold iPhones at 80$/Month + 650$ for the 8GB Phone with only 50 Minutes included in the USA? And no in-calling and no free weekends? I dont think so. It's a rip off!

80$ for 50 Minutes is like an asian folex at replicacenter for 1000$

[TwoTone]

80$ for 50 Minutes is like an asian folex at replicacenter for 1000$

[Pugwash]

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/18840/

[stilty]

Wow! That is impressive.

I love this line: In a perfect world, the next quote you'd hear from the following buffoons would be, "You want fries with that?"

[Chronus]

They've done well... still don't think touchscreens are for me... perhaps the Storm with the ClickThrough screen will do it... but maybe not.

My sister did her dissertation in her MSc about Apple's marketing, they truly are marketing genius! Doesn't matter how good (or bad) a product is, without the right marketing, they won't sell this many...

[fotoman]

fyi - i am a smartphone enthusiast - even before rep watches, i was a mod on smart phone forums in like 2003

i had the samsung i300, i330 i500, then 4 blackberries, then windows mobile

i just switched to the iphone 3g - its not perfect - but, its right for more people than you would believe. - the sideways keyboard is needed - and there is a prog to deal with it for email.

i'd love a slide out one - but, not having to reinstall my wm OS every month, is helpful.

its the real deal - i'm no Apple fan - and its no touch screen you have ever used before - litterally and figuratively, the UI, is so much quicker to use than wm its almost a no brainer

if your tied to your blackberry and it does all you need - then, by all means keep it - but, if you want some more multimedia stuff - including web pages, music ect ect - iphone is the real deal.

having said that, if they made a keyboard one, i'd get it. but i'm ok without ittoo - now that they have the sideways keyboard - so the keys are more spread out.

give me a user replaceable battery, a keyboard and slingbox and it would be clear cut super winner

[Chronus]

I thought it'd work for me too... and I really wanted it to, as well... but there are too many little things that add up that just won't work for me. Biggest things are lack of memory cards, lack of multi-tasking, push email, and i need copy and paste (kinda strange the inventors of that didn't implement it). Other things I have taken for granted over the years are sending and receiving files via bluetooth. Also, I refuse to use itunes. I have no need for it.... if you could use it as a mass storage device via USB perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad for me. I've got a huge list of things that put me off it though

I did look at the tariffs as well, and wasn't happy with them... it works out to a lot! I could get the Blackberry Bold sim-unlocked and get a better tariff for less!

It's pretty much little things for everyone I guess but it all adds up. My first ever smartphone was at the start of this year with the Nokia N82 and it's great. I guess the only thing I really need added on that is a keyboard so perhaps the E71 is what I should be looking at. It has native FlashLite support (so full version of YouTube). I could always get a bluetooth keyboard too... you could probably get one for your iphone too

I've kept up with all the stuff on the upcoming Storm and that looks the closest thing that may work for me. But agtain, I'm really not sure if touchscreens are for me... I need tactile feedback!

[Chronus]

i had the samsung i300, i330 i500, then 4 blackberries, then windows mobile

i'd love a slide out one - but, not having to reinstall my wm OS every month, is helpful.

if your tied to your blackberry and it does all you need - then, by all means keep it - but, if you want some more multimedia stuff - including web pages, music ect ect - iphone is the real deal.

having said that, if they made a keyboard one, i'd get it. but i'm ok without ittoo - now that they have the sideways keyboard - so the keys are more spread out.

give me a user replaceable battery, a keyboard and slingbox and it would be clear cut super winner

I REALLY don't want Windows Mobile... it's kept me away from the Sony Ericsson Xperia, the HTC Touch Pro HD etc

I've gotta say I've been happy with how the music is on the SE Walkman phones and the Nokia N-series. I'm surprised you haven't tried the N96 yet.. that has a mobile TV tuner on board Sadly, won't work in the UK as it is DVB-H rather than DVB-T (I think).

I asked a couple of friends who have had the iphone for the best part of the year and they say the biggest problem for them is they don't like typing on it... but that is just personal preference I guess. They never use it for emailing anymore and I hardly ever get any text messages from them nowadays either, which, come to think of it, is strange. They always used to forward lots of SMS jokes... hmmmm weird

[Chronus]

And I reckon, Apple'll release a new phone soon enough. 3rd time lucky... it may do everything by then.

Still excited with this Storm release though... probably won't even get one, but it's the only thing that looks like competition, and competition is always good

[fotoman]

And I reckon, Apple'll release a new phone soon enough. 3rd time lucky... it may do everything by then.

Still excited with this Storm release though... probably won't even get one, but it's the only thing that looks like competition, and competition is always good

16gb is not bad, you can't even get a memory card bigger than that right now - so not sure what you need there.

also, it does push - cal, contacts and email - and its actually better at subfolders than WM

i was waiting for the touch pro - but, the screen is to small.

cut and paste is annoying, but the reality is, with teh specialty apps, its not as crucial. - and the predictive text is actually useful with no cut paste as well.

i think the storm is going to be a dud - BB users don't want a touchscreen - BB should stick to enterprise - there other attempts at multimedia have not cut it.

the interesting thing is to see what the open source community does with android.

otherwise apple will cash cow this phone to death, slowly leaking out updates to keep thme only a hair ahead of the competition and requiring us to buy new phones every year.

i had an iphone cause my tilt died- and i was waiting for the touch pro - after 2 weeks i decided to just get the iphone 3g. if you haven't tried the phone in the last month with the new apps and stuff - you haven't tried the phone.

[stilty]

Yes, Push is with the 3G. And another bonus is opening attachments. Excel, Word, PDFs all open and are easy to read.... as well as .WAV files from the VM system. just click on the attachment and they open. GPS and google maps are great too. I like being able to do a google search for something, and watch the pinpoints pop up on the map, then easily click for directions!

I do miss video recording and bluetooth, but I mainly used BT to transfer ringtones and pics. I can email the pics, and create my own ringtones in iTunes with no problem there. Typing takes a while to get used to, but once you do, it is no problem. The touch screen is great for scrolling! Especially through photos!

[Chronus]

Stilty:

My N82 has always been able to open up Excel, Word and PDF files, so that's nothing new. Of course it won't look as good though.

I haven't tried Google Maps on it yet, as Nokia Maps is pretty good, and I have Garmin XT installed with voice directions, which works really well. Gotta say GPS really likes to suck the juice out of the battery!

I use bluetooth quite a bit too... sending ringtones/business cards/mp3s/games/photos I've just taken etc right there and then. Not everyone has email on their phone, and not everyone has yahoo mail (which does push mail for every device).

With the Push email, is it just like a Blackberry, so you can have multiple accounts like all your hotmail, gmail, hushmail, your home internet address, your mobile phone company address etc and it arrives instantly? And of course work email if you want... if so that is pretty good and takes away an advantage Blackberry has had over everyone for so long! Does it have an Apple Messenger like Blackberry Messenger too?

How does the touchscreen scrolling work ? My brother speed reads and tells me his BB Pearl is perfect as he can constantly scroll (he used to read 24-30 books a week as a kid, books the size of Lord of the Rings... so he really reads quickly... and retains everything he reads!). Do they have scroll bars on the side like windows? And you can just press on the down arrow and it slowly/quickly (depending on what you set it as) scrolls for you? That would be pretty good for reading long papers and everything

Phoband:

Have you seen the HTC Touch Pro HD? That has a higher resolution (480 x 800 pixels) and a bigger screen (3.8 inches)... but then it is "blessed" with Windows Mobile...

I think the BB will do well ... I know people at work who have BBs as their personal phone that they bought themselves and love them. I think they are trying to go consumer as well as business.

The memory card thing... well I find it a lot quicker to transfer things using a memory card reader... you can still play around with the phone browsing etc while you transfer stuff via the memory card reader. 32gb cards will only be around the corner too. I remember when I used to think a 512mb hard drive was big... so it doesn't hurt to have the option of expandability or hot-swapability. Just in terms of music, I have over 3000 cds and vinyl records (I used to be a DJ) so I could easily fill up the space and then some. Normally I'd want space for taking pictures, but the camera is so poor on the iphone, I guess that won't be an issue, but for the N82 it IS a big deal. I've recorded lots of videos (640x480) and taken lots of photos (5MP) so having 32gb would definitely be useful. I usually have 2 memory cards around so I can swap one out when I want... I may fill one with music and the other with videos and leave enough space for photos (and delete albums or movies before recording video). And BBC iPlayer is available on the Nokia N-series phones now I guess Apple have done it this way so that fans will go and buy any new ones with even more on-board storage, much like iPods ramped up storage space over the years.

iPhone being such a great internet browsing device, I have a tendency to copy the webpage address and send it on to people... I can't think of an easier way than copy and paste... or just copying and pasting things from the body of a page as a quote or from an email that's been sent to me etc. but especially for large passages of text.

===========================================================

Things will get interesting in the coming year... how will the credit crunch hit?

Perhaps Apple will make the phone *I* want... but I'm not the mass market!

The BB Storm has a few minor things missing as well so that may not be the right thing. I think it's the closest to what I'm looking for but there are still things I'd want. Only way this N82 gets replaced is if a similar 5MP camera with xenon flash appears on a BB or Apple phone... I can't see them doing it though Samsung are on 8MP but have Windows Mobile

Where can I borrow an iPhone so I can see over the space of a few days if it is really for me ? That is the only way I'll know... but I don't want to do it by having to actually pay for it just in case I'm not happy with it.

Hmmmm seems like I've written a lot again!

[Chronus]

i think the storm is going to be a dud - BB users don't want a touchscreen - BB should stick to enterprise - there other attempts at multimedia have not cut it.

Big reason I think it could work is I've been offered a BB Storm as a free upgrade on a similar contract to the iPhone's (35GBP a month). Not bad for a brand new release.

And some may prefer Verizon's or Vodafone's network to O2/AT&T etc.

Apple will still outsell, even if the Storm proves to be better or not... Apple are master marketeers.

Edited October 24, 2008 by Chronus

[stilty]

Yes, I should have been more clear when I mentioned the opening of attachments. I guess it may depend on what BB you may have. When my co-worker opens the same attachment, it is barely legible. when I open on the iphone, it is very similar to the original file. Easy to zoom in to view as well with the stretch function of the touch screen. If you want to zoom in on something, all you do is put you thumb and finger on the screen, spread your finger and thumb apart and it zooms in. same with pictures, and google maps, google maps in either street, satelite or hybrid. I have 4 email accounts on my phone. My work email, then a couple gmail accounts, and a mac.com account. With my work and my mac.com email, it arrives on the phone a few seconds before it arrives to my computer, so it is quicker than instant. Only thing I don't like is the contacts. I can only have my outlook contacts, or my address book accounts from my mac, not both. No messenger, but I rarely use it. If I do, it is only when I'm out of town, or my wife is out of town, and we use iChat with our macs with iSight so we can see each other and the kids.

I think the touch screen is the coolest thing. you just have to slide your finger across the screen to scroll, as slow or fast as you want. you just touch the icon to open, and the zoom function is great! if you are looking at photos, you just swipe your finger across the screen to flip through the album.

I've also loaded some movie files to the phone. I've made some home movies that I shot in HD of my kids, they look and play great on the phone. shot in widescreen and they look beautiful on the screen.

visual voicemail is cool too. So you don't have to dial in the VM service and listen through messages you may not want to hear. you can scroll through and pick what message you want to hear, just like opening an email.

There are tons of apps, but I don't want to clog up my phone. I only have Shazam, which if fun for music. Say you are at a party, or restaurant, or club, and you want to know what song is playing, you just open the app, it samples a few seconds of the song, and bingo, it displays the artist and song, and points you to the itunes store to buy, or you can watch the music video on youtube if it is available.

If you are curious about the touch screen, I recommend you stopping by a store to check it out, hands on is way better than any way I could describe.

[Shundi]

Simplify Media:

http://www.simplifymedia.com/

Might provide some relief to people who want all their music accessible all the time...using Gbridge I keep my Lenovo and my desktop/home server synced up and use the always on desktop connection to listen to my music anywhere for free...

[Chronus]

I've just been reminded a big reason why I prefer memory cards - I don't bother with the USB key/pen drives anymore as I just carry around this tiny memory card reader... I've just transferred some training materials from a course last week to my computer... I've moved around installation files on training courses as well, to get computer software to work etc. It comes in so useful !

And not forgetting saving lots of youtube videos... nice to be able to transfer the flv files to the computer easily and quickly or to other phones (by putting the memory card in there if bluetooth doesn't work or the file is too big).

Edited October 24, 2008 by Chronus

[fotoman]

um, on the iphone, in the web browser you hit the short cut button and it asks if you want to make it a short cut or email the page to someone.

like i said, they have a very good UI and it makes moot some of the basics that you use in WM - the whole concept of design of the thing is from scratch, where WM trys to work like windows. which is not as effecient.

i have seen the HT HD- I didn't know the screen was bigger than the iphone? on the HTC touch pro, its WAY smaller, like only 2/3 the size of the iphone screen

but the HD will NOT be coming to the US so, no US broadband freq-i.e. no 3g.

There is a rumor of that phone coming out with a keyboard early next year as well.

anyway, i don't tink the iphone is the end all be all - i'm just saying, where they started and where they are now are a whole different universe.

There is a program, by the way that will let you pull up the iphone as a drive.

hey, i have a 16gb Micro card unopened, if you want to buy it.

seriouosly, how many you tube videos do you have to have on any given moment? - iphone has a dedicated You Tube Prog, which you can bookmark stuff- and teh cool thing when you wipe your phone to reinstall everything, it saves most of the configurations

[slay]

iphone is simply the best phone on the market.

too bad the 3G feels sooo much cheaper than the old iPhone!

[Fidestro]

iphone is simply the best phone on the market.

too bad the 3G feels sooo much cheaper than the old iPhone!

The "old" phone is the one I just broke! I would hate to find a cheaper one!

[Chronus]

um, on the iphone, in the web browser you hit the short cut button and it asks if you want to make it a short cut or email the page to someone.

I had a feeling it might have that That's a good thing! But my problem would be copying out passages from it, or from emails etc. There are a few friends who send around email all day discussing different things and so on...

like i said, they have a very good UI and it makes moot some of the basics that you use in WM - the whole concept of design of the thing is from scratch, where WM trys to work like windows. which is not as effecient.

Which is why I don't want anything to do with Windows Mobile!

i have seen the HT HD- I didn't know the screen was bigger than the iphone? on the HTC touch pro, its WAY smaller, like only 2/3 the size of the iphone screen

but the HD will NOT be coming to the US so, no US broadband freq-i.e. no 3g.

There is a rumor of that phone coming out with a keyboard early next year as well.

Here's the link to the specifications...

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_hd-2525.php

It has the most RAM I've seen on a phone at 288mb. If they could supply this handset to Apple to make the iPhone3G2, that would be a kiler.

I think I may have read about that not coming to the US too, but I think they said they had something special lined up for the US... who knows what that will be?

I read somewhere the reason the US has different frequencies as opposed to the ones used everywhere else in the world is that the military uses it over there, don't know if that is true though. Maybe they'll all finally harmonize with 4G hopefully... make things so much easier for everybody!

anyway, i don't tink the iphone is the end all be all - i'm just saying, where they started and where they are now are a whole different universe.

I was hoping the iPhone would have what I'm looking for ... especially after Puggy's rave reviews... but as I said, too many little things that add up to a big thing that puts me off. There probably is no phone that has everything I want. I guess the N82 with a qwerty keyboard perhaps. Looks of a phone don't matter to me as much as usability. I can even copy and paste on the N82! Maybe I am just impressed by my first smartphone

I may have to wait for Apple'sv hardware keyboard iPhone I think... or Nokia, Apple, Blackberry getting together and making a hybrid with the best of all 3 ... yes impossible

There is a program, by the way that will let you pull up the iphone as a drive.

hey, i have a 16gb Micro card unopened, if you want to buy it.

How much for the card? I'm in the UK and with the falling pound I may just have to wait for another card

seriouosly, how many you tube videos do you have to have on any given moment? - iphone has a dedicated You Tube Prog, which you can bookmark stuff- and teh cool thing when you wipe your phone to reinstall everything, it saves most of the configurations

I can bookmark them on my N82 as well, but I'm a serial hoarder (how do you think I ended up with 3000+ records and CDs, and over 20 leather jackets that I rarely wear... then there's the 50+ sneakers, and all the watches, and people wonder why I don't have money!)... I have to have them on tap! At the moment, I have 1gb worth of music vids, soccer clips and other stuff saved on there. I've got loads more saved on the computer at home. Is MobiTubia available on the iphone? It's free for Nokia... I'd recommend getting it if you don't have it already and want to save the videos in the full quality .flv format.

Maybe I'll get that Storm and try it out for the 14 day period they give you before returns... If I like it, I'll probably have to go get it sim free/unlocked.

And anyone know why Sony Ericsson don't let you use your phone without a sim card (say for music listening) like Nokia, Blackberry and Apple do?