OT: Apple IPhone...

[SoCalwarrior]

It's tough to get a good pic, but here's a couple screenshots.



And here's a video demo.  The iphone display is great.  Recording it with my ten year old video camera is not.  But you should be able to get an idea.

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?action=tpmod;blog=view;cont=44;uid=5

[Sir Lawrence]

Very cool.

How's the battery life?

[SoCalwarrior]

good so far, but only had a day. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1860359/posts

[rocky_warrior]

And here's a video demo.  The iphone display is great.  Recording it with my ten year old video camera is not.  But you should be able to get an idea.

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?action=tpmod;blog=view;cont=44;uid=5

Very Cool - I don't really need any more toys, but that is attractive...

[mu_hilltopper]

I would be curious to know how the sales of iPhone (and all other cells) would do if they were required to put a yearly cost on every price tag.

$600 for the iPhone is just the start.  Minimum $60/month plan = $720 plus at least $200 in tax, we're at $1,500 smackers for 365 days of iPhone toy playing.  That's iPopping.

[nathanziarek]

...they'd just have less buyers over all

Engadget had a good cost breakdown: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/how-does-the-iphone-stack-up-in-total-cost/

Interesting. The cheapest phone is the Blackjack, and even that runs you $3/day for the cheapest plan...

[spiral97]

If you want one cheap and want a "free" $400 blender to go with it you can bid on it here.   

[thekahoona]

they blend a lot of stuff!  but the iphone was just cool.


http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone

[mu_hilltopper]

P.s. for a giant long review with tons of pictures and a review of each function:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/no-bs-iphone-review-276116.php

[mu_hilltopper]

So .. SoCal, what do you think after a month of the iPhone?

I've read reviews .. a minute ago, this one, survey results: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070807/tc_pcworld/135595

.. and it seems like the iPhone sucks (for the $$).  Slow network/browsing.   Little customization, like ring tones, bad camera, no instant messaging, no GPS (even basic cell phone gps) .. no cut and paste .. no voice dial.  (even my POS phone does that.) .. a different review I read lambasted the phone call quality, bad speaker, bad mic.

All say it's a great iPod, though.  For $500-600, it better be.

[SoCalwarrior]

Hey, if it's good enough for Karl Rove, it's good enough for me.



Honestly, I love it.  My biggest complaint is browsing the internet on AT&T's 2.5 Edge.  Too slow.  I suspect this will be upgraded with Iphone2.0.  Or perhaps in an update as hackers claim the software/hardware is already in the phone.

As for the other things you mentioned were missing, I was willing to do without for the time being in return for the new stuff.   It's the life of an early adaptor.

Other than the GPS, all of the things you mentioned should come in an update via download in the coming weeks.

[nathanziarek]

I wasn't asked , but I'll give my impression...

I still don't know if it is worth the $600 I plunked down for it. But, as a device, I consider it on the best pieces of consumer electronics I've ever used. The user experience is unlike anything I've ever used. While there are lots of places things could be better, the interaction design is top notch, and I've yet to find a feature missing that I'd call crucial.

Network: I live by Mitchel, and when I turn the WiFi off, I get decent speeds. I'm not going to switch to EDGE as my full time data provider, but for on-the-go browsing, its fine. I work downtown, and there are some spots, seemingly in the open, that I get no network -- no EDGE, no signal at all. I'm not sure who to blame that on, but it is aggravating. For the record, with 4/5 bars, I loaded ESPN.com in about 12 seconds vs. 2 over broadband. That's a little faster than usual, but think no longer than 20 seconds for most pages.

Customization: On my RAZR I had the theme to "The Office" as my ring tone. It was neat for like two days before I switched to a default ring. This may be a big thing to people, in which case, yeah, there is no ring tone customization that can be done. You can change the background of the lock screen, but not the main menu (and probably for good reason, as it'd be hard to read then). This doesn't bother me even a little.

Camera: I think the camera is pretty good for a cell phone! Of course, I'm coming from like a VGA camera (800x600 max, maybe lower), but the pictures I've been taking look nice. Not as nice as a DSLR or even a 6MP point-and-shoot, but nice for what they are. Here's a shot of my nephew. Nice color, reasonably detailed and sharp. I think it replaces a basic point and shoot camera completely.

no IM: Yup, this sucks, especially since Apple is putting so much emphasis on iChat in the new MacOS X "Leopard." I don't get why it isn't included, unless AT&T wanted us using up our SMS messages. I'd guess it comes out eventually, but big drawback that it isn't on there at the start.

no MMS: Huh? I guess Apple is thinking that since it has email, it doesn't need MMS. I like to send pictures to family / friends that don't get email on their phone. Another drawback.

no GPS: eh. I have a GPS system, so this probably isn't the biggest deal to me. That said, I left the GPS at home the other day and had to rely on the phone's map program which sucked. It provides directions, and even lets you click "Next" to get the next leg of the trip, but it turns off after 60 seconds on inactivity, and isn't friendly to use while driving. I hope that there is a car-dock in the works that offers built-in GPS and radio connections, as that'd alleviate a lot of the problem.

Cut n Paste: I've not found the need for it yet (I'm only typing little emails and URLs), but if you did need it, it not being there would suck. I've actually found the keyboard to be so good (just type, 99% of the time I either hit the right button or the software figures out what I wanted) that I don't mind erasing and just typing over. I've never had to retype a paragraph or anything, though, so my opinion probably doesn't matter here

Voice Dial: I feel like "unlocking" the iPhone is cumbersome. You take it out, turn it on (home or top button), slide your finger across to unlock, and you are in. If I could do voice dialing in fewer steps -- maybe even from my bluetooth headset like I've seen other phones allow -- that'd be nice. This is totally one of those features I thought was dumb and now actively crave.

Call quality is fine, comparable to my RAZR if not better...speaker and mic seem fine (I can hear and I've never had someone constantly yelling "What?!") and the speaker phone is decently loud, although that could be improved.

I wouldn't call it a great iPod (I think the scroll wheel is easier to use, personally) but it works, and videos on that screen are gorgeous.

I would give it a 8/10 right now. But that's the thing: people are judging this not by what it does right now but by what it could do (or might do). Like I opened with, I'm not sold that it is worth $600, but if $ was no object and given my usage, it is easily the best piece of consumer electronics I've ever owned.

n

[rocky_warrior]

I still don't know if it is worth the $600 I plunked down for it.

Well - apparently it's only worth $400 now - apple just slashed the price by $200, dropped the original $400 model, and added wifi to the $300 iPod. That's gotta' piss some people off.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/apple_ipods.html?.v=21&printer=1

[spiral97]

I still don't know if it is worth the $600 I plunked down for it.

Well - apparently it's only worth $400 now - apple just slashed the price by $200, dropped the original $400 model, and added wifi to the $300 iPod. That's gotta' piss some people off.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/apple_ipods.html?.v=21&printer=1

And pissed they were.. but at least Apple has agreed to give a $100 credit to the buyers of the 8GB version who got it directly from Apple or AT&T and did not get any other rebates.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/06/technology/iphone_price/index.htm?cnn=yes

Course, the credit is only good for buying other stuff at Apple's website or store.

[rocky_warrior]

While Jobs defended the drastic price reduction, saying every new device has price cuts and improved models on the horizon, he apologized to customers who paid the original price for the iPhone.

Uhh...yeah...but the iPhone is only 2 months old.  That's a little quick for a 33% price drop.  Glad Apple is at least partially making it up.

[NYWarrior]

good read here -- iPhone ....... the view from a couple of months into the product lifecycle


http://www.patrickweb.com/weblog/archives/2007_10.php