[jakey02]

I've heard so many mixed reviews when it's came to the iphone from the battery to network speed and was hoping to get some insight from anyone who has purchased one. I currently have the Palm Treo 750 and I am tired of the slowness or should I say the lag of the phone and want to upgrade to something new.

[NosferaDrew]

Battery life is awesome if you turn off the wifi when you don't need it. Network speed isn't like wifi, but it's tolerable.

It's everything I need in a phone, so I love it, but you might want to wait until MacWorld (January 14-18 2008) since that will be the greatest opportunity for new announcements like a updated iPhone.

[Taskiss]

I'm not of the opinion that there will be an update to the iPhone any time soon and I am addicted to mine at this point. I say go ahead and buy one.

[goodonpaper]

I'm absolutely in love with mine too - and if you can afford it, I'd definately get one. So long as you're happy with the functionality at the moment, and you wouldn't be sacrificing something you currently depending on in your current handset, I couldn't see any other downside!

[torifile]

It couldn't hurt to wait a bit. It's been almost 6 months since release and it hasn't been updated yet. I bet there will be a change within the next couple of months.

[Shades of Blue]

My previous cell phone's contract is expiring in a couple of days, and I'm eagerly looking at the iPhone, but at the very least I'm waiting until after Macworld, and I'll see what the rumor landscape looks like then. My phone is still working and I'm not in a huge hurry to upgrade, so I might as well wait until the next iteration comes out. On the other hand, if my phone was broken and I had to switch right away, I'd go ahead and buy an iPhone now rather than get myself locked into a new 2-year contract with someone else.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Shades of Blue My previous cell phone's contract is expiring in a couple of days, and I'm eagerly looking at the iPhone, but at the very least I'm waiting until after Macworld, and I'll see what the rumor landscape looks like then. My phone is still working and I'm not in a huge hurry to upgrade, so I might as well wait until the next iteration comes out. On the other hand, if my phone was broken and I had to switch right away, I'd go ahead and buy an iPhone now rather than get myself locked into a new 2-year contract with someone else.

With ATT or someone else? If you're already with ATT, it would behoove you to get an upgrade and then buy the iPhone.

[pscates2.0]

I can't set timetables for you, or tell you exactly what to do, but I will say these two things:

1. As torifile said, by the time Macworld rolls around, the iPhone will have been "in the wild" for a solid six months. I'm not expecting a 3G model, or any major redesigns. But I don't think a modest capacity bump (to 16GB) is out of the question. I don't think we'll see a true "second generation" iPhone until well into 2008 (and even then it might not be a hugely different phone, just the addition of 3G and some things like that). I've got the "lowly" 4GB model, and I've got 270 songs, a crapload of photos, 3-4 music videos and some other things and I've still got 2.3GB free. So that translates into ~6GB free if I had the 8GB model (which is the only one available now anyway). I'd be shocked if MWSF saw anything more than a capacity bump, so if you think you can be okay with "only" 8GB on your iPhone, I say get one!

Which leads me to...

2. Hands-down, my iPhone (purchased nearly four months ago) has been the single most useful, "use it everyday" thing I have ever bought and owned. It's not even a contest. It's become my one true "gotta have"/desert island device. It's truly a joy to use, and it really feels wonderful to always have access to your e-mail. Nothing worse than being out with friends or running errands on a day when you're expecting an important (or needed) e-mail from someone (revisions to a freelance job, hearing back on an offer, staying in contact with friends concerning plans later in the day, etc.) and feeling like "dammit, I need to get home at some point so I can check my mail...". I haven't had that feeling in four months because I can just pull that iPhone out, no matter where I am, and do that. That alone has been worth the price, IMO.

Add to that the iPod functions, the camera that comes in really handy when you least expect it, Visual Voicemail, Google Maps, having all your contacts neatly organized and with you at all times, calendar/to-do, silly things like notes and a built-in timer/alarm clock, access to the iTunes store and, oh yeah, a really slick phone, just puts it over the top.

It's the one thing I have that I use every single day, and it has saved me so much hassle and waiting these past few months. And Google Maps, on four occasions, has really come in super handy and saved my bacon (and kept me from getting hopelessly lost on the outskirts of Atlanta once).



Wait until Macworld if you want, just to see if they do anything to it (honestly, I'm at 50/50 on that...they really don't have to touch it, it's so nice and selling so well, and they might opt to keep that 16GB bump until they roll out a major update later in '08.

But if you buy one now, today, you'll be happy as a clam and I seriously doubt you'd have any regrets. I don't, even with the 4GB model (and taking a bit of a kick in the nuts on that whole price-drop thing a while back).

[Taskiss]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Wait until Macworld if you want, just to see if they do anything to it (honestly, I'm at 50/50 on that...they really don't have to touch it, it's so nice and selling so well, and they might opt to keep that 16GB bump until they roll out a major update later in '08.

The way I see it, they can't just drop a new higher density flash chip in (cause I've looked and can't find that there is one available), they have to redesign to add capacity. They also have to redesign for 3G. I expect the next gen iPhone in late 2008 or early 2009.

Just don't quote me.

[Shades of Blue]

Originally Posted by torifile With ATT or someone else? If you're already with ATT, it would behoove you to get an upgrade and then buy the iPhone.

Well, right now, I'm with Sprint. I like Sprint and the coverage is good everywhere I go, so I wouldn't bother leaving until I was forced to by my desire to have an iPhone.

[Shades of Blue]

Oh, and I forgot; another major factor in my waiting is that I get a business volume discount with Sprint right now (and would get it with Verizon, or even AT&T if I wasn't using an iPhone) that saves me 18% on my monthly bill. There's no way I'm switching until I can get that same volume discount on an iPhone plan, no matter what awesome stuff they come out with at Macworld. It's not worth an 18% premium every month to me.

[pscates2.0]

Originally Posted by Taskiss The way I see it, they can't just drop a new higher density flash chip in (cause I've looked and can't find that there is one available), they have to redesign to add capacity. They also have to redesign for 3G. I expect the next gen iPhone in late 2008 or early 2009. Just don't quote me.

Oh, I assumed they could use whatever is in the iPod touch? I guess it doesn't work that way, huh?



I never know this type of stuff. So the iPhone uses a different type of chip than the iPod touch then?



Interesting. Well, if what you say is true then I think the guy should go ahead and get an iPhone now. No reason to wait another 6-8 months...

[sirnick4]

I thought they could use the same chip too..

Shows you how much I know.

[Taskiss]

Originally Posted by sirnick4 I thought they could use the same chip too.. Shows you how much I know.

the iPod touch:



The iPhone: (the memory is in the cage looking thing. You can see the edge fingers on the chip through the holes)



The touch uses 2 chips to get double the memory. There's no room in the iPhone to put 2 chips without redesigning the board.

[sirnick4]

Thanks, Taskiss. That helps

[chucker]

That iPod touch photo is actually the 8 GB model, though (those chips are 4 GB each). Does the 16 GB model have four chips?

[pscates2.0]

Can someone draw some circles or arrows...I don't know what the hell I'm looking at exactly.

[Taskiss]

The memory chips are marked "Toshiba" in the first pic and in the second the memory chip is in the cage looking shield. I believe that the tech available at the time these boards were designed, 8 GB flash chips were the largest that were available in the numbers needed for a production run.

Samsung claims to have a 50nm 16Gb NAND Flash chip available now (although I've not seen any products using them advertised - as far as I can tell, anyway), and that's the highest density I'm aware of in a single package. So, with 2 chip sockets the touch is able to be expanded to 32 GB soon, and the iPhone can go to 16GB... and the new chips are supposedly 25% smaller so if that's the case, there will need be a redesign to use them.

All this is pretty much speculation though. Hard facts are hard to come by.

[jakey02]

Originally Posted by Shades of Blue Oh, and I forgot; another major factor in my waiting is that I get a business volume discount with Sprint right now (and would get it with Verizon, or even AT&T if I wasn't using an iPhone) that saves me 18% on my monthly bill. There's no way I'm switching until I can get that same volume discount on an iPhone plan, no matter what awesome stuff they come out with at Macworld. It's not worth an 18% premium every month to me.

18% is really not that much. I currently have a dealer plan through Best Buy and pay 20 bucks for unlimted everything and 5000 minutes, but if you don't have all the features you really want or money isn't a huge issue why not.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Shades of Blue Well, right now, I'm with Sprint. I like Sprint and the coverage is good everywhere I go, so I wouldn't bother leaving until I was forced to by my desire to have an iPhone.

When you do switch, make sure you do what I did in the blog post I linked. Seriously. Sign up with ATT and get the cheap phone/rebates. Sell it. Buy an iPhone. It'll save you at least a couple hundred $$.

[ironlung]

Would you still be able to use your company discount with the iphone? Just get another ATT phone and your discounted rate plan, sell the phone and buy the iphone and add $20/month to your old rate plan. Wouldn't this work?

[jakey02]

Originally Posted by ironlung Would you still be able to use your company discount with the iphone? Just get another ATT phone and your discounted rate plan, sell the phone and buy the iphone and add $20/month to your old rate plan. Wouldn't this work?

No....because not even At&t employees are eligible for the discount at this point in time.

[jakey02]

Originally Posted by ironlung Would you still be able to use your company discount with the iphone? Just get another ATT phone and your discounted rate plan, sell the phone and buy the iphone and add $20/month to your old rate plan. Wouldn't this work?

No. They have blocked all company ANR plan discounts on the iphone including at&t employees. Hopefully they will change that soon, but doubtful.

[bostongeek]

Ok, I might be in the market for an iPhone. Without going into too many details, my nearly new Macbook Pro was stolen (in my car -- I know... but I usually never leave it there). I ended up just replacing it with an iMac (as I decided I don't want to travel with an expensive laptop anymore).

I do have a use for a mobile computer, but mainly for email and web browsing. I had thought of a Nokia tablet (770 or 800), and have thought of maybe grabbing an EeePC or Everex. However, since my iPod was a victim the burglarization of my car as well, I thought maybe an iPhone would fit the bill nicely.

My questions are:
1. How miserably slow is Safari over Edge? Is it tolerable? Better than tolerable?
2. How long can you surf the web without wanting to rip your eyes out of their sockets?
3. Is the lack of Copy/Paste (currently) _really_ annoying?

Any other thoughts from those that have liked owning one and maybe from those that have not enjoyed their experiences with it are welcome.

[Xaqtly]

My impressions having owned one for about 3 months now:

1. It depends on your area. EDGE is faster in some areas than others. I've never felt that it was intolerably slow, but it is not exactly fast either. I would call it "usable" though.

2. Forever, as far as I can tell. Surfing the web on the iPhone actually makes me happy, and at home on WiFi it's very fast.

3. For me it hasn't even come up yet.

The iPhone is just about the perfect device for my needs. Real web browser, real email, google maps, calendar syncing and all that. I had to move recently to a different state, and it was a lifesaver because I could use it to find out how to get places, pay my bills online, I had all my contacts at my fingertips - it was everything I needed it to be.

[zippy]

Originally Posted by Xaqtly My impressions having owned one for about 3 months now: 1. It depends on your area. EDGE is faster in some areas than others. I've never felt that it was intolerably slow, but it is not exactly fast either. I would call it "usable" though. 2. Forever, as far as I can tell. Surfing the web on the iPhone actually makes me happy, and at home on WiFi it's very fast. 3. For me it hasn't even come up yet. The iPhone is just about the perfect device for my needs. Real web browser, real email, google maps, calendar syncing and all that. I had to move recently to a different state, and it was a lifesaver because I could use it to find out how to get places, pay my bills online, I had all my contacts at my fingertips - it was everything I needed it to be.

Originally Posted by Xaqtly My impressions having owned one for about 3 months now: 1. It depends on your area. EDGE is faster in some areas than others. I've never felt that it was intolerably slow, but it is not exactly fast either. I would call it "usable" though. 2. Forever, as far as I can tell. Surfing the web on the iPhone actually makes me happy, and at home on WiFi it's very fast. 3. For me it hasn't even come up yet. The iPhone is just about the perfect device for my needs. Real web browser, real email, google maps, calendar syncing and all that. I had to move recently to a different state, and it was a lifesaver because I could use it to find out how to get places, pay my bills online, I had all my contacts at my fingertips - it was everything I needed it to be.

That's what he said.

[bostongeek]

Dunno why, but I get wary with everyone posting about how much they love it -- like its one big joke and everyone else is in on it.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by bostongeek Dunno why, but I get wary with everyone posting about how much they love it -- like its one big joke and everyone else is in on it.

The iPhone is really very nice. I have spent a lot of time using one, but I don't have one myself. I'd get one right away if I could stay with AT&T (I recently left them for Verizon because nearly everyone I call is on Verizon).

If you don't need EDGE, though, an iPod touch is definitely a viable alternative now. You might look into that if you don't need the Web everywhere.

[zsummers]

I personally think EDGE is great, and I live in L.A. And as for the keyboard, I've posted every post on AN for the past two weeks with it. It takes more time and care than a laptop, but not that much more.

And there's just something about it that makes me want to use it (though I still find whipping it out in public to be embarrassing--it can definitely feel pretentious).

Actually, my only major gripe is that the on-board dictionary sucks. Other than that, I think it is a worthwhile investment for a lot of people.

[bostongeek]

Ok, another question:

Is it durable? Do people who own it feel the need to keep it protected? If not, how has it handled normal use/abuse? If so, what do people use to keep it shiny?