Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
|
The mouthpiece of the pessimistic internet gadget snob is in full effect. Practically ignoring the press and hype that it's created, Ryan Block and company change their rah rah for the iPhone to a "we knew it all along" elitist drone. Check out this "review" they posted on their "website". "enjoy". Remember the winning Engadget commercial, "The Long Arm of Steve Jobs"? We posted it after the break (it's always good to start off with a little self promotion, eh Ryan? - data), but finding someone who's spent some serious time with a pre-launch iPhone and getting them to talk is basically a lot like that. Still, we managed to smuggle out some freshly leaked details from a very trusted inside source who's been fooling around with a unit. Here's what they had to say: The keyboard was simply described as "disappointing". Keyboarding with two thumbs often registers multiple key presses (two or three at a time) resulting in a lot of mistakes. The best way to type is with a single finger (as shown in most of Apple's demos), but two thumbs is supposedly very difficult. After trying it for a number of days our source gave up using their thumbs. (how will the source hitchike back to his mom's basement? - data) The text auto-correction only works well for simple words, but doesn't work for proper names. We can only assume this bit will get better with time as Apple fills out its predictive text dictionary. (maybe i'm a little slow, but i don't think any predictive text dictionary fills in proper names. right? - data) "It won't replace a BlackBerry. It's not good for text input. It's just not a business product." The touchscreen was said to, in general, require somewhat hard presses to register input, and needs some getting used to. In addition to its dock, the iPhone comes packaged with a polishing cloth (the thing's supposedly a fingerprint magnet, no surprise) (well i wouldn't eat a chilliburger over my $600 iPhone, Ryan - data) and the usual smallish power adapter (do we need a bigger power adapter to please you?). The Bluetooth headset will debut in the $120 range, and will come with its own dock for charging both the phone and the headset. The headset will feature a miniature magnetic charging interface รก la MagSafe. Click on for more impressions on the headset, browser, YouTube, and more. The Bluetooth headset has a hidden LED and is supposedly a very small and elegant device. Sound quality is said to be "typical". There is no clip; like many headsets you're expected to just let it hang out of your ear, as previously shown. The browser "worked well" but page load speeds on EDGE were just as slow as expected. It sounds like 3G users will have a tough run with this. (it's EDGE! we knew this! anybody with a brain knows this.) Users must scroll through the address book (or use the alphabet-drag on the side) -- one cannot bring up the keyboard and type in a name, as many of us are used to. (but why would you use the keyboard...if you have a hard time using it?!) Shocker: YouTube over EDGE didn't work well at all, and will basically necessitate use of WiFi. (?!?!?!!??!?! WHAT DO YOU THINK WIFI IS FOR? DECORATION?) Ok, that's all we've got for now. At this point we're just really looking forward to putting the spurs to this thing (you mean you haven't started?)-- Apple is hyping this product like nothing we've ever seen before, and we're ready to bring every detail to light. I have a big problem with the last statement because overall, Apple has been very conservative in their hype. They always are. The hype comes from blogs like Engadget who post 5 iphone items A DAY on their blog so they can get page views. If you do a search through Engadget's archives, you'll see the heap of articles related to the iPhone or to the "True Video iPod" (i hate that term. is the 5G ipod the false video iPod?). I don't understand why blogs like Engadget want to play journalist and write articles from a consumer's standpoint one moment, only to slam the product once a flaw is found. They need to grow up and pick a side. One commenter brought this up to Ryan Block himself: "Is Apple REALLY hyping this product so much? I think most of the hype is being generated by the press, fanboys and nay-sayers. Apple announced the iPhone and then basically shut up about it for 5 months while everybody else turned the product into the second coming. Sure, Apple calls the iPhone "Revolutionary," but every company calls their products revolutionary. Now it is to a point where Apple makes a quiet change to the iPhone portion of the website and Engadget and Gizmodo fire off 5 posts each about it that day. You wanna see the iPhone hype machine? Look in the mirror..." Ryan retorts: "Not really. Apple is making no secret that this is the biggest product launch in recent memory for them -- the tail may be wagging the dog some places, but I'd like to think not here. here's the link to the pathetic article. http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/23/n...ut-the-iphone/ and my guess for the person who tested it? |
quote |
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope. Join Date: May 2006
|
Time will tell whether the review is accurate or not, but I'd have to disagree with your assessment that Apple has been "conservative" in their hype of iPhone. When a first-time cellular maker calls its first-gen handset "revolutionary," that certainly started the hype machine rolling.
|
quote |
http://ga.rgoyle.com
Join Date: May 2004
Location: In your dock hiding behind your finder icon!
|
I'm really going off a lot of these tech news/review sites.
Just about everything linked via digg or any other "tech news gateway" consits of a masive banner ad, followed by one of those annoying large square flash ads whcih takes you a few seconds to realise has nothing to do with the article, then there are some goolge ad words, and finally because YouTube is the "in thing" at the mo, you get a random video. Eventually, you'll get to an article of similar quality to this one, they normally start something like... Quote:
If I see an interesting article headline I'll tend to go direct to the main site myself instead of clicking the link! OK, I have given up keeping this sig up to date. Lets just say I'm the guy that installs every latest version as soon as its available! |
|
quote |
Less than Stellar Member
|
RSS reader, Gargoyle. Most of the time, you don't even have to put up with ads.
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
For goodness sake people, you're all saying that engadget are wrong but have any of you tried the iPhone?
You're all acting like the iPhone is your product. It isn't but if you're happy with it, why does it matter what anyone else thinks of it? My personal opinion on this situation is that the device is being hyped way too much for providing absolutely no useful functionality which isn't available elsewhere and probably for cheaper. A source mentioned on one of these sites today that the iPhone service plan will cost something like $44.99 per month. Taking that as the example and the alleged 24 month contract, it costs you over $1000 in service alone. Add the cost of the phone and you're getting dangerously close to two thousand dollars. Can anyone really justify spending this on a device which does everything worse than devices they probably already have? If you're going to buy iPhone, you've likely got a mobile phone already and capacious iPod which stores far more content than iPhone, probably an Apple notebook which browses the web far easier than iPhone and a notebook, which makes taking notes as easy as it always was. To put the phone's camera into perspective, my Nokia N70, which was released in Q3 2005 has the same resolution. Where is the improvement here? There may be a lot of hype surrounding this product but aside from in those crazy press releases and keynotes which only the hardcore read/watch, where has Apple actually publicised the price of the device? I'm sure there will be some people who expect to jump into the store, pay about the same as an iPod and walk out and use the phone freely forever. These people are going to be disappointed and it is these people who will show that in my opinion, iPhone will turn out to be a flop. There's another reason for this too. You people all seem to think that iPhone will automatically do well because iPod did. iPod captured that market because it revolutionised portable music by offering something that really wasn't there already - lots of storage in a compact space. iPhone is proportionally larger than most of the consumer oriented mobile phones (certainly would crush my Samsung D900) and doesn't do anything which these don't already. There's also the issue that iPhone doesn't actually free people of the companies they may or may not be unhappy with - this product will remain on AT&T and I know plenty of people have strong opinions on that company. So, in my opinion, if you're buying iPhone you're basically buying an interface for everything you could do previously. Is that really worth $2000 to you? |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Quote:
I'm sorry, but that's kind of like adding in the cost of your ISP when looking at buying a computer. Quote:
Funny, I don't see the car dealerships advertising the price of gas on TV either... Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Sorry, but with that logic, no one should buy anything but a build-it-yourself PC from parts, and toss Linux on it. It *will* do everything that a Mac can do... if you work hard enough at it. That's the problem with smartphones and convergence phones right now (and really, just basic dumbphones) - the interfaces suck ass. Doing even simple things is painful. Sure, we adapt, but... why should we? If the interface on the iPhone is half as good as it looks, it will be the first phone I've seen that actually delivered on the feature list. |
||||||
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
You can know as many people with Smartphones as you like but as the engadget article points out, iPhone really isn't suited to being a smartphone and with all the TV advertising going on, that clearly isn't its market either.
When was the last time you saw a smartphone manufacturer hyping the MP3 and video playback capabilities of their device even when they are inferior to other products in their line? |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
So choose your market. I have friends with mediaphones - same situation. The experience sucks, it's too hard to use, and after a brief ZOMG period, they go back to using them as a dumbphone.
Quote:
That text entry isn't what they expected? I'm not surprised. It's a different input mechanism. It may not even be as efficient, in the long run, as a dedicated keyboard for pixie fingers, but I kind of doubt it. Look at it this way - people adapted to itty bitty keyboards that have keys so small they inspired the name Blackberry, and to an atrocious text input system using a whole whopping 12 keys on a numeric keypad. They can adapt to this. Easily. Quote:
Quote:
Look, any way you slice it, this thing is seriously pushing the boundaries of what a phone can do *in a usable manner* for the user. Quote:
|
||||
quote |
Environmental Bloodhound
|
Quote:
I think that the iPhone has satisfied the needs of a smartphone with a superior interface. (2)Target audience: Most typical smartphone users knew about the iPhone before the mainstream ad campaign picked up. So the add campaign is meant to capture the casual consumers interest. Therefore, the ad campaign is driven by the cool things that it can do play music, watch movies, and easily browse the internet. Formerly known as cynical_rock censeo tentatio victum There is no snooze button on a cat. |
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
No manufacturer is going to say "look what this new product can do" when the functionality is worse than an existing product out there, except this is exactly what Apple is doing.
The iPod part of the iPhone has just 4 or 8GB storage (compared to five or ten times that on a real iPod) and doesn't have a display suited to common types of content (it is a stupid aspect ratio which is neither 4:3 or 16:9. As for the rest of your points, has anyone said to you "I'd pay $2000 to have someone make my phone experience better". It would be welcome to them I'm sure but I don't think anyone has ever quite put a price on usability in the way that Apple is with iPhone. Other phones do the same job at far less expense but take a little getting used to. It's not my fault that you can't see past Apple and find the excellent products on the market from manufacturers like Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericcson. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Quote:
Please point me to where the iPod has WiFi though. Phone capabilities? How about entering in contacts and calendar items? Camera for quick shots? Right. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Over two years ago, I was in the market for a smartphone - I ended up getting this POS Nokia dumbphone because it was the absolute cheapest thing I could get, and *didn't* have any extra 'features' just making the interface less usable. At the time, it was the slickest UI I could find - and it's still painful. I've kept an eye out, watching the latest and greatest models come and go, and not once have I regretted my decision - I've yet to find a phone that seemed like it wouldn't make me go insane after a few weeks. This looks like it might fit the bill. I guess I just demand more from my technology than a list of parts. |
||||
quote |
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope. Join Date: May 2006
|
'neiltc13' is just miffed he can't buy one on Friday (since he's in Scotland).
|
quote |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Arizona
|
[sarcasm] The IPHONE Sucks! Apple Sucks! ALL the Apple products are tooo expensive! My Blackberry 7100 does everything the IPHONE does and better! It's got a REAL keypad... none of the flimsy glass stuff. No more Apple! No more Apple!
Phew. Now that that's out of the way, I can go back to my rat-hole underworld and snuggle in with my dirty socks and my HP Luggable. [/sarcasm] Here tonight, we have, ah, apple and orange. We all different, but in the end, we all fruit. |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
Why do you want WiFi on a music playing device?
Surely when you say "deduct" you mean "add" as they'll still have to keep paying their current contracts if they want this one too. "Over two years ago" is key here. Mobile technology has improved immensely since then but clearly you're a style over substance kind of guy - someone who will never persevere to get what they want just because they have to press a few buttons. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
... Nurse! We've got a nutter!
Quote:
Cost of upgrading = (total cost of iPhone ownership = hardware + monthly plan) - (total cost of current ownership = hardware + monthly plan) If you're going to start claiming that people will be purchasing this *in addition to* a current phone, smart or otherwise, and keep both, and use that as a justification for your statement of a high price... I can't help you. Really. Quote:
And before you start jumping to conclusions about what I will or will not persevere for in the technological realm, I'd like you to meet my CS PhD diploma. |
||
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
Sorry, but since when was it possible to simply cancel a contract with a minimum term?
Every mobile phone contract I've ever had has a minimum term and if you want out before that you have to pay them what you would have if you had stayed a customer. In the United Kingdom, the most popular phones are "Pay as You Go" where you pay to purchase the phone and then only pay for the calls you make upfront. It's simple and it avoids unnecessary charging. And in what way does a Computing Science (if that's really what CS means?) qualification give you the authority to say who's opinion is right and who's is wrong? Doesn't this make you into one of these "engineers" or "suits" who "don't know any better? |
quote |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
|
Quote:
i paid 250 for my blackberry and i pay 120 / month for service (data, phone, sms), big whoop. 24 months + phone price = $3130. so for me to pay the same, tack on an extra 500-600 for a flashy fun interface, that's no big deal to me, i live and die by my phone / email. i like nice things so it's not that big a deal to me. i don't know what to expect on the day it's released but i'd thumb out an extra $100 just to make sure i get it, just for kicks. people spend way too much time complaining. if it's not for you, then go use your standard keypad happily. if you're tired of the raving fanboys, change the channel. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Not everyone is locked into a contract. I'm not. Mine was up six months ago, and I'm coasting along on a month-to-month until I decide what to do.
Besides, so someone is in a contract... *they expire*. Say they have two months left. So they wait two months and then get one. *ta-da* No extra hit. The point stands - if you're going to add in recurring costs of the iPhone, then you need to deduct them from the current costs. I have a $40/mon plan at the moment. Two years = $960. That's how much I'll pay out *even if I stick with my current phone*. Say I get an iPhone: $500 Heck, let me get the big one: $600. Now add in, oh, I dunno... $80/mon? Okay, that's $600 + $1920 = $2520. I know, I know, you're hopping up and down in your seat grinning that I've just proved your point. But watch... I don't have to spend that $960 any more, do I? $2520 - $960 = $1560. That's my upgrade cost. I know people who spend $80/mon on their plans *now* for smartphones. Their upgrade cost? The price of the iPhone. Your claim of $2k for an upgrade to the phone experience is balderdash, unless someone has either no phone, or a minimal plan. |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
I rounded up just like many others who are making a conscious purchasing decision will.
If my contract ended tomorrow the first thing I would do would be to get my hands on one of those Pay as You Go SIM cards and cancel my current contract. To me the monthly fee is a substitute for having to buy the phone outright on PayGo and I get a bunch of service thrown in for nothing if I make a good decision. There would be nothing to stop you switching to a cheaper service plan unless you use your current phone to the point where the current plan is all that is suitable. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
There's rounding up, and then there's willful inflation...
And, I think you don't realize how crappy the cell industry is in the US. Getting a non-locked, non-contract, open-SIM phone is basically impossible. You buy a contract. Period. Two years is pretty common. |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
I've had another thought too, how long will this thing take to boot? From the look of all the videos, every application is stored in RAM while the phone is switched on so will have to be loaded before the "homepage" appears.
As someone who likes to secure their mobile phone and preserve battery life for when I really need it by switching it off, how long will it take to turn back on?! |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
|
Quote:
what's sad is that for a product you seem quite down in the dumps about, you're willing to go the extra mile to debunk it. all of the points you're making are ill informed speculative scare tactics. you're coming off as trollish and somewhat bitter. to call the iPhone "useless" or "not a smartphone" makes you both ignorant of it's features but ignorant of the phone in general. if you really don't know about what's being discussed and you're just regurgitating a bunch of "facts" from Windows Mobile fansites, then you've come to the wrong place. get some firsthand experience with the iPhone and come back. |
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
You people are going the extra mile to promote it and claim it as some sort of magic device that will do everything perfectly. Yet you don't have any first hand experience either.
|
quote |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
|
Quote:
actually, the demos seem to operate at a realistic rate, i hope to see for myself come friday. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Quote:
In the usability department, it will *STILL* be heads and shoulders above any other smartphone (or mediaphone, or dumbphone) I've ever had my hands on, whether running Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile. Period. End of story. The current state of phone UIs is *really that bad*. And no feature is worth money if you can't *use* it. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
|
quote |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
|
Quote:
you're speculating on disfunctions you've dreamt up in the basement. |
|
quote |
Posting Rules | Navigation |
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
What is it with Apples | Jules26 | Apple Products | 79 | 2005-01-18 04:33 |
Jobs: Apple Renaissance Man | Messiahtosh | General Discussion | 17 | 2004-09-11 16:26 |
Thoughts on PCI Express | Snoopy | General Discussion | 11 | 2004-07-26 13:02 |
*CONFIRMED* There is an Apple PDA!! And other musings. | HOM | General Discussion | 9 | 2004-06-08 20:04 |
Apple livid over Toshiba iPod leak | curiousuburb | Speculation and Rumors | 11 | 2004-06-05 17:49 |