I worry about my friends sometimes. Why would Catherine want some lame bag for her birthday when Apple just announced the iPhone, a.k.a. the Coolest Thing Ever (sorry, Wii). Young Ezra Klein, meanwhile, is all sad that the iPhone will be exclusively available through Cingular's utterly whack network. But so what? As long as it can sometimes complete a call, I'll be thrilled. I can't sign up soon enough. Apparently, though, they're not actually available until June.
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Matt Want iPhone!
09 Jan 2007 03:13 pm
Comments (39)
I think this is a much smarter house investment than our half-baked NetJets idea. Hey internet: buy five iPhones for your favorite house of bloggers. Please.
"Hey internet: buy five iPhones for your favorite house of bloggers. Please."
Will you all spend time in the same room sending each other long SMS's by hunting and pecking on tiny keyboards rather than having actual conversations?
they already do that.
Cell phones are the hula-hoops of the oughts. I can't wait 'til this idiotic fad finally dies.
as an old guy, i'm not especially gadget-oriented, but this looks like a fantastic little piece of hardware.
"looks like" when it's announce and "is" when it's available can, of course, be two separate things, but still....
Daaaaaamn that's nice. Things to like:
* surfing through music by album cover (altho how's it gonna handle singles?)
* intuitive, visual cues for conference calls
* choosing the playback order for voice mail
* OSX and Safari
How much you think it'll cost?
I'm surprised there's no RSS reader. That seems like it'd be a killer app for a gadget like this...
"surfing through music by album cover (altho how's it gonna handle singles?)"
The same way the exact same feature works in the current version of iTunes...
"choosing the playback order for voice mail"
That does indeed seem pretty damn useful.
Don't forget the Iphoto, folks....
I'm surprised there's no RSS reader.
There is one - built into Safari (or Firefox).
The auto-rotate feature seems like the single grooviest thing to me...
Seeing as Cingular is AT&T. And we all know that AT&T likes to help George Bush spy on Americans, I will be passing.
I probably would have liked the phone thought. Would have been an improvement over my Treo650
If you don't like Cingular, I'm sure there will be unlocked versions available from Europe, probably for about $300 more than Cingular will charge, fairly soon after the US launch, and you'll be able to stick any SIM you like into one.
Whether it actually makes sense to get one is another question. I just use my iPod in the gym, which is one place I don't bring my phone, so I don't know why I'd want to combine them.
Meh. I like my portable devices cheap 'n' single purpose. That way, you don't cry if you break or lose 'em.
Agreed. This is why I just bought the cheap-o new shuffle.
----
I just use my iPod in the gym, which is one place I don't bring my phone, so I don't know why I'd want to combine them.
Another fair point. At my gym, you're not even allowed to carry your cellphone around or use it.
"Whether it actually makes sense to get one is another question. I just use my iPod in the gym, which is one place I don't bring my phone, so I don't know why I'd want to combine them."
Yup. I also prefer single function portable devices.
But even though I don't think I want one, it's a psychotically sweet piece of technology.
Funny, I used to feel that way about drugs.
Ohmigod, this is GORGEOUS! I don't need any more single-purpose things, because I'm tired of carrying around my cellphone AND my camera AND my ipod AND my whatever. My purse is getting huge.
I LOVE the multi-functionality. And hey, I already have Cingular! Incidentally, they don't charge me international rates when I'm abroad. It's clearly an error in their billing system, but I think it's a great oversight.
The interface sounds like a breakthrough, I hope it's all it's hyped up as. When I heard the rumors I was like, whatever, I don't need a phone that's also an ipod, that's stupid. Now I am desperate for one of these. And how great is it that it'll natively sync with my mac, and I won't have to go through 15 palm OS workaround hacks? SO great.
I've been meaning to replace my sucky old T-Mobile service forever. Maybe this sexy product will provide the impetus. But what's with the negative comments about Cingular service? My wife seems to like hers pretty well.
"A model with four gigabytes of storage space will cost $499, while a version with eight gigabytes of storage will cost $599. By comparison, Apple has sold its four-gigabyte iPod Nano player for $200 and eight-gigabyte iPod Nano for $250."
"A model with four gigabytes of storage space will cost $499, while a version with eight gigabytes of storage will cost $599." With a two-year contract.
John Starks comments: "A model with four gigabytes of storage space will cost $499, while a version with eight gigabytes of storage will cost $599. By comparison, Apple has sold its four-gigabyte iPod Nano player for $200 and eight-gigabyte iPod Nano for $250."
The pricing seems about right. Like a top-end blackberry plus an iPod. Looks sleeker than a blackberry too.
As an aside, I actually saw John Starks today in Grand Central when I was leaving the subway station on my way to work. And he was talking on his cell phone. Strange.
"The pricing seems about right."
jim's also correct, though, that the unsubsidized price is probably more like $800 - $1,000. And that also seems about right, given that it's an absurdly well outfitted full-fledged tablet computer.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Edge-to-edge screen has always seemed the way to go.
Beautiful.
Will the combination of AT&T and eCommerce subsidiary Sterling (now combined with Comergent) soon be the way to communicate, manage and purchase on the fly.
Bye-Bye Blackberry?
And will AT&T get the big GSA government networking (Networx) contracts in March and May?
Correction re: RSS feeds - I'm guessing you will be able to get them via Safari, which is installed onto the phone, but it's about 99% sure that you can't install and lauch another browser (like Firefox). I'd assume that the OS X on the phone is a stripped down version.
I want one!
BTW, I haven't had much trouble with Cingular over the past few years, except when I was in rural MO. Nonetheless, there is something to be said for waiting and getting an unlocked phone later.
"Five hours" of charge time, ie three hours of charge time? I'll pass...
"it's about 99% sure that you can't install and lauch another browser (like Firefox)."
Yup. Though I'd only be 95% sure about that.
"re: RSS feeds - I'm guessing you will be able to get them via Safari, which is installed onto the phone"
Maybe. Maybe, not. It's obviously not going to be the exact same Safari as exists on regular OS X.
It would be astounding if you couldn't do get RSS feeds on the thing - Apple is, to put it mildly, into syndication already (remember, this device is an ipod with wifi); and everything syncs via iTunes. But I guess it's possible. You are right, Petey, RSS feeds are such a natural fit for a device like this.
It does look very nice, and has a definite wow factor. But I will never own one. Apple + Cingular? Please. I admit Apple's ability to be a leader in consumer technology, but I hate them for their silly DRM paranoia, and I hear nothing but bad about Cingular, so I'm guessing what you can actually do with this thing out of the box will be severly restricted. I'm sure like everything else there will be a not-as-hip-but-nearly-as-functional Sanyo, Samsung, etc soon to follow, so now it's just a waiting game while everyone else catches up. Good times...
I'm surprised there's no RSS reader. That seems like it'd be a killer app for a gadget like this...
RSS readers take a lot of bandwidth, and consumer mobile plans are moving to an all-you-can-eat model because consumers hate paying by the kilobyte. I'd be surprised to see any carriers voluntarily offer them, except within web portals that they maintain.
I'm a skeptic on the iPhone, although I want to believe. But touchscreen keyboards suck, and I don't buy for a second that it'll really be running OS X. I imagine it'll be running some embedded form of BSD with an OS X-like interface, but it'd make no sense for it to run the real deal. Also, some apps in a phone form-factor are simply destined to disappoint -- web browsers come to mind.
I'm sure it'll be better than what's currently out there. But I think folks are expecting Apple to solve everything that's ever been wrong with portable devices. A lot of those irritations have been unavoidable given the limits of portable technology.
I should clarify: readers take a lot of bandwidth if they work in an always-on mode in the background. I suppose they might just restrict the frequency of updates and only have them happen when you're looking at the app.
"Also, some apps in a phone form-factor are simply destined to disappoint -- web browsers come to mind."
They're actually doing some pretty innovative stuff to make the web browser functional at that size. Check out the promotional movies over at the Apple website.
At least one dude has gotten to play with it so far. He seems to think it's pretty much as advertised.
"At least one dude has gotten to play with it so far. He seems to think it's pretty much as advertised."
Thx for the link. Pogue is smart.
So to sum up:
- Amazingly good phone
- Amazingly good web browser
- Amazingly good iPod (touchscreen CoverFlow is going to rock)
- Shitty text entry
I guess I do want one after all...
One could load Bloglines or Google reader or others into Safari and read your rss feeds there.
If the phone is closed and you can't load any app you want onto it, I wonder how well the browser will play with Web 2.0 apps. I probably could get by without having Office if I can use writely or whatnot while on the road.
That is one gorgeous functional device. Prediction - bigger hit than iPod.
Jesus.
Could everybody Google "commodity fetishism", please?
"whack" is what wiseguys do to each other.
"wack" is the hip(-hop-derived) lingo you're looking for.
Comments closed January 23, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Meh. I like my portable devices cheap 'n' single purpose. That way, you don't cry if you break or lose 'em.
Posted by Petey | January 9, 2007 3:27 PM