Apple missed the boat with the iPhone? - Page 5

DMcCunney · 07-22-2008, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montsnmags

My ebooks, thus far, still all fit inside the internal memory of an Iliad. Most of it is public domain "Classics" (from MR, of course), and there's likely enough there to last me the rest of my lifetime. If I was looking at pdfs or books with pictures, of course, things might be a lot different. As for music, well, for me, it's "portable" music - I'm not after the ultimate in quality. To be honest, while I enjoy music from a good system setup, if it's good music I could enjoy it from an old transistor radio (our minds are pretty fantabulous at filling in the gaps in our senses).

Saying all this, I'm making assumptions. If I looked at it more personally (ie. at yourself, Dennis), it would not surprise me in the least if you used the same "compression" and types of texts/music, but just had absolute shed-loads more of the stuff than I do.

I have about 3,500 ebooks on my device. About 3,200 are HTML converted for use with the Plucker offline HTML viewer for Palm OS. Plucker supports files using gzip compatible compression, for about 70% space reduction. It supports color, embedded images, text attributes, fonts (on OS 5 systems) and hyperlinks.

I have about 1.75 GB of ebooks total on my device. There are also an assortment of Mobi and eReader files, plus some PDFs, Word and RTF files, and plain text files. all are PD, CC licensed, or other files that may be explicitly copied and shared. I'll actually buy ebooks when the format and DRM choices simplify.

I can use it as a photo viewer as well, but normally don't. It also holds a gig or so of video, playable with The Core Pocket Media Player.

While it can play MP3 and Ogg files, I don't. Like my ebooks, I want to carry my entire music library. Before I suffered a nasty hardware failure, I had a 200GB drive devoted to MP3s that was full, and was filling another drive. No way that fits on any handheld I've seen.

Quote:

I was tempted by a Palm TX prior to the Iliad. I'm glad I was tempted by the Iliad - the Iliad is perfect for my everyday use (which is basically nightly and visits to my brother's place some weekends), and the iPod Touch (with the expanding number of apps) is now the kind of thing that can be my "go-everywhere". It's currently got my shopping list on it (we need milk, mixed leaf lettuce, and bread, and I'm just about out the door), and I'm just waiting for a nice app to come out for "meter-free" camera exposure estimating (I've a couple all-manual cameras without or with broken meters)...and a sunrise/sunset app would be nice (incl. direction)...and a hyperfocal/DoF calculator...and...

The TX wasn't available when my old TE was dying and I went looking for a replacement. I'm happy I wound up with what I did. The NVFS implementation on the TX is quirky and hard to get stable, the 128MB of memory isn't all RAM, and the built-in Wifi isn't something I would use often enough to make it compelling. (I have a Wifi SD card for the Zodiac. I seldom use it.) The Zodiac has 128MB of real RAM, two SD slots, plus Bluetooth, Yamaha stereo sound, and an ATI graphics chip with 2D acceleration and 8MB of onboard RAM. TCPMP supports the Zodiac video, anf TCPMP is the "killer app" for the platform.

The iLiad is neat, but I need color, and a broader range of capabilities.
______
Dennis

nekokami · 07-22-2008, 10:22 AM

So does the iPod Touch recognize handwriting? Not that I have the money for one anyway, but that's the one thing I wish my iLiad could do (at least, the one thing that's possible from a software upgrade perspective).

radleyp · 07-22-2008, 05:49 PM

As I pointed out in another thread, as a business tool this phone is DOA for one reason: the poor battery life of a battery that is sealed inside the case. I don't carry chargers around and I am not about to start doing so.

stustaff · 07-23-2008, 04:11 AM

waht poor battery life?

Its far better than both my nokia business phone and my old sony!

This is according to manafacturers websites

Talktime
Iphone - 8 hours
nokia n95 - 4 hours
samsung blackjack - 5.5 hours
blackberry cyrve 8300 4 hours
palm treo 750 4 hours

or look here for the 3g which puts it in the top 4 smartphones

http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=148348&page=1&zoomIdx=1

basically it seems your 'impression' 'guess'? may be wrong Im guessing you havent done any type of test yourself that shows otherwise?

TheJohnNewton · 07-23-2008, 10:51 AM

StuStaff,

Well my friend who had the first gen iPhone and now the new one is quite dissapointed with the battery life, which is less with his new one vs. the first gen, of about 3 hours of active use. Of course that is just one datapoint so it could be an annomoly.

radleyp · 07-23-2008, 11:44 AM

It is not an anomaly, judging from the experience of both my wife and her computer pro (who, BTW, carries her charger now, since there is no way she can get even a half day's use without it). The additional and major problem, of course, is that the battery is sealed: no business (my small law firm included) will ever embrace such a device. Blackberry has little to fear. This is a consumer device, and a beauty to behold (that's what creates envy in me) but it would never do what I need (I can't be without a functioning device in the middle of a meeting), so I am afraid I will just have to pass.

DMcCunney · 07-23-2008, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stustaff

waht poor battery life?

Its far better than both my nokia business phone and my old sony!

This is according to manafacturers websites

Talktime
Iphone - 8 hours
nokia n95 - 4 hours
samsung blackjack - 5.5 hours
blackberry cyrve 8300 4 hours
palm treo 750 4 hours

or look here for the 3g which puts it in the top 4 smartphones

http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=148348&page=1&zoomIdx=1

basically it seems your 'impression' 'guess'? may be wrong Im guessing you havent done any type of test yourself that shows otherwise?

Quoting out of context is always risky.

The full article is here, and paints less rosy picture:

Quote:

PC World's Test Center ran the iPhone 3G through our standard talk-time battery life test, and found that on average it ran 5 hours, 38 minutes, a running time that we consider earns a Fair rating.

At a guess, the way to use an iPhone 3G for best battery life is to turn off 3G (if possible) until you need to use it. 3G gulps power, and reduced battery life is the price you pay for higher surfing speeds.
______
Dennis

radleyp · 07-23-2008, 02:49 PM

And, Dennis, this higher surfing speed is a mere twice the speed of Edge. Verizon has had better speeds than that for years!

DMcCunney · 07-23-2008, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radleyp

And, Dennis, this higher surfing speed is a mere twice the speed of Edge. Verizon has had better speeds than that for years!

Save that you can't currently get an iPhone with Verizon service. I've met folks who might like one, but have to pass, because they travel and need the coverage are Verizon has.

I have a fairly dim personal view of Verizon. They supply my land line, but not my cell service. I used to have Verizon DSL service before getting a cable modem. It took three months from placement of order to having working service, because Bell Atlantic (as they were then) screwed up everything that could be screwed up in the installation. I was telecom admin among other things at my office at the time, and had similar issues with their frame relay service.

I spent an hour on hold on a slow afternoon to reach someone on th DSL side and start the process of getting things resolved. My boss came into the computer room on the tail of the conversation, and asked itfI was okay. "I'm fine, Larry. Why?" "Well, I heard you on the phone with Bell Atlantic. I'm sorry you had to go through that!" "Larry, it's okay. It's Bell Atlantic. They're idiots. They have their heads up their butts. I deal with it here, too, but you pay me for it! When I have to do it for free on my own time it's a bit much..."

I just got off the phone with a friend who tried to browse the net and got told his DSL service was suspended. He called to as why, and they said "We don't have a valid billing number for you!" "Well, I just changed the DSL number to a different one back on the 16th. That's the number you should use. Why wasn't the billing number changed when the other change was made?" "Oh, gee, we're sorry, sir! Looks like someone screwed up..."

It may be better for Verizon cellular customers, but in my experience, that's fairly typical for the rest of the organization.
______
Dennis

radleyp · 07-23-2008, 05:13 PM

Yes, I realize that, I was just pointing to the foolishness of thinking that AT&T 3G on the iphone was great. In fact, as you know better than I, AT&T HSDPA can go up to 5/6 times as fast as Edge, but if the iphone allowed that you wouldn't get 2 hours of battery life. The iphone is the most beautiful phone I have ever seen, but it just has too many serious drawbacks (no buttons, for example, which makes it much harder to use one-handed) for me to consider it now.

As for Verizon Wireless, I have had good service with my MotoQ (I just had to replace it, and Verizon was prompt and the service responsive). It is, however, the most expensive, and for that reason alone, we are considering a switch (though not to AT&T with which we had bad experiences 2 years ago).

TallMomof2 · 07-23-2008, 07:36 PM

Guess I'm a Verizon fangirl because I have Fios with my landline, Internet, and TV along with a wireless plan with three phones. DH moved from AT&T to Verizon Wireless because of coverage so we're totally Verizon. I'm not a huge fan but so far they've delivered what they promised when promised. No skipped installation appointments and (knock on wood) absolutely no hardware problems. Customer Service is hit or miss but I usually can find someone who can help me if I can't find the answer on their website.

I did buy an Ipod Touch, only 8gb, to replace my dying T|X and with the eReader app it's half as good as the T|X. If a MobiPocket app with the ability to read DRM shows up then the Touch will be as good as the T|X for reading. I still far prefer my Kindle for reading but I recently went on vacation and was 3 hours from the house when I realized I forgot my Kindle. Since I was 30 minutes from my destination I wasn't about to turn around to fetch my Kindle. My Touch was an adequate substitute but I only read inside. It was a snap to download a few books from my Fictionwise bookshelf and I had reading material for the vacation. But I can tell you that WiFi is less handy than Whispernet. There's not always free WiFi available and even if Whispernet isn't available, that hasn't been a problem for me, I can still move books from my tablet in a pinch.

DMcCunney · 07-23-2008, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Guess I'm a Verizon fangirl because I have Fios with my landline, Internet, and TV along with a wireless plan with three phones. DH moved from AT&T to Verizon Wireless because of coverage so we're totally Verizon. I'm not a huge fan but so far they've delivered what they promised when promised. No skipped installation appointments and (knock on wood) absolutely no hardware problems. Customer Service is hit or miss but I usually can find someone who can help me if I can't find the answer on their website.

If it works for you, splendid. They have to get it right sometime.

FIOS is attractive but not available in my area. Given the nature of the technology, I don't expect it to be any time soon. Retrofitting fiber to the doorstep in NYC will be a very neat trick. There's already an enormous amount of stuff under the street. The last time I had a major cable modem outage, the Fire Department(!) had been running new emergency communications lines. I was a little startled to see the cable trucks with the huge coils and FDNY blazons. I hadn't known they had that equipment. Unfortunately, they weren't as careful not to disturb the other stuff under the street as Verizon and the cable company are.

My cable company keeps pushing a package with cable TV, high speed internet, and VOIP phone service. I've been passing, because it wouldn't be a net savings. It makes sense only if you make a lot of long distance calls (where VOIP is significantly cheaper), and I make next to none. For the occasional call I do make, I have a Qwest LD package with a 5 cent/min flat rate anywhere in the US.

Quote:

I did buy an Ipod Touch, only 8gb, to replace my dying T|X and with the eReader app it's half as good as the T|X. If a MobiPocket app with the ability to read DRM shows up then the Touch will be as good as the T|X for reading. I still far prefer my Kindle for reading but I recently went on vacation and was 3 hours from the house when I realized I forgot my Kindle. Since I was 30 minutes from my destination I wasn't about to turn around to fetch my Kindle. My Touch was an adequate substitute but I only read inside.

Does the Touch allow you to completely turn off the backlight? The Zodiac will do that, and I can read it quite well out of doors. I couldn't do so with the old Tungsten E the Zodiac replaced, which was a problem. It turns out there was a hack that would let me do so on the TE, but I didn't discover it till the E was dying and being replaced.

If the touch will let you turn the backlight off, you might see if it makes it usable out of doors.

Quote:

It was a snap to download a few books from my Fictionwise bookshelf and I had reading material for the vacation. But I can tell you that WiFi is less handy than Whispernet. There's not always free WiFi available and even if Whispernet isn't available, that hasn't been a problem for me, I can still move books from my tablet in a pinch.

That's a plus for my unit. I just dump ebook files directly into the appropriate directories on the SD cards with a USB reader. 3,500 and counting thus far...
______
Dennis

mores · 07-24-2008, 03:15 AM

My wife now has an iPhone (aaargh .... the temptation .... the urge .... must ... resist ...) and I'm blown away by the screen. You can fit about twice as many words on the screen compared to my p1i, since it's so sharp and clear.

One thing I'm missing, though, is a file explorer (a.k.a. finder to us "fanbois"). Right now, everything just works with synchronization, or OTA so you need to download books via the internet, or use a special app to host a server and then download from your own computer etc.

But Stanza's integration with feedbooks is awesome, I think you can browse the whole library and download what you like. Amazing!

mmmmph .... aaargh ... must ... not ... steal ... it ... from ... her ...

NDPTAL85 · 07-24-2008, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radleyp

As I pointed out in another thread, as a business tool this phone is DOA for one reason: the poor battery life of a battery that is sealed inside the case. I don't carry chargers around and I am not about to start doing so.

Apparently our nation's stock exchange would appear to not be as concerned about the iPhone's battery life as you are. http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/...es.oks.iphone/

On another note, I used to be a long time Palm OS user, 5 years over 5 devices (two Kyocera phones and 3 Treos) and I started using FictionWise for eBooks that I would read on the Treos. Last year I got the iPhone and I knew it was just a matter of time before the eBook scene exploded on the iPhone. eReader the company that owns FictionWise released the eReader.app (In the AppStore) for the iPhone that lets you access both your FictionWise or eReader.com accounts and download any books you've already bought. I'm reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood on the iPhone and its great. You can change the font (3 choices) and the font size and read in landscape mode or portrait mode if you want. The iPhone/iPod Touch makes a great eBook reader device.

daffy4u · 07-24-2008, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDPTAL85

Apparently our nation's stock exchange would appear to not be as concerned about the iPhone's battery life as you are. http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/...es.oks.iphone/

On another note, I used to be a long time Palm OS user, 5 years over 5 devices (two Kyocera phones and 3 Treos) and I started using FictionWise for eBooks that I would read on the Treos. Last year I got the iPhone and I knew it was just a matter of time before the eBook scene exploded on the iPhone. eReader the company that owns FictionWise released the eReader.app (In the AppStore) for the iPhone that lets you access both your FictionWise or eReader.com accounts and download any books you've already bought. I'm reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood on the iPhone and its great. You can change the font (3 choices) and the font size and read in landscape mode or portrait mode if you want. The iPhone/iPod Touch makes a great eBook reader device.

When is someone going to post some pictures of the iPhone/Touch ereader component screen shots (hint hint hint)?

07-22-2008, 10:22 AM	#62
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	So does the iPod Touch recognize handwriting? Not that I have the money for one anyway, but that's the one thing I wish my iLiad could do (at least, the one thing that's possible from a software upgrade perspective).

07-22-2008, 05:49 PM	#63
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	As I pointed out in another thread, as a business tool this phone is DOA for one reason: the poor battery life of a battery that is sealed inside the case. I don't carry chargers around and I am not about to start doing so.

07-23-2008, 04:11 AM	#64
stustaff Wizard Posts: 1,055 Karma: 2110 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Derbyshire UK Device: sony reader PRS505 and 600	waht poor battery life? Its far better than both my nokia business phone and my old sony! This is according to manafacturers websites Talktime Iphone - 8 hours nokia n95 - 4 hours samsung blackjack - 5.5 hours blackberry cyrve 8300 4 hours palm treo 750 4 hours or look here for the 3g which puts it in the top 4 smartphones http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=148348&page=1&zoomIdx=1 basically it seems your 'impression' 'guess'? may be wrong Im guessing you havent done any type of test yourself that shows otherwise?

07-23-2008, 10:51 AM	#65
TheJohnNewton Addict Posts: 256 Karma: 144599 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Boox Nova 2	StuStaff, Well my friend who had the first gen iPhone and now the new one is quite dissapointed with the battery life, which is less with his new one vs. the first gen, of about 3 hours of active use. Of course that is just one datapoint so it could be an annomoly.

07-23-2008, 11:44 AM	#66
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	It is not an anomaly, judging from the experience of both my wife and her computer pro (who, BTW, carries her charger now, since there is no way she can get even a half day's use without it). The additional and major problem, of course, is that the battery is sealed: no business (my small law firm included) will ever embrace such a device. Blackberry has little to fear. This is a consumer device, and a beauty to behold (that's what creates envy in me) but it would never do what I need (I can't be without a functioning device in the middle of a meeting), so I am afraid I will just have to pass.

07-23-2008, 02:49 PM	#68
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	And, Dennis, this higher surfing speed is a mere twice the speed of Edge. Verizon has had better speeds than that for years!

07-23-2008, 05:13 PM	#70
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	Yes, I realize that, I was just pointing to the foolishness of thinking that AT&T 3G on the iphone was great. In fact, as you know better than I, AT&T HSDPA can go up to 5/6 times as fast as Edge, but if the iphone allowed that you wouldn't get 2 hours of battery life. The iphone is the most beautiful phone I have ever seen, but it just has too many serious drawbacks (no buttons, for example, which makes it much harder to use one-handed) for me to consider it now. As for Verizon Wireless, I have had good service with my MotoQ (I just had to replace it, and Verizon was prompt and the service responsive). It is, however, the most expensive, and for that reason alone, we are considering a switch (though not to AT&T with which we had bad experiences 2 years ago).

07-23-2008, 07:36 PM	#71
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	Guess I'm a Verizon fangirl because I have Fios with my landline, Internet, and TV along with a wireless plan with three phones. DH moved from AT&T to Verizon Wireless because of coverage so we're totally Verizon. I'm not a huge fan but so far they've delivered what they promised when promised. No skipped installation appointments and (knock on wood) absolutely no hardware problems. Customer Service is hit or miss but I usually can find someone who can help me if I can't find the answer on their website. I did buy an Ipod Touch, only 8gb, to replace my dying T\|X and with the eReader app it's half as good as the T\|X. If a MobiPocket app with the ability to read DRM shows up then the Touch will be as good as the T\|X for reading. I still far prefer my Kindle for reading but I recently went on vacation and was 3 hours from the house when I realized I forgot my Kindle. Since I was 30 minutes from my destination I wasn't about to turn around to fetch my Kindle. My Touch was an adequate substitute but I only read inside. It was a snap to download a few books from my Fictionwise bookshelf and I had reading material for the vacation. But I can tell you that WiFi is less handy than Whispernet. There's not always free WiFi available and even if Whispernet isn't available, that hasn't been a problem for me, I can still move books from my tablet in a pinch.

07-24-2008, 03:15 AM	#73
mores Guru Posts: 834 Karma: 102419 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Vienna, Austria Device: iPhone	My wife now has an iPhone (aaargh .... the temptation .... the urge .... must ... resist ...) and I'm blown away by the screen. You can fit about twice as many words on the screen compared to my p1i, since it's so sharp and clear. One thing I'm missing, though, is a file explorer (a.k.a. finder to us "fanbois"). Right now, everything just works with synchronization, or OTA so you need to download books via the internet, or use a special app to host a server and then download from your own computer etc. But Stanza's integration with feedbooks is awesome, I think you can browse the whole library and download what you like. Amazing! mmmmph .... aaargh ... must ... not ... steal ... it ... from ... her ...

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