Apple iPhone doesn't disappoint

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by erwin

Well, in the meantime one can use HTML files with the iPhone Safari browser

Yes, as long as they keep their books online. Because there is no way of uploading them to the phone... (you can't mount it in file transfer mode)

Originally Posted by TadW

Apple cannot afford approaching niche markets.

Apple is the EPITOME of niche market

Originally Posted by Khisanthus

300MB is still quite large for anything that would be considered a phone though. I just hope the extra goes to things that are used on a daily basis.

According to Macworld, it's 500 MB. The extras are pretty lackluster compared to other smartphones. I mean, come on... a calculator? Calendar? World time and alarm? Notes? Even the cheapest dumbphones have those... Where's the RSS reader? Where's the drawing (or scribbling) app? IM? Office editors? Voice notes? Flickr uploader?

Blech ;(

Edit: BTW, http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iPhone_User_Guide.pdf

[orcinus]

They don't ship a wall charger with A PHONE?! WTH?

Sometimes i really wonder if there's anyone still in Cupertino product management and marketing offices with an ounce of grey matter left intact.

On a side note, mobile Safari can display RSS feeds, but that's a far cry from a true RSS reader. Again, blech ;(

[mrbadog]

It's not the extras. It's how it does the basics. Phone, e-mail, web. A real browser. An innovative and intuitive user interface. Plus a widescreen ipod. And yes, it does include a wall charger. If you already have an ipod charger for your car, odds are it will work with that too. And there are many reports that the Edge network has been kicked up to 200 kps. And with minimal reliance on hardware "buttons", able to upgrade and evolve with software downloads.

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by mrbadog

It's not the extras. It's how it does the basics.

Yeees... Well, it does them rather badly, as evidenced by numerous "Top 10 worse things about iPhone" articles cropping up lately.

Button placement is completely illogical in places, Back buttons and Edit buttons appear in the same place, there is no way to send an image from the mail.app itself (you have to go to Photos to do that), there is no way to export or import notes (except sending them to yourself via e-mail), there are no copy/paste functions, nor a clipboard of any kind (and since there are no 3rd party apps, you can't add them either), it doesn't save a message to drafts if you exit midmessage, you can't switch the predictive text / autocorrect off, the predictive text / autocorrect doesn't work in Safari, there is no flash support, home screen doesn't rotate to landscape, the large, landscape keyboard works ONLY in Safari, you can't send ANYTHING via Bluetooth, nor recieve ANYTHING, it doesn't work with iSync, it doesn't work as a wireless modem, you can only send ONE PHOTO per email, you can't customize alert tones in any way... Shall i go on?

So, in essence, a lot of chrome, low on functionality and low on ergonomics. A complete & utter flop.

Edit: And no, it does not come with a wall charger. And sorry, but the Yeti-like sightings of 200kbps sound utterly laughable to me, while i surf around with my i600 at HSDPA speeds (1.8Mbps theoretical, around 1Mbps real).

[FourOhFour]

Originally Posted by orcinus

They don't ship a wall charger with A PHONE?! WTH?

It comes with one. I'm using it now.

[texag]

Wow Orcinus....where are you getting your info from? Twice you've stated no wall charger...twice people have stated they are using one that came with their iphone, myself included.

Yes, there are "top 10 things wrong" articles out there, but there are also glowing reviews by Pogue, Mossberg, and others that are very well respected and have actually used the iphone.

[Azayzel]

It's too bad I won't get to see the iPhone until I return to the states (can almost guarantee we won't see this puppy here in Japan, though I'll keep my fingers crossed); I'm actually quite interested to see how it actually works out. Maximizing the screen by incorporating a touch-screen into the face is just awesome, let's just hope that it's not as much of a scratch-magnet as the iPods are.

On a side note, they do have a pretty nice portable phone over here that looks like a mini-PC (don't know if it qualifies as an UMPC, since I think it runs WindowsMobile). Apparently they are embracing the whole wireless on your phone concept quite readily.

I really enjoyed my SmartPhone before I came over here, I was able to put most PDA apps on it, had a bluetooth connection I could hook my GPS up to, ran TomTom Navigator on it all the time, used it for geocaching, synced it with my corporate email/contacts/calendar via Outlook; ahh... so many uses and yet I couldn't use it while over here. I hope the iPhone is at least intelligent enough to sync with Outlook or Lotus Notes, otherwise I don't see to many corporate entities snapping them up like they did the Treo & Crack.. I mean Blackberry.

[TadW]

Did you guys know Microsoft was secretly working on a iPhone clone?

Here: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070701

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by texag

Wow Orcinus....where are you getting your info from? Twice you've stated no wall charger...twice people have stated they are using one that came with their iphone, myself included.

Once, actually. Yes, i was wrong about the charger, sorry about that.
Here's an explanation:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ripoff/br...one-273992.php

"Add to that the fact that the salesman didn't even know a charger was included and tried to upsell a different charger to the reader."

However, i stand by everything else i've wrote. It's a very good iPod, and a rather lousy phone. Yes, i'm sure it's the best thing since sliced bread for people who've never had contact with high-end (or even mid-end) phones before, but it's still clunky ergonomics-wise, and lacks things that are considered normal and standard on other, much cheaper phones, while giving less (except the nicely done iPod functionality) than any smartphone on the market.

Yes, the interface *looks* nice, but from what i've seen in the manual, various videos and reviews, it takes longer to do even simplest things than on most other phones and is very limited (note: i'm not talking about the phone now, but the UI).

The "first real" browser? What a laugh. Nokia smarties have had a browser that renders pages like that WITH FLASH, and to make things even funnier, it's based on apple's webkit, just like Safari! Heck, even Microsoft's Deepfish renders things the same way and uses the same overview/zoom-in/read/zoom-out methodology.

HTML mail? Had that for ages... Profimail, Flexmail...

Google maps? How about Nokia Maps? Blackberry Maps?

Originally Posted by texag

Yes, there are "top 10 things wrong" articles out there, but there are also glowing reviews by Pogue, Mossberg, and others that are very well respected and have actually used the iphone.

The "top 10 things" articles and posts were written by early adopters. Maybe it's just me, but i tend to believe people who've actually *bought* the phone and used a lot of other, more advanced phones before more than people who got theirs from Apple.

Besides...

Mossberg: "...and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

Mossberg (on keyboard, initially): "I wanted to throw it out the window after 3 days"

Mossberg: "Instead, it uses a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones." and immediately after that, betraying how limited his experience with smartphones really is: "The iPhone compensates by being one of the few smart phones that can also use Wi-Fi wireless networks. When you have access to Wi-Fi, the iPhone flies on the Web. Not only that, but the iPhone automatically switches from EDGE to known Wi-Fi networks when it finds them, and pops up a list of new Wi-Fi networks it encounters as you move."

Guess what, *most* smartphones have Wi-Fi and all of them can automatically give preference to Wi-Fi over EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA. All of them list new Wi-Fi networks as they appear.

Let's go on... Mossberg: "But this Wi-Fi capability doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a fast cellular data capability, because it is impractical to keep joining and dropping short-range Wi-Fi networks while taking a long walk, or riding in a cab through a city."

Mossberg: "Some accessories for iPods may not work properly on the iPhone. The headphone jack, which supports both stereo music and phone calls, is deeply recessed, so you may need an adapter for existing headphones."

Mossberg (on interface): "In general, we found this interface, called “multi-touch,” to be effective, practical and fun. But there’s no overall search on the iPhone (except Web searching), and no quick way to move to the top or bottom of pages (except in the Web browser). The only aid is an alphabetical scale on the right in tiny type. There’s also no way to cut, copy, or paste text.
And the lack of dedicated hardware buttons for functions like phone, email and contacts means extra taps are needed to start using features. Also, if you are playing music while doing something else, the lack of hardware playback buttons forces you to return to the iPod program to stop the music or change a song."

And so on, and so on...

Yes, the headlines say it's the best phone in the universe (and i believe for some it really will be), but do try to actually read the full articles and read between the lines as well. What they really say is: "nice first try".

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

I hope the iPhone is at least intelligent enough to sync with Outlook or Lotus Notes, otherwise I don't see to many corporate entities snapping them up like they did the Treo & Crack.. I mean Blackberry.

AFAIK, it syncs with Outlook, but not OTA. There is no support for corporate email solutions, but Apple is allegedly working on it.
I'm not sure how suitable it will be for heavy emailing and corporate access without a hardware keyboard and enormous popup letters showing your passwords to anyone who happens to wander in your vicinity...

Edit: Just BTW, some early adopter iPhone experiences -
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1190824
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=322382
I sincerely hope they'll get their act together and fix all of that before the European (and hopefully 3G) version

[mrbadog]

Ornicus,

Try using one. It's the user interface that is revolutionary.

[tribble]

I just would love to see that multitouch feature. I rellay like the UI things that apple does to support the touchcontrol. But the iPhone seems to lack quite a few functions. But i guess its for a very special kind of customer

[orcinus]

So far, the only multitouch feature seems to be the pinch gesture. The rest of it is single finger - and except for the nifty little animations and physics - functions the exactly same way it does on, say, an SE M600.

Hopefully they'll add more in future updates (cut, copy, paste etc. would be nice, as well as a global play, pause, FF and reverse), because it'd be a terrible thing to waste that nice multitouch screen on just one, moderately functional gesture.

[scotty1024]

Of course I lined up and got one Friday.

Of course Apple will update it to add features in the coming months, that is one thing that sets this platform apart from Windows Mobile: regular updates with new features.

To all those that say "Where are the features", I say "Remember when Windows Mobile first came out?" The features will come and unlike with Windows Mobile we won't have to buy a new phone.

The wall charger is very very nice, incredibly tiny and the fangs are completely tucked inside so you can stick it just about anywhere for traveling. It uses the ubiquitous 30 pin to USB cable which one can find anywhere now. And it comes supplied with a dock to slip it into.

The folks that say its a toy: I've got my corporate Lotus Notes email up and working on it.

PDF's and DOC files have to be delivered via email attachment right now but Apple will supply USB Mass Storage Mode and a Filing application soon. In the meantime the PDF/DOC access is superb! The 160 PPI screen with LED back lighting is simply stunning and the touch interface under what appears to be a solid chunk of optical quality boro-silicate glass is like using LCARS.

I've hooked all of my personal email accounts into the device. The touch interface means I can rip through my email faster than ever before. With the WiFi interface I get full speed to the internet email servers. Yahoo/GMail etc all setup just by entering your username/password: it handles the gory details of setting up the account. Heck with GMail it came back and told me I had POP access turned off on my GMail account and I needed to turn it on and how to turn it on.

I have iTunes TV subscriptions and you can sync your unwatched episodes onto the device automatically. As you watch them it removes them. During the process of watching them it syncs the current play position back and forth so you can seamlessly switch from computer to iphone to computer and keep track of your most recent play point. Ditto for movies.

The device feels indestructible. Nothing shifts, nothing bows, nothing twitches, nothing creaks. It feels like it was carved from a piece of metal. if you examine the various tear downs you can see just how well built it is. At the end of the day you know where some of the $600 went: into the case. So far no one has reported being able to scratch the glass, even after going medieval on it.

As for FLASH, Adobe has been getting away with some really bad things for awhile now. I think the reason there is no FLASH is very simple: Adobe's license for embedded devices is a king's ransom. Completely and totally unreasonable and I'm glad to see Apple calling Adobe on it.

Battery life is excellent, far far far in excess of the iLiad. OK, so that's damning it with faint praise, but seriously. I've been demoing it all day today and the battery just now hit 75% after 9 hours of heavy use with WiFi on for Internet access for most of that time.

The lack of 3G has not been an issue for me. I swim in WiFi here in Seattle, the buses I take to and from work have WiFi into 3G. All the Starbuck's have WiFi and in Seattle there is nearly one on every corner. The EDGE is slow, 172Kbps on average. Not wonderful but better than nothing at all.

If it had a Mobipocket reader on it I'd frisbee my iLiad out into Elliot Bay.

[nekokami]

If Apple would make development on the device more open, you'd probably see Gnash (or another open source flash player) on the iPhone in no time. Similarly, the Mobipocket reader is available in Java, which would probably run on the iPhone just fine, if allowed to do so. That could be tougher to get past, though, as it would not only involve opening the iPhone (with or without Apple's help and permission) but getting Apple and Mobi to agree to talk to one another. Watching similar negotiations crawl along with iRex wouldn't make me hopeful about a Mobi-Apple deal, but I suppose one never knows. (Mobi ought to be keen on it -- with all the hype about the iPhone, it could be a killer platform for them.)