So whos getting an IPHONE?

I don't know if any of you guys are familiar with the vidcast "Geek Brief TV", but the hostess, Cali Lewis, is a Mac head and picked up the iPhone on Friday. I saw the Saturday show and she was saying she might take it back because of a misunderstanding about the terms for "unlimited data". She and her husband ended up keeping their phones, but said that when she called TMobile to cancel existing service, their reps knew more about the iPhone/at&t service terms than the at&t rep did. To paraphrase, "A response of, 'I think so', doesn't inspire a lot of confidence when talking to an at&t rep".
 
Sit down and use it, give it an objective look, and 9 times out of 10 you'll probably like the Apple product more (whether it's iPhone, iPod, or a Mac)

I must be one of those 1 out 10 people, because I don't like Apple products more. Nothing special in my book. And I used to be Apple repair tech, and I had to deal with all aspects of Apples. That was before Intel became chip maker for Apple. Now Apple computers are nothing more than intel based, with crazy software.

Are they worse? IMO no, but, are they better? NO
 
I had the unlimited PDA plan on AT&T on my 8125. I was streaming Sirius on a daily basis and I never set off any flags.

Even doing that, I didn't use the data service enough to justify the expense though.

I canceled the data service and added a line / switched to a family talk plan with rollover. I pay $15-$20/mo less now and have 2 phones.

I don't think I can justify the IPhone unless I'm going to step up and pay for the data service. I guess if you drop $600 for a phone, what's another $30/mo for service... And people think Tivo is expensive ;).
 
I guess if you drop $600 for a phone, what's another $30/mo for service... And people think Tivo is expensive ;).
Data service is only $20 a month for the first iPhone. Additional iPhone's data is $30 a month on top of the $10 each for voice. I got an iPhone and a Samsung and the total is $90 a month.
 
I dont like that you can only recharge it 400 - 500 times and then you need to send it back to Apple for battery replacement.

Why can't I just change the battery myself?

Bingo..... I change my Treo batteries like John McClane changes clips in his pistol..... I have three batteries that I am constantly rotating.....

Also, since it is a sealed phone, ... no accessible SIM card. Better not plan on travelling abroad much with it or the roaming fees will kill you....

Plus, anyone realize we are talking about Apple batteries here? These things are notoriously troublesome.

Oh, and soon as the hype boils down in three months..... version 2 will be announced, which will add some new gotta have it gizmo that makes the originals as desirable as yesterday's newspaper....
 
My wife wants one, and I'm on the fence about it as I love my PDA phone quite a bit.

The problem is that it is locked to ATT at the moment and 8GB is limiting for a music / video player.

It's very slick though, and I wonder how big the first round of production was that sold out in our area.

Cheers,
 
Check out the iPhone coverage over on Engadget if you want to see videos of the GUI in action. Some guy dropped his iPhone and cracked the glass screen already (Apple replaced it for free). Also, This Week in Tech from Sunday is total iPhone coverage where they talk about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about it.

Regarding the overseas, I'm assuming the iPhone will be similar to the experience I had with my AT&T phone. I was paying $2.49/minute when in the U.A.E. which i considered to be reasonable considering we've used rental phones in the past. Of course, the company was footing the bill, so I probably talked more than I would have if I was paying for it... Other locations are much more reasonable.
 
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I got one

I went to the Apple store at about 7:30 Friday and picked up an 8Gb model. I must say, it is truly a nice phone. I am not a huge iPhone pusher, but I would tell somebody to give it a try of they were on the fence between getting one or not. The EDGE is painfully slow but Wi-Fi is great. It is a nice phone and is worth the $600. The Data plan is also very reasonable considering the unlimited blackberry plan from AT&T is $45 per month and the iPhone is $20 and does more. Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase.

Sent from my iPhone
Matt
 
One thing of note is that unlimited data has been $20 for regular cell phones. I have had the plan on my razr since I got the phone. For some reason they have just gouged the blackberry/pda crowd, probably because the are used by businesses and businesses pay for it.
 
The interface is exactly what is different about the phone. If you look at it feature by feature, this phone is about 3 years behind (not counting the iPod and full HTML browser) but if you take the interface, multi touch, and the way it works, it's different than anything you've ever used. It's more like using a Star Trek interface than anything else.

What I think is sad is that people who use Microsoft products, and Motorola phones, and all of that see Apple and immediately dismiss it. I've used all the different phones so I can look at the pros and cons, but don't dismiss it out of hand just because it's an Apple product. Sit down and use it, give it an objective look, and 9 times out of 10 you'll probably like the Apple product more (whether it's iPhone, iPod, or a Mac)

I never said I didn't like it. Actually, the interface IS what I said is good, different from other PDA's I have used. Admittedly, I've only used 3 in the past 3 years, not every one ever made. The multi touch / squeeze is an interesting concept. I was comparing the features and stating it was nothing new. Apparently we agree.

As to the decision to buy one, no, I am not interested in AT&T due to the service. Just no coverage in many of the areas I need to go in my travels. Verizon / sprint are the two that seem to work. Plus, I have no complaints about the speed of EVDO. It could always be faster but with 500kbps-1Mbps it's better than any other wireless broadband.

Maybe I'll back off from my original thought that the Iphone is 90$ marketing hype, 10% engineering. to 80% marketing hype! :) I can assure you that the new XV6800 will be all engineering because as usual, they won't build any false hopes through advertising. In fact, like the 6700 most people won't even know about it. Scott didn't until I had him check it out. He returned his Treo700W and got the XV6700. The Treo was full of marklet hype as well and left many users disappointed. My wife still uses one and it is good for her but I need more than the Treo, so did Scott.

Anyway good luck with your iphone and I'm happy that Apple is making a fortune on them so it will help keep their computer division funded. After all the money I spent on the Mac here and software, I'd hate for them to announce closing down due to lack of profits.

PS- What is a Star Trek interface? Did you mean Star Tac?
 
Bob- Not sure about the 500 recharges but you made it sound like that was a spec from Apple. If Apple uses NiMh battery technology, that is the spec on the particular chemistry if you are lucky. But most cell phones use Lithium Ion today as it lasts a lot longer and has much better power weight ratio no memory, and over a thousand charge cycles. One of the problems with all these PDA phones is battery life for the "talk time" or in the case of a PDA it's not just talk time it's also screen light on time and with wifi, that is a real battery drainer. Both my wife and I need to carry a spare battery for a long day like 15-16 hours on a business trip before we return to the hotel to get the phone in the charger for the night. I even have a charger for my XV6700 that will charge the phone and the spare battery at the same time. If you can't swap the batteries in the field, I am concerned about it ability to perform on a typical business trip- up at 7am work all day and evening dinner with clients return to the room at 10-11PM. . Will the iphone last?
 
I had the unlimited PDA plan on AT&T on my 8125. I was streaming Sirius on a daily basis and I never set off any flags.

Shawn- I don't know what the magic flag number is but there was lots of talk on the PDA forums about the clause in the Verizon contract that mentions this definition of "unlimited" as being only for data excluding media streaming. On my trip in April, gone for nearly 5 weeks, I did about 25Gb of transfers using sling box and sirius for hours on end and it didn't trigger and warnings about exceeding the unlimited limits.
 
I frightened my wife when I found that I could add the iPhone Unlimited Data package to my AT&T plan for $20/mo. She said, quickly and with great conviction, "No. No, put it out of your mind. No." :D

Saw this iHype cartoon:
 

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I had a chance to play with one this weekend. I am not a big supporter on mini-browsers but the ability to do the browsing with your hands is quite amazing. The browser is very easy to use and looks very good. The download speed is slow and it has trouble downloading videos. I tried to get to Satguys and it had trouble downloading all the pages.

It was using the AT&T internet connection. I did not try to change the network to my internal network to see if the speed was different.
 
I had a chance to play with one this weekend. I am not a big supporter on mini-browsers but the ability to do the browsing with your hands is quite amazing. The browser is very easy to use and looks very good. The download speed is slow and it has trouble downloading videos. I tried to get to Satguys and it had trouble downloading all the pages.

It was using the AT&T internet connection. I did not try to change the network to my internal network to see if the speed was different.

OH yes try local network it will bea BUG dif, EDGE is very very slow.

Also for here use pda mode scott has it looking good in PDA mode.
 

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