10 Comments Status Quo via Cellular Technology

1. Justin

   January 9th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

   1

   blasphemer!

   no but really, i can see your point with the screen, the whole device looks a little fragile. your comment about the battery life- what are you talking about? i think the ipods today are rated around 14 hours of playback, and the no-screen shuffles somewhere around 18 hours, so 16 hours of playback while staying connected to a phone network and doing much more in the background other than playing music? i think that’s pretty impressive my friend. pretty pricey though, but considering its got all features of any smartphone + ipod and more, its fairly justified.

2. brian smith

   January 10th, 2007 at 12:12 am

   2

   Let me say when I first saw it and heard the features I was astonished. I thought Apple pulled it off. But now I am seeing things that would prevent me from buying one.

   About the battery, if you think of it as just a music/video device then the battery life is ok. But if you think about it as a phone it’s horrible. Common phone batteries have about 10 hours talk-time, 300hours standby. Now imagine if you used this phone as apple claims you can:listening to music, talking, interneting, watching video, all intertwining together. That is really going to push that battery life. And it’s different when your iPod dies, you just stop listening to music, but if your phone dies, that always sucks. Also cell phones have removable batteries. If it dies or something happens you can always get a new one.

   Second the price is outrageous for what you don’t get. You don’t get Cingular 3g network capability. Which is strange considering they are in the middle of upgrading their 3g network to be super fast. You don’t get upgradable storage. This is no iPod replacement. Most “superphones” as I am going to call them, have mem cards to upgrade your storage. I can get an 4gb card for my phone right now at about 1/5th the cost of the iPhone. And you don’t get smartphone capabilities, that is smartphones are generally platform devices that allow you to install apps and your own software. Not with the iPhone, you only get what Apple wants you to get. And I bet there is no unlocking this one. Oh and don’t forget you most likely have to get a Cingular, and only Cingular, 2 year contract to get that price. Otherwise it’s probably $700-$800 if even possible to get.

   In my opinion they took an outdated, handicapped phone, mated it with an iPod Nano and slapped a slick touch screen interface on it. If you compare it to an ipod it’s big in size and small on storage. If you compare it to a common smartphone or high end cell phone it’s big in size and restrictive, and underpowered.

3. Chap

   January 10th, 2007 at 6:36 am

   3

   They’re clearly going after the early adopters with the first release. Then they’ll drop the price, add more features, and improve battery life. Just like they, and all other electronic companies, have done.

   So I predict that both Shatt and Brian will have one within a couple of revisions. You can’t deny the Apple attention to detail and execution. I’m sure we all had different MP3 players but when you get your hands on an iPod you realize how unappealing yours is. It’ll be the same with our phones.

   Also, if I’m not mistaken I think I paid $499 for my original 10 gig iPod.

4. Justin

   January 10th, 2007 at 7:42 am

   4

   I’m trying to think back about all of the mobile phones I have owned, operated or thrown across a room into a hard object; honestly, I can’t think of a single one that had 300 hours of standby time or 10 hours of talk. Recently, my Blackberry 6XX series, monochrome screen phone had a standby time of about 200 hours and talk time of roughly 6 straight.

   However, upgrading to a Treo 650 brough on color screen, touch sensitive screen, internet access, etc. At the same time the average talk time is less than three hours, with bluetooth disabled! Standby time is damn-well if I reach 24 hours.

   My a900 can standby about 40 hours and talk time for three or so.

   I’m not sure of the phones you guys are using, but that is just two of about eight phones I’ve had in my lifetime and none of the other six were any better. Regardless of what they rate it, they’re not rating it on normal usage.

   Most companies rate their battery life with odd settings that most people don’t utilize, know how to set or care about. Such as bluetooth, the public typically doesn’t know that turning bluetooth off can increase battery life tremendously. Modifying the screen’s contrast helps too, etc.

   I can’t say I won’t ever own an iPhone, however, if it doesn’t meet my specific feature list, I won’t. I require a few things from a phone, unfortunately they usually only come with nicer phones.

   Cell phones are so over-rated!

5. Justin

   January 10th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

   5

   brian…
   “In my opinion they took an outdated, handicapped phone, mated it with an iPod Nano and slapped a slick touch screen interface on it. If you compare it to an ipod it’s big in size and small on storage. If you compare it to a common smartphone or high end cell phone it’s big in size and restrictive, and underpowered.”

   Are you kidding me? When is that last time you’ve ever seen that kind of functionality, innovation, and usability in phone apps, not to mention all rolled up into one device? the answer is never, so how can you call that “outdated” and “handicapped”??. if you wanna talk about handicapped refer back to the comment that steve made in the keynote. having a hard, physical keyboard taking up 40% of the device that doesnt change with each app is what i consider handicapped. apple utilized the entire surface area of the phone and made it adapt to whatever application that you are using. the phone runs OS X and true desktop quality apps which means they arent using watered down, “handicapped” apps like the web browsers and email clients found on current smart phones. i see alot of expandability in this phone, i mean, the support of widgets alone has the inherent capability to expand. just go to the OS X section of the apple.com and see how many new widgets people are developing every day. surely you will be able to download those onto your iphone and be able to do anything you would ever need.

   You do make a good point about how it would suck to be listening to music and all of a sudden, aww your battery dies, which means no more phone too.

   i dont think apple is trying to replace the ipod… yet
   eventually, just like the ipod, the price will get smaller as the capacity gets bigger, then things will get interesting.

6. brian smith

   January 10th, 2007 at 1:01 pm

   6

   @ justin shattuck: The numbers I stated about battery life is purely manufacturers specs. My phone is listed at 8 hours talk time, 350 hours standby, the SE p900 is listed at 16 hours talk time 480 hours standby. Now of course real world battery life is probably much less, but if we are talking about Apple’s battery life we should compare that to other manufacturers specs, not actual data.

   @Chap: I agree with you. When the actually release the iPhone in June it might be cheaper and have more features. But we don’t know. I’m basing my opinion on what I saw yesterday, not what they might do in the future. In two years the iPhone may be $99 and have 1000gb storage with super wi-fi and mutant powers, maybe then I’ll get one.

   @Justin Clark: I agree 100% that the UI and innovation behind the iPhone is outstanding. The touch screen is nice and yeah it has plenty of features. My comment that you quoted is mainly from a hardware standpoint. All the functionality, usability, and innovation is on the software/UI side. Which is what I expect from Apple. I will be the first to say that Apple’s designs, UI, OS and pretty much anything software related is second to none. Unfortunately they have a history of using subpar hardware and components. This affects me greatly because I am a hardware kind of guy, always have been always will. I would rather have some revolutionary hardware as opposed to some fancy UI that I may or may not enjoy.

   The touchscreen is a good idea. I mean they didn’t come up with the touchscreen in general but I give them credit for being the first to put it on a phone. But it does bring some problems. As Shattuck pointed out it will probably have a tendence to crack or break. And along with every iPod made that has a screen, will probably be full of scratches after a week. Unfortunately, being a touchscreen, it most likely won’t work with a plastic screen protector. Using your finger as a stylus is a good idea to except that it’s going to have prints and smudges on it like no other.

   I just say wait a year or so and then let’s see what the iPhone is capable of. We all know that 1st gen Apple products tend to be buggy and basically a big risk of malfunction.

7. Justin

   January 10th, 2007 at 7:07 pm

   7

   Glad we live in America and can share our opinions, otherwise, Brian might get taken out :)

   hah, j/k man — good points. This iPhone has been a large topic all day today and yesterday.

8. Justin C.

   January 11th, 2007 at 4:45 am

   8

   http://www.openmoko.com/press/index.html

9. Justin

   January 11th, 2007 at 9:09 am

   9

   @Justin C: Checking out the screenshots is pretty fun. I enjoyed the keynote presentation over the whole iPhone, however, I still am a bit skeptical, personally.

   I know I won’t get one anytime soon — just don’t have any reason to. But it seems like a sweet phone, functionality, benefit, feature wise.

10. brian smith

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    10

    Here are a couple of links I came across that have significant relevence to the iPhone:

    http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth/

    http://digg.com/apple/Apple_VPs_confirm_no_3rd_party_iPhone_apps

    http://digg.com/tech_news/UPDATE_on_Cisco_s_iPhone_Trademark_Cisco_Responds

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