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Posted on 07/04/2007 10:25:42 PM PDT by Swordmaker
BURLINGAME, CALIF. - What do mobile phone geeks call their useless, deactivated handhelds? Bricks.
But enterprising new owners of Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people )'s iPhone have discovered that even if they remove the tiny activation card from their new toy, it’s still far more useful than a paperweight. Instead of a phone, it becomes a Web-browsing device with a big, beautiful screen--and a vision of what's next for personal computers.
For Apple, it's a round trip. The company's Newton kick started the idea of mobile computing in 1993 before morphing into a limited "personal digital assistant." Now the iPhone and its product-line descendents offer a glimpse of what's to come--a world of small, elegant machines allowing users to take true, full-featured Internet access with them anywhere.
It's already happening. Hackers that embrace this side of the iPhone can eventually shed their $60 to $220 per-month, two-year contract with AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), and continue to use their iPhones for unlimited e-mail and Web access over WiFi, as well as for playing music and movies. The Unofficial Apple Weblog is calling this strategy the "sixth-generation iPod."
None of this pleases AT&T, but the fact remains that the iPhone functions well as an attractive Web-browsing tablet as long as the user remains in range of a WiFi hotspot.
Ironically, AT&T is enabling that, as well. The company said Tuesday that subscribers to its high-speed DSL Internet service at home or work will get free access to 10,000 WiFi hotspots across the country in McDonald's restaurants, Barnes & Noble stores, UPS stores, coffee shops and airports. For non-subscribers, access to the ubiquitous hot spots costs $8 a day.
Why would consumers pay $600 for an iPhone only to deactivate it and use it as an Internet tablet and media player? Well, not many will. But for those that do, the iPhone-as-tablet will look attractive, if a bit pricey (typical of Apple’s computers) when compared with similar products on the market.
Reactions to Palm's (nasdaq: PALM - news - people ) $500 Foleo, announced on May 30 (see "Palm Opens Up"), which the company describes as the future of mobile computing, have been mixed. It has a nice, laptop-like keyboard unlike the iPhone, but it's bigger, has little media storage space or playback software, and far less sex appeal.
Neither has Nokia's (nyse: NOK - news - people ) $400 N800 tablet taken the market by storm. It remains a cult favorite among fans of the open-source operating system Linux, but, like Apple’s 1990s-era Newton, the N800 has thus far failed to capture the mainstream.
Various over-priced models of the Microsoft-envisioned Ultra Mobile PC devices have hit the market in the past year, from companies like Samsung, Asus and OQO. So far, that Windows computing platform has fared little better than the tablet PC, which was introduced in late 2002. Tablets currently make up only a tiny fraction of all laptop sales.
All of these products fail the crucial "pocket" test--they’re just too big to be carried conveniently. Until now, the trouble with a tiny computer has been the squint-inducing tiny screen, along with hard-to-place buttons. But the iPhone’s giant touch screen takes a crack at solving those problems (and, so far, won’t crack in the pocket).
When Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs launches new iPods in time for the holiday-buying season, we may see a non-phone iPhone. And if, as software developers are hoping, Apple loosens its grip on the device’s operating system, we may soon see more ways in which the device can be used as a true mobile computer.
Some developers are already trying, even though Apple has restricted them to using only the Safari browser as their canvas. Top on their list of desirable creations? A version of eBay's (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) Skype software that allows voice calls over WiFi, and turns the iPhone back into a phone for free. Mountain View, Calif., and Luxembourg-based start-up Jajah is nearly there, announcing this week its "Free Your iPhone" campaign for making 3-cents-per-minute International calls via the company’s mobile Web site.
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video can be taken out at the i-pod port, and soon someone will have glasses adapted to a plug that works with the ipod, with the optical effect of a 60” display at 8 feet.
I know the glasses are already there for around $200 a pair, I just don’t know about the plug.
That is a pretty small hurdle.
Check iPhone availablity in your area here:
http://www.apple.com/retail/iphone/
A cursory looks tells me that most, if not all stores, are out of stock. That’s in line with estimates that stock would last to the middle of this week.
The thing this iPhone is lacking is significant memory. This thing needs 80 plus gig. Until you can store decent amount for things like video, it is not worth it. Probably third generation, the iPhone will rock.
This reminds me of the old joke about new hard drives...
Geek One: "Hey, I just got a new hard drive for my computer!"Geek Two: "Great? How big is it?
Geek One: "Not big enough."
So, if you’re on a long-haul flight and you’d like to use the iPhone as an iPod, you won’t be able to use it for too long without having to charge it.
I have no idea why they have this asinine concept of a non-user-replaceable battery, on a high-drain device like a cellphone, nonetheless. For this expensive phone, when the battery runs out, you send it to Apple along with a payment of $75, lose the use of the phone for a minimum 3 days, and hope that the phone is not returned with pry-marks on the covers. A simple battery door would have fixed it, without compromising much on design.
Besides, after about an average 1.5 to 2 years of use, when most Li-ion batteries will require a replacement, Apple charges $75 for the new battery, by which time the phone would have depreciated in value by drastic amounts(ever tried selling an old cellphone? No one buys them). On a Nokia, you can have a similar capacity battery for about 15 bucks.
http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3026&p=1
These are bound to get better with time. THEN I’ll get one.
No bias here. /s
How much longer are people going to continue with this canard?
I thought I was going to wait until the end of this week to get one, but when I saw stocks running out, I grabbed one on Tuesday. And it’s a good thing I did, since they’re out in all places except two — in the entire country (and that’s Tigard, Oregon and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).... Oh boy!
Regards,
Star Traveler
Oh gawwwwd..., you must be a cutting edge geek or something! LOL...
I mean for the normal and average consumers, they’ll be saying it has a huge amount of storage space. For the geeks (as someone else said), it’s “never enough”.
One thing you’ve got to realize here is that with the iPods, the ones that have the flash memory have smaller storage. The iPods that have the larger storage are hard drives.
So, with the iPhone, it’s going with flash memory and thus it’s not going to have 80 Gigs of storage space, until the flash memory comes up to that size (and with prices that are affordable). They weren’t going to put in a hard drive in the iPhone, so that left the iPhone with about 8 Gigs for a maximum.
And as flash memory progresses and gets larger and is priced cheaper, you’ll see the larger sizes for storage in the iPhone — but — that’s not now. You’ll just have to wait.
But, for the several million people who wanted the iPhone — now — they got what they wanted and with something that is very usable (with regards to storage space) and they’re very happy. And that includes me... :-)
Regards,
Star Traveler
The service plans will be cheaper than the batteries if you’re concerned about that, and having to replace it within months (as someone was so ridiculously suggesting... LOL).
I’ll let you know how my battery works out. Check back with me in about two year.... :-)
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. — On charging the battery, I’ve not charged the battery once, until this morning, having used it a lot since Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, since getting it activated. As you can imagined, I’ve been all over this thing, doing all sorts of stuff. It seems to hold up pretty well to a lot of usage. But, I’ve got the charger and I can use it in my car, too (as I’ve got an inverter in it). I’ll probably get a car charger, too, but I don’t know, maybe not. I don’t think it’s a problem...
Free, handheld WI_FI computers are indeed the future.
I know the decision to not put a user-replaceable battery in it was an economic one, rather than anything to do with engineering. If it works for Apple, what’s to complain?
Lol!
Yes, for someone with a normal daily routine, it shouldn’t be a problem. The battery thing aside, the product is indeed marvellous.
“I’ll let you know how my battery works out.”
While you’re poking around at it ... is there a way to download an image of your memory to your local comp, so when your phone goes back for a new battery ( and you’re down for a few days ) you can be assured that your data is not compromised or that it dosen’t fall into a UPS black hole ?
Where have you been?
Yes. You sync it to your computer with iTunes. All data on the iPhone is duplicated on your computer. If your iPhone is lost, get another and sync it with iTunes and you are back in business.
While you’re poking around at it ... is there a way to download an image of your memory to your local comp, so when your phone goes back for a new battery ( and you’re down for a few days ) you can be assured that your data is not compromised or that it dosen’t fall into a UPS black hole ?
Well, I know that there will be a lot of people poking around on the iPhone for a while to come. Although I don't personally know how to get a "disk image" of the 8 Gig flash drive onto my computer (and that's doubtful, at this point in time), the basic user data (like Contacts) is "two-way sync-able". Now, some of the others are "one-way sync-able" -- meaning that they only sync from your computer to the iPhone. So, it only gets on your iPhone from what was originally on your computer.
But, there is a question about "Notes" since I don't see that as something that originates from the computer, but from the iPhone. So, there is a question there.
As someone else pointed out, yes, you sync your data with your computer -- but that's not the entire question here. There is data on the iPhone which is generated from within itself and may not be sync-able with your computer. I mentioned "Notes" and I'm thinking that your calling data (like missed and received and made calls) is the same. And also, there's a question (in my mind) about "bookmarks" (on the web). I know you can sync all the bookmarks you have on your own browser, onto the iPhone, but I don't want all those booksmarks that I have, and only a select few on the iPhone, so I'm not sure what to do about that.
These are all things to be sorted out -- as a new device and a new piece of equipment and see how it all works. It's still "new in the game" and this is what will be found in in the weeks and months (too) -- as the hackers and users and others find out more information on the iPhone.
I sometimes think you bring some of these things up to try and show problems of one kind or another -- and give a negative slant to the iPhone. However, some of these things I would like to know, too -- but I'm not giving the iPhone a negative slant as I perceive you're trying to do. But, you do mention a few things that I would like to find out about.
The one "big thing" I can see that I would want to save, would be the "Notes" and I don't see how to save that right now. But Apple has a link for users to provide input, so they can gauge what the users want and incorporate these things into the future models of their products. I would imagine that Apple is looking for quite a few improvements, right now, for the iPhone, because they're going to want to keep it "going" and "advancing" for quite a while -- and that will only happen as they improve it as they go along. And, you can believe they will keep improving it as they go along. That's pretty much guaranteed -- as that's the Apple way of doing it.
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. -- By the way, if any iPhone user want the "iPhone Manual" you can download it. It's a big file and a long download, or if you view it inside your browser window, you have to wait quite a while for the entire thing to load, first, before it shows up (so it's not stuck...). You just have to wait a while for it to complete...
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