iPhone Rumour Round-up

Coffin Black writes "Apple only has to look askance at a piece of hardware and people are falling over themselves to slap an 'i' all over it and slavering about how cool the theoretical gadgetry is gonna be. So the iPhone may not even exist — beyond a 'just once more thing' gleam in Jobs' eye — but already the column inches are stacking up. Think the iPod is dying? Never fear, says this columnist, it's merely evolving from one form into another (clue: from portable to mobile). This writer, meanwhile, is sticking the boot in early — she says she won't be buying an iPhone, when it of course finally makes it onto the shelves... Though she does add: "If Microsoft created a Phune (a phone and a Zune in one, geddit?), I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole either but that's a different story."" We also covered this story a couple months back.

Comments

Battery life is the problem

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Like the author of the article says, you don't want a phone that you need to plug in every day just to listen to 2 hours of music. You don't want the phone to run out of juice when you need to use it as a phone.

Other than that, I think the sleek styling that Apple applies to their products would be a great relief from all the tiny, too-ill-featured mobile phones on the market today. If the author would just use a little concealer, she could probably stop looking like a raccoon.

Re:Battery life is the problem

[meanween]

I doubt battery life will be that much of an issue. I'm guessing that the author must own a disk based iPod. Bigger screens and hard disks suck up the juice. I'm guessing Apple would take the innards of an iPod Nano and stuff it in a phone. Those new nano's are supposed to run for 24 hrs on a charge.

Re:Battery life is the problem

[conigs]

As per the battery issue. I know people who have mobile phones "a couple years old" that have to charge up every day as well. Batteries will do that if you don't take care of them. Then there was this little gem:

I've spent hours of my life convincing iTunes I should be allowed to play songs I either ripped from lawfully bought CDs or purchased from Apple itself on my laptop or my iPod. (emphasis mine)

That little gem right there leads me to believe this is more flame bait than anything else. And I stopped reading there. If you are honestly having difficulty ripping a CD and getting it to work in iTunes or on your iPod, I don't think you are qualified to be writing this article. I'm aware she's trying to be balanced and even mentions a few times about "flaming" and so-on, but seriously? You can't get ripped songs to play in iTunes?
< /soapbox >

As for the rumored iPhone itself... I'm sure it will look slick and hopefully just work (tm), but it has to be pretty damn good to survive in the saturated mobile market. People have to really want it (which they will) and continue to want it (that's the kicker). I know a guy who's on his 32nd mobile phone. He got his first in 1998. That's 4 phones a year. While he's on the extreme end of the scale, it reflects how fickle people can be about their mobile phones. It's going to be a tough market for Apple to work with.

First hand experience with convergence

[Centurix]

1. Something happens to the phone. You lose the MP3 player, camera and storage device while it's getting fixed.
2. Something happens to the camera, you lose the phone, MP3 player and storage device while it's getting fixed.
3. You get the idea.

Um, she can't be THIS clueless...

[lidocaineus]

From the article:

I've spent hours of my life convincing iTunes I should be allowed to play songs I either ripped from lawfully bought CDs or purchased from Apple itself on my laptop or my iPod.

First off, I've *never* heard anyone complain about DRM problems when playing music they've ripped because... uh, well, iTunes doesn't put DRM on that. And while I really dislike DRM (yes, even Apple's, you thought I was going to say theirs is tolerable weren't you?), Apple's is extremely easy to work with. When you download a track, it works in iTunes on the computer you downloaded it from. It works on the iPod that you transfer that song to. And it works on up to four other machines as well (someone can clear up the details if I got the number wrong) with some brainless simplicity - when you try and play a DRM encumbered file, it asks you for your iTunes Store username/password to authorize playback. What exactly is difficult about any of that??

Re:Um, she can't be THIS clueless...

[conigs]

That's what we call flame bait. It almost sounds like she heard a few people complaining about DRM and decided she wanted in too. Though she has a wonderful technique. It goes like this:

her: I know you'll hate me, but your band sucks!
band: Why?
her: Well, your xylophone player is horrible. No talent at all!
band: Um, we don't even have a xylophone player. We're a three piece garage band: guitar, bass, drums.
her: Well, I knew you'd hate me. But let me finish! You have a mastery of Nirvana covers.

Something along those lines. It's the "You'll say I'm flaming because I am, but I'll acknowledge that I'm flaming and say some good things to cover it up so I won't look like I'm writing a flame bait article to drive hits to our web site!" technique.

Battery life is just one problem

[PopeRatzo]

I don't really want an mp3 player that is connected to any network beyond my own computer and home network. That's how much I hate the idea of DRM and music industry tracking of what I listen to. It's only a matter of time until the portable media player includes books (both audio and written), news articles, etc., and I really don't want unknown parties aware of what I read or what news I digest.

I'd much rather the media player manufacturers concentrate on quality, capacity, battery life, and usability features (eg: I listen to my mp3 player during my 25km trip to work and home every day, and I'd like detachable controls that I can stick on my handlebars so I don't have to fish in my pocket to skip a song or change a channel.

The only exception to my desire to stay off the grid when it comes to my music player is satellite radio. If they could come up with a really good Sirius receiver built into a video mpeg player, I'm there.

Women Hater

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, Phune is kinda dull, but you insult me, personally, with the way you opened your comment. You need to go take a class or see a counselor... something...

and here's mine

[bunions]

convergence: grab treo off charging station, walk out door.

sans convergence: grab cell phone, mp3 player, walk out door, walk back in door to get organizer, almost walk out door, realize you'll be sitting on the train for 45 minutes, walk back in to look for gameboy or a book, walk back out door.