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FCC Approves iPhone
An anonymous reader alerted us that the iPhone is one step closer to hitting shelves. "The Federal Communications Commission approved Apple Inc.'s iPhone, clearing the way for the combined phone and music player to hit the shelves. Apple expects to begin selling the phones in late June. Some of the FCC documents confirm a few features of the phone, including it will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and will operate in the 1900MHz and 850MHz frequency bands. The phone uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the low-speed GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) wireless data standard."
No 900/1800 GSM. Slow GPRS. No user-installable applications. Lame.
At least it has wireless!
Apple asked that other documents such as diagrams, a schematic of the radio, the radio bill of materials and operational descriptions remain private indefinitely. The FCC agreed to the requests.
Anyone else miss the old days when every radio came with a schematic? They were usually under the battery cover or in the manuals. It really helped spark an interest in electronics, at least for me.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Vermont doesn't get to play with the new toys like the rest of the kids. Unicel has a firm grasp (sp/grasp/stranglehold) on the GSM network up here. As of current, and for what ever reason, they will also not be selling the iPhone. One would say go with Cingular or T-Mobile or which ever carrier applies, but one can't do that without penalty as well for not being on home network. If 50% of your calls, or more, are in non-network coverage areas for Cingular, you get the 'sorry-we've-dropped-you-as-valued-customer' letter.
Another techie making the mistake that the checklist of features is all there is to a product.
I wish it was still modded flamebait. The very first statement was blatantly false and misleading and the last was "Lame". That looks like classic flamebait to me.
I've been using EDGE through T-Mobile and it's much faster than GPRS. Not sure how it compares to EVDO and I won't vouch for AT&T's network, but it's misleading to tag the iPhone with "slow GPRS" when it supports EDGE.
Windows Mobile already lets you do this. Has GPRS/802.11, and a skype client available is available. I don't understand why people get excited about the iPhone as a geek toy, when really it's being marketed to the same folks that buy the stripped down Razor and iPods. Just as much innovation is happening at HTC and Nokia with phones as with Apple, but I never understood why the main stream news media has such an obsession with Apple.
Hmmmmm. What part of 'Apple cache'' didn't you read? Sure, distribution is nice. Marketing plans are nice. But it's not the same as slogging MP3 players and MacBook Pros. I doubt Xserve's do very well, despite their margins and accessorizing. Are they making money on media? Perhaps a little. Hardware margins are tight, and they're asking a fat wad of cash for a phone, even with the checklist. I wish them luck, but they'll be bruises.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
The very first statement was blatantly false and misleading and the last was "Lame". That looks like classic flamebait to me.
Welcome to Slashdot, newbie.
Sorry. There was this whooshing sound that, um, destroyed my concentration. Yeah, that's it.
What part of 'Apple cache'' didn't you read?
I read it and I also think you're wrong. Not everybody buys Apple products for their "cache" [sic]. Some of us buy them because they WORK BETTER, and that does not mean "has the most checkbox features".
It only works on 850/1900 in the US because that is all that is used. It also supports 900/1800 according to Apple.
In my opinion, I highly beg to differ (this post is long, so please bare with me if you want).
Apple.com has this introductory product description:
iPhone combines three amazing products -- a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching -- into one small and lightweight handheld device.Let's look into this for a moment. Keep in mind that Apple is most likely targeting or at least attempting to re-acquire most of the audience that also bought their iPod products:
A revolutionary mobile phoneFor us "geeks," this phone is probably nothing but the ordinary. We have already seen devices that surpass their "revolutionary" claims, at least specification wise. But it has no physical keypad. This is important. How usable is this "screen keypad" (something that has been tried, and has failed, before) and how well will the public receive it? I honestly expect that this technology is indeed "revolutionary," since their staple claims are normally their strongest and perform undoubtedly better than their competitors.
A widescreen iPod with touch controlsSo Apple could market this as a quasi-evolutionary, no -revolutionary, upgrade to their current iPod line and possibly garner their old audience. Or they could entice the many who have been wishing for a touch-screen iPod with widescreen (the Zune finally dies here) with this product and let them have a phone on the side. Speaking as a "geek," I know I've seen oodles of phones with music players and MP3 capability, but it would be a lie for me to say that the majority of them are worth replacing an iPod or similar (for reference, check the RAZR with iTunes line and see what I mean...)
and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searchingMany people here have already bashed this phone for its somewhat antiquated connections to the Internet. But how many people in the United States use the full power of mobile internet on their phone? I know few who do more than purchase ringtones and other commodities for their device (if even that), and maybe do a quick search for something of the moment, like movie times (which are carrier-catered in most cases). The iPhone integrates this experience straight into the UI so a normal person doesn't even have to really open a browser to do the simple things. Want to search for a location? Just "tap" the search button. Need to find movie times? Can probably be configured there too. I wouldn't even be surprised if there is are OS-wide search functions built-in, which is something that few, if any, independent phone carriers have been able to accomplish (at least not with smartphones, which are still in their infancy).
Its obvious that the iPhone is up against lots of veterans in the field. But Apple is the MASTER of usability, which is what makes the bulk of the phone experience. This phone should and deserves to do very well.
AT&T is now using HSDPA, which is significantly faster than 1xRTT, EDGE, GPRS, etc. and on par with EV-DO. Much of the network supports it, with a great number of deployments in the past few years. Also, compared to Sprint, AT&T has more 3G coverage in my market (out of the 4 3G networks here, Sprint, Alltel and Verizon EV-DO and Cingular HSDPA, only Verizon and Cingular bother to cover outlying areas).
The worst major carrier (digital broadband wise) is T-Mobile.
EDGE's theoretical maximum is 473 kbps, while EVDO's is 2.4 Mbps - five times as fast. Real world performance is more like 800-1200 kbps, which is still four times the real-world performance you can expect from EDGE.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Very interesting considering what some are predicting for the iPhone.
Developers: We can use your help.
Want to know what the killer app on the iPhone will be?
myspace.com
I'm a teacher, and I can tell you that at least 10% of my students have Sidekicks (or knockoffs), and that is all they do with them.
All.
Day.
Long.
This will be the next status item for teenagers and "trying-to-be-hip" parents everywhere. These are the people who buy a $500 purse and take it to the grocery store, or who buy $150 shoes and walk around with the tags still on. This phone costs no more than 3 pairs of pants for them. I already hear them talking about how much they hate their Sidekicks and how much they think the iPhone will rock. It's on their birthday lists. I have no doubt that Apple will be laughing all the way to the bank on this one, big time.
I'm not saying it has to happen, I'm just saying that I saw it happen with iPods and Sidekicks, and this has got all of the same symptoms.
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
People don't care whether their phone has GPRS or EDGE or EVDO or 3G. The points nobody's mentioning here that will make the phone take off are:
Decent resolution camera for a a phone.
Sexy touchscreen with multi-touch! This is new to any consumer device, not just phones.
Visual voicemail. A first for any phone.
Display changes orientation when you turn the device. Again: HAWT.
The promise of web browsing in your hand that sctually renders real web pages correctly.
Built-in iPod functionality that syncs with iTunes, and lists of songs/movies you can "flip" through.
It's not how much memory it has or how fast it communicates, it is the "unquantifiable" that sells things like phones.
At the end of the day, do you think people will care about any of those things? I mean the people who actually buy these kinds of phones?
Personally I think it'll come down to style and price. They'll win on style, but the price will stop your average joe from picking one up. But who knows, maybe that's what Apple wants.
Their computer division has been competing on style for a long time now. They make a profit on each box they sell. I imagine they want the same thing with the phone, because maybe, just maybe, Apple doesn't consider a checklist of features or complete domination of every market "winning".
Unlike a certain other company that shall remain nameless.
What is is all that is. Isn't that obvious?
I read some of the comments in that old story and came across this gem:
... ... ... ...
Raise your hand if
Raise your hand if
Raise your hand if
Raise your hand if
There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh?
I'll say. I've never seen anyone with four hands.
Windows Mobile also lets you crash three times a day, runs extremely slowly, costs as much and doesn't interface well with anything except Windows.
Features I'm counting on the iPhone to not have.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
I agree that it's not marketed at geeks.
But I'd be hesitant to call anything that relies on Windows Mobile innovative. I have 3 different devices running some form of Windows Mobile (up to version 5) lying around gathering dust.
Having used the 802.11 "support" in Windows Mobile, it highlights to me *everything* that is wrong with the platform. A multitude of different ways to configure (and misconfigure) it. Patchy support for differing levels of the protocol. Configuration settings that don't "take". Having to download third party applications to just get WPA to work properly with the way the auth is set up on our corporate wireless network. Whereas I suspect the Apple equivalent will be as painless as it is on Mac OS X.
It'll be a cold day in hell before anyone can convince me to purchase anything with Windows Mobile on it again. Microsoft have had their 15 years, and its still a turd.
omg they spoiled it again to enter the "handheld" market
You are right. It is not acceptable to have no UMTS or at least EDGE support for this price.
I do not know whats up with apple, I am really surprised that they did not even add last years technology.
For this price and the brand Apple I would expect EDGE/UMTS and the ability to have third party software on the
phone like small java apps that make your live easier. I would expect at least a developer kit like you can have for
Palm, M$ or Symbian based systems.
And with this for sure overpowered HW one could really do nice things. Too bad that apple decided to be even more proprietary than the others.
Somehow the iPhone is an overpriced Music Player with some phone functionality and not even a Smart Phone.
I stick with my Palm Treo stuff until Apple decides to be more open and consideres to have a "normal" price for the really awsome hw (except having no EDGE or UMTS)
Apple should work on developing a Platform for phones that is less dommed than m$ stuff and symbian stuff.
Does it include GPS btw? I would expect GPS too to have some google maps and routing with this phone.
I worked in some mobile phone software/platform company a year ago and I can tell you these ppl could have done a better phone if there was enough money.
Thats why it really depresses me what apple did with their resources.
I at least hope some companies manage to clone some good stuff of apple that this branche moves on to some brighter future
c.u.
bsdU
I think that the choice of spec for the iPhone is interesting and it tells me that Apple does not see 3G as being as "killer" as people think it is for the time being. Here in Europe, 3G is ubiquitous but irrelevant. We tried it for a while with video calling but it was expensive and rubbish and people don't determine their purchases on whether the handset is capable of doing it - 3G is just a marketing tool to foll people into thinking that they are buying something revolutionary (a kind of tech security blanket if you like).
That doesn't mean that Apple won't introduce it (they've certainly said they would), it's just that there is no real justification for having it. If you want bandwidth to surf the web, use wifi - plenty of it about here in London and so much cheaper than the data plans the operators currently offer, "web'n'walk"-type deals notwithstanding.
Ultimately, the success of the device will hinge on whether people think they are getting a great experience "using" the device for the money that they will be charged. People will forget about the lack of 3G if the fascination with the UI and the iPod functionality becomes the primary focus of the device.
We shall see...
You're not the target market anyway--as nice as it would be for Apple to make a version of iTunes for Linux, it hasn't been done yet. Nonetheless, people who refuse to use commercial software for ideological reasons aren't Apple's target market for obvious reasons--although you'll probably figure out how to run Linux on an iPhone just for the sport of it, so best of luck to you.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
AT&T as a captive carrier
You know, I really don't care for Apple and I tend to think that most of their products are more marketing success then actual functionality, but even so you can't really blame them for AT&T being a captive carrier. That's the way the damn cell industry works in the United States. The carriers have all the power. Ever tried to create an app for a cell phone? Ever tried to do something in the interest of your users and not in the interest of the carriers? Good luck!
Verizon and AT&T rank as the least friendly carriers to do business with -- both for developers and for their end users. Crippled phones, disabled features, draconian terms of service, etc, etc, etc. Sprint is slightly better and T-Mobile USA is probably the most friendly but even they pale in comparison to the freedom of choice that exists in the rest of the World.
I would encourage everybody to go read this document. It explains how the industry works and advocates for an adoption of wireless network neutrality and applying the carterphone rules to the wireless industry. There is simply no excuse for why I can't just go down to Wally World, buy any phone I want (from a $20 el-cheapo POS to a $600 PDA), plug my SIM card (or RUIM card for CDMA) into it and use it.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
This feature is not called "shuffle"... it's called iDrunkDial.
-- Terry
Luckily, T-Mobile is better at just about everything else, for a quarter of the price. Sure, I only get EDGE speeds. Then again, I'm not spending $80/month for data access.
- oZ
// i am here.