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Fans Cheer as Apple's iPhone Finally Hits Europe
An anonymous reader sent in this article which opens, "Apple fans lined up through Yesterday night in Germany and Britain to be among the first in Europe to buy an iPhone, the must-have gadget that is set to shake up the mobile industry." Over 10,000 phones were sold in Germany by Friday afternoon. In France, however, the iPhone doesn't arrive until the end of month.
First post
... might not be exactly legal, but it works.
And the fact that many have been using iPhones in Europe for a while now
I'm sure the fact that Apple will finally have to reveal how much the iPhone will cost unlocked / sans contract has nothing to do with the fact that France is getting it last...
Jerm
Oh, you're not a real doctor, are you?
Glad to see that there are people everywhere who get taken in by glitzy, superficial, overpriced, under-featured gizmos - just because the tech media says they're wonderful.
Is there no hope?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
That so many are so excited to get an iPhone...
And so few are outraged that that traffic (or at least the connections) will more than likely be logged by the government against the will of the people.
There's no outrage though - we get an iPhone!
Sad.
... who clearly has never had a girlfriend ;)
--I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
I would not mind paying for an iPhone(if it were available where I live), but paying 0,39 pr minute is stupid when I am used to pay less than 0,10 with any other phone. But perhaps the normal minute rates in Germany are that high?
I don't remember seeing that high minute prices since GSM were introduced in the late 90s.
Actually, I understood that the launch wasn't so great.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I heard other things about this:
Bus charters to bring buyers to stores were cancelled.
It costs over Eur 1,600 in contract fees.
From DE press:
"The big run like the startup in the United States, however, didn't show"
"US hysteric, DE deep-relaxed"
"People using software to break the SIM-lock and use cheaper services"
Have they changed the price to reflect the plummeting US dollar? In Canada, the (recently updated) Macbooks are still priced as they were when the Canadian dollar was a fraction of the American. I don't mind Apple making a profit on superior hardware, but a $350 markup just because one is forced to order within a certain locale rings too reminiscent of DVD region codes and all things loathsome.
All fine and dandy, but when does the iPhone goodness come to Canada? Impatient Canadian minds want to know.
- The phone will only work as long as Apple wants it to work
- The Phone will cost a fortune to use outside of the local area
- The phone is programmed to check mail and deliver revenue to your service provider even when it is "off"
- The phone is a closed environment, and will probably require several days with a loaner phone, at additional cost, to repair.
- this phone does not have the advanced features that everyone seems to find so critical in other phones, such as user generated custom ringtones.
I am sure there are others, but that is a good start. If you buy Apple products, like I do, it is better to go in with eyes wide open, rather than whine later. Most of these things are beyond the Apple SOP, which is why the iPhone, to me, is not nearly such a great product, but those who do buy it surely can no longer be surprised."She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
As far as I'm concerned, the stupidest thing about the iPhone is its name. It should have been called the iPDA, which comes with a phone feature.
Mr Nigel Baines, a pensioner living in Bromley Park Crescent, was the first known victim. "I hadn't even left the front steps of my home when an iphone hit me on my left thigh. I'm afraid to go outside anymore.", said Mr. Baines, a veteran of several other conflicts.
How about the person who owns the blog and gets the revenue from all those google ad views? Think he or she might have submitted it?
It looks like a great product, but the lack of 3G is a show-stopper for me. Hopefully this will be included in the next generation.
Not like the US roll out is it?
I actually think the French will get the best deal. The worst part of the phone for consumers is the exclusive contract with the networks.
Think Deeply.
The like the iphone, Apple and wanted to buy one?
Just because you dont like them doesn't mean others may. ( And no, i dont have one, nor will i get one, but i can appreciate otehrs liking/wanting them )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Starting out your saturday morning by broadly insulting iphone buyers must make you feel so much better about yourself...
Here is one for you -- Instead of playing armchair tech-pundit-moron, why don't you go play in some traffic and die already...
In the UK, we're used to getting our phones for free. Now, nobody is expecting to get an iPhone for free, however, this contract does show a marked change... Here, when we take out a phone contract, we get a phone for free ( higher the rate of contract, the more expensive phone you can have ). The carrier will lock you into the contract for usually 12 months ( sometimes now 18 months ), in order to recoup the cost of the phone. That's fair enough, good value, everyone happy. If you *buy* a phone here, you aren't locked into a contract, and can switch provider or have Pay-As-You-Go etc. With the iPhone, you have to *pay* for the phone, *and* you get locked into a min 18 month contract. So what cost is the carrier recouping? The fees it's paying to Apple, that's what. In the first instance, the benefit and the cost-penalty go to the consumer. Fair play. In the second instance, the cost-penalty stays with the consumer, but the benefit moves to Apple. Someone somewhere is rubbing their hands with glee, but it's not the little guy on the street. Sorry, it's a nice shiny device, with a very cool interface, but it's lacking in some important features, and I know a bad deal when I see one.
It leads to irrational actions and purchases.
I try to be a fan of as few things as possible, and instead buy on the technical merit.
link(in danish): http://politiken.dk/tjek/digitalt/telefoni/article424644.ece
Basically it says that the phone is now available, unlocked. thanks to parallel imports and indirect use of the french directive.
The price is 5900 DKK, approx ~1150 USD.
Thats the price without a calling plan - look mum, no hands!
You are free to do what the fuck you want.
but then again..
Where's the 3G, and why would I have to criminalize myself
should I like to add my own little helper applications not
provided by apple. This system is way to closed.
So they can have their phone and marketing,
I'll see if they fix the issues with it being
so controlled, and I'll stay with the Nokia N95,
until something better will appear in the market,
still N95 beats Iphone.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
An objective comparison:
sig?
WHATEVER!
Those plans/tariffs are really expensive:
so you have to pay at least $72 per month, get only 100(!) minutes of free talk, outrageous extra minutes, pitiful 40(!) sms messages and $36 for some Bereitstellungspreis (babel:supply price). True, you get "free" data over slow EDGE.
I just wonder how the owners will feel after a few months when the reality distortion field collapses.
The source is here:
http://www.t-mobile.de/iphone/showTariffs.do
Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
I'm very much afraid that not ---- sorry, but keep smiling anyhow.
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
I live in Germany and have been using my unlocked 4GB iPhone since September with my Work provided E-Plus sim card.
I am amazed at prices the expect people in Germany to pay, i mean i payed $299 + tax (i think it was like an additional $17)
when i bought my iPhone in the US (ok so the 8GB was $399) but now they expect people to pay $585!!!
And somehow i know they are not going to reduce the price in two weeks!
Now i know why they call it Rip-Off-Europe, next to a PS3 thats crippled and costs twice as much as in the US/Japan,
this would simply go into my 'like hell i'm paying extra for THAT' list.
But, I'm just glad i bought mine over there, for (at current rates) just 203 Euros.
i would like to give you some info on what i have seen in Nürnberg on the day of the launch/day after. First of all, the "T-Punkte", the T-mobile shops as they are called were no more busier than ever.At any given time, 2-4 people were playing with the demo phones asking stupid questions like: "can i use a local prepaid card when i am in Italy, where i go 2-3 times a year?" you should have seen their faces. Because europeans tend to travel inside the EU a lot more often and they do tend to buy local prepaid cards in order to benefit from the local charges.
And on another note, in Köln on the day of the launch, they had 800Iphones on stock. After the big lines at midnight went away, they have sold 200 iphones. So there was not the craze as in the usa.
I take my children to see Madonna(..), but I never for once ever thought I was in the same business.Chris Rea.
I was walking around London's West End last night - up til about 4PM there were only about 50-70 people in the Apple Store Queue, almost outnumbered by staff,stewards and press. A few other phone shops had barriers and door staff from around 5PM but no sign of anyone interested in queuing. By 7PM many of the phone shops were not exactly crowded, with half the staff outside leafletting and trying to persuade people in to have a look. Considering there are currently >600 unlocked ones on Ebay UK, it isn't exactly surprising the 'official' launch was a bit of a flop, as anyone really interested would already have an imported one.
I'm certain they will queue up in France for each buyer in turn to say, "moux."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Germany has 82,400,996 people (July 2007 est.) and they sold 10,000 units in one day. That's represents a 0.0121%. Should Apple be happy or something about those low figures or something!?
Firstly: I admit, I bought one last night. I'm an Apple fan; but NOT a fanatical one.
:-D
I bought mine in Southampton, where there's an Apple store. I did go there with the intention of buying one there, but the queue was longer than outside O2 or Carphone Warehouse (the only other two sellers) and the staff had obviously been hyped up to whoop and holler and run along high-fiving the queue, which might herald excitement in the US, but in the conservative UK is distinctly embarrassing and probably put a lot of people off queueing.
I bought mine at an O2 shop and there were more staff (at least 15) than people queueing, even at quarter past six when I turned up (the launch was at 6pm). The staff looked a little embarrassed.
What was most irritating was that I simply wanted to hand over my £270 and take away the damn phone, but while I was waiting I was besieged by O2 staff asking if I was OK, offering me muffins, trying to demo the iPhone, trying to get me to sign up to some expensive insurance deal, trying to sell me accessories, trying to lick my ass... if they had put all these staff behind sales terminals, they would have sold them a damn sight faster and probably sold more of them, as several people got bored and wandered off!
When the Apple shop in Southampton opened for the first time, and when the Nintendo Wii was launched in a variety of local shops, I saw excitement and queueing that deserved this kind of reception. However, it was patently obvious that Apple have vastly overestimated the demand for the iPhone in the UK; I haven't seen the local papers today but I suspect Apple won't be delighted with the coverage (I saw some photographers having a field day making the queue look as small as possible).
As to why, I'm sure everyone knows, but here's a recap as to why it's not the saviour of the UK's mobile industry;
1. We're used to either paying for the phone, or the contract, but not both;
2. We're used to accessing mobile internet on 3G, which was rolled out wider and earlier here than across the USA;
3. There have been several competing devices launched recently, which appeal to a range of demographics; for example, techies will like the N95 while fashion victims will like the Prada wotsit;
4. It's quite chunky as phones go - which might sound pernickerty but the market here is very much geared towards fashionable, neat phones (for example, no manufacturer would dare launch a phone with an aerial here within the last few years as they look so dated, while I hear they're still available in the US).
A final thought on a different note though; I have no doubt that the iPhone will be a success here, it's just Apple misjudged the launch a little. Apple have the marketing power that other manufacturers only dream of, and at the end of the day, the public have little regard for technical features or even cost, it's what they perceive to be fashionable and/or popular that will be a success. And I hope it is; despite it not being perfect, it does a few simple things well, and is a pleasure to use.
And me? I say, roll on the open API
In the UK, we're used to getting our phones for free. Now, nobody is expecting to get an iPhone for free, however, this contract does show a marked change... Here, when we take out a phone contract, we get a phone for free ( higher the rate of contract, the more expensive phone you can have ).
This is misinformation - In general in the UK, the more expensive your tariff, the cheaper the handset. Whilst this does mean some handsets have no additional cost, the top end ones usually do unless you're on a crazily expensive contract. So you can go on whatever tariff you want and buy whatever phone you want, it just means that if you are on a cheaper tariff you pay a higher upfront cost for the handset.
I bought my P900 about 3 or so years ago at a cost of 120ukp on a reasonably expensive contract. However, my experience of phones tells me that I won't be buying a smartphone with a closed software stack again. Every single phone I've owned in the past 7 years has been an unstable pile of crap - it's a waste of time for me to buy something I can't fix myself, since the manufacturers clearly have no interest in doing so.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
The iPhone does several things that no other phone in the world does. But that's not the point. Those "super-advanced" European cellphones don't do anything that 5-year-old phones do. Perhaps locate themselves a bit more accurately. Perhaps have a higher-rez camera. Perhaps have a faster Internet connection with a half-baked "web browser".
The point is that the iPhone does mostly what other phones do in a new way. The phone works like a cellphone would if it had just been invented, unlike other cellphones which are essentially a lot of bling and tech-spec thrown onto foundation/philosophy from 10 years ago. And that's why the iPhone is all that. And that's why you'll read reviews on European sites that say things like "my head says no, but my heart says yes." The iPhone makes sense, and has a unique feel, even if it falls short in certain individual categories.
In terms of actual new things, the iPhone has visual voicemail. All of those other "advanced" phones have voicemail that works like a 1970's cassette-tape answering machine.
The iPhone has a proximity sensor to turn off its light and touch surface when it's next to your face on a call. (Perhaps other phones do this. I have not seen or read that any do.) It has accelerometers so it knows what way it's facing (landscape or portrait), which may actually exist in other phones, but is certainly not widespread. The iPhone has a consistent, fingers-only interface with things like pinch and stretch (which are unique).
Just look at how you move through photos or through tabbed web pages: they made it work the same. Other phones don't even have real web browsers, much less tabbed web browsers, much less one where they've rethought how you move between tabs so it's clean and consistent with the rest of the phone.
In the end, I'm glad to hear the naysayers. The more the better -- up to a point -- for my stock investment. Apple stock does so well because so many people underestimate Apple. "Death spiral", "iPod-killer", "iTunes-killer", "nothing new iPhone", "market share too small and can't grow", "no halo effect", etc, etc.
(Not to mention this is iPhone 1.0 and it's competing against Nokia 15.0 (or whatever) and Windows mobile 6.0 (?). Not that much different from the initial iPods, which did not exceed then-current MP3 players in many aspects, but did do it in a more stylish and polished way.)
The iPhone isn't about features. Of course, other phones have camera's and music players and whatnot. The iPhone is about getting it right. I have a simple Samsung phone. I picked it because I wanted a phone with a music player and a decent amount of storage. When I got it, I realized that feature listings aren't everything. The interface is impossibly complicated, the music player is enormously whimsical, it's impossible to get it to play a specific playlist, once it's playing you can't turn it off, file transfer between phone and computer works only if you're lucky and, well, the list goes on and on.
That's why the iPhone is different. It not only has the features, but they're designed to be used. They got it right. The iPhone really is beautiful and exceptional, not because of all its features, but because of how they work and how well they work. Most phones are designed to be bought, the iPhone is designed to be used.
Most of the things you mention are against the law in europe, so consumers can fully hold Apple accountable if they don't get what they expect, namely a phone that follows EU law.
Just because Apple can pull these stunts in the US does not mean it can do them in the EU.
Do you really think the EU would let Apple get away with it after it has gotten MS to finally submit? Remember, thanks to the lovely EU system, we CONSTANTLY have elections, so there is always someone somewhere who wants to pretend he really cares about the voters and will protect them against evil companies.
The EU works, because it is such a mess, the one thing I fear that it ever becomes a working system like the US has. God preserve us all.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
> In the UK, we're used to getting our phones for free.
>
What is happening is that you are paying for the phone by taking out a loan, and then that loan gets repaid over 18 or 12 months in the form of fees that are higher than they are at other companies where you do not get a phone. This may be a good deal, and it should be evaluated the same as any other kind of loan. It is certainly not free!
Bjarke Roune
... after it went on sale at midnight in a Deutsche Telekom shop in Cologne. Brilliant, if you can't bring the fans to use cologne, then bring the fans to Cologne.Carbon based humanoid in training.
Here in Denmark they tell us NOT TO UPDATE FIRMWARE! Because it might lock the phone to AT&T, and the local phone company has to reset the phone back to 1.0.x firmware... So basically, you buy a half-finished product, stuck at launch firmware... SUCKS!
Treo 3G Blazer and Windows Mobile 3G? I haven't even heard of them, or heard of anybody else use them. Actually I haven't seen anybody use any Treo nor any Windows Mobile device. If you want a true 3G phone then you take one phone from Nokia or Sony-Ericsson.
When talking about how iPhone with EDGE beats down 3G, I won't buy that. When you have good 3G networks that are not congested, as they usually aren't, 3G and especially with HSDPA there is no question which network connection blasts the other. It should also be noted that EDGE and 3G are not competing technologies, usually all 3G phones, and all Nokias 3G phones, have also GPRS and EDGE capabilities that they fall back when they fall from 3G network.
All the talk about EGDE beating 3G is just a symptom on the poor condition of US 3G networks. Outside the US the 3G networks really work as they are intended. Actually they are currently starting to phase out older networks, just in this week in example it was notified here in Finland that parts on 900mzh that has been used only with GSM can no be used with 3G.
Also about the bluetooth connection and syncing... really... ca'moon... it works. Just once try with a real phone.
Survey research tool for commercial and scientific use
just shows there are gullible people everywhere
Sure are - you know how many people buy expensive, bulky dysfunctional piece of crap phones just because they have more entries on a feature checklist?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A Londonian armed with a camera debunks the hype.
http://72.14.209.104/search?hs=sUq&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dialaphone.co.uk%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D750&btnG=Search
Res publica non dominetur
To expand on this, let's use my contract as an example. I'm with o2, the same network as selling the iPhone here.
12 month contract, £25 a month. That works out at £300 a year.
I get 100 minutes and 500 texts a month. I'm not a heavy user, so I don't tend to use these up.
This year's phone, included in that cost was a Sony Ericsson K810i. It's a damned nice phone, and does everything I want. When I started the contract, the cheapest you could get the phone sim-free and unlocked was £230 (now £200).
Essentially, I'm paying £70 a year, or £5.83 a month for network service. I could get the "unlimited data" added on for £7.50 a month, although that's currently limited to a 200MB "fair usage" policy.
Now let's look at the iPhone contracts.
The cheapest contract you can get it on is 18 months, £35 a month. £630 over the contract, and comes with 200 minutes, 200 texts a month. On top of that, the phone costs £269. So that's a total of £899 over 18 months.
Lets be generous and say the call and minutes package is double the price of mine, and add the £7.50 for data. That's £19.16 a month, so over the contract works out at £344.88.
Taking all this into account, the phone itself costs the end user £554.12!
30 people cheering... deafening stuff.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
They are also already available in Denmark, unlocked and all..
This is due to a hole in the (if I remember correctly) French law, that states that all phones must have the option of being sold unlocked. Within a day an entrepreneurial Danish telco started doing parallel imports, and it seems to work just fine.
I'm getting a bit sick of seeing that tag on every "Apple" story.
Look, up there at the top -- see the Slashdot logo? Look immediately below that. The leftmost link should be your name (or you need to get an account, you Coward). And just right of that, "Preferences".
Inside Preferences, click on "Homepage", and scroll to "Customize stories on the homepage".
And in there, click the leftmost radio button next to "Apple". Scroll down again, and save your changes.
You can now shut the fuck up and stop trolling the Apple stories, because you won't even see them.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Of all the phones I've use - and I've used most of them - the iPhone has the best UI. No doubt about it. It, as they say, just works.
But, sadly, the UI is a trade off against everything else. I won't list all the ways in which the iPhone is deficient in the current mobile market - but trading them all off against the UI *and* and £230 price tag is lunacy.
Would you use Vista if it cost £230 more than Ubuntu? It's prettier and easier to use?
No? Didn't think so.
I've no doubt Apple will sell a fair few of the things, and I've no doubt that the promised 3G version will be a spectacular improvement. Similarly, by 2009 I expect all smart phones to be colloquially known as "iPhones" just as all MP3 players are "iPods". But right here, right now, the N95 and any other high cost phone blows the iPhone away in terms of functionality and price.
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
Wasn't it they couldn't use the 3M network, which ment that the IPhones internet was about 90% slower than the rest of internet phones in europe.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
The Apple phones costs £269rrp with the minimum monthly contract with O2 is £35. (note - that is the minimum price)
If you go for the minimum contract pack the iphone in the UK will cost around £1000 for the 1st 18 months.
Go for any extra services and this figure goes well above a grand.
Steve Jobs said that it was fairly priced but the UK and other European country's are now looking at a possible breach of international law stressing that only being able to contact the phone with O2 is a monopoly.Something that is illegal in most European states.
And obviously unlocking you phone to go with a cheaper contract deal only voids the warranty of the iphone.
The iPhone over 18 months is super-expensive. I've started a campaign!
http://chrisjsmith.me.uk/images/layoff.png !!!
OK, so Finns are suckers for anything that is "cool" abroad. But they're used to not having their phones locked to any operator. This has been the way of doing things here since mobile phones existed, and in Scandinavia, they have been around a long time. Finland was the first country in the world where mobile phones reached a 70% market penetration.
Somehow I doubt Apple is going to undo the finnish expectations.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
The iPhone does several things that no other phone in the world does.
Yes, in the etch-a-sketch app, you can shake it to erase the screen. That's pretty cool... if you're three.
In terms of actual new things, the iPhone has visual voicemail.
VV was around before the iphone (CallWave, Simulscribe) and Google/GrandCentral's implementation works on any phone currently, for free. It's just not that hard to do.
Other phones don't even have real web browsers, much less tabbed web browsers
Opera *invented* tabbed browsing - it's been around a lot longer than you think. And the neat Mobile Safari zooming effect? That was on ThunderHawk.
Da Blog
Agreed, [Visual Voicemail is] a great feature. Unfortunately, for that to be accomodated, you needed the telco to modify the way their voice-mail system works.
VV was around before the iphone (CallWave, Simulscribe) and Google/GrandCentral's implementation works on any phone currently, for free, and it's good. VV is just not that hard to do. It's easy if you have a real 3G connection, so that you can download the audio on-the-fly in response to user clicks. What's impressive about the Apple/AT&T implementation is that they managed to pull it off using super-slow EDGE. That's what required "epic" phone-carrier cooperation, clever caching, and why the companies involved feel it's a big deal. On that network, it is. On any modern network, trivial.
Da Blog
So that's what the 40 Year Old Virgin does 10 years later - he buys an iPhone.
People keep waving this one around, but honestly, I'd rather have 8G of internal storage than fumble with a handful of mini-SD cards at $75 apiece.
What use is that 8GB to users who have not exploited buffer overflows when you CAN'T USE IT TO STORE YOUR DATA?
4GB mini SD is currently around $35-$40. I expect the 8GB cards will come in at around $60. Also, with a 3G phone, I stream my audio and video from my home server to my phone which saves me carrying around several TB's worth of cards.
[video] Is this really that commonly-used of a feature?
Yes, when you have a good camera and a good network with high bandwidth that can upload to YouTube et al with a single click. This is the same shit I heard from ipod fans when, three years after other people had brought out video players, they were still saying, hey, who needs video? Then Apple releases the ipod with video and suddenly it's hey, video is cool and we did it first!
I frankly don't see the use, since most cellphones have such shitty cameras that you can't tell what it is you're looking at anyway
I agree, if you're using something like the iphone's camera than most things look like shit. However, real camerphones have 3-5 MPs with flashes, and they are great.
Apple is releasing an SDK, and in the meantime, there are tons of homebrew apps.
FUDish vapourware and me-too trinket apps. "tons"... heh. Do you have any idea how many Symbian, Windows CE, or J2ME apps there are?
[Voice UI] Motorola thinks it's so amazing and important that they assign a physical button to it, which I always end up hitting inadvertantly.
My phone has that as well and if it's a problem, you know what I do about my clumsy fingers? I RE-ASSIGN the button, or just de-assign it. I am sorry your iphone UI is the usual unconfigurable Apple thing that's either Jobs' ways ot the high way, but being able to re-assign buttons rules. Voice is the only responsible way to use a phone while driving, for example, and it's all Star Trekky when you use it just walking down the street.
[IM] considering other phones I've used also don't have this feature
Yes, those millions of people using AIM and YIM on their phones must be delusional.
Da Blog
You managed the first sentence, now read the rest of the post to understand what he was actually complaining about. Basically:
Regular phone: You pay up fornt OR you get a locked contract.
iPhone: You pay up front AND you get a locked contract.
Now, if the up-front price of the iPhone was lower than other phones, then you could argue that they just use a different payment plan. However, the iPhone is more expensive AND binds you to a less favourable contract. I.e, its already horrific price tag is even worse than it appears.
You are oversimplifying a bit. Apple does not update your iPhone at their convenience; rather they *offer* updates, which you have the option to accept or decline.
I have heard that part of what makes the iPhone unusual, if not unique, is that the software can be (and, of course, has been) updated to add functionality. I've never heard anyone dispute that this is unusual or unique, though I would seriously like to know if other phones get software updates (optional or otherwise). If not, I'd say this is an oft-overlooked plus for the iPhone.
Why exactly should it cost you to receive calls? Isn't that a case of the phone company charging twice for a phone call? Surely the person who makes the call should be the only one who pays for it? (Unless of course, its to a 0800 which is a receiver pays line.)
- Kaos games and encryption systems developer
To give some kind of context:
I picked up a Nokia N95 8GB (the new black one, apparently the key iPhone rival depending on which reviews you read) for free on a £45 a month 18 month contract. The contract itself can be lowered after 9 months, I'm pretty sure iPhone users are stuck with paying £35/month for the full 18 months.
My contract came with 750 anytime minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited Internet usage. Oh, and I got £50 cashback too.
O2s base iPhone contract is 200 minutes and 200 texts, which is ridiculously low. Either O2 have adopted the same attitude as Apple and basically want to see how much they can strip away before the traditionally meek Apple fanbase start complaining, or they're being squeezed so much for margin that this is the only contract they can offer that makes selling the phone profitable for them.
The idea to make it consistent and a part of the baseline for a phone.
You're right, just like Cisco did for years (thanks to Net6).
Da Blog
Visual Voicemail is trivial to do even on the EDGE network. Voce is extremely low bandwidth
I guess so, although I'd still be wary of an interactive EDGE connection for voice. One thing EDGE can't do, really, is visual VOIP. I've been pleasantly surprised by Microsoft Portrait over the EVDO, which works quite well. Skype Mobile has an easier interface, but it doesn't yet do video.
Da Blog
Well, if he's that obsessed with Apple products, he's probably gay anyway. That'd explain why he's never had a girlfriend.
And here in Finland Apple can't sell the phone with contract because it isn't 3G - the only phone that are allowed to be locked and sold with contract are the 3G ones. Of course they can pick an exclusive reseller but they can't lock the phone.
And my thoughts about the iPhone (used one for about on hour so pick these with grain of salt):
- Browser is great. The best there is (zooming, scrolling, etc.) but my Nokia E65 comes close (there is a miniature screen featuring the full page, just scrolling is not so great wit the 4-way pad).
- Typing sucks. Getting to right contact in phonebook is slower than with dedicated keyboard.
- I wonder if I can even answerd a call with gloves on (here gloves are required for 6 months or so).
- Missing 3G. This of course increases battery life but having 3G would make the great browser more usefull. Now it is just a great browser on a 14.4k modem.
And btw. I'm not a big fan of Nokia either (because of Symbian - it is a pain in the ass to develop for and the current implementations are full of menus and the UI is confusing). But I hope that my choise (the small E65 and Nokia N810 when it ships) will fulfill all my navigation, communication and media needs.
No MMS == no pictures of boobs == no deal for Apple
it's at least 10 times more expensive than other phones and not as good in any way except as an Ipod (i don't want an ipod)
Apple HAD to do this because mp3-enabled phones were going to kill the ipod sooner or later, so they did. Desperate move.
It's funny you'd credit the N95 for having "expandable memory" as a feature. Why not point out that it only offers 0.125 GB RAM, compared to 8 GB of RAM in the iPhone (64 x as much memory). The iPhone doesn't desperately need an SD card slot because it already has as much RAM as you can possibly fit into the N95, without buying an extra $250 8 GB SD card. Of course, if the iPhone had an SD Card slot, the pundits would be attacking it as a "Security flaw!!"
From that perspective, the "potential for buying a handful of memory cards" so you can listen to music or take photos is the opposite of a "feature."
A main reason why the iPhone has so much more RAM than any other phone is that it is designed to actually do useful things, not just offer a long bullet point list of features. The popularity of the iPod suggests people like to listen to music and watch movies and podcasts. The N95 not only has an inferior display, but also offers no multitouch interface for browsing photos from your real camera synced in from iTunes, flipping through music, or watching movies. But the N95 also doesn't have enough memory to play back a movie (and still do anything else).
It's fine for you to act out devotion to Nokia, and the company has lots of fans, but the iPhone is designed for a different market: people who are more likely to listen to music, share photo albums, and browse the web, rather than enjoy the hoarding of SD cards and extra batteries, engage in mobile phone play-photography, or get lost in the woods in circumstances where 30 minutes of GPS would prove to be helpful.
Incidentally, that's also why the N95 can be cheaper if you line up the right subsidy (batteries & SD cards not included). Fortunately, we both have a choice to get whatever we want. It's not like Apple or Nokia are going to run each other out of business in a Microsoft-like fashion, so all the high pitched advocacy really isn't necessary.
iPhone OS X Architecture: the Mach Kernel and RAM
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/mobil/0,1518,516587,00.html
The sales seem to have been rather lackluster.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/iphone-s-hazardous-chemicals "...an independent scientific laboratory tested 18 internal and external components of the iPhone and confirmed the presence of brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna, in which they made up 10 percent of the total weight of the flexible circuit board. A mixture of toxic phthalates was found to make up 1.5 percent of the plastic (PVC) coating of the headphone cables..."
Heck, I could listen to the answering machine as it was recorded, just like in the movies. And afterwards, I got each message listed with caller and length of message, and I could tap the screen to play/delete the messages I wanted. I honestly could not believe what I heard when I read comments on slashdot about voicemail being a "new" thing.
I'm curious about the iPhone because it's slick. Not because of any "new" features, but because the implementation is nice.
I lost my sig.
I would seriously like to know if other phones get software updates (optional or otherwise)
Yes, it's common. Other manufacturers and carriers don't make a big fuss out of it because, well, they do not have planet sized chips on their shoulders like Apple. They also have thousands of ready-made programs and games ready to add on to their smartphones that don't require buffer exploits.
Da Blog
unlike my previous Treo it is seamless to install apps OTA. Actually the best I've seen on any phone/PDA to date.
On my Windows Mobile phone (HTC Hermes), I can browse (using a browser of my choice) to a link, click to download and run a CAB installer, and the program installs is ready to go. I don't have to hack my firmware using bizarre buffer exploits and pray that the manufacturer won't disable my applications without my consent next time I update my firmware.
Da Blog
Done: AppTapp [nullriver.com]
Thanks, but I like being able to install apps on my phone without relying on dodgy exploits and be confident that they will not be disabled by a later firmware update.
Da Blog
I think he meant a "5G iPod."
Well, there's one thing you didn't take into consideration (not a surprise, it only bites in the long run): battery. How I love when gadgets have the battery built-in, so you have no chance to replace it yourself.
This faq can be useful if anyone is suckered into buying an iPhone.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
After playing with iphone/new ipod - the single 'great thing' is the browser built in. Whole two finger stretch/shrink is fantastic and imho the best mobile browsing solution out there.
Apart from that, I cannot see what it offers over 90% of other phones available at a fraction of the price. Lack of 3G is a piss-poor start. Crummy Camera etc etc. Other than the aforementioned browser the selljng point seems to be you can replace your ipod with it. Only reason you'd need an iphone to replace your ipod over say an entry level SE phone is because you've been tied into Apple's DRM. Not too much of a selling point really (Buy anything else and the music you've bought won't work).
The above contains links to the brain-damagingly awful Roughly Drafted website. For a more automatic warning in Firefox, TheRaven64 has posted a useful hack anyone can make to their user.css file.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
How would it not be legal?
What would be illegal about using your iphone with your european phone contract?
Nothing, that's what. Apple might like to make it illegal, but that's a different matter.
It looks like only Windows Mobile devices get functionality updates
I guess it also depends on what you mean by "functionality". For instance, my Windows Mobile phone was shipped pretty bare. I installed a few third-party programs: VOIP (via Skype Mobile), video calling (MS Portrait), encrypted datastore (SPB Wallet), finger/ping/traceroute/etc (vxUtils), a wifi packet sniffer and a WEP cracker, a few extra full-screen keyboards, some new handwriting recognisers, several different ebook readers, a Photoshop workalike (PocketArtist), bundles of games, a media player (CorePlayer), an FTP and a web server, a Flash player, some Flash Card managers, Google Maps, IM+ (GoogleTalk/AIM/YIM/MSN/Jabber), an audio editor, the Opera browsers, threaded SMS, SSH and Remote Desktop, Yahoo Go, an iphone skin mode just for the hell of it, several emulators (DOS, Atari, NED, C64, SCUMM) and a SQL browser.
None of those updates came from either the phone manufacturer or the carrier. Maybe after a few years with an SDK Apple's phone will have a rich enough software ecosystem to interest me, but not really right now.
Da Blog
Good to see it in Europe now, but when will Asia and Oceania get it? I live in New Zealand and the only place to get it here is from importers and you really don't know what you're getting.. although one shop sells it with warranty but it's $1100 NZD currently which is about $850 USD which is insane (this is the for 8gb model!). I wouldn't be surprised that by the time we get it the Iphone 2 will be out >_
That thing still around? According to Dvorak, it was a passing fancy and nobody wants one. Dvorak is never wrong, you know.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Its even worse with T-mobile in germany. Locked for 24 months and you get only 40/150/300 texts which is pathetic.
http://www.t-mobile.de/iphone/addHandset.do?handsetId=99914394
Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
phone contracts are a joke. I bought my motorola phone outright for £80. I have a contract that charges me per second for calls, at a low rate, with zero monthly fees. My phone bill is maybe £2-3 a month, and that's for 2 phones.
Phone companies HATE it when you buy a handset, because they then can't sting you for call charges under the guise of a subsidised handset. Unless you are a fashion victim, buy a handset you like and get a super cheap contract.
the iphone is the pinnacle of consumer capitalism. 30 years ago the mobile phone didn't exist, and we all managed fine. Now people are paying maybe £600 a year in contract, call charges and handset costs just to own whichever one is most fashionable.
madness.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
OOK, MULTITOUCH!! OOK!!
Thanks for the link.
I'm not arguing whether apple news is boring or not.
I'm just wondering why you feel obligated to read those two a day (even to the comments page) and tag them? If they're really so fucking boring, you can do us both a favor and get the fuck out.
Didn't I just show you how?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Just wanted to comment that I totally disagree about the N95. I had that for 2 months before finally giving in and getting a hacked iPhone. On the checklist the N95 is better, in real life the iPhone is not just better, it is a quantum leap ahead. The only functions that are usable on the N95 is phone, sms and camera. The only thing I miss is the camera (and maybe 3G). The camera on iPhone is not satisfactory (lowres, no light, no vid). But the rest, the total experience, is not even comparable. I do have a hacked iPhone, so I have lots of apps on it, but even with just the basics, I would pay 10 times more for the iPhone.
Sorry to sound like a fanboi, this is just my honest (subjective) experience...
Da Blog
I've seen a few articles about the apparent non-events at some Apple stores around the UK. I'm not sure if this particular one is actualy real but it did make me chuckle. http://www.surrealscoop.com/2007/11/iphone-launch-sees-breakthrough-for.html
weird that the post here mentioned germany AND the UK but the numbers given are the German ones - was there an ASSUMPTION that the UK would mirror US hype? even tho' the UK is the most heavily-subsidized handset market in the EU (and maybe the world)?? http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/?p=750 has pix of the windy absence of such crowds at opening...
You'd be surprised what's not on the map in this country. - Mulder
There's always the case where you think it's worth buying, but it's too expensive. Not everyone is made of money. Wanting the price reduced on something is only reproachable for rich elitist asses. For everyone else it's something called a "market force".
If food suddenly cost 10x as much, I'm sure you wouldn't say it's overpriced. You'd either buy it or starve. That's sensible.
I bought a mac mini entirely because of its "design and building". I wanted a dual core or dual proc x86 machine with at least a gig of ram to use as a server, and I didn't want a big noisy 2'x2'x.5' tower taking up my limited apartment space. For the price I could have gotten something marginally more powerful but substantially larger and noisier, without bluetooth, firewire, or s-video (which aren't important for a server, granted, but if I want them they're there).
I don't even use OSX on the thing -- I installed Linux from day 1. I paid Apple for their "design and building", and it was the right choice.
The article linked to presents verifiable historical fact with a little editorial opinion - no more than I'd expect from standard magazine, newspaper, or /. articles. Definitely not trolling or the like. Sounds like this domain either got a bad rap or is being campaigned against.
Nowhere did I suggest the article linked to was a troll. I said it, and Roughly Drafted, is brain-damagingly bad, and I stand by that. Roughly Drafted is unusually awful for incoherent arguments based upon the jumbling together of dubious facts wrapped up in conclusions that owe little to the facts given and appear to have little to do with anything beyond Apple fanboism.
I don't think there's any organized campaign against RD, but there are a hell of a lot of us who have noticed that (a) it's terrible and (b) it's given a surprisingly amount of support by members of the community who should know better, from Slashdot's front page, to Apple enthusiasts like John Gruber.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
"Resolution: | 320x480 | 352x416" Yep - not objective at all. The screen size changes for each person.
If they put in their EULA that you have to sacrify a goat in mount Fuji, does that make it reasonable?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I posit it doesn't.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The phone is underfeatured. It is down to checking features and counting them, nothing difficult honestly. That is not an opinion, it is a matter of fact.
Now, I have a current contract with O2 here in the UK. Well, guess what, I would need to get a different contract to get an iPhone.
With any other phone I can pay a nominal fee and get a new handset (sometimes I have gotten a new phone for free).
If that is not overpriced, then pray tell me, what is it?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Anybody telling you that usability can be measured objectively is lying to you.
Usability is completely subjective and is influenced by many subjective factors.
Also is a matter of definition: do you consider something usable because you achieve a given task or because you think you are using a tool effectively?
In any case, the point is that shelling too much money only because the usability is a foolish decision. It should be an important factor, but not the most important, because any person without learning disabilities should be able to use most tools, even if they are not perfect.
Yours
A usability expert.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Apple is convincing you to buy this phone for all the wrong reasons...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
It is too early to decide if the iPhone is a Nokia killer.
What those companies have been doing is providing features and making mobile networks work , those features are widely publicized as missing in the iPhone.
Apple is good at usability and industrial design (just, many of the phones available from other manufacturers are aesthetically as polished as Apple's) and they are betting on that. The other phone makers clearly are superior in Engineering terms, the list of features leaves the iPhone frankly looking rather underpowered.
Add to that the fact that Apple is forcing people into a determined phone carrier (gee, so many years fighting telecoms monopolies and Apple hands us this favour. Thanks guys, really appreciated) and frankly I don't see why any person on his right mind would shell so much money for this gadget.
If the iPhone is successful the other companies are not manufacturers of Chinese knock offs that can't afford R&D, but genuine technological giants, so they will implement the best idea of the iPhone (the user interface), keep letting the different carriers sort out the telecoms part without interference of the handset manufacturers (so we the public get flexible contracts which are unencumbered by the hand set we chose) and waiting that Apple actually does some innovation instead of offering eye candy only.
I do not care how good the iPhone is. I resent the most that from having 2 freedoms (handset/carrier combination) Apple wants to reduce that by bundling them both in one package.
Well thanks but no thanks, and my wallet will be speaking in consequence.
Oh yeah, and the fact that they make it almost impossible to work with Linux, but that is completely another matter.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
This is it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4223938.stm
Now tell us being a blind fan is any good.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/11/12/o2.iphone.fastest.seller/
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.