Slashdot Mirror
iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Wreaking Havoc On Apple Store
theappwhisperer was one of a surprisingly large number of people writing in this morning to report that the Apple store is having serious troubles taking pre-orders of the new iPhone 4. People are seeing the error page or just waiting an insanely long time to get pages back. Just imagine trying to do this from an iPhone in a major market!
In other related news, there is now an Apple Store App in the Apple App Store.
Yo dawg.
I got one, took me a long time to get through the servers being jammed. But why is this news? I know, every time we we post a Slashdot story about hammering a server we should post it again! Brilliant! I just doubled the amount of stories on Slashdot. Maybe infinitely if we keep on crashing them.
If everyone can just turn off your web browsers. I've got all day.
Everyone knows this "delay" is a feature not a negative. It was designed in the best interest of consumers, to give them extra time to think, "Do I really want to spend a couple hundred dollars, or should I pay my rent?" It's like a waiting period.
(I'm just joking of course - though I better say it, else someone might mark me "troll" - it's funny.)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Latest hypometer reports say you have dropped to hypecon 3 since someone managed to place a pre-order. I think you need to throttle more bandwidth.
Apple could use Google's Could for that.
Oh look, another Apple story designed to drum up attention for Apple who are releasing iProduct from Apple which gives you features that every other device has had for years but this one is an iProduct from Apple which makes it easier to use because there is value in electron-microscope-resolution on a 3" screen from Apple did I mention Apple are releasing a product for which demand is soooo high that Apple's servers are having trouble coping with the demand from Apple customers for HEY, did you know that some Apple products have been stolen before release and that this has nothing to do with Apple because Apple would never encourage that sort of thing mysteriously for a single product in multiple locations around the world especially because Apple is an ethical company at which people are so happy to work for Apple they literally jump for joy, sometimes quite high, or low, depending on how you look at it, anyway Apple is now giving bonuses to these workers for producing Apple products because it turns out that when you're required to live on-site and work 12 hours a day with little prospect for promotion what you want is a bit more money not freedom but paper which can be exchanged for a cardboard cutout of an iProduct because you can't afford the real thing anyway because Apple is an exclusive brand for exclusive people except when it wants to achieve a majority market then suddenly it's great how many people are buying it hey did I mention Apple products are in such demand that you can't actually order from Apple at the moment?
"Filter error: Too much repetition." Now to insert some random words here to bypass the filter, because comments are not articles and clearly require greater editorial oversight to prevent someone saying the same thing too much. You know, that company, the one I can't mention again otherwise I'm quite certain I'll be unable to post this. You know, the company with products in sooo much demand. The fruity one. You know... anyway, let's try again...
When was the last time someone waited in line for a Microsoft product?
15 years ago? Yeah that's about right.
--
BMO
Reports are coming in of Slashdot being flooded with iPhone 4 stories, wreaking havoc with the front page, with people having to skip over an insane number of Apple stories to read something else. Just imagine trying to read this from an iPhone! The demand for the stories surpasses even that of three months of iPad stories, that were necessary before it finally shipped, and makes the traditional "daily iPhone story" seem infrequent in comparison.
Evo looks sweet to me, and it's getting some good reviews.
Lots of people seem to be fed up with Jobs "walled garden" - crappy iTunes has to be used for everything, no SD card or USB ports, no flash.
AT&T network is getting slammed all over the place - slow, unreliable, and insecure.
Maintenance In Progress
AT&T is continually working to improve our internet site for our customers. As part of this ongoing effort, we are currently doing maintenance. We apologize for this inconvenience and ask that you please try back again later.
Apple isn't the only one... With these two companies relying on each others servers, it's no wonder that both are having issues.
people will spend spend spend on selfish desires but are against spending the same on their own welfare all the while complaining the rich have too much money. I know people spend themselves into a ditch paying for new gadgets and monthly fees and then turn around and bitch about how much money other people have.
Consumerism at its worst, they "deserve" to have what they want regardless of ability.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
News for non nerds. Stuff that really doesn't matter.
"Thbbft!" - Bill the Cat
not like Android phones are any cheaper. the top of the line Droid and Evo's go for $199 with 8GB storage. iPhone comes in 16GB and 32GB. by the time you buy a SD card it's more than an iphone
On paper it does actually have pretty decent specs - Seems to be a tad better than my N900, though the environment is too closed for my liking. I prefer the Meego / Maemo stuff better myself.
And yet another time company has product understocked and has troubles to keep their online shop up, news at 11.
Apple, this way of creating hype is getting way old.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
No No NO! I said to host a web site for the iPhone4; not on an iPhone4!
</jobs_voice="off">
Question: What would Steve Jobs call a web site where you can negotiate the best price for an iPhone4?
Answer: iDeal!
I am sure it is true, but hasn't apple posted this type of story every single time.
"We can't handle the orders ... oh my ...
You must be the only one not buying an iPhone4"
Steve, the turtlenecked one: "Web minion! The weak fools we call 'customers' will endure any delay for our superior products, and the media interprets server slowness as a sign of overwhelming demand. Make it so!"
..."
Web minion: *starts iTunes on the Xserve handling orders, the beachball starts spinning*
Steve, the turtlenecked one: "No, you fool! I don't want a slight increase in ping times, I want interminable delays, I want pages that have to be refreshed a dozen times, I want those pitiful insects to beg for our order confirmation screen. Take any measures necessary."
Web minion: "Master, surely you don't mean?"
Steve, the turtlenecked one: "Yes. Load a Flash Applet
In other news, rumors are that Apple has plans for iPhone 5!!
More detailed news regarding this subject expected to flood slashdot the following months!
Trying to make your product appear desired by throttling your bandwidth must be the lamest trick of them all.
HTTP/1.1 400
Would this story appear for Microsoft's Windows? Adobe Photoshop? Color me skeptic.
"Programming is life, the rest is mere details"
It's a good thing they have money to be parted with since the average iPhone user makes over 100k/year.
Really? I think that I want to be an average iPhone user :-)
Actually, no. A quick search on Pricewatch reveals that 32GB SD cards are going for about $85 on the street. That puts a 32GB Evo at just under the $299 Apple wants for a 32GB iPhone 4. However, since I get to keep the 8GB that comes with the Evo, that means I get an Evo with 40GB of storage for a little less than a iPhone 4 with 32GB.
My blog
This is undoubtably the biggest on-line sales event in history.
Yeah, seeing error messages or getting pages back at all is a lot better than what usually happens when you try to use an iPhone in Manhattan.
Why pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a phone (should I stop here?) that doesn't have any new functionalities, and the novelties are a front camera and ability to record video, something that competitors have had for years, and now offer at reasonable prices.
Well I guess is the same people that bought that stupid circular mouse just for it's looks.
I've been trying to pre-order for the last two hours. Flashback to three years ago with the original iPhone activation debacle. I'm dismayed that Apple and AT&T haven't gotten their collective shit together in all this time. :-(
-Peter
It's not a bug, it's a feature of our security.
mac mini is a ripoff $700 for core2 + on board video.
and only a 320g 5400 HDD?? and 2GB RAM??
For $800 you can get a core i5 / i7 or amd quad with a good video card and 4gb system ram.
I know that it's fashionable to make fun of AT&T. I don't like carrier-exclusive agreements either - I think that they're anti-consumer and shouldn't be allowed. However, AT&T's network is actually the best in most markets as shown in independent tests by Gizmodo, PC World, and PC Magazine.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364263,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189592/atandt_roars_back_in_pcworlds_second_3g_wireless_performance_test.html
http://gizmodo.com/5428343/our-2009-12+city-3g-data-mega-test-att-won
The most recent test (PC Magazine) shows AT&T nearly 80% faster than the other 3G networks (June 2010). PC World's tests show AT&T to be 67% faster than the competition (Feb 2010). Gizmodo's tests show AT&T on top, but by a smaller margin (Dec 2009). PC World's tests do show that AT&T has improved markedly since their Feb 2009 tests (improving speeds by over 200% in some places). By the end of 2009, AT&T's network was the fastest and it's kept improving to widen the gap. Even in so-called trouble markets like New York and San Francisco AT&T is doing well. In San Francisco, their speeds are double the competition's average and over 75% faster than the second fastest. In New York, T-Mobile's HSPA+ network (recently rolled out) is 10% faster, but AT&T is still 94% faster than Verizon and 130% faster than Sprint.
It's fashionable to make fun of AT&T. If you live in a rural area, AT&T might not have 3G service to you. If you were using AT&T in 2007 and 2008, their service was likely slower than the competition. That is not the case anymore. Real data (rather than anecdotal evidence) shows AT&T to be quite ahead of the competition when it comes to 3G capacity in major markets.
I don't get this comment.
The App Store is a good hundreds times bigger then Ovi Store, and it's growing at a faster pace. There's a much better chance you will find an App you like on the Apple store than the Ovi store.
iPhones are also easily jail broken for even more apps.
All those people saw slashdot yesterday and want to not read Ulysses.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
16gb micro SD card runs for about $26 on amazon now. Plus you still get to keep the 8gb card. Save your movies on the 8gb card for flights/rare occasion you want to watch a movie on your phone and put all your apps/music on the 16gb. Right now I already have three 8gb and one 16gb microSD cards that I used on my Tilt (Tytn II). It will cost me nothing to upgrade.
The 32 gb cards are pricey, but that's due to them just coming out a few months ago.
16GB microSD only costs about $30 - where are your sources showing the Android phones as more expensive?
There's more than Android, anyway. E.g., the X6 comes with 16 or 32GB as standard; the N97 with 32GB as standard.
and the iphone 4 has a slightly higher resolution screen, a gyro for some reason or other and you're paying for iTunes indirectly. price is about the same. not like the old days when you would pay 50% more for an apple product.
Yeah, but not in that form factor, unfortunately.
Plus there are people like me who already have a 16gb microSD card, and 3x 8gb cards around from my current (soon previous) phone. I'm going to have 48gb of storage out of the box (8x4 + 16).
if (it != oneThing) it = another;
Depending on what app he wants the chance to find it in the App Store might be 0. Furthermore there is no need to jailbreak a N900 as it will run anything you want out of the box.
Now I know what all those people feel like who scream "SHILL!!!" at Microsoft posts (still way too many of you, by the way).
Or (looking at your last two posts here) is it actually possible to be a carrier fan[boy]? Or do you just work at AT&T and love your employer? Maybe I'm wrong. I'm genuinely curious.
This is obviously all AT&T's fault. Will they ever get anything right? Poor Apple!
Yeah I know right man? People buying things and other people selling them. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO
The handset uses repositories in the same way debian based stuff does - apt-get install whatever. Easy debian is also available so the handset can run pretty much everything you would find in your typical linux distro. Including stuff like open office, gimp, and on and on. Plus it's all free. For me this is better than the app store, but each to their own.
Rent boys are professionals: they take money. Apple fanboys are merely sluts :-)
I cringe at the thought of running open office or gimp on a smartphone.
I've lived in Seattle - delayed text messages, dropped calls and the second you get outside the big city - zero service while my friends on Sprint and Verizon have service.
Most used service on any smart phone is making phone calls - when you can't even do that its a big problem.
So yeah AT&T has invested jack into their infrastructure while pretty much every single Verizon tower supports EVO now.
People are seeing the error page or just waiting an insanely great long time to get pages back.
sorry, but those funny beings do not qualify as people .. they do share a large number of "features" with sheep, though
"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I'm actually a Sprint customer (I refuse to pay AT&T's prices and have a really awesome deal with Sprint and am really happy with the service and don't understand why more people don't use them). However, I appreciate objective evidence rather than partisan anecdotes. Most people only have service from a single carrier and any experience they have with another carrier is years old. So, a Verizon customer who says AT&T is unreliable either has no evidence (they never were an AT&T customer) or they have evidence that doesn't reflect the current situation (they were a customer in the past). Their "opinions" are nothing more than stereotypes that are more likely shaped by advertisements than by actuality.
Frankly, if anyone is a shill or fan, it's you. I don't mean to attack you and if you're genuinely questioning, I apologize. But look at it from my perspective: I post a comment with a link to *three* independent studies proving my point. You start an ad hominem attack on my character calling me a shill and fan while providing no evidence in your post that contradicts my post. That is not an argument against my point. You've just decided that your subjective opinion of wireless companies is more accurate than data or you're a shill/fan of (Verizon|T-Mobile|Sprint) and the only way you can rebut evidence that your preferred carrier isn't #1 is to call someone else a shill/fan.
I don't like fighting on the internet or the obsession with winning so I hesitated to even write this comment. However, I thought it was important to tell you where I was coming from. I would love to see recent studies showing different results if you could link me to them. I like having more evidence from good sources. Those are the only tests that I've been able to find and it would be awesome if you knew of more. If you don't, please stop calling me a shill or fan.
We call can't get our phones at the same time.. You log off, and I'll let you know when I'm done.. :-)
-Steve Tired of voting for the "lesser of two evils?" Come talk about it on www.bothsidesarewrong.com
I don't know, but to me at least it looks like a repeat of what happened to OSs on the desktop.
You are of course free to disagree.
The free market isn't perfect, and I suppose those who can exploit it's "loopholes" will becoming fairly rich.
Most consumers don't think every far ahead, things like lock-in don't cross most people's mind.
We will see.
I would stand in line NOT to buy the iphone 4.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
$199+30 > $199.
Good work, buddy.
The N97, at 433MHz and 128MB, isn't even in the same league as the iPhone 3G or HTC Dream--and at $700, couldn't be called cheaper than an iPhone ($599) or a Nexus One ($579).
I've gone through the process a few times unsuccessfully on the apple store website and it goes fine until it hits the point where you submit your info to check your AT&T contract status to see if you are eligible for an upgrade. This is most certainly calling a web service hosted by AT&T or a third party that is not Apple. I'm very surprised (not) that at this point AT&T still can't get their shit together for a major (pre)launch.
so I am not surprised. :) Also nice to blame the customers for the problem. Just like the blamed the reporters for the iPhone presentation not working. Blame AT&T for shitty deals. Blame Canada, for something. Blame everyone but themselves. I think I would be asking if they knew there would be demand, then why did they not do something about it. If they didn't, then why not.
Anyway I just bought an iPhone 3GS so I won't be getting a new one anytime soon. Considering I live in Canada it likely won't even been available in any quantity up here for some time anyway. On top of that there are enough hardware and software problems with the phones, that I think I would rather some Apple Zealot first adopter buy the crappy buggy version, and then secretly bitch about it until Apple finally does something about it, and fixes the problems... then I might get one.
As much as I hate Apple, I love my iPhone. I am a complicated person.
Oh, its great when you have a solid 3G signal, but even in downtown Chicago that can be a problem. Toss in all the dropped calls and its really not as great as those links suggest. Essentially, those tests, if memory serves, are just data speed tests. I don't think they were done in random spots, but where 3G worked and where they had a solid signal.
I'm in a similar boat now with Sprint's 4G service. Spotty reception, but crazy speeds. I just rooted my EVO, enabled wireless tethering, and with one bar of 4G I got 2.3mbps. With 2-3bars I get 3-4mbps.
Right now saying "We're the best 3G" is a little like saying "We're the best horse and buggy company." When is LTE coming out? 2012? If you aren't doing 4G upgrades now then you've already falled behind.
>not like Android phones are any cheaper. the top of the line Droid and Evo's go for $199 with 8GB storage.
Well, what do you get for you money?
iphone: Capped data. Evo: Unlimited 3g and 4g
iphone: costly tethering Evo: Free USB tethering, again unlimited
iphone: walled garden Evo: open market, install apk files from anywhere
iphone: at&t 3g Evo: 4G
iphone: no flash Evo: HTC mobile flash, Froyo full flash in a couple months
So, are you willing to take all those downside for slightly cheaper flash memory? Your call.
Have we really not learned by now this is another one of Apple's gimmicks? Send out the shockwave of "not everyone who wants one will be able to get one!" and people who were on the fence suddenly decide they HAVE to have one RIGHT NOW. It adds the aspect of an impulse buy, and the added high afterwards, feeling like you've overcome the odds and won your prize.
These factors help people avoid having to rationalize spending the money on something they may not need all that badly, by making it a challenge to 'win' by getting your order in.
I'm not commenting on the phone itself, or Apple as a company, I'm just saying this isn't anything new. Advertise a TV is 50% off and people will show up, advertise a TV is 50% and only the first 20 customers can have one and all of a sudden you have people camping out thanksgiving night to make sure they get to buy one, and stampeding when the doors open.
I think most people's complaints are about dropped calls. For all the coolness of the iPhone, the fact that you can't have decently long conversations without the call being dropped is an embarrassment.
Maybe the next round of Net Neutrality will find Apple/AT&T at the front-of-the-line for all future Internet traffic -- assuming Apple can improve their storefronts, and that AT&T 3G infrastructure ever reaches the point of not being oversold.
Well, I am questioning, but there's no reason to apologize, since the questioning itself is pretty much an attack on you however you look at it. The reason your post was suspicious to me was that it was kind of tangential to the discussion at hand and the fact that nobody here ever seems to defend any mobile carrier (let alone AT&T). I'm young enough that I still let my parents buy me whatever phone and mobile plan they see fit, so I don't really care one way or another. I was just surprised to actually feel a post might have been written by one of these mythical "SHILL!!"s I often here about on Slashdot (and Slashdot alone).
On your point, though, I live in Boston and I think it is generally agreed (right or wrong) that AT&T is/was terrible for 3G or otherwise in a lot of parts of the city. If that has changed (as recently as one year ago, according to your post), I think it is really AT&T's job to let us know that or public perception is going to take a long time to shift.
Steve wants everyone in the USA to turn their wireless devices off. NOW.
Those test results were interesting, but the reliability numbers just don't line up with real world usage. I don't sit down for 15 minutes to run one test. I use the phone constantly throughout the day and change locations frequently. With AT&T I suffered from drop calls (iPhone 3G) and nonexistent data service daily. I live in Seattle, but traveled to Vegas on their slowest weekend of the year and service was even worse. I'm now happily with Verizon (Incredible). So far with 15 days, and I have only been without data coverage for 30 seconds (pandora hiccuped a bit). 0 drop calls. I've earned the right to continue to bash AT&T :-)
Don't forget that you are on the hook for a just-in-time-for-the-iPhone-4 $350 early termination fee from AT&T.
When they increased from $175 to $350 for a smart phone, does that mean that you get $175 more discount on a new phone? Hardly. It just means more $$$ in their pocket if you try to get out of paying them $600 in data fee profit they expected over your contract, (that's for the $25 2gb a month plan, expect to pay more when you go over.) Do the math, you could buy a nice laptop for real price of your iPhone.
Let me help you with that!
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Their store updated at 3am for me; after MANY tries I finally got a preorder in at 4:39. I think they were screwing with the servers at around 4:30 because the entire store started throwing me an error message (Oops! Page not found) before it started working again; then it allowed me to complete my order.
Oh God, please make it stop, burn it with fire!
According to PC World, AT&T's 3G service improved in Boston by 184% (nearly doubling) between Feb 2009 and Feb 2010.
Public perception is one of those things that doesn't change quickly (no matter what the evidence). I know that a lot of people had billing issues after the Sprint-Nextel merger and that's been resolved and Sprint's service is as strong as I've seen it, but customers still have a bad impression of Sprint.
With wireless service, it's hard to really get good data. Verizon is trying to get people's opinions to be high of them based off of their map ads. However, what you really wants is strong coverage where you are rather than weak yet broad coverage in places you aren't. Coverage isn't a binary situation, but mapping broadness of coverage seems to be what people have latched on to. It would be great to see signal strength and speed measurements on a street level of all the different carriers. It would be great if Google could hook up 4 cell phones to their street view cars to measure that (if they aren't already) and then map the signal strength on Google Maps. I'm sure the carriers would object to such neutral data since they'd rather sling ads at each other, but consumers make better purchases when they have more objective data.
Speed is also harder to quantify since you likely don't notice it without the use of tools. It's easy to notice the binary condition of "AT&T doesn't have 3G in rural Maine", but harder to notice, "AT&T is 39% faster than Verizon in Boston". For what it's worth, Boston seems to be one of AT&T's weaker markets (with Sprint taking top honors in PC Mag's test; yay!) and only beating Verizon and T-Mobile in the 40-50% range.
The problem is that people want to believe that one option is better. There is one wireless carrier that if I always stay with them will give me the best service. There is one brand of car that will always have better engineering. There is one phone company that will always produce a superior product. A lot of the time, product lifecycles make a huge difference. People like being consistent - think how Kerry was labeled a flip-flopper. There's a huge social cost to saying that now you think something else is a better option and almost no acknowledgement that someone could be right *both times* even as they're recommending different things at different times. People don't accept that change happens.
Think of the iPhone 3GS. When it came out, it was faster, had a better display, etc. than the Palm Pre and later the Hero/Droid Eris. Then the Nexus One/Incredible/EVO came out and they had a higher-res display and a faster processor. Then Apple comes back with the iPhone 4 which has an even better display, better form factor, etc. Companies are often leapfrogging each other, but people want to believe that they're always using the best so they justify, ignore evidence, and even downright lie to make themselves feel like they're never on #2. I mean, Sprint has 4G right now, but I don't expect Sprint to always be in front of everyone just because they're the first to 4G - life is more complicated than that and companies change position in an industry a lot.
As a Sprint customer, I'm more than happy with the service I get and really can't get into the "my network is better than your's" that Verizon and AT&T customers spout. Verizon customers are especially bad and will usually recite ads more than evidence. It's why I find evidence so important. In this case, if someone has a less-good wireless carrier, who cares. I mean, really. However, evidence is what brought medicine to where it is today and non-evidence-based medicine is often dangerous. Yet, millions of people commit themselves to opinions and treatments with no basis in science and evidence. That's dangerous! Here, whatever: people like getting into silly arguments about things that don't matter. However, it's a bad habit to get into to rely more on anecdotes and feelings than evidence because there are places where it really does matter.
You seem to have lost a decimal point somewhere. The Droid is currently selling for $19.99 from Amazon: http://www.amazonwireless.com/?ref=wbh-20
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
We recently left AT&T for Verizon. AT&T's speed was fine, it was the number of dropped calls that finally made us switch. I'm speaking specifically about the Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin areas. In those areas, AT&T's data transfer rates were perfectly fine on 3G. So is Verizon. With AT&T we couldn't stay on a phone call for more than 10 minutes without getting dropped. When we disabled 3G, we never had a dropped call. The AT&T network is completely overloaded in those areas and has progressively gotten worse. The iPhone 4 will only bog things down more. The majority of my coworkers are experiencing the same issues, and it's been this way for a good 6-8 months.
This is the exact same experience I had with major cities in Texas. AT&T simply has put (enough) money into improving their network.
Sorry, typo. Has NOT put enough money into improving their network.
"Even in so-called trouble markets like New York and San Francisco AT&T is doing well. In San Francisco, their speeds are double the competition's average and over 75% faster than the second fastest"
You don't spend much time in San Francisco, do you? The speed doesn't matter when I can't actually connect to anything.
I can be walking around near downtown with a cloudless view of the sky, a block or two away from any big buildings, and sure enough I'll have five bars of service on 3G. But if I actually try to load a page on my iPhone? Safari spins for a minute and then says the server timed out. Happens regularly.
The most important term in marketing is "Your mileage may vary." You may be happy with AT&T's service, but my real-world experience found it to be horrible. I couldn't make reliable phone calls from my house with AT&T and my iPhone due to such poor coverage. Even at work where I have 5 bars I would get dropped calls daily. I could never make more than a 5-10 minute call without a dropped call. This was with two different iPhones.
I finally got fed up, bought a Droid and switched to Verizon after happily paying my $95 AT&T early termination fee. I consider it a pittance to be rid of that fucking horrible network. Now on Verizon I have LESS bars of service than I used to have with AT&T at work, but my connection is rock solid and never drops. Likewise, my coverage at home is fantastic and I can even make calls in my basement.
Again, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.
I just walked past an AT&T store on Lexington Ave in Manhattan and about 30 people where standing in line outside for what I can only believe was a chance to pre-order his or her iphone 4. PREORDER! People do crazy things for Apple products.
Seriously guys it aint funny now...
Could everyone please turn off their wifi?
It doesn't matter how fast the AT&T network is if you can't maintain a reliable connection.
I'm a member of an AT&T family plan in the Washington DC area (one iPhone, three random voice-and-text phones), and whenever the network drops me, I remake the call and use the greeting "AT&T Sucks! Hello...". I do this routinely, a couple of times a day on average.
The only reason the network is tolerable for data is that we don't see how bursty and flaky it is underneath.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Data: The cap, if I switch plans, is still far higher than my 3g data useage.
Tethering: I'm rarely without wifi, so I don't care about it
Walled Garden: 99% of the stuff out there, in or out of the garden, is crap anyway.
3G vs 4G: I have decent 3G coverage with ATT. Sprint's coverage is dismal at best, and 4G is nonexistant in my market.
Flash: I hate flash. Always have. Always will. Having flash on my phone isn't something I want.
As a result, when I needed a phone 20 months ago, I bought an iphone. Your "disadvantages" aren't disadvantages to me, and I'll pick a well thought out and useable UI pretty much any day.
The only people with this much to say on the "Macs aren't so great!" soapbox are the ones that don't own them. Period.
Idioten Kaufen Eben Alles
but only if they get into the store!
So according to you capped data is an advantage? The option for flash is a disadvantage? Choice is a disadvantage? Lack of censorship in apps is a disadvantage? Only iphone UI is 'usable?'
I think we got us a real fanboy here.
The irony is.. that's probably the fastest way to do it. If you use the new "Apple Store" app on the iPhone, you can reserve a new iPhone 4G (for pickup) without them checking your current ATT account. After hours of trying the Apple website, reentering my phone number, zip code, social security digits, etc. I was able to reserve a phone in seconds. And I'm here in New York where 1 out of 5 phone calls drop.
I was having trouble getting through on the Apple Store so I logged into the AT&T site and was able to pre-order the upgrade with minimal difficulty (one connection timed out.) And what's more, it appears that I can retain my unlimited data plan. Not too shabby.
"Don't let school interfere with your education." -Mark Twain
I don't really understand why this got modded insightful. Even if it's true it's still an off-topic, unsubstantiated strawman. I guess the mods were looking for the "+1, agrees with Slashdot groupthink" moderation.
It's their address, I'm sure they can make an App for that!
And then, of course, they can put the App in the Apple App Store next to the Apple Store App.
I'm not the pheasant plucker...
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Those companies that offer mobile device insurance to subscribers on a multi-year contract, would all of a sudden be dealing with a rash of reports where iPhone 3 customers 'accidentally' 'lost' their devices.
Only on fucking slashdot does "these options worked for me and here's why" = ZOMG FANBOY
Don't be a dipshit.
...Real Apple users like myself have already started camping out in the closest athletic equipment store so we can beat the stampade when the mall opens on release day! I'd continue commenting further but I have to yell at some more kids to get off my display tent's fake lawn!
I'm honest enough to admit I lie to myself.
part of the noise making campaign. the site crash may have been orchestrated to drum up noise and exclusivity, sway analysts guessing how 4G will sell, etc.
I cringe at the thought of running open office or gimp.
FTFY
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Really,
Motorola Milestone, new and unlocked GBP 349
HTC Desire, new and unlocked GBP 399
Apple Iphone 3G, 16GB, refurbished and locked to O2 BP 459
A New 3GS is GBP 574 for the 16 GB model. Remember that those of us outside the EU do not pay VAT so take about 17% off the prices.
In Australia a class 6, 16 GB MircoSD card is A$45 (approx GBP 27-30). So here's your reminder, a new Desire with 16 GB is cheaper then an old Iphone 3G by A$220 and US$190.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
on OSX servers and apple hardware. Proof that Apple products really aren't suitable for commercial use.
Unless, of course, you want to out Steve for using non-Apple for his backend.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Capped plans -- I'm saying its a NON ISSUE. I'm not capped currently, and don't plan on changing data plans because I don't want to restart the clock on my contract, but even if I did, the only impact would be a savings of $5/month.
Option for flash -- personally, I don't give a shit whether the option is there or not, I won't use it. So having the option isn't an advantage to me.
Censorship in apps / choices for apps -- again, for me, the existing choices are more than enough for my needs. All the "censored" apps are garbage I don't want anyway, so in this case, I don't mind. I can also always roll my own.
As for a usable UI, again, I prefer it to other options.
You obviously have different opinions, but for me I don't see them as disadvantages. If you think that makes me a fanboy, well, that's your opinion too. I'm not a blind apple-hater, nor do I love everything that apple makes. I tolerate OSX. I think the ipad is completely useless. I think most of their hardware is overpriced. But hey, I like the iphone, so I must be a fanboy.
So you can go ahead and finish labeling me:
AT&T sucks. Verizon sucks a little less. Sprint sucks more than I thought was possible.
I haven't found a linux distro I like.
I like BSD.
I like Windows.
I absolutely HATE the GPL.
I like the BSD, MIT, and Apache licenses.
I cannot stand Richard Stallman, Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs. Woz is wacky enough that I don't mind him.
The term "Open Source" is bullshit.
I can't stand the republican or democratic parties, or most of their supporters.
The RIAA and MPAA can go fark themselves, but I think copyright serves a purpose and should be kept around.
Lawyers are useful, politicians are useless.
Labels are nice. They usually don't work well with people.
I think I'll pass. I have an iPhone which I bought from another person, and have spent the last six months without a data plan. I have no need for a data plan, especially not at such exorbitant rates.
You can order it, or not order it. Once you have ordered it... you've ordered it. "Pre-order" could be used to describe the time BEFORE ordering is possible. If people are ordering it that time has past. These are not "pre-orders", they are just orders.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
I have anecdotal/objective evidence: I used an iPhone on a trial for a month, side-by-each with my Palm Treo on Verizon.
When I got service, the iPhone was blazingly fast fast fast. But go outside metro-Boston and I couldn't load Slashdot on it, or any of a number of smaller sites. AT&T was prioritizing traffic to bigger sites like Google, Youtube, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. Verizon would load it up just fine (maybe a mobile version, maybe not, depending on my mood), along with all of the bigger sites.
Just outside Nashua, NH (not the boonies by any stretch) - I couldn't get any AT&T 3G service, yet my Verizon was still humming away.
I did the best test anyone can do - I used multiple services side by side (I did a similar comparison with Sprint in June of 2009 when the Palm Pre came out). Call quality/dropped calls was about on par with Verizon, but the 3G coverage was WOEFULLY unbalanced to AT&T's detriment - in my particular area.
It's why I'm hating life right now with my MotoDroid(Doesn't), and not enjoying life with an iPhone - for the Northeast, Verizon is still King if you value availability over blazing speed.
It's the one site I go to and it freezes up my browser for several seconds, for no apparent reason. It must be running some heavy extras that I am not aware of what.
I wonder if apple, after selling 600,000 iphones in one day, will still pursue prosecuting and suing the Gizmodo writer for "damaging their business"?
http://www.inviaggiocongeniuscard.it/progetti/un-viaggio-per-non-smettere-di-studiare :)