Phones come out every year. I don’t think they’re going to be caught by surprise. The same applies whenever you upgrade, Apple or no.
In June 2009, I bought an iPhone 3GS when it came out. So I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade when the iPhone 4 was released. But I am now, so I ordered the iPhone 4S, even though the 3GS I have still works OK. We’ll see what the iPhone 5 has in terms of features when it comes out next year. If I really feel the need for it (because there’s something I really want on it), I can always buy it unlocked. But I think I can get by with the iPhone 4S for now. The features I expect that the iPhone 5 might have are 4G and NFC, and at this time, I don’t see either as compelling.
(BTW, today I received an email with the tracking information for the phone. It was in Shenzhen earlier today, and then Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong, presumably to be put on a plane to be flown to the US, for delivery on Friday.)
And as Candyman74, new phones come out every year with new features. That’s been true of computers since I bought my first one, and is also true of cars, appliances, and most things you buy. You can’t be paralyzed by that.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m content sticking with the apple ecosystem. I have an iPad so keeping things consistent makes sense for me. The reason I want unlocked is because I use t-mobile. I don’t want to buy a data plan. I’m usually in a WiFi spot so the data plans are a waste of money to me.
We are considering getting a 4s for me and adding myself to my husband’s at&t account, but I’ll have to see how much that is going to cost and see if it is worth the money.
Does anyone know if iOS 5 will finally let iPhone users upload a custom text message ringtone?
For the life of me I have never been able to figure out why Apple doesn’t allow this…they allow custom ringtones for calls (though sometimes it can be a pain in the ass to do, because AFAIK you can’t just make any random MP3 a ringtone directly from the phone,) but no matter what, text message ringtones HAVE to be chosen from a list of a dozen sounds., all but one of which are really shitty…so every iPhone user has “tri-tone” for the text notification.
bouv, looks like it. If thistechcrunch article is to be believed it looks like it. I’m assuming it’s like adding your own ringtones you have to pay a buck, or use iTunes to edit a song and use that as a tone. Not as easy as just copying an MP3 file, but better than not being able to change it at all.
I’ve read elsewhere that iOS 5 also adds the capability to use custom vibrations for different calls and text messages. It’s made for people with hearing impairments, but I think it could be pretty cool for anyone.
What I’d like to see (although I have no idea if IOS5 will support it) is the ability to have a ringtone that gradually increases in volume. I had an old Nokia phone that could do this; the first ring was quite faint, and each subsequent ring increased in volume.
Well, if ringtones are just MP3 files anyway, all you need is an MP3 ‘song’ that has a quiet ring, then progressively louder rings.
Dewey Finn, I haven’t heard of that ability. That would be cool. I guess you could do a kludgy workaround - make a ringtone that starts faint and gets progressively louder. Of course, this only works on one ring, so it’s not as clever as the one you are talking about. I’m not even sure what happens if a ringtone is too long.
You can make your own ringtones that can get louder as you need. For some reason, Apple does not allow you to load them directly as simple audio files, though. You have to load them using GarageBand on the Mac. There’s a different way to do it on Windows.
I followed the directions for Windows and they do work.
Does anyone know of a workaround for when iTunes hangs when the phone is syncing?
OK, now that I am more awake, I can give some more context.
When I plugged my phone in to sync it to iTunes for the first time, iTunes hung during the backup phase. However, I backed it up to iCloud, which worked. I then synced it to iTunes and skipped the backup, which didn’t hang at all. So I found a workaround, as long as I’ve got space on iCloud.
So they were released yesterday — who got one? Any goodness to report??
I got one yesterday and it is sweet. This is my first iPhone; I migrated over from a Blackberry that was showing its age and relative lack of functionality.
So far, Siri has worked 100% of the time, as long as it doesn’t hear more than one voice at a time. It also works without having to set it up, so anyone can use it without a lot of rigamarole.
It’s also easy to set it up so it’ll run off of a Wi-Fi network instead of the carrier’s 3G network, so I don’t have to worry about eating my data plan at home or somewhere where there’s decent Wi-Fi.
I’m still playing with it, so I’m sure I’ll have more to report as time goes on.
Welcome to the fold. There’s a reason they’re as popular as they are, and that reason is not “you’re all a raging bunch of fanboys” they have their issues, and Apple makes some WIERD decisions sometimes, but they get an awful lot right.
Hey, cool, MsRobyn. My iPhone 4 is the first Apple purchase I ever made, about a year ago. My excellent experience with it is actually one of the things that made me consider a Mac when it was time to replace my laptop. (Well, that and my ability to easily run Windows programs on a Mac, which I need.)
(as an aside, You can do that for about $50 using VMware Fusion…it’ll suck your existing laptop/desktop into a VM, then make it REALLY easy to move things back and forth)
Yeah, that’s what I use, Unintentionally Blank. It’s fantastic. 
I got mine on Friday, and finally managed to make it through the million people calling to Sprint to get it set up and my number ported over this morning.
It is awesome. I knew it would be awesome. I just didn’t want to spend the money on it until now, so I made do with the crappy phones that would work on cheap plans for years (one of those cheap plans on Sprint now has access to the iPhone, and I could be paying less if I’d just kept it for another year).
The only downside to the whole thing has been the Sprint representatives outright lying to me on the phone. When I called in, the guy told me that my phone would be activated on Oct 30, and he couldn’t change that. I told him that the FCC required that numbers be ported within one business day, and that I’d like to speak to a supervisor. He put my on hold to “check something”, then came back and said, ok, it’ll be working after 11:22am (about 2 hours later). At least it did actually start working then.
Hopefully, happy that I had a whole year with the best phone, and that I have another year ahead of me with the 2nd-best*.
*My own personal ranking of “best”. I’m not claiming it’s the best for everyone, just that it is the best for me.
I preordered it on October 7. I would have received it on Friday, but I was at work when they attempted delivery. So I picked it up today from the UPS depot. (The failed delivery was a little frustrating. The thing was shipped from Shenzhen on Tuesday, October 11, and would have gotten to me on Friday.)
My first impression is that it’s heavier than the iPhone 3GS I had been using. I think I’m seeing the increased speed, but I’m not sure.
And aren’t you supposed to get the camera icon on the lock screen? I’m not seeing that.
Double click the home button when the phone is locked and you’ll get the camera icon.