Any rumors that Apple is going to allow iPhone with other service providers?
My Wife and I don’t have a lap top. Don’t really need another full blown computer. But it would be nice to have a portable unit to check email, weather, flight status and so on. Not just for traveling, but even in our own house.
I used an iTouch this weekend (iPhone without the phone) and really, really liked it. Frankly, the interface blew me away. My phone is getting a bit dated, so I thought I might like the iPhone.
Also, if you have an iPhone, what’s your opinion of it, or other PDAs.
I have an ipod touch and think it’s great. If you “jailbreak” it you get so much more out of it. I use Orblive and can stream all my media on my home computer to my ipod for an example.
Don’t know the answers to your questions but there is supposedly a new version coming out in June so you should wait for that one. You can’t buy the Iphone at the Apple website for now but AT&T still seems to be open for business.
I have had lots of different PDAs and PDA/Phones. My Palm Treo was OK until it died. Every Windows Mobile phone I had was a piece of crap. (The random reboot and system freeze “functions” were particularly annoying).
After hearing several colleagues of mine rave over their iPhones, I bought one a few months ago. It is the best phone I have had. It just works and it works well. Even the bluetooth earpiece I had for my previous Treo works better with the iPhone.
There are a couple things I do not care for:
The jack for a wired headset is not your standard earphone jack and the adapters for it to use a standard earphone jack are not great.
The applications that can run on it generally depend on internet access (unless you “jail break” the phone) so it is fairly useless as a distraction on an airplane.
I guess I can live with those things. The rest of it is fan-tastic.
As for comparing an iPhone to a PDA, I never really could adapt to using a stand-alone PDA. It just was not at the center of my business activities, so I always ended up leaving it at my desk or wherever. The combination of PDA and phone makes it useful for me. That combination with a fairly bullet-proof OS as in the iPhone makes it extremely useful.
I love my iPhone and will probably never own a non-iPhone phone again.
If memory serves, AT&T got a 5 year exclusive deal on the iPhone, so you’ve still got 4 years before its opened up to other carriers (legitimately).
Also, next month they may be releasing a new version. They will at least be updating the software in the current iPhone to allow more applications, games, etc. I’d wait at least until the end of June to see what develops on the iPhone front before investing in one.
Like ASAKMOTSD, I could never get into the habit of using a full-blown PDA, simply because it was usually a hassle to take with me all the time. My iPhone, I constantly break out to add calendar events, notes, contacts, etc. For me, its the perfect phone.
My Wife and I already travel with a GPS, phones and camera. I like the idea of easily checking email, and the net for flight schedules and such. Don’t need or want a computer on vacation.
It would also be nice to not have to go upstairs, then up to the loft where the computer is, boot, wait… wait… just to check your email or weather.
I’m a bit worried about AT&Ts coverage where we live. We have Verizon, and it’s spotty at best. Pretty much everyone here uses Verizon because they provide the best coverage here. I suspect that will change soon.
On the other hand, I rarely use a cell phone unless I’m traveling. No need to. So I thought perhaps just the iTouch and a wireless network at home.
But, I’d rather not add another gizmo to my life and have a cell phone AND an iTouch.
Thanks, I probably wouldn’t buy it till mid summer. Need to set up a wireless network at home first.
I’m a programmer, and NOT a network guy. I would really just want the i(whatever) to connect to my wireless net at home or at hotels and airports and such. Is that pretty seemless?
Will the i pick up any public wireless net within reach?
In setting up a wireless network at home, do I need any special type of WAP?
Or should anything work.
iPhone and iPod Touch use standard WiFi networking, including support for WEP and WPA security, so you should be able to connect to any WiFi network that you can with a standard computer.
I played with the iPhone at the AT&T store where a friend of mine is a sales rep. It was neat, but far larger and heavier than I would want for a phone. And the fact that it had no buttons… I want buttons, damnit!!
Also, if you are thinking of getting an iPhone, I would wait until the 3G models come out later this summer. That is what my friend the AT&T employee has been telling people.
The LG flip phone that I have is a lot bigger than most. I’ll have to look at the size of the iPhone though. I guess it’s a bit thicker than the iThouch.
To each his own of course. I don’t really care about having buttons. After about 2 minutes of introduction on my nephews iThouch, I was surfing the web.
I still have my old-school POS Nokia brick, and that’s just fine with me. As far as I am concerned, the iPhone is just another gimmick to separate people from their money. Give me a simple, functioning phone with real keys any day.
Incidentally, if you feel you must have an iPhone to use with another service, the hacks have been out there since about 12 hours post-release. Just sayin’, is all.
I here ya. But I don’t want to hack anything. Not my style.
As a programmer, sometimes I need to stay a little more in touch with current tech (somtimes dragged and kicking). Easy internet access on a phone would be a great benifit to me. AND just having another device in the house or when traveling to check emails and such would be nice.
It’s gonna happen. It already has. Just like pay phones are an oddity. For any high tech job, needing to be net capable is pretty much here. I DON’T want to lug a lap top around. A phone that has internet access for now would cover me well. God only knows what’s next.
And, I’ll say that I’ve been sort of anti-Apple for a long time. But after seeing the interface on the iTouch, I need to change my tune. Everything has it’s place.
I normally love Maddox and even bought his book, The Alphabet of Manliness, but his take on the iPhone is outdated and inaccurate in many ways. I don’t want to get into them here, but having used both phones I will say I much, MUCH prefer the iPhone, and most of his legitimate complaints will be dealt with in a month when the phone is opened up for developers to create their own software, and users like us having a simple way to install it.
While there are ways to hack the iPhone into not using AT&T, you will still be unable to use it on Verizon’s network. The iPhone uses GSM technology, and the only US carriers who use that are AT&T and T-Mobile (and I’m sure other small, local carriers not worth mentioning). Verizon, Sprint, etc., use CDMA, and the iPhone doesn’t have the built in hardware to work on their networks. Those hacks were mostly useful to take the iPhone to other countries where you couldn’t buy it.
When I first saw the iPhone advertised I did a :rolleyes: . And like I said, I’m sort of anti-Apple. Just because we are Windows and have been UNIX at work. I have no real reason to not like Apple other than for heavy database and processing applications they just aren’t used. That’s not their market.
My Wife has an iPod, and I have a love hate relationship with iTunes. Some things, to me, are just not intuitive. Not at all. Other parts of the site work great.
Fine.
The interface on the iTouch I used last weekend seem pretty much flawless. I was very impressed. More so than any handheld device I’ve used including my phone and GPS.
I love my iPod Touch! It browses the internet in ways that make my Blackberry (even with the Opera Browser) look archaic by comparison. The iPhone simply needs more memory (currently 16Gig is it for now). If they come out with a Kindle device that incorporates iPhone intuitiveness and about a 1TB of memory I’ll be in heaven.