I like buttons too. However, touch screens do have potential because they can be reconfigured for whatever function you’re using. The interface for each function could/should have large easy to read on-screen buttons. If they make a little “tick” sound when you press them that could substitute for tactile feedback.
After Apple released the final rate plans, I’ve decided that I’ll probably get an iPhone on Friday. I’m a bit of a Mac fanboy though, so I’m not exactly indicative of the general population.
So I read some more news on this thing, I can’t believe anyone still wants one.
The latest:
You can’t use your own MP3s/WAV files for ringtones. You can’t even (as of yet) download new ones, you are stuck with whatever ones that come with it. Which, knowing Apple, is just one “perfect” ringtone, and you wouldn’t ever want another one, cause they know better than you. :rolleyes:
No MMS support. This means that you can’t take a picture and then send it to someone else via text messaging.
The camera doesn’t do video, only still pictures.
The battery will last through about 300-400 charge cycles (with an average of 1 charge/day, apparently the phone won’t even last through it’s two-year contract. :rolleyes: Oh, and the battery isn’t user-replaceable. You have to send it in to get replaced for a fee…only, it doesn’t get replaced, you get a new phone, and all the data on your old phone is gone if you don’t sync it up beforehand.)
It has 8 GB of space, but 700 MB of that are the phone’s OS.
And here’s the kicker: it seems you can’t copy (or cut) and paste text. Ex-squeeze me? Yeah, I know people shouldn’t use their phones as word processer, but there are times when using my Windows Mobile phone that I’ve needed to copy and paste, and was easily able to do so. I can’t even begin to fathom why the designers would leave out such an integral feature.
Actually, if you watch the iPhone tour video you’ll see that the phone has a number of them. Also, expect hacks or the iPhone to begin appearing shortly after phone goes on sale. Applephoneshow.com is going to tear down at least one phone and post the info on the web. Once things like the processor has been publicly ID’d, hackers will have a field day.
That’s okay, my present phone can’t recieve them.
You forget that it’s also only 2 megapixels. Presently, my job prohibits me from carrying camera phones into the workplace.
That’s solely dependant on individual usage as to how long a battery lasts. When I worked for a cellphone company, they said if you had a cellphone last longer than a year, you were lucky.
Same is true of iPods.
Which is exactly what happens to you if you take your ordinary cellphone in to be replaced.
I don’t know how that compares with the OS’s of other smartphones, but on the computing side of things both OSX and Windows take up at least a gig of harddrive space. And according to Jobs it is running OSX, not some OS that’s simply called OSX. Windows XP/Vista are said to be very different than Windows Mobile.
Frankly, I can’t even begin to imagine why MS would release 5 or 6 different versions of Vista, and it’s not like that’s something hard coded into the phone and can’t be fixed with a “simple” software update.
Reactions like the one above is why I think companies should stop calling these devices phones and come up with a new term. i.e. so that people won’t say “I just need a phone that makes calls” or “I don’t want to pay $600 just for a phone”.
They should call it a “mobile internet device”, or some snazzier version of that. They could say that it has web access, a camera, GPS navigation (in some cases), an MP3 player, and, by the way, it also happens to have some mobile phone capability too.
Shelling out $600 for a device that combines mobile web access, a camera, GPS navigation, and an MP3 player doesn’t seem so bad, and it saves you money over buying these things individually.
Calling these devices ‘phones’ does them a disservice and limits their marketability for no reason.
(and besides, Americans are used to paying very little for their cell phones, because of carrier subsidies, but do pay more for camcorders, laptops, flat screen TVs, etc, so getting away from the ‘phone’ label will take people away from the cheap/subsidized mentality)
Apple missed a great design opportunity with the iPhone form factor. I think it should have been shaped a little like the lower-case " i " in iPhone (but without the dot on top, of course–or like an upper-case " I ")* That way it would fit in your hand just right. As it is now, it is a little big and awkward to hold.
Here is a handy little diagram. (The edges would be much more gently tapered than the following “I”, though.)
I
*with serifs
1.) No.
2.) Maybe in the next year or two, depending on how they hold up and how they improve it. I’m always skeptical of electronic devices that do everything, since they never seem to do any of it very well, but I’m willing to be sold.
3.) One of the other docs in my practice is thinking about getting one, though probably not right at the launch.
I see your point and recognize the advantages of being able to reconfigure the interface for various functions.
However, I believe the disadvantages of a static, physical button interface can be ameliorated by smart layouts and menu design. Plus, when I’m familiar with a button layout, I can navigate as much by feel as by sight. That’s something you can’t do at all with a touch-screen.
That’s a good point. Calling it a “phone” does limit marketability and people’s perceptions of the device. As mentioned earlier, the Blackberry has all the functions of the iPhone but I’ve never heard anybody call one a “phone”. It’s always been its own thing: a Blackberry. Conversely, I don’t think “iPhone” will ever become synonymous with such a multi-function communications device the way “iPod” has with MP3 players.
Maybe Apple should make the iPhone modular. Sell the iPhone at a reasonable price with some base phone and email capability and then make other functions like GPS, MP3 playback capability, etc., available as pay extras. This type of plugin architecture has proven very successful for a number of software applications and could easily be implemented through a variety of firmware upgrades.