# The iPhone is absolutely brilliant **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 30, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003 "2007-06-30T02:09:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![litespeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f9b8f/32.png) [@litespeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litespeed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/201 "2007-07-06T14:40:50Z")
Apple re-stocks… > **[FORTUNE](https://www.fortune.com/)** > > Unrivaled access, premier storytelling, and the best of business since 1930. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/202 "2007-07-06T14:58:28Z")
I do think the iPhone is uber-cool, yet here are the four main reasons, in order, as to why I won’t get one: 1. Price: $600, plus a two year contract? No chance. 2. AT&T. 3. Battery that I cannot replace myself. 4. No real keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/203 "2007-07-06T15:46:24Z")
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus] I do think the iPhone is uber-cool, yet here are the four main reasons, in order, as to why I won’t get one: 1. Price: $600, plus a two year contract? No chance. 2. AT&T. 3. Battery that I cannot replace myself. 4. No real keyboard. [/QUOTE] 5. Yeah, that’s pretty high. 6. That annoys me too. 7. Most estimates say that the battery should last over 2 years, but yeah. Apple, they say, is working on it. 8. Have you tried the keyboard? This is a big plus for me. It’s far more comfortable to use than the others, especially the phone type inputs. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/204 "2007-07-08T19:04:05Z")
IM for you iPhone. (Works with every IM service you can think of, it seems.) ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/205 "2007-07-09T09:27:07Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] [How to use your iPhone as an iPod **only**.](http://www.macrumors.com/2007/07/03/iphone-as-a-widescreen-ipod-wifi-without-contract/) [/QUOTE] Ok, now this made me raise an eyebrow. That’s basically a palmtop Mac if you can get it without the service. Probably a lot of apps it doesn’t run, but email and web browsing, plus calendar/media functions, would probably be worth it. I have no interest in this thing as a phone or a slow internet device on Cingular’s network(for which they charge $60 per month which will go to closer to $80 after taxes and fees), but as an uber video iPod with an internet appliance built in, that’s another story. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/206 "2007-07-09T16:08:54Z")
[QUOTE=Mtgman] Ok, now this made me raise an eyebrow. That’s basically a palmtop Mac if you can get it without the service. Probably a lot of apps it doesn’t run, … but as an uber video iPod with an internet appliance built in, that’s another story. [/QUOTE] If by “a lot of apps” you mean “no apps except what’s installed on it, or can be run through a web browser,” you’re right. There’s no evidence at this point that there will ever be any way to run real applications on the iPhone. Even the existing iPod games don’t work on it. Also, an “uber video iPod” that doesn’t have enough memory for more than maybe one movie doesn’t seem all that uber to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone, but for what you’re looking for, you might be better off with a real iPod Video–vastly more space for less money; no web browser, though without the “Internet everywhere” benefit of EDGE, the browser is much less useful (I’ve never successfully connected to a wi-fi network other than my own, even at places that claim to have free wifi.) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/207 "2007-07-12T02:03:23Z")
Finally got everything set up and working. A couple little things I learned that weren’t that obvious (to me anyway): You need OSX 10.4 (Tiger), _then_ iTunes 7.3, then iPhone in that order. The keyboard input is a breeze, even I, a non-texter, was on it within a couple hours. Like others have said, you just gotta trust it. I love it. I’m curious to see what others are going to come with to run on it. Me happy! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/208 "2007-07-12T02:11:02Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] Like others have said, you just gotta trust it. [/QUOTE] That’s actually my biggest (and not all the big) quibble with my iPhone: if you “just trust it”, and it doesn’t come through for you, you have to hit the backspace a billion times to get rid of the word, since there’s no “delete last word” function. Plus, if you accept it’s word suggestion at the end of a sentence, it automatically puts in the space after the word, so you have to \ \ \ \ every time. That little dance gets tedious. But lots of folks are mildly complaining about the keyboard (particularly that it doesn’t rotate to horizontal in most apps: for people with big thumbs like me, the horizontal keyboard is about 400% easier to use than the vertical version because it spaces stuff out more, but it only works in the web browser), so I suspect that it will get a patch soon. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/209 "2007-07-12T12:34:18Z")
[QUOTE=TimeWinder] But lots of folks are mildly complaining about the keyboard (particularly that it doesn’t rotate to horizontal in most apps: for people with big thumbs like me, the horizontal keyboard is about 400% easier to use than the vertical version because it spaces stuff out more, but it only works in the web browser), so I suspect that it will get a patch soon. [/QUOTE] Poke around on the intarwebs as IIRC someone’s already come up with a hack for that. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/210 "2007-07-12T12:42:55Z")
That is all fair nice and dandy, but the real question everyone’s missing is of course… [will it blend?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzyVIhnnDU) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/211 "2007-07-12T12:49:05Z")
Ignore weird stuff’s going on with my browser/board. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/212 "2007-07-12T23:17:15Z")
[Wiki devoted to hacking your iPhone.](http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) In a quick scan, it looks like they’ve managed to figure out how to do to most of the hacks people have wanted. About the only thing they haven’t done yet is to figure out how to gree your iPhone from AT&T so you can use it on T-Mobile. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/213 "2007-07-12T23:30:58Z")
[QUOTE=TimeWinder] That’s actually my biggest (and not all the big) quibble with my iPhone: if you “just trust it”, and it doesn’t come through for you, you have to hit the backspace a billion times to get rid of the word, since there’s no “delete last word” function. Plus, if you accept it’s word suggestion at the end of a sentence, it automatically puts in the space after the word, so you have to \ \ \ \ every time. That little dance gets tedious. But lots of folks are mildly complaining about the keyboard (particularly that it doesn’t rotate to horizontal in most apps: for people with big thumbs like me, the horizontal keyboard is about 400% easier to use than the vertical version because it spaces stuff out more, but it only works in the web browser), so I suspect that it will get a patch soon. [/QUOTE] I don’t type fast enough to have come upon that problem yet. 🙂 But I also would appreciate a horizontal keyboard. I do not miss the tactile feel, or the clicks of a “real” keyboard as I thought I might. A more versitile camera (zoom) would br nice. I’m going to have a look at that wiki site **Tuckerfan** just linked to. Thanks, Tuck. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/214 "2007-07-12T23:41:58Z")
I went and had a look at it. I am not a phone person but the person I am buying for is-and his statement on it (while he loved it) was the same as **catsix** ’s way back on the first page…buy a second generation version when they iron out all the kinks and bugs. The internet option on phones is absolutely wonderful though-I can’t tell you how many times we used by bf’s Q to GoogleMap or websurf our way to something we needed. No more 411, even! ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/215 "2007-07-13T01:17:35Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] A more versitile camera (zoom) would br nice. [/QUOTE] I just realized a day or two ago that the pictures the iPhone takes are much higher resolution than it’s actual display. So if you’re only interested in viewing the pictures on your phone, you can actually pinch-zoom quite a ways. This doesn’t help if you’re exporting, of course. I kind of miss a flash, too, but that’s not uncommon for cellphone cameras. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/216 "2007-07-13T01:26:36Z")
[QUOTE=TimeWinder] I just realized a day or two ago that the pictures the iPhone takes are much higher resolution than it’s actual display. So if you’re only interested in viewing the pictures on your phone, you can actually pinch-zoom quite a ways. This doesn’t help if you’re exporting, of course. I kind of miss a flash, too, but that’s not uncommon for cellphone cameras. [/QUOTE] I was thinking of photos for my contacts. You can’t save that pinch-zoom, can you? ---
**Author:** ![Yag\_Rannavach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/858c86/32.png) [@Yag\_Rannavach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yag_Rannavach)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/217 "2007-07-13T01:32:38Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] I was thinking of photos for my contacts. You can’t save that pinch-zoom, can you? [/QUOTE] You can’t save it on the list of pictures, but you can save it when you use the picture for anything. When you add a picture as a wallpaper or contact photo you have the option of moving and scaling it. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/218 "2007-07-13T01:51:28Z")
[QUOTE=Yag Rannavach] You can’t save it on the list of pictures, but you can save it when you use the picture for anything. When you add a picture as a wallpaper or contact photo you have the option of moving and scaling it. [/QUOTE] I’ll try that. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/219 "2007-07-17T11:13:47Z")
After an interminable wait (I purchased online on July 1st) - it’s here. Never been a big cell-phone or blackberry tech-guy. My hobbies include, in fact, vintage electronics - I’m quite certain there are no 12XA7s in _this_ bad boy. Resisting temptation to turn it on and play right away, (it arrives charged?) I put it on the charger before I went to work as I read some folks had some power supply issues. Activation took only a few minutes - maybe 10 or 15 - and after a few hours, all features were running “as advertised”. Don’t fret if internet apps aren’t functional w/out wi-fi at first. The edge network is surprisingly zippy, and I found to my utter satisfaction that even google earth is usable. Everyone talks about waiting for the “next generation” or whatever - but to my way of thinking, this already qualifies as my first and only cell-phone consisted of a tracfone. Plus, I may be able to pick up chicks with this thing. /s ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003/220 "2007-07-17T12:51:53Z")
I’ve had mine for about a week, and I’m totally satisfied. One small glitch, though. Every time I dock it , it opens iPhoto. 😕 I’ll look at the settings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iphone-is-absolutely-brilliant/410003.md?page=12)