Cool looking key, I must say!
Oh man… this is starting to sound like Sony! I was hoping you could use a Bluetooth keyboard with it…
Yeah, he didn’t even mention that his phone unlocks doors! I bet the iPhone can’t do that…
Seriously, though, great post, Bambi. When my wife and I first saw a commercial for the iPhone a few months ago, she was drooling, but I was befuddled, because I thought there were already phones that can do all this stuff. But, never having owned a smartphone, I wasn’t prepared to defend my half-assed assumption. But it seems you did a pretty good job. If people want to pay $600 for a smartphone with fewer features than some (including the battery and network issues – each separately would be dealbreakers for me, if I were in the market for a smartphone), but with an interface that (as of early reviews) is universally acknowledged to be top notch… well, it wouldn’t be the first time ease of use triumphed over functionality. It wouldn’t even be the first time it’s happened for an Apple product.
But reality check – if this were MS-Phone instead of iPhone, that is, an identical product but with Gatesian branding rather than Jobsian – do you think there’d be 1/10000th of the hype? I’m amazed that people are willing to write off things like, “So I have to pay to have the battery replaced after charging it 300 times [i.e., a year] – big whoop.” If Microsoft put out a product with this liability, it’d be taken (and rightfully so) as evidence of a shitty product. But Apple gets a pass because… it’s Apple.
(My biases: I’m meh about Microsoft products, in general, and increasingly negative towards Apple… although, from my perspective, I think I’m equally critical of both companies; it’s just that criticism of Apple is, for some reason, ill-received in many, many circles).
Damn, if I knew I could use a key hanging on a tree as a phone and a camera, I wouldn’t have bought either. Actually though, I’m curious what phone you’re using, since you seem to like it quiet a bit.
The thing that annoys me about the iPhone is that you can’t use it on any business phone plan. At all. Even if the business plan is exactly the same as a personal/family plan, but just happens to be registered in the name of a business/with a Tax ID instead of SSN.
Does microsoft do hardware now? I really don’t know. 
And I really like the look of the iPhone’s input. I’ve tried Blackberry, and Treo, and found them uncomfrotable for my fat fingers. iPhone ignores “near touches”. those keyboards don’t. I’m in no hurry, I don’t text, so speed is of little concern for me.
And the iPhone is far prettier than the others.
Including that key. 
The idea of the subscription kinda annoys me.
Bambi, you may just have talked me out of getting an iPhone (if I could afford it, which I can’t right now, and if it was available in my country, which it isn’t). This kind of crippling of a beautiful design really irks me; it’s the same mistake that Sony has made over and over again, which, for example, injured the MiniDisc and did in the Data Minidisc.
One would hope that Apple would be smarter. Really, the one clear advantage that Apple has going for it these days is design of the user interface (and the whole user experience, for that matter, extending to their packaging and stores). But a fluid and easy-to-use interface won’t hide underlying defects for ever.
Jesus, that’s what I get for hurrying. Anyway, this is the phone I use, and the key picture was taken with it. God, I’m a moron. BTW, I’m posting this little follow-up from the phone over WiFi.
The N95 looks nice. But… “This device is currently not available in your country.” (Canada) Arrgghhh…
Not officially available, that is. But I’m sure there’s a few places in Toronto selling it in unlocked form.
Ugh. I didn’t know you couldn’t use the iPhone as a modem. Not that it matters to me as my cell carrier’s internet access fees are absurdly high ($70/mo for 2 megs + $0.03c/k thereafter. Yeah … 2 megs) so I don’t use it for that purpose anyway, but it’s nice to know it’s there if ever my carrier smartens up and starts charging reasonable rates for network access then I can use it with a higher resolution device, like my PDA, which has a larger screen (3.8") and VGA resolution (iPhone is QVGA), which is much nicer for viewing web pages on.
I’ve nothing against the iPhone per se. Its UI implementation is brilliant – but I have a keen interest in slick UIs. Nor do I have anything against Apple; I love my iPod to bits. Just the same, it seems like the iPhone’s glitz really just covers up some glaring and rather significant omissions that really knock down its overall functionality, which is where many, many other smartphones (and even some regular phones in some ways) have it beat hands down.
He may have the same phone as mine on T-Mobile, the BlackBerry Pearl.
(or not)
I like the gps, but I hear that in phones it’s weak. I also like the versatility with phone service. Text is entered using the numeric keyboard? Also, the screen seems kinda small. And looks like it might wash out in sunlight. The Apple has a glass screen, which is good. I tried to see an actual demo on the Nokia site, but got impatient with all the cool swirly video stuff. My fault.
$750? Relally? Pretty steep. I’ll try to peruse the Nokia stuff more thoroughly later.
I’m not going to buy anything right now. We’ll see what Apple does.
I still see the iPhone having everything for me at a lower cost. And better picture.
Not. Bad Trevor. I didn’t see the new post.
I seriously do think that a lot of people are going bonkers over the iPhone for a few reasons
- they’re truly smitten (it IS pretty)
- Apple fanpeople
- they’ve never had a phone that did anything more than call, take pictures/videos, text message, and voice mail
If I actually got my hands on one, I’d probably be in that group, but I know too much about how this stuff works to put up with arbitrary limitations like we’ve described.
Can the Nolia sync with your computer in the way the apple can? Phone book, calendar, etc?
Precisely the reasons I refuse to buy any more Sony products.
I feel like people are getting too caught up in comparing feature lists. On that scale, the iPhone will come up short when compared to other phones (except for two things: Visual voicemail and the ability to play iTunes Store tracks). But really, the selling point of the iPhone isn’t its feature list. It’s the user interface. And after playing with one at the Apple Store today (granted, for just a few minutes), IMO, the interface beats other phones’ all hollow. It’s a lot more than just “pretty.” It’s amazingly intuitive and functional.
Of course, it’s easier to compare feature lists, because that’s an easily quantifiable comparison, while interface preferences are qualitative. However, I see no reason to think that people who really like the iPhone do so because of fanboy-ism or naivete. Maybe they just like the interface a lot. That’s the iPhone’s raison d’etre.
Of course. That’s the norm for modern smartphones. I don’t know one that cannot sync e-mail, contacts, and calendar entries. In addition, Nokia has something called Lifeblog, which puts all your texts, pictures, MMSes, sounds, and videos into a timeline on the PC. I have a continual record of all of that information since November 2005.
I’m typing this on my PowerBook G4, I have a MacBook Pro in the office, and several iPods. But I have a PPC-6700 as my phone/PDA and I have no plans to upgrade to an iPhone yet.
I love Apple’s attention to the user interface of their products. The PDA functions of the iPhone are awesome - I would love to be able to sync my calendar/contacts without a third-party solution. And it runs OS X, which is quite cool.
But I think it sucks that you can only use it with AT&T. I’m with Sprint, and as annoying as they can be, I’m fairly happy with their service and I have no desire to change. Bottom line, there’s nothing that the iPhone does that I can’t do now (though it might do those things more elegantly). Which is why I don’t get the lines and pandemonium over the launch. If I was going to get a new iPhone, I wouldn’t inconvenience myself by getting it at 6 pm Friday, like the mayor of Philadelphia did (doesn’t he have more important things to do?).
I do think two things are going to have to happen for me to jump over to the iPhone: they’re going to have to make OBEX work (what’s the point of Bluetooth if you can’t sync wirelessly) and they’re going to have to provide the phone to other providers, or provide an unlockable version. If not, I don’t see a reason to switch (although it looks very cool). If we look at the iPod, it launched for Macs originally, but once the hype caught on, they made it work with PCs. I would think that once the awesomeness of the iPhone is confirmed, there’s going to be a way to use other carriers. Also, they’re going to have to come up with some way to keep my oily fingers and greasy face from jacking up that beautiful finish…
Good to hear the reports from the iPhone owners! Have fun with it, and I hope you’ll let me try the keyboard when I run into you on the street!
I’ve heard that there is a $175 early cancellation fee for the iPhone. So you’re paying full price for the phone (i.e., it’s unsubsidized) and have to pay $175 if you want to cancel the contract, in addition to the other limitations like the non-choice of carrier and the non-replaceable battery. It certainly sounds like a lot of people who are so enthusiastic about the phone are firmly located in Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field.