iPhone
I noticed that Gary had given me a bit of a bash over my iPhone reaction.
I just wanted to make my impressions clear.
I've been an 'advanced phone' user for a good many years now, I have in the past used Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and of late Microsoft (HTC) phones, and over the years seen them advance to the state of my current phone which my parents call my mini PC (HTC Universal).
The iPhone looks AMAZING! however it has some serious shortcomings, most of which should be expected, seeming this is Apple's first foray into the phone market (we will forget the RokR).
The iPhone falls short on some serious areas. What connected phone would be without 3G? I don't want to browse over GPRS, and it's damn sure that there will not be a WiFi zone like there is in San Francisco around where I live any time soon.
The lack of developer support is a joke, what's going on there? It runs OSX? yeah right just like my phone runs Windows Vista, the kernel may be loosely related but that's about it. All of the clever video voice-mail and the likes are network dependent, and not many of them will upgrade there infrastructure just for one phone. Do you think Nokia and SE have not looked at doing similar stuff for years?
There were also some strange decisions going on, first they say we are partnering with Google, then say that Yahoo! are going to be the iPhone mail partner. Who the the heck was smoking crack in the boardroom when that decision was made? Steve give up the hard drugs and go back to pot, cause that decision is just plain dumb! Google mail vs Yahoo! mail? I'd rather use Mutt or Pine than Yahoo! (in fact I would rather be sent to prision for a crime I did not commit, and accidentaly bend over to pick up the soap in an all black shower than use Yahoo!). However my dislike of Yahoo! asside, Gmail is possibly the best 'free' mail system out there at the moment, why use a decrepid aging pile of dog muck that get's blocked by almost every decent spam filter engine instead?
Like I said, I have nothing against Apple, I own my fair share of iPods and Macintosh's after all, and what I do confess is that Apple make very good designs.
I would like to see Apple do well with this device, but I'm afraid it's probably better off if they take the phone stuff out and put a hard disk in instead, that way we would get a decent Video iPod, and let's be fair that's what we all really wanted instead of the iPhone anyway.
p.s. While I'm bashing companies, Microsoft PLEASE call me back about my Xbox 360, I've had 3 now, none of them work and I want to play Rainbow Six : Vegas!
It’s a good argument you make Ashleigh, I’m glad you were prepared to be fairly objective in your statement
3G is something that I regard as an omission too, although the metropolitan coverage of Wi-Fi services is improving all the time. I think Apple have taken this into consideration. Either that or the iPhone is such a US focused device and 3G networks in the States are rubbish. Talking to a friend who works for Vodafone in this area he says that Europe is a much larger consumer of 3G services than the US is, but the US is installing more Wi-Fi coverage.
“There were also some strange decisions going on, first they say we are partnering with Google, then say that Yahoo! are going to be the iPhone mail partner. Who the the heck was smoking crack in the boardroom when that decision was made?”
From what I understand, the mail client can connect to any IMAP or POP servers. Google is providing the Google maps widget, Yahoo will provide a free push e-mail service to iPhone users with a Yahoo e-mail account, and mobile services like Yahoo Go and Yahoo oneSearch. Safari’s search box will run searches on Google and Yahoo.
“All of the clever [visual] voice-mail and the likes are network dependent, and not many of them will upgrade there infrastructure just for one phone.”
I’m not so sure, the iPhone is generating some amount of interest. The Times: “The big mobile phone operators, including O2, are battling for the exclusive rights to Apple’s new iPhone in the UK. O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile are all contenders for the contract.”
Thanks for the reply, the mail thing is down to using Yahoo for Push? why?
Also I’m positive the network operators will not upgrade their networks, after all Sony and Nokia (the two largest mobile manufacturers) have been pestering the networks to turn these features on for years, and they still have not done it, I can’t see Apple changing their minds now.