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iPhone Release Date Is June 29
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:28 PM
from the lines-form-now dept.
from the lines-form-now dept.
willith writes "Apple has placed three iPhone commercials on their Web site today, and each ends with a tag: 'Coming June 29.' This puts to rest the question of when the thing will hit the streets, but there are still worries about allocation — AppleInsider is reporting that the supplies at Cingular/AT&T stores may be relatively tight." And some fanatic sites are already parsing the ads for such enigmas as the "mystery app."
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Editorial Request (Please Read on June 28th) (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, it's a phone for God's sake, not a cure for cancer.
Re:Editorial Request (Please Read on June 28th) (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Parallels? *YAWN* (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah man, it's like, can ya dig it... these freaky cats at Microsoft they, like, want you to believe they are innovative and shit, but, it's like, they just take ideas man. And ideas want to be free, like beer man, ideas can't be packaged and sold, they need to run free in the wild, man! Hay brother, keep fightin' fascism from those unhip squares at redmond, man... use the tools of the people, spoken word, rhythm and buying apple products, man!
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Re:Editorial Request (Please Read on June 28th) (Score:5, Funny)
In addition, during this file transfer, Netscape will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even BBEdit Lite is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Mac that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Macs' faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 300 mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Macintosh is a superior machine.
Mac addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Mac over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
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Re:Editorial Request (Please Read on June 28th) (Score:5, Insightful)
The US wireless market is such a strange beast that the vast majority of its users have very little clue how it works. In general, US phones are sold "subsidized" with 2 year contracts, or stripped down models sold "full price" with prepaid service. However, even the "subsidized" prices are, at many companies, not often an actual discount; very commonly, mid to high end phones are sold "at cost" (per obtainable wholesale prices) with two year contracts, and at a ridiculous markup without.
The first area in which the iPhone is revolutionary is its abandonment of this strategy. While the phone is requiring the two year contract, the subsidy concept has been removed. The single line of fine print speaks volumes. "Use requires minimum new 2 year activation plan." The use of the word "use" in place of the word "price" indicates a reversal; whether or not this is good for the consumer remains to be seen, but the fact that the pricing is not related to the contract is inherently a benefit for customer understanding. It seems (anecdotally, working at a wireless store) that most customers have little to know comprehension of the subsidy system, and often "value" a piece of phone hardware at $50 or less, based on the price they paid. With fixed pricing, there may be two direct consumer benefits: first, no more confusing hardware pricing or rebates, no conditions, nothing to mail in, no questions. Second, replace or change your phone at any time, just like a computer, ipod, or appliance, without having to wait for your service obligation to be fulfilled enough to get another discount.
Yeah, the price is higher. At the moment. The iPod was introduced at similar price; the iPod Nano 4 gb, closest in features to the original now sells for less than half the price the original was introduced with, and has better battery life, smaller size, color screen, and (in some opinions) a cleaner interface. Do we doubt that will happen with the iPhone?
Phone "subsidies" are a scourge on the US wireless industry. Perhaps they should be more like cable boxes and modems, leased and owned by the telco's, or perhaps they should be more like landline phones, merely commoditized at all but the top end. A typical house phone sells for more and has less features than a typical cell phone, as it is.
The other side of this coin, especially considering the possibility that the iPhone may be offered as a prepaid or hybrid, is that we may see this as the beginning of a new style of billing. Imagine a future in which per minute/per kilobyte bandwidth rates are lowered to a reasonable point, at the expense of all the "unlimited bundles" we sell now. Imagine if "a minute is a minute no matter what" but calls cost a penny a minute, data a dime a megabyte. It could happen, but only if the profit model of the industry changes. With Apple taking on an unprecedented hardware support role (in the standard consumer sphere; Vertu and B&O have done it before) it frees up the network/bandwidth providers to be just that. Utilities. Like water or electricity.
I'm not saying that the iPhone will bring about all this in a single fell swoop. But contract independent pricing, profitable retail prices on smartphones, consumer friendly high end hardware, and distributed support costs, could spell the start of a real revolution in this particular backward industry.
(By the way, does anyone here remember, from history, a time when power companies like Edison distributed and supported everything from the grid itself to the motors and lamps you ran on it? What broke that model?)
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"Just a phone"? Want to bet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, all that has been said of Apple products many, many times before:
1977: The Apple II: one of many personal computers.
1984: Macintosh - just another GUI, hard to upgrade.
1998: iMac - just another all-in-one PC, hard to upgrade.
1999-2001: OS X - just another Unix (or proprietary OS, depending on your POV)
2001: iPod - just another MP3 player.
Honestly, is it really a surprise when people are excited that Apple is coming out with a phone?
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Re:Sure lets bet. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is going to sell shiploads of these things, and all the fud and whining in the world will not stop it. It has nothing to do with Apple fans. There simply aren't enough Apple fanboys around to account for the success of the iPod. The truth is that it was a success because it was about the easiest and simplest player to use and it was marketed reasonably well. I know a lot of older non-techie people who hate gadgets, but love their iPod, for the simple reason that it takes about 30 seconds to learn how to use it.
The same goes for the iPhone. If you've watched the keynote, you pretty much know how to use everything that's on the phone. If you've watched the commercials, you know enough to use it. I've had a Samsung smartphone with Windows Mobile on it for five months and I still don't know how to use all the stuff on it (the manual is so arcane that you just end up forgetting stuff).
But
The fact that some people in this thread have an irrational hatred for Apple doesn't change the fact that this will be the hottest tech item in recent memory. I'm wondering if the Cabbage Patch doll wars will be upon us once more (Jobs has basically said he hopes so, which makes him look a bit of an ass). Still, it is highly likely there is much link fodder in this thread for future gloaters.
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links (Score:5, Informative)
I'd give this thing at least 6 months in the wild (Score:5, Interesting)
The two potentially big problems with it I see are:
1. Lack of tactile feedback in the UI. I.e. you have to look at it and concentrate on the UI to use it.
2. The fragility of the touch screen.
Re:I'd give this thing at least 6 months in the wi (Score:5, Interesting)
As for the tactile feedback, I think you're underestimating the UI mechanisms used to use the device. The most pressing activity on a phone is dialing. If you can solve the ease of dialing issue, you can make everything much easier. If you look at the demo of the Google map, you'll see what I'm talking about. It makes dialing easy. No current phone does this right now. None.
About the only way this could get easier is if they start scanning your voice mail for phone numbers to associate with the visual voice mail
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Traditional? (Score:5, Insightful)
However, there is an odd shot in the newly released "How- To" iPhone ad, where the screen goes from the traditional 11 icon view, to a new 12 icon view. (See below).
It's a pet peeve of mine that people use the word "traditional" for things which were invented very very recently. Traditional things are generational things, handed down from one generation to another. You can't make it artificially, and you can't make it quickly.
Reminds me of this brand new Irish Pub that just opened up down the road from me. As I am an alcoholic, I was right there belly to the bar on the SECOND day they were open. I was amazed to see that all the walls of the brand new bar were full of photographs of customers having good times with their friends, in this friendly neighborhood establishment. Amusingly, for a neighborhood bar, it was surprisingly inaccessible. You couldn't really walk to it, as there were no sidewalks, just rows and rows of parking spots. I wouldn't want to walk there anyway, because the traffic from the Bed Bath and Beyond next door is crazy.
So, these photos were all over the walls of this pub, showing hundreds of people having an amazingly good time. I was really jealous of those people who showed up at this brand new bar, on the first day it was open. They were the lucky ones, having had the opportunity to both create tradition, and have a good time doing it too. But still, it was a good feeling to see that my neighborhood bar had created in just one day what some pubs in Ireland are apparently still working on after 300 years or more.
I think that the new Irish bar next door really captured the tradition which my neighborhood strip mall holds in such high regard. I'm not sure that these little icons on a phone can measure up to that.
It's not about being revolutionary! (Score:5, Insightful)
What about the iPhone? It's the same concept if you ask me. There are pocket pc's and blackberries that have many features that the iPhone promiss to offer its customers and whatnot. The difference is more in the interface and how you'll use it rather than discovering new features.
I say this cause I see a lot of people commenting on the iphone and saying that "X" and "Y" devices do what the iphone does.
AFAIK, a Geo Metro and a Lexus IS350 can both go from point A to point B and reach the maximum allowed speed limits on (almost) any road you'll be travelling on. The difference is the experience you get out of driving those cars.
How To (Score:5, Insightful)
They visually explained how to use every major feature of the thing in a 30sec TV spot.
Most people neither know or care about UMTS, or HSDPA, or AGPS, or any of the other high tech acronyms that certain
Technology has progressed to the point where a well thought out interface matters more than having the latest and greatest bullet points on a spec sheet some months before the other guy. The bottleneck that needs to be addressed these days isn't generally in the machine, it's often between the user and the machine.
Re:iPhone == iFiasco (Score:5, Interesting)
As one /.'er said about the Microsoft Surface "if only it fitted in my shirt pocket.."
I think you're being naive to think that it's hype alone which is fuelling this product launch. There is an actual demand for this kind of tech. Even Microsoft who gets hammered constantly on here, received huge praise for embracing touch interfaces. People want these devices, if you don't that's fine.. but you're going to be considered ignorant for thinking this is redundant technology. I for one have a specific hate for mobile phones today, they come across as utterly clueless to what is ease of use. I have no problem sitting there to learn their silly interfaces, I do have a problem for why they are evidently programmed lazily, excessively complicated to do simple actions, sluggish and with a status quo attitude. There has been minimal advancement in the mobile phone field. Even giant like nokia and sony just rehash their exact same interface across mobile phones. Crude evolutions from their decade old black and white devices. We have the tech now, it's about time a big player started making it widely available. (Unlike the LG Prada phone which, despite having a touch screen, seems to think that finger tips are 3px wide.)
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Re:iPhone == iFiasco (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, having even a basic logical way to close an application would seem a no brainer. I'm nigh of the opinion all present PDA phone manufacturers CEOs should be dragged out of bed and beaten. NO ONE I KNOW is HAPPY with their cell phone PDAs. We just need what they offer and we endure.
I for one and over-joyed for the iPhone. Why? Cause at the very least it will get Microsoft to move it's but. And other phone vendors to try new things. Nokia, HTC, LG, you name it. They know if they do nothing and the iPhone works as displayed and is a success then they are looking at a market 5 yrs from now where iPhone is synonymous cell phone as iPod is to MP3 player.
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Re:iPhone == iFiasco (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology isn't about sitting on your ass and stopping innovation because everyone's "happy". That might be the game for the cell phone companies, who have spent years cramming more and more functionality into an interface designed solely for dialing telephone numbers. Sorry, but that's just stupid. Cell phones have been overloading the touch-tone phone interface for years, and no real innovation has gone on in the cell phone UI. It's about time someone came up with an interface that wasn't just "Let's put more buttons on it! On both sides!"
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Re:iPhone == iFiasco (Score:5, Insightful)
Underfeatured.
Like the iPod?
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Re:iPhone == iFiasco (Score:5, Insightful)
I know -nobody-, not a single person, that is happy with their mobile phone. Happy being defined as they find it having every feature they need and want and have it implemented in a logical, easy to use way. I've used a good portion of PDA phones out there and I've never had one more than 2 months, I've relegated myself to a slider phone instead of dealing with the pure hell that is most PDA phones.
I'm not saying you should like the iPhone, I personally prefer you don't until I get one. Even if only a small fraction Mac zealots get an iPhone, it will still be hugely successful for Apple.
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Re:Stupid commercials (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not saying it's a new innovation but leaving out select details kinda kills your argument.
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Re:Stupid commercials (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, the only new part of that is being able to watch a DRM'd copy of Pirates of Caribbean that you paid $10 to download
Are you trying to make this sound bad? I mean, I know that writing the word "DRM" around here is like dropping chum in water filled with sharks-- people go crazy-- but hell, that sounds pretty convenient to me.
Of course, the iPhone will be able to play non-DRMed movies, so if you wanted you could go to Best Buy, spend $25 on Pirates of the Caribbean, use Handbrake to rip it as mp4, and put that on your iPhone. I mean, if you want, you have that option. Still, it sounds mighty convenient to be able to, if you like, buy Pirates for $10 and copy it to your iPhone, the whole process taking a little longer than however long you can download it over your internet connection, and being ready to go without leaving your house.
Yeah, yeah, I get it, "...but DRM is bad and $10 is too expensive!" Well you don't HAVE TO buy it from Apple, but you have that option, and I don't see anyone else giving such an elegant solution. I'll tell you, if you'd told me a couple years ago that in 2007 I'd be able to buy movies online, download them, and copy it to a hybrid iPod/phone/PDA-- showing me how easy the whole process is, how small and thin the iPhone would be-- I'm not sure I'd have believed you. I'd say, "Yeah, sure, and I'll probably have a flying car too!"
In summary: Where's my flying car?!
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Re:Stupid commercials (Score:5, Insightful)
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functionality vs design (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure. But this is going to be just like the iPod and the "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." response. You can point to devices that functionally do most of the things that the iPhone will do, or maybe even more things (like run Putty and all that). What you won't find is a device that triangulates so well between features people want, high quality user-experience, and excellent industrial design.
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Please don't mod parent down (Score:5, Insightful)
You ask what the point is? Apple doesn't create devices with the most features or best specs out there. Apple makes devices that makes those features and specs accessible to swaths of humanity who wouldn't otherwise have time or inclination to figure it out.
To play MP3's on my phone, I have to unplug it from the charger, take out the battery, take out the MicroSD card (sold separately), pick some MP3's, copy them over manually, re-assemble it all, powercycle the phone, press the dedicated "Play MP3" button on the outside of the phone, then scroll through a flat list of every MP3 file on the device. I suspect the moment you drop in the iPhone phone to charge, iTunes will kick in and sync your music selection automatically. 7 steps reduced to 0. There is no way in heck I could get my mother to play music on my phone, but an iPod is totally within her reach.
And that's pretty much what all of Apple's stuff is like. They cut out the dumb stuff so that you can get on with the business of doing whatever it is that you were going to do. For the iPod, it was giving the user a scrollable wheel and a Database backend, so that instead of a million up / down button presses the user could quickly scroll around an intelligent (and automatically created) heiarchy. iChat is great because you literally don't need to set anything up to have a household chat network, and setting up AV chatting was far, far easier than in any other client of the time.
Apple thinks about their designs so that you don't have to. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to pick up a device the first time and be able to use it as if you've been using it for years. Even to an inquisitive technophile like myself, I love that I don't have to know what's going on behind the scenes if I don't want to... it just all works the way I expect.
Phone UI's are horrible. To send a video message on my phone, I need to press a little button with a horizontal line (not the button in the middle with the big cingular guy), go to camera, record video, Press the other little horizontal line again, Flip Vertically, Press the little horizontal line again, record, Save it as a file with a hideously random name, go back out to the main menu, go into the SMS application, write out an appropriate SMS, attach the file, find the appropriate e-mail recipient, send the file, get a message back saying that the message couldn't be sent but we deleted the draft anyway, go back in and recreate the message with the file again, send it out again, and get a message back from the recipient in an hour asking what weird format the video file was in.
Oh, and a phone is not a laptop. You can stick a phone in your pocket and carry it with you to a resturant. You can pull out your phone on the road and google maps just where the heck Vacaville is and how to get back to Santa Cruz. Your xv6700 should have shown you that a 2" phone in your pocket is a lot more practical than a 15" laptop in your bag.
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Nope (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Change of Image? (Score:5, Insightful)
Like you, I am also a college student living on campus, except in Canada, though WiFi is also ubiquitous here. It is clear we have vastly different experiences. I believe the iPhone targets people like me:
A - I don't have my laptop with me when I go out with friends. Why would I lug that thing around, especially if I'm out drinking? Recipe for disaster.
B - Free public computers only exist on campus. Honestly, is campus really that exciting that you spend the vast majority of your off hours there?
1 - Plans change. This sounds like one of the initial arguments against cell phones. "I always plan ahead, so there's no need for a barrage of phone calls on the go!". Well, invariably someone screws up, or something unforeseen happens (bar closes, buddy gets run over, movie theater's closed, etc etc). Since getting my phone I've had an infinitely easier time socializing with my friends than before, and I suspect this will up the ante for that even further.
2 - 411 is $1 a call. Around here, it means dialing it, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Describing what you're trying to find. Waiting. Waiting. Getting your answer (texted to your phone, nice), and then turning around and calling THAT number to find the actual information you need... Oh, and you might have to hold there too. With the internet at your fingertips, it's "free" (save data costs... but considering how much I plan to use the service, it's more than worth it compared to 411).
3 - Yes, because my friends are my bitches who should look up movie schedules on-call. Not that I wouldn't if I were in a real pinch, but this allows me to find the information I need independently. It also allows me to skim a page for the info I need, instead of forcing my dear friend here to recite it to me.
4 - I suppose this is where we differ. When I "hang out with friends", we hit pubs, bars, movies, restaurants, pool joints, concerts, and any other number of events and weird places. We like to explore a lot, and we bus ourselves to nearby strange cities to take in their sights and sounds. An iPhone-like device would be extremely helpful for us.
Allow me to point out a very recent example. I just returned from Toronto (Canada), where my girlfriend and I went to see the grand re-opening of the Royal Ontario Museum (highly recommended visit for anyone in the area, seriously). After taking a look at the brand spankin' new museum, we decided to take in a movie, but wanted to check the movie schedule, as well as if we'd miss the last bus out of the city. Well, unfortunately that meant:
A - Trudging down the street to the movie theatre. It's only a few blocks, but still 10 minutes wasted if I had access to their site at my fingertips.
B - Trudging to the nearest subway terminal, which has a kiosk where you can look up inter-city bus schedules.
Not rocket science by any measure, but you can start to see how an iPhone would have been useful here. A half hour information trek could've been reduced to 30 seconds. Heck, while perusing the museum we wondered about certain things, and if I had Wikipedia at my fingertips...
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