Apple iPhone (news, info, general chat)

DE: With Contract: 399 Eur + min 60Eur per month for 24 months = 1839 Eur (Total cost over 2yr contract. Not including xtra costs for minute/data overages)
DE: Without Contract: 1000 Eur

US: No Contract - $399 +tax or 270 Eur at current exchange rates.
US: With Contract - $399 + $59.99 per month basic contract fees x 24 months = $1,839 or 1240 EUR (Not including xtra charges for data/minutes over monthly limit)

Who said you had to upgrade the phone when a new update comes out?
Is "visual voicemail" all that great? Every phone carrier offers voicemail. Its not like your going to loose it. It will just be in a different format.

Yebbut if you want to use the US phone you have to sign up for 2 years with AT&T and it'll cost 2,500 USD minimum IIRC. The alternative is to hack your phone and use it on another network with all the risks that that entails.

Re. the visual voicemail: it does sound like an improvement. I've got no plans to buy one myself though, I just want a phone that phones and has Bluetooth so I can sync my numbers.

Not if you buy it at an apple store, you don't.. The phone is the same price wether you get it on contract or not. ($399)

You then Jailbreak it and use it on any network you want. People who choose to use AT&T as their carrier go thru
the same process as the non-contract people. The only difference is that they activate the phone/contract via
iTunes when they get home. Activation is not done in the stores and is not required for Purchase. It's a
completly separate process.

If you buy the iPhone from the online AT&T store it is automatically activated, thus locking you into an AT&T contract.
If you buy it at an actual AT&T store they may also require it to be activated before you leave the store.

Apple stores on the otherhand don't require anything except your credit card for payment.
Apple stores currently limit iphone purchases to 2 per person. They must be paid for with a credit card.
No Cash, No Apple voucher,, No Itunes gift certs, No checks. CC Only!

If you buy an iPhone in the US you have have to do one of two things before you can use it to make telephone calls:

1. Sign a 2 year contract with AT&T.

2. Hack the phone and use it on another network.

If you do neither of these things the phone cannot be used. You cannot buy an unlocked phone in the US: they are all locked to AT&T from the factory. The difference is that in Germany you can buy one which is officially unlocked, for which you pay a premium.

In that respect you are correct. Most techie's however opt for #2. In the end the cost between an "Unlocked" German phone
(Which you still currently can't get) and a US phone (Jailbreaked) are about 730 Eur for your so called "premium"...
Thats the cost of 2 extra phones from the US, which you could jailbreak and sell here for 600 EUR and still make some decent cash.

I'd probably go for option 2 via eBay and hope I didn't get scammed.

I'm sure with all the people on TT, some of them will be going back to the US for the Holidays and could
prob. pick-up the max 2 phones per person, bring them back to Germany and Jailbreak/sell them.

For 1000 Eur one could buy 3-4 iphones (If you can get around the limit) in the US, bring them back to D'Land and sell'em for 600 Eur each, or 2400 Eur total
minus the orig 1k Eur investment, you could make 1400 Eur for your effort. Enough to pay for the RT plane ticket.

And how about the friendly guys in Zollamt at airport? do you think you can get away with a suitcase full of iPhones?

What frigging planet is Apple on now?

I ordered an iMac for home 2 days ago 'cos the Dell is dying slowly and had not seen an email or despatch confirmation, so logged into check and it says:

Voraussichtliche Versandzeit: 02 Jan, 2008
Voraussichtliche Lieferzeit: 11 Jan, 2008

What are those boys sniffing around there for crissakes???

The model on the website says "Versandfertig in: 24 Std."

I added an extra 1Gb of Ram and went for wireless mouse and keyboard so not like I even upgraded the frigging hard drive.

I don't really wanna buy retail 'cos if you get broken pixels on the screen they can and do legally tell you to fuck off in stores (I got caught last year on that) so I wanted to buy online.

They really don't want my money at the moment.

@Koorosh

4 iPhones is hardly "a suitcase full", and if you've ever been to thru the airport, you'll know that they only do random checks.
In the 13 years I've been going thru German airports, I have never been stopped by the zoll for their inspections.

@JE
That really sucks man.. Perhaps their having supply problems with the holidays coming up. If you
still want to buy online have a look at Alternate, if it's not to late to cancel your order.

Apple also tends to charge 2x normal price for their memory upgrades. You could save yourself some cash and source/install
the memory yourself. Doing so also won't screw your guarantee, as its considered a user replaceable item, like Harddrives.

I usually just bung in Crucial Memory - got that in my Macbook Pro but was feeling lazy and wanted a quick no-brainer solution. Order online and plug-in 3 days later. Yeah right.

I shall be on the phone in the morning and probably tell 'em to poke it, then go to Saturn and make them sign something saying I can return if naffed or plug the screen in to test first. The other issue when I spoke to the retail stores is the numpties did not have Leopard loaded, but hopefully they have proper stocks now.

I want a DE keyboard, and so I think on an Apple I can just flick the OS straight into English with no further arsing around??? I can then just get a wireless keyboard etc later, and same
for the memory.

You don't have to buy at a retail store/loose the $ back garentee thing.. Buy it Online thru Alternate or one of the many other online sites.
Yes, you can flip between languages is OSX, as long as both English and German Lang. packs are installed. By default I don't think ALL avail. languages are installed, and if they are then you should remove all of them except for the ones you want.

"Sigh"

DK : Happy to hear that you never had a bad experience with ZollAmt. My wife's wedding jewleries were confiscated in airport last May. They are requesting 5000 euros for jeweleries worth the same price. Still have not been able to release it.

Just spoke to a friendly monkey at Apple. By removing the "extras" from my order - the ripoff memory and ripoff wireless keyboard and mouse - they are now able to instantly ship my order off the shelf.

I understand the desire to have production in China, but you would think they could employ some locals in Germany so that they could take the "vanilla" box and add memory, or swap keyboards, or even hard drives to fulfil the customer upgrades they are pushing on the website.

What customer wants to add upgrades and then wait 6 extra weeks for their order?

Just ****ing amazes me that a company the size of Apple, worth gazillions, spending gazillions on advertising can still fuck up stuff so royally. Same with the iPhone. Nice toy but could they possibly make it any more ****ing akward to buy the damn thing here in Germany?

As it happens, just makes me feel better about my business - it would appear that everyone is like a swan swimming gracefully - look under the surface and you will see the feet going like the clappers.

Debitel are now offering a €600 sign-up bonus for the iphone which would make it €399, same price as the T-Mobile exclusive.
What a shrewd piece of marketing

Haven't seen what their tariffs are yet!

Orange (FR) will also be selling its unlocked iPhone "for a "significantly lower" price than T-Mobile's" - Link
That price however won't be revealed until the 1st shipping day..

Prices released...

Unlocked iPhone without Contract - 650 Eur
Unlocked iPhone With Contract - 550 Eur

The €550 is with a normal Orange plan. You can also get an iphone plan which set you back €399, tariffs starting from €49 and you can then unlock it after 6 months for €100.

How is the Debitel offer working?

Do you just buy the phone and they refund you the €600? Would be sweet to pick up the French phone for €650 and get €600 back from Debitel!

Here is something that looks to be an interesting competitor, I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
[img]http://images.macnn.com/esta/content/0801/garminnuviphone-lg2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://images.macnn.com/esta/content/0801/garminnuviphone-lg3.jpg[/img]

- Link
Somewhow I just don't see this thing taking off.. Atleast the iPhone will soon be open to 3rd part Developers.
And windows Mobile Devices are still way ahead of all other smartphones when it comes to avail. apps.

Just got me an iphone for $250, and I love it! I managed to set it up with a prepaid plan as well.

Anyone have any suggestions for some good apps?

There are no 3rd party Apps until Apple releases the iPhone SDK and developers get time to start writing apps.
Until then your just going to have to wait. There are however many companies and apps in the pipeline.
Even Microsoft is looking at porting Software to the iPhone.

I guess that explains why I could only find web apps.

Dear Mr Jobs,

Please will you release the UMTS iphone with 32gb for us europeans (preferably not fixed to a contract as well would be nice)

Thanks

Poots

Watch out for Darkknight, he routinely tells bald faced lies about Apple.

There are indeed 3rd party apps existing for the iPhone. The current ones were simply made without the use of Apple's SDK, and require you make some unsupported software modifications to your iPhone.

Exactly. That's what I'm holding out for, I'd even be content if it was just a 3G upgrade. 16gb would be enough for me.

That said, I reckon they will release the 3G model around June when this SDK comes out. I also reckon the phone will have a lot more features than just 3G over the first version. Front side camera to take advantage of the 3G will be there I reckon.

I think June might be a tad early... I'm thinking more near the end of '08. My strong suspicion/hope is that it has GPS. If it does (with maps not requiring an internet connection) I'll be first in line. Otherwise, that Garmin phone looks quite tempting.

Or just get an HTC Touch Cruise

Seems like a reasonable price.

I spit in the face of this phone. It is so inferior to the Apple iPhone it makes me want to laugh. It might have features, but compared to the user interface of the iPhone and the whole user experience in general, it loses out so badly as do every other similar phone on the market.

3G iphone will be very late (if at all) this year. The reason is battery performance... currently they have issues (everyone I know has an iphone, and some have problems). The 3G chip would just destroy battery life.

I think it's more realistic to expect a new iphone, after one of the major chipmakers announces a new 3G chipset...

Personally, I really like my iphone, and am glad I swapped from Nokia...

There have been many rumors that it will be released in May/June. They have already signed a deal with Infineon to provide the chips for the 3G iPhone, so it seems they have worked out the memory problems.

Yeah, I'm aware of that, but I haven't decided if I'm going to jailbreak it yet.



It was a deal with AT&T. It's refurbished, but I can't tell the difference between that and new, so I don't care.

Very likely we'll see the next iPhone in June. So many reports coming out now, I'm willing to put money on it.

Yeah, some AT&T executive just said that all their products will be G3 within 60 days. When asked if this included the iphone, he just said something along the lines of "I can't say it more clearly. All our products will be G3 within 60 days."

I just may have to buy myself a G3 before moving to Australia, and then I can probably still sell the one I've got for a profit when I get there.

T-Mobile have just drop the price of the 8gb version to €99 (on the xl traiff), offer runs until the end of June. Trying to shift their stock before 3G version comes out?

Probably, the head of AT&T was quoted recently saying something like: "I can't be any more clear, all our products will be 3G within 60 days".

ordered mine on Monday - can't wait. The new 29€ tarif includes 500mb trafic per month (for the 2 years) if you order before June, which is not bad, although you don't get free access to the T-Com wireless access points.

It's 3G, not G3 <sigh>

It wasn't an AT&T guy that made the 60 day comment, it was Walt Mossberg, a well known Wall Street Journal writer who has had insider knowledge of Apple stuff in the past. He received the first Apple iPhone before a lot of people did. It is looking almost certain that the phone will be launched at the start of June at the WWDC.


Yeh, but you're stuck for 2 years on the old phone which will be obsolete in a couple of months. They are reducing prices for a reason. I suspect 3G will not be the only new feature of the iPhone 2, there will no doubt be many other cool features. You can count on it being a substantial upgrade over the first generation phone.

I am waiting for them to implement the functionality missing from the first iPhone that customers were hoping for and that they learn from their mistakes with the first iPhone. If the second one is a substantially better phone then I will part with my cash...

A lot of the mistakes that they made can be corrected just with a software upgrade, so I imagine even the older phone will get them.

There are a lot of rumours about the new one - OLED Screen (would make it a lot thinner), GPS, camera on the front and of course 3G (which is as good as certain). We'll have to wait until June to see what they come up with.

As soon as it's 3G, I'll buy one, even if everything else remains the same.

I do know that. Pardon the typo.

I stand corrected about the 'executive' from AT&T. What I read quoted Mossberg as quoting an AT&T executive.

so by your logic my 4 year old Renault is obselete now because a new version came out? Ok, but it is still very serviceable!

Also, they have only just really started to make the 16gb version available. *IF* indeed they are going to bring out a new iphone model in 2 months, don't you think they would have reduced the price of that as well? As it is it is still 499€ for all of the tarifs

Anyway the iphone arrived yesterday and I love it to bits - even if they do bring out a 3g phone, this one does what I want it to do - and very well - so I am happy.

You can't compare a car to a piece of Technology. Tech. goes Obsolete much faster.

They have. Look at the US apple store. Another way of clearing out old stock to make
way for new, is to lower contract prices and offer other bonuses. Exactly what Telekom is doing.

Well, were happy for you. Others on the other hand have a requirement or need/want something a bit better for the same price
and are willing to wait a few months to get it. Its not just 3G thats coming in the new version. Have a look on some of the
tech sites on the net.

ok. I bought an imac last year, then shortly after the new alu mac came out. (Which I also bought). The old one still works perfectly well, is still updated etc etc. It is not in my eyes ready to be thrown in the skip. (and in reality, is not that much better than the last model)

I have read quite a lot of the "Rumours" about a new iphone, and whilst there may be some truth in them they are at this point in time still just rumours.
You seem to have skipped over my point about the 16gb not having fallen in price. This at least to me is indicative that there is not a new model on its way in the next few weeks. Perhaps when that drops to 349€ we can be reasonably sure that something new is on the horizon, otherwise Telekom are just going to be left with old stock.

There is also a youtube clip of an iphone vs nokia n93 (I think) with the iphone running Edge and the nokia with UMTS, not much difference in performance at all. I will dig it out when I get home.

I was looking at the T-Mobile offer to, purely because the tariff that I'm on is terrible and my bills are running over 100 yoyos each month, so the prospect of 1000 free mins, 300 text and limitless web access for 90 yoyos is pretty good.

As for the 'old' iPhone, the 3G doesn't really bother me at the moment. All I'm really using web access for is to check the footie scores and my mail, which EDGE is good enough for.

You can be sure that the new 3G one will be more expensive, so if you don't care, then maybe it is worth getting the current one now at a discount. Although if you can hold out till early June, you can see what the new one will offer and still get the current one before the end of June if you want it.

I'm sure if you go into T-Mobile in July or August after the 3G phone is released (if it is) then you could move the current iPhone contract over. Doubt T-Mobile would turn down the chance for you to extend 2 years to your contract, pay for a new phone and also a potentially higher tariff plan (don't think we will see any 3G plans for €29)

The 3G ver. will cost the same as the current ver. Have a read around the Tech sites.
The 3G ver. is a replacement for the current ver. There not going to jack the price.
The carriers might, but not apple. If it bothers you that much then buy it from the Apple US store.
The prices are cheaper (400 USD as opposed to 400 Eur) and the USD/EUR exchange Rate will
make it even cheaper.