Apple iPhone (news, info, general chat)

The contract with Cingular is mandatory and included in the the price. But the deal with Cingular is only for North America, afaik.

Apple site says nothing about GPS.. Yup, just rechecked with a few Tech sites.
It does not have Built-IN GPS. If you want GPS, it's going to have to be via Bluetooth.

The Google Maps App, works with the WiFi connection or via a GSM,GPRS,EDGE Internet connection

Retail Price is $499 (4GB) and $599 (8GB) But will be subject to Carrier/Contract Terms and pricing...

The keynote included a demo where the phone knows where you are so you can use Google Maps. Not sure how it works, could be GPS or just work on the Cell.

Tts GSM and probably EGPRS. So its 2.5G, or even 2.75G, but its not 3G and won't be able to upgrade to 3G or 3.5G. Surprising they skipped 3G.

Maybe they decided that wanted old and stable wireless, to try and produce a really flawless product?

Sorry DK, I mis-read "The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. It also can send and display e-mail and text messages. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. on Web-based e-mail and Google Inc. on maps." from From AP

You are correct.

Who friggin' cares, what I want to know is where the joint wank session will be held, so I can publically display my approval of the product that I reckon will finally bring peace to all corners of this planet.

but if we could trace where you were holding this wank session with the GPS enabed phone, then it would speed up the wank a bit more.

Short video clip of the launch from the Beeb. The sound is a bit rubbish.

I am very likely to be tempted by this, but very suprised it has taken Apple this long to come up with the idea

Well, it's not the idea that took so long but the development.

Nope, I think you just have bung ears mate. CDs (which are have a fairly harsh clipped sound to begin with) have a bitrate of around 1400k, even if you are ripping at 256k or above you are losing massive amounts of data which effect the overall sound. Sound quality out of a personal music player is gonna be crap irrespective, so the point about hi def audio due to BT2,1 is completely irrelevant.

The geek in me wants one really, really badly. The pragmatist asks how practical it would really be for me. I know lots of people carry around their Blackberry/Treo units but to me they're too damn big. If it doesn't fit in my pocket I don't want it; I don't typically carry a shoulder bag or briefcase outside of the office and I sure as shit won't be caught with a fanny pack.

I like the size for a portable media device but with only 8GB and no slot (right?) it's just not enough. A landscaped 100GB video iPod is what I really want.

Maybe I'll wait for the 2G version while I suffer with my K750i and iRiver PMP-140.

BTW, it does have Bluetooth 2.0. And as for 128kbps vs. 192kbps vs. 256kbps - they all suck *. Apple Lossless (c'mon ITMS...) or FLAC is where it's at. With storage becoming fantastically cheap and broadband speeds ever increasing the need for compressed lossy codecs is disappearing.

Oh - it will be interesting to see how they implement it in the rest of the world. Supposedly it's tied to Cingular Wireless in the US (one of only two GSM providers in the US if memory serves) but clearly that won't work abroad.

* though it probably doesn't matter much when you're listening in environments where there's ambient noise i.e. most of the time.

No chance of re-shaping the market as the ipod did, as there are so many established players in this field. In the portable music market Apple were able to get a jump on their competitors. Not sure how they will do this in the cellphone market, it is they who have to play catch up this time.

The really interesting part about this is the User Interface which is were Apple have always excelled.

This thing has a software configurable keyboard which means each application can have a specific keyboard layout rather than one that has to try to fit lots of different application.

Assuming that it works well in real world situations (screen does not scratch easily, accurate/positive key press, smudging/smearing etc.) this will probably be the future of mobile device user interfaces.

I never got an iPod - got an iRiver instead. I didn't want the hassle of having a pay-per-download system, and 3 of my friends' iPods broke just after the warranty expired.

This fun little toy, however, may convince me that it's time to take the plunge! Can't wait to see it in stores.

You can use any mp3 download service with iPods as well; just download and then drag into iTunes and you're done. There's no need to go through the iTunes Music Store if you don't want to.

The downfall of the western civilization is upon us...

• A proximity sensor detects when the phone is brought to a user's face and automatically turns off what music might be playing and turns on the phone.
• An "accelerometer" switches the screen from a portrait to landscape format, allowing for easy toggling between the device's various functions.
• The iPhone allows people to see all unheard voicemails and select which one to listen to.

Pfft, that happened years ago when MTV stopped playing videos and started doing B celebrity reality TV 24x7.

Quite a chiq little toy they got there, but somehow I find something like the soon to come Nokia N95 (eventhough every Nokia I had up to now sucked) much more interesting, since I can use it private and for work... without contract it's supposed to cost around €550,--, so it's gonna be around for €200,-- with contract, which is half the price of the small Apple, but the Nokia has evey feature the Apple is lacking.

The problem with Apple is reliability. See Ipod probems and historical as below:
PowerBook 5300 series


"Hundreds of people had to send their 5300s back to Apple not once, not twice, but maybe a dozen times. Yeah, and I haven't heard the 1995 manager of the PowerBook apologise for this debacle."

They will launch, early adopters with more money than sense will buy and then be sending it back until the new one comes out with fixes. This launch reminds me of the Dyson washing machine, not much better than existing, more expensive but hoping the name will carry the product.

The Iphone will be easily damaged, over priced unreliable and outmanoevered by it's competitors before it arrives.

Ha ha. Tartan, you funny.

@ HS

The iPhone only seems a little short on features if you go by the spec sheet. If you see the demo it blows the competition away completely.

@ tartan

You may have point about quality control. It is a v 1.0 product and I wouldn't by one for that reason. Overpriced - not when you compare it to the competition. As for outmanoeuvred - no chance. Nokia and the rest have had years to come up with stuff and to date smartphones have been a bit rubbish. Apple spent 2.5 years developing this and it will take a long time for the others to catch up.

1995 lady. The current year is 2007 FYI



Show me the existing product that can do what this can do?

Regarding the mp3player market, Apple is only second choice to products of Iriver or Creative... the Ipod is less compatible with non Apple formats and non I-tune music-distribution, gets beaten in every sound comparison and offers less service, warranty, reliability, features and extras... only reason why people buy the Ipod, because it's a style and culture icon.

That doesn't make sense - how did it become a style & culture icon? It was the combination of good (not stellar) features, ease of use, and the excellent music management software (iTunes). The music store came later & completed the set. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. No other manufacturer comes close because they've only got one or two things, not the whole package.

@Helter Skelter, and also because iTunes was the first music downloading system that worked well and simply. Just like the players, with the system it was designed to run in (iTunes Store/Podcasts etc ----> iTunes on PC ----> iPod) it is unbeatably simple, clean and just plain works. No fucking round like you need to do with some other players & PC combinations.

So the spec sheet is short of some features or what? Can't watch the demo at work...

Well there have been complaints that the phone is not 3G, for example. And you can allegedly use other phones to browse the web, use email etc. The demo shows how much better the Apple implementation is.

I don't you're giving enough credit to the average buyer though, there are some people (teens esp) who fall in for that 'cool' marketing stuff, but out of everyone I know who has ever owned an ipod I can safely say not one of them has done it for style or culture. I'd be surprised if the 'cool' marketing stuff wasn't a deterrent for some, actually.

That's one way to put it, I much rather like to see the Ipod+Itunes as Apples conversion to the dark force...

You don't have the freedm to choose if you have an Ipod and that's exactly the thing what people (and Apple as well) were always critizising about M$. It was the first player, it was easy to use from the beginning, Itunes was the first store, but the others evolved and now have a much better product to offer than Apple does. Just because they were the best doesn't mean they still are... and to be honest, the Ipod is a style Icon and a cultural symbolof these days - many people even call any harddrive mp3player an Ipod, eventhough it's not Apple

I don't get this 'you're not free' stuff. Buy an iPod, rip your own tunes. If you don't like DRM, just keep on buying CDs and rip them. The DRM was forced on Apple by the record companies BTW, and the system they use is much less restrictive than Microsoft or the others.

The iTunes store is developing and leaving the competition behind. Music, audiobooks, podcasts, video podcasts, movie trailers, movies, TV shows. Some things like movies & TV aren't here yet but the problem is negotiating the rights. Apple would sell us these things now if they could.

When Itunes broke down during the christmas holidays, whom do you think got these players? The kiddos, they want them cause they are hip! They tell mummy and daddy to get them one or mummy and daddy, who are happy to be able to start their computer by themselves, just buy the best known brand, which is Apple - the Ipod. For a bit more grown up like us, who can inform themselves away from the schoolyard, the telly and big advertisement-campaigns the Ipod may be an option, but tbh there are by far better (especially soundwise... eventhough I read a few articles stating Apple improved that with the last generation a bit) players out there and I'm not running around with the same lame players as all these spoiled prats...

Ever tried an Creative i.e. ... you can put any format on there, with or without DRM on there and don't "have" to use Itunes.

What nonsense. Ipods are crap, Apple computers are crap, next you will say that they don`t know anything about industrial design...

I bought a 1G ipod in NYC when they first came out. It still works after half a decade of use, after thousands of hours of use - at the beach, on the ski hill, on motorcylcle trips, it has seen three continents and I do not know how many countries. I spilt Starkbier on it, basically drowned the thing, and it still goes. So enough of that.

I own a 60Gb ipod video and the only problem with it is the scroll wheel is too sensitive and it has only 60 gigs. Having lived with an Apple product for years and having heard so much from the mac lovers, my next computer purchase will be a Mac. And there is no doubt it will work better than any of my Dell computers; the fact that it is a cultural icon at the same time is just gravy.

I got an Ipod Nano for the car the other month. I will not touch ITunes or even load it onto my 'puter. So I just got the XPLAY software which lets you drag and drop everything straight on like any regular device, and even converts your other Windows format files on the fly. Easy Peasy.

So I now have an Apple Macbook Pro, and an Apple Nano and barely a sniff off Apple software to be seen. Its a mix and match world.

iTunes makes things easier FFS! I could write some PERL scripts to do the same as iTunes does, but it'd take me months and frankly be shite.

You can use MP3, AAC & Apple Lossless with an iPod. Most people just want to hear their music. Would OGG make it so much better?

You are kidding, right? It is probably the one piece of software, after a browser, that I could not live without. And I never use the itunes store - 128 kbs for €1 per song? That`s rich.

Learn to read... I didn't say they are crap, I only said there are better choices available these days. They offer a splendid product, but that doesn't mean there are any even more splendid products by other companies.

I have my MP3 files all at 192. Seems the best compromise - when you look on google, with those that have tested at length - I don't think you need lossless. At 256k the guys could not hear ANY difference at all over a trick hifi system. 192k sounded very slightly different but they could not pin down the actual difference.

I don't get this either.

The other day I heard DW were releasing podcasts of Beethoven and other composers. I've never listened to classical, but fuck it, it's free, so fire up iTunes> Music Store>Podcasts> search 'Beethoven'. Subscribe, download a couple of symphonies and start playing. Easy.

Learn to read?


Sounds crap to me.

@tim.

Each to his own. I booted it up once on my Apple - and I hated it. Doesn't make you or me a bad person. I just really like having Microsoft software. No really. I never want to ever "think" whether I can buy a piece of software, if it will work, hunt for alternative options. I like the Apple hardware, but don't wanna use software that is only used by 1% of people.

iTunes on Windows is not a great piece of software. On OS X it's f-ing fantastic.


There are growing pains whenever one switches OSes *. Having switched to OS X, I feel the same way about using Windows and Linux. I think most people who give OS X a real go become full-timers.

Agreed.. I Hate iTunes and would never use their download service. I don't even want it on my Computer just so I can copy songs to the iPod.
Music Management. Screw it.. I don't need that either.. Just the ability to drad/drop songs to it as if it were an ext. HD... They make look cool
but there are other players with more storage and features for cheaper price avail. iRiver and Creative are but just 2..

Then they don't know the audio ass from their elbow. On a persoanl music player, fine. Put that thru a good system along side a cd of the same tune on the same system, you'd be amazed at the difference in sound quality. You cannot compress a song 10 fold into an MP3 without losing sound quality.

Well it is pretty darn good on Windoze... Much better than the MS alternative. JE, give it another try, especially the newer versions. I deleter Media Player (or tried to) years ago.

To be honest DW I've never noticed any difference between the Windows & Mac versions of iTunes.

When I ran it - was loaded on to the MAC OS. Seemed to have lots of crappy banners and shit as I remember? Is that right? Got on my nerves I seem to remember with advertising and that. Also lost all the links to my music, and could not get it working logically quick enough. I did not have much patience with it. Sure I could have got it working if I had gritted my teeth.

That was when I was first "testing" the MAC OS. The browsers were shite. Did not multi-tab and kept using shitty non-windows fonts on pages - so sites that I knew and had even designed myself were all cocked up and resized.

Now in theory I could bugger about to get the sites also perfect in MAC OS - but I have my website stats and 3.04 % of my visitors are on Apples - so not arsing about for them!

no, not at all. Very well laid out and user friendly. Try it, you`ll like it...

I still think you didn't give it a proper run and you fell back with what you were comfortable with. You are the only person who converted to Mac, then slid back to windows that I've ever known (albeit internetally known only)