News Apple announces iPhone

looking some more at pictures it looks like it runs on widgets.. not sure if i like the layout at all.

 

Looks to me like Apple just gave all the major phone manufacturers a damn good shafting.

At last, the kind of device I think so many have been dreaming of and, tbh, expect in this day and age. Looking at the photos demo with split finger zoom it looks like it incorporates the excellent touch detection present on their notebooks.

Yeah, it could have even more features but I, for one, can't wait. If it's as slick in use at it looks in that demo, I'll be having one.

 

I'm not impressed.

It doesn't look that great, the interface looks clean and easy, but not revolutionary for a phone.

I'm usually excited for Apple launches as they always introduce really cool stuff. This is just 'meh'.

Can anybody just tell me how this is different than an Apple-branded TREO with more memory, a bigger screen, and a higher price tag - not to mention inaccessible and exclusive to non-Cingular customers?

 

Looks nice, but I don't think I will ever get it. For starters, it's ludicrously expensive: $500 and contract for 24 months? which will probably translate to £400+.. not for me. I just can't see myself being able to justify paying that much for a phone. On the other side of the argument, it'll probably be jam packed with DRM, which, for me at least makes mp3 capability unworthy of consideration..

-ed out

 

I'm sorry, care to show me another phone that is completely touch sensitive using gestures? I don't expect a reply, because there is simply nothing like this on the market; like the iPod this will be copied left, right and centre.

They say the iPod is a design icon, this I believe has the potential to be Apples finest ever product...

 

The phone doesn't seem that revolutionary. The interface and the screen look very nice and apply which I'm glad to see but in terms of actual features it does nothing more than my phone does at the moment apart from maybe wifi. The internet features look very nice but my phone could do all that stuff if I was willing to pay an extra £15 a month.

As it is I got my phone for £30 on a £15/month contract. It contains 4gb of my music on it, I can surf the web, I can check my email, I can take photos and videos.

The iPhone looks great but I really don't think it can justify the huge price tag plus it's just too big for a phone. You may as well hold a tea tray to your head for the amount that it will make you stick out while on the train.

 

The current mobile phones are very boring though. This is something completely new, even shinier and very tech. It's not like any mobile phone ever. To me this is more revolutionary than the iPod, I hope it does well and I'm sure it will.

I would really love one, but I think I might have to wait for the price to come down. Maybe this time next year

 

I like my Siemens ME45.

I've drowned it 3 times, twice in salt water.
I've thrown it across the pub on occasion to prove its durability.
I've owned it for 5 years, with minimal lockups & errorz.
It still runs like brand new, no problems at all, and I've used it almost every day of its life.

Why would I pay $800au for a phone that I'll break on the first day? Iphone looks like an expensive ****, but lucky for apple there's a lotta ******s out there.

 

So then, your phone runs 'nix, has 8gb of storage, integrates into your corporate email, has a full qwerty keyboard, has a full calendar app that integrates into your calendar at work, has mapping and phone number lookup software that automatically figures out where you are,...... whew - I'm too out of breath to list the rest.

No, not everyone needs a smartphone. This is not competing against your little nokia or whatever. This is (deadly) competition for blackberry, palm treo, and samsung's new thing. (Also, this is competition for Windows CE)

Anyone who has talked about DRM in this context still isn't paying attention. iPods, including this one, can play any music except for ogg and DRM encrypted Windows Media Audio files. You can play mp3, aac, wav, apple lossless audio and others. If your files are UN-encrypted WMA, itunes can automatically convert them to any format you want.
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This will replace my phone and my ipod - I have both devices on me at all times. I also can be usually seen with my laptop. This machine will replace a lot of the functions that I have to lug that around for. I will be getting one come June. (And, it will be tax writeoff!!)

To anyone who doesn't get it, I say:
"Bah. You obviously don't get it."

 

I must say that it is very slick. However I have a PPC 6700 from Sprint (Windows Mobile 5) that does the same stuff just not quite as nice. I can play music (with album art) synced through the PC, take 1.3MP pictures (and set them as my background, look at a slide show, e-mail them off to people) do almost full-featured web browsing, have "widgets" in the form of today-screen plugins. I can get Google Maps with an addon application. If I'm playing music and get a call it automatically pauses the music and then brings it back when the call is finished. I can get my POP3/IMAP e-mail. It has photo caller ID. I can even do basically all of it through the touch screen without pulling out the stylus if I so choose to make finger smudges on the screen. It has a slide-out keyboard that automatically rotates the screen to landscape. With the right app it has threaded SMS.

Yea, iPhone runs full OSX and that is really cool but usuless unless I can actually install desktop apps on the thing. The multi-touch and guestures is very cool however I'm not seeing anything that spectacular other than the highest smartphone price I have ever seen. In the year that it takes to come out who knows where Windows Mobile based smart phones are going to be.

 

I suppose I don't really need a smart phone to do all of that as I don't use a calendar very much and I don't need email everywhere I go. But yeah anyway my little non-smart phone does all of those things except perhaps figure out where you are. Does the iPhone have GPS or something? How does it do that? As I said I have 4gb for music and pictures and videos but I think by the time the iPhone comes out I'll probably be able to upgrade the storage to 8gb.

I'm not denying that the phone is great. I'm sure it is. Smart phones have needed the touch of great designers like Apple's for a long time. But think about the cost. These days the most expensive phones are free with a year's contract for £30 a month. This will be around £400 in addition to the £720 you'll pay to your provider over the 2 year contract. The price is just way more than anything else on the market at the moment without offering that much more.

 

One thing -- it sure is nice to see new tech released in America and Europe before Asia for a change. Not knocking on Asia, and not being some "ZOMG NO MORE EXPORTS" freak, but it's just nice. That of course doesn't mean I'm about to go buy one.

 

That's not new - Sonys and Nintendos are always released in Japan first, nokias and some others are always released in europe first, and apples and some other stuff are always released in the US first.....

 

Touch sensitive gestures!? Isn't that just fancy marketing rhetoric for a touch screen? We've had touch screens for years.

Alright, it has large screen, I'll give it that. Of course, until I've used one, I can't make any actual claims about it, but so far, first impressions are not that great. I don't dislike Apple. I love their design. I remembered when the iPod came out for Mac only, how much I wanted one. I remember the iPod nano, the iMac.

iPhone just doesn't impress me.

 

Looks ok, but I can't help feeling it's the same old Apple story; overpriced, designer tat, that doesn't really have any revolutionary features.

It looks pretty big too, height/width-wise. If I were to get a phone of that size, I'd probably got for something with a built-in thumb-board.

 

Apple has become the Calvin Klein of tech. People are willing to pay much more over the competition because it looks a little sleeker and you can show someone and they may go "Oooo, that's cool". In reality, it's just another status symbol, as opposed to a better product that is worthy of the price put on it. If they priced them similar to other companies, it would probably sell the best because it does some stuff better, but not enough to be worth a premium. Sony is the same way, you pay for the name on every one of their products and most of them are just average at best.

 

I can't say I'm that excited about it either, but I'm not really a fan of the total integration - when my music/video player runs out of battery because I've been using it non-stop for 8 hours, or not been anywhere I can charge it, I don't want my phone to go flat too!

 

I can accept negative opinion towards the iPhone, but show me another device that offers the same functionality with such an innovative user interface?

 

Of course not, but I can see your sex life improving just by carrying this puppy around.

However, it's hyper-mega-cool and all that...but 499$ PLUS a 24 month contract? That's a bit excessive, I think. I'll wait and see at which price point is it available here...and probably wait until it's cheap and ubiquitous as a V3.

OTOH, I spent nearly as much in just a GPU last Christmas...and said GPU does nothing for my social life (nor gaming life, when I think about it ), so perhaps the price isn't that outrageous.

 

It is expensive BUT when you cost out a PDA, iPod nano, phone and a c(rappy)amera your aren't paying over the odds but you are only having one device, and it runs OSX, and it looked like it was scrolling fast even with the album art, NICE. but still, my NW-S706F will trounce it as a MP3 and my K800i owns it as a phone. I don't have a PDA because I don't want one.