-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Do you think Bafana Bafana will win tonight?
Apple looks peachy
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
All this hype, so little substance ...
"The biggest missing piece in the iPhone is its ability to sync calendars and e-mail effortlessly. I could not have survived CES without my trusty Cingular 8125 Smartphone. I was able to keep my Outlook calendar and contacts up to date on a device that fits in my pocket, including detailed directions and backgrounders. I have the Smartphone set to sync e-mail as well.
And I wasn't alone. About two-thirds of the people I met with were also using Smartphones and were regularly checking e-mail and schedules. I saw at least a dozen different Windows Mobile-based devices in use this week and didn't hear a single complaint about their operation.
Are any of us going to switch to an iPhone? I doubt it. I read the specs carefully, and I can't imagine why anyone in business would want this device, which is pretty but ultimately dumb. As far as I can tell, the sync process for PCs is a tortured two-step that requires me to sync my local Outlook calendar with iTunes and then sync iTunes with my device, all over a physical connection. You want your e-mail and calendar pushed from your Exchange Server to your phone? Then you do not want an iPhone.
Apple's biggest hit of all time is the iPod, so it's no wonder they want to graft a phone onto it. Halo effect, and all that. But here are a few of the deficiencies I can see at a quick glance:
The keyboard. It took me a few months to get used to retrieving voicemail using the soft keypad on the 8125, and if you're heavily into e-mail anything short of a real keyboard with tactile buttons is going to be an endless source of frustration for you. At CES, I saw Smartphones with all variations of keypads, including slide-out QWERTY keyboards, Blackberry-style thumb-driven pads, and softpads. Take your pick.
The speed. No Wi-Fi, no 3G? No 3G? Browsing the web over an Edge connection is insanely not-so-great. But I'm sure that the hourglass will look stunning.
Expandability. I can choose from a large library of Windows Mobile add-ons. If I can't find one I like, I can write my own. With Apple, not so much.
The provider. You can choose any provider you want for the iPhone, as long as it's Cingular. You'll also need to sign up for a two-year contract to get the right to pay the full retail price. By contrast, every provider has Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, and you can buy unlocked phones if you want freedom of choice.
As for music, any Smartphone includes Windows Media Player, and adding music to it is fairly easy with Windows Media Player. The 2GB mini-SD card in my 8125 holds about 500 songs and syncs automatically when I plug it in. It even works with white earbuds, although I prefer a better set of headphones.
And let's not forget that this will be a 1.0 product for Apple when it comes out in six months. For those who have not escaped Steve's reality distortion field, that means it will certainly have issues. Remember OS X 1.0? Remember iTunes 7.0? Remember the first-generation iPods? If you must get an iPhone, get the extended warranty. By contrast, the Smartphone platform has been under continuous development for years. It's reliable and expandable.
Ultimately, the iPhone is stark proof of the fundamental difference between the Mac and Windows worlds. In the Mac world, you get one man's vision, beautifully designed, expensive, and maybe, just maybe in sync with your needs. In the Windows world, you get an enormous ecosystem where you can choose from dozens of different devices using the form factors and feature sets you prefer, at a variety of price points.
I know which world I prefer"
"The biggest missing piece in the iPhone is its ability to sync calendars and e-mail effortlessly. I could not have survived CES without my trusty Cingular 8125 Smartphone. I was able to keep my Outlook calendar and contacts up to date on a device that fits in my pocket, including detailed directions and backgrounders. I have the Smartphone set to sync e-mail as well.
And I wasn't alone. About two-thirds of the people I met with were also using Smartphones and were regularly checking e-mail and schedules. I saw at least a dozen different Windows Mobile-based devices in use this week and didn't hear a single complaint about their operation.
Are any of us going to switch to an iPhone? I doubt it. I read the specs carefully, and I can't imagine why anyone in business would want this device, which is pretty but ultimately dumb. As far as I can tell, the sync process for PCs is a tortured two-step that requires me to sync my local Outlook calendar with iTunes and then sync iTunes with my device, all over a physical connection. You want your e-mail and calendar pushed from your Exchange Server to your phone? Then you do not want an iPhone.
Apple's biggest hit of all time is the iPod, so it's no wonder they want to graft a phone onto it. Halo effect, and all that. But here are a few of the deficiencies I can see at a quick glance:
The keyboard. It took me a few months to get used to retrieving voicemail using the soft keypad on the 8125, and if you're heavily into e-mail anything short of a real keyboard with tactile buttons is going to be an endless source of frustration for you. At CES, I saw Smartphones with all variations of keypads, including slide-out QWERTY keyboards, Blackberry-style thumb-driven pads, and softpads. Take your pick.
The speed. No Wi-Fi, no 3G? No 3G? Browsing the web over an Edge connection is insanely not-so-great. But I'm sure that the hourglass will look stunning.
Expandability. I can choose from a large library of Windows Mobile add-ons. If I can't find one I like, I can write my own. With Apple, not so much.
The provider. You can choose any provider you want for the iPhone, as long as it's Cingular. You'll also need to sign up for a two-year contract to get the right to pay the full retail price. By contrast, every provider has Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, and you can buy unlocked phones if you want freedom of choice.
As for music, any Smartphone includes Windows Media Player, and adding music to it is fairly easy with Windows Media Player. The 2GB mini-SD card in my 8125 holds about 500 songs and syncs automatically when I plug it in. It even works with white earbuds, although I prefer a better set of headphones.
And let's not forget that this will be a 1.0 product for Apple when it comes out in six months. For those who have not escaped Steve's reality distortion field, that means it will certainly have issues. Remember OS X 1.0? Remember iTunes 7.0? Remember the first-generation iPods? If you must get an iPhone, get the extended warranty. By contrast, the Smartphone platform has been under continuous development for years. It's reliable and expandable.
Ultimately, the iPhone is stark proof of the fundamental difference between the Mac and Windows worlds. In the Mac world, you get one man's vision, beautifully designed, expensive, and maybe, just maybe in sync with your needs. In the Windows world, you get an enormous ecosystem where you can choose from dozens of different devices using the form factors and feature sets you prefer, at a variety of price points.
I know which world I prefer"
@whackjob - how about a source?
EDIT - never mind it came from Ed Bott's Microsoft Report http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=185
:
EDIT - never mind it came from Ed Bott's Microsoft Report http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=185
:
Last edited:
GavinMannion
Executive Member
Hey he might be a whackjob but I agree with him...
Oh wait that's his name... Anyway I still agree with him.
I see absolutely no point in the iPhone. However I also see no point in the iPod. I just managed to flog mine.
Oh wait that's his name... Anyway I still agree with him.
I see absolutely no point in the iPhone. However I also see no point in the iPod. I just managed to flog mine.
You're not agreeing with him - he didnt say anything merely cut and paste.
My only gripe is the cingular lock in model they've adopted. The rest doesn't bother me and most of it appeals in one way or another.
So many problems with that report.
The iPhone supports Push IMAP, giving you the main Blackberry feature.
It's keyboard is apparently fantastic to use. Read every hands on review
Sync? What. Plug it in. Unlplug. And everything is Synced. iTunes, iCal, Addresbook everything updated without you having to do anything. Just liek your iPod. Idiot
Wonder how well his 8125 plays music from the Music Store with 80% market share
The iPhone supports Push IMAP, giving you the main Blackberry feature.
It's keyboard is apparently fantastic to use. Read every hands on review
Sync? What. Plug it in. Unlplug. And everything is Synced. iTunes, iCal, Addresbook everything updated without you having to do anything. Just liek your iPod. Idiot
Wonder how well his 8125 plays music from the Music Store with 80% market share
You will need to do a lot better than this. From Apple's website:
"iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE."
http://www.apple.com/iphone/internet/
GavinMannion
Executive Member
lol I know I just enjoyed the name... Anyway back to the point.
I don't think the iPhone is worth the amount of publicity it is generating and as with the PS3 I dislike things being over hyped. It has a nice input mechanism and all that but when you are told it's like having the internet in your pocket then it should have a decent connection.
It's a nice phone but that is all it is. A phone...
It might be able to connect to iTunes but since we can't buy from iTunes here then that is useless....
It doesn't even work here. Seriously why are so many South Africans salivating over a product that won't work here from a company that has no local base and which has a boss that has never even visited our country.
I would like to say that I won't take one when offered but since it doesn't work here I won't even get to do that.
Yay a phone... joy...
GavinMannion : You can't connect to the iTunes store with it.
Why would it not work over here?
It has a wifi connection. Seems like a pretty decent connection to me. And as Jobs said, 3G is comming. But there is almost no 3G coverage in the US yet (They are still busy rolling it out), it is pretty pointless to add it in for the US market. EU and SA, on the other hand, will have 3G as it is commonplace here
You should have a look at the Time article on it. As they say, they haven't invented much new in it (Other than Visual Voicemail), but it works so much better than anything else, it truly is revolutionary
Why would it not work over here?
It has a wifi connection. Seems like a pretty decent connection to me. And as Jobs said, 3G is comming. But there is almost no 3G coverage in the US yet (They are still busy rolling it out), it is pretty pointless to add it in for the US market. EU and SA, on the other hand, will have 3G as it is commonplace here
You should have a look at the Time article on it. As they say, they haven't invented much new in it (Other than Visual Voicemail), but it works so much better than anything else, it truly is revolutionary
Last edited:
Missing Author name
Firstly, I'm very sorry for leaving the Authours name out, I did rememebr to enclose the entire thing in quotes, but that isn't good enough.
Ok, try downloading those songs over EDGE and see how that grabs you...
Firstly, I'm very sorry for leaving the Authours name out, I did rememebr to enclose the entire thing in quotes, but that isn't good enough.
Ok, try downloading those songs over EDGE and see how that grabs you...
I'm not sure I follow
Sony hyped the PS3 for years and years before releasing, ending in the product falling flat because it failed to live up to the hype.
Apple didn't hype the iPhone - ever. They didn't even admit they were in the process of making an iPhone. The media took to it quickly, because, well, it's a fantastic new approach that very well may change the cell phone forever.