# Thankfully I didn't get the iphone!



## ReformedWretch (Jun 27, 2007)

The stuff Gizmodo points out that the iphone doesn't have!

Finally Confirmed: What the iPhone Doesn't Have

• Songs as Ringtones - LAAAAAME, I thought for sure it would have that!

• Games - ok, cell games stink anyways
• Any flash support - WHAT?!
• Instant Messaging - WHAT?! 2
• Picture messages (MMS) - Wow!
• Video recording - Are you kidding?
• Voice recognition or voice dialing - Phones in the 20th century could do this.
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP) - Huh? Isn't this a music phone...
• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones) - Same as above.

Stuff we already knew it didn't have
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• GPS - $50 Razr has this...
• A real keyboard
• Removable battery - Annoying.
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE) - Silly.

This proves to me that the iphone is NOT worth it's price tag and I am so glad I found this out before I impulsively bought one.


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## Dagmire (Jun 28, 2007)

Not to mention the fact that before it was even released, Apple claimed they would make it obsolete within the year with the next version.


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## ReformedWretch (Jun 28, 2007)

Wow, I missed that!


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## Dagmire (Jun 28, 2007)

Yeah, it's right here.


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## jfschultz (Jun 28, 2007)

Dagmire said:


> Not to mention the fact that before it was even released, Apple claimed they would make it obsolete within the year with the next version.



And a PC, which costs 2-3 times as much, is two versions obsolete in a year!


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## jsup (Jun 28, 2007)

That's technology for you. It's always advancing at a break-neck speed. I'm building my own PC with the best parts I can get, but I know very shortly it will be out of date.


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## Herald (Jun 28, 2007)

*The Y-Phone*

Apple founder Steve Jobs announced the second generation I-Phone will actually have a new look and a new name. It will be called the Y-Phone. The Y-Phone will have a unique renewable energy source. It will never need to be charged. Calling plans will be affordable since you will be hardwired to your circle of friends. Hate dead spots where there is no cellular coverage? Not a problem with the Y-Phone. Designer models? You will have your choice between Green Giant, Del Monte and Generic. Look for the Y-Phone this fall.

*The New Y-Phone*


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## kvanlaan (Jun 28, 2007)

Beautiful, Bill. 

Luddite elegance at its best!


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## jsup (Jun 28, 2007)

The calling plans on the Y-phone are a steal.


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## govols (Jun 28, 2007)

But sound quality gets poor over greater distances.


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

Get a blackberry pearl or curve for now and hold off for the next version of the iphone. My blackberry literally has almost everything that you said the iphone doesn't.


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## caddy (Jun 28, 2007)

The great thing about the "Y" phone is that when its technology has become _rusty_, one can simply cut the high-tech connection and share the other headset with a valued friend, kick it around the neighborhood!


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## fredtgreco (Jun 28, 2007)

crhoades said:


> Get a blackberry pearl or curve for now and hold off for the next version of the iphone. My blackberry literally has almost everything that you said the iphone doesn't.



But Chris, the iPhone is so... cool!! Like, it is cool. You know, like an iPod is cool. Like an iBook is cool.

Did I mention that the iPhone is cool? It can't do the basic functions of an cell phone, but it is cool!

Apple is a marketing genius.


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> But Chris, the iPhone is so... cool!! Like, it is cool. You know, like an iPod is cool. Like an iBook is cool.
> 
> Did I mention that the iPhone is cool? It can't do the basic functions of an cell phone, but it is cool!
> 
> Apple is a marketing genius.


 
I didn't want to go there but you have now given me the opening. Apple: booooooo. There. I feel better. Oh yeah, the blackberry actually can serve business functions as well. GASP! _Businesses_ actually use blackberries just like they use _Windows!_ Down with corporations! 

Apple is the Mitt Romney of computers.


{stomps away to get coffee...}


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## Me Died Blue (Jun 28, 2007)

crhoades said:


> Apple is the Mitt Romney of computers.


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

Forgot to mention. My blackberry has a 2GB microSD card in its _expandable_ memory slot behind its _replaceable battery_ that allows me to watch movies and play music via _bluetooth headphones_ when I workout. Of course I can use my mapping program that comes with it via bluetooth gps to get there. In between sets i can play _games_ or surf the _highspeed internet_ to see what new things are popping up on the PB. And yes, I have Pearl Jam playing Little Wing as a ring tone. If you don't believe me, I could take a picture with it and email it to you.


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## ReformedWretch (Jun 28, 2007)

Chris-with the balckberry, you can use a stored song as a ring tone? I really like that idea and it's the biggest shock to me regrading what's missing in the iphone.

Fred-I don't need a phone to be cool.


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## Scott (Jun 28, 2007)

iPhone is getting a lot of good reviews from a lot of quarters.

Amazing iPhone “Matches Most of its Hype”
“The phone is so sleek and thin,” reports David Pogue (New York Times) in his review of iPhone, that “it makes Treos and Blackberrys look obese.” And the software transcends. “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” If you need “to answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up.” As for email, it’s “fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.” And “the Web browser,” he points out, “is the real dazzler.” No “stripped down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.” In short, Pogue calls the iPhone, “the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years.” [Jun 26, 2007]

iPhone a “Beautiful and Breakthrough Handheld Computer”
After testing the iPhone for two weeks in multiple US cities, Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret consider it “a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface,” they say, “works well.” In addition to combining “intelligent voice calling and a full-blown iPod,” iPhone also “offers the best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone and robust email software.” It offers “the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we’ve seen, and the most internal memory by far. Yet it is one of the thinnest smart phones available and offers impressive battery life, better than its key competitors claim.” It is, the two conclude, “a pleasure to use.” [Jun 26, 2007]

“The Most Chic Cellphone I’ve Seen”
Writing for USA Today, Edward Baig finds iPhone “indeed worth lusting after.” Apple, he says, “has delivered a prodigy—a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod, and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset.” “The most chic cellphone I’ve seen,” iPhone is “a breeze to set up and fun to use, evident from the moment you slide your finger across the screen to unlock it. It’s a wonderful widescreen iPod and fabulous picture viewer.” And he tells us that “making calls was surprisingly simple. You can flick through your list of contacts or favorites … and then tap on a name to make a call or send a text message. The keys of the virtual keypad are large enough so that dialing a number manually — or punching in a code to access voice mail remotely — is easy. I rarely made a mistake.” He awards iPhone 3.5 stars out of 4. [Jun 26, 2007]

“An Excellent Implementation of State-of-the-art Features”
Finding it “a significant leap,” Steven Levy (Newsweek) calls iPhone “a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding. The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge.” iPhone, he says, “finally fulfills the promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing.” [Jun 26, 2007]


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

Scott,

Do you use a Mac or a PC? Informal survey in good fun.


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## caddy (Jun 28, 2007)

I do have another CELL Phone related question however. After 2 years, my wife and I will be getting New Cell Phones this Saturday. What do you guys suggest?


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## ReformedWretch (Jun 28, 2007)

Scott said:


> iPhone is getting a lot of good reviews from a lot of quarters.
> 
> Amazing iPhone “Matches Most of its Hype”
> “The phone is so sleek and thin,” reports David Pogue (New York Times) in his review of iPhone, that “it makes Treos and Blackberrys look obese.” And the software transcends. “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” If you need “to answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up.” As for email, it’s “fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.” And “the Web browser,” he points out, “is the real dazzler.” No “stripped down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.” In short, Pogue calls the iPhone, “the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years.” [Jun 26, 2007]
> ...



You see that's just it! All of that may be true, but it's still missing the simple features I listed. That's kind of dumb.


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## fredtgreco (Jun 28, 2007)

crhoades said:


> Forgot to mention. My blackberry has a 2GB microSD card in its _expandable_ memory slot behind its _replaceable battery_ that allows me to watch movies and play music via _bluetooth headphones_ when I workout. Of course I can use my mapping program that comes with it via bluetooth gps to get there. In between sets i can play _games_ or surf the _highspeed internet_ to see what new things are popping up on the PB. And yes, I have Pearl Jam playing Little Wing as a ring tone. If you don't believe me, I could take a picture with it and email it to you.



Chris, what bluetooth headphones do you have? Do they double as a headset?

Also, have you seen the new Jawbone bluetooth headset? I have it and it is excellent! Give me a good clear headset over a fancy looking screen anyday.



Scott said:


> iPhone is getting a lot of good reviews from a lot of quarters.
> 
> Amazing iPhone “Matches Most of its Hype”
> “The phone is so sleek and thin,” reports David Pogue (New York Times) in his review of iPhone, that “it makes Treos and Blackberrys look obese.” And the software transcends. “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” If you need “to answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up.” As for email, it’s “fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.” And “the Web browser,” he points out, “is the real dazzler.” No “stripped down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.” In short, Pogue calls the iPhone, “the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years.” [Jun 26, 2007]
> ...



Notice how nearly ever positive point is about _appearance_, rather than substance.


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> Notice how nearly ever positive point is about _appearance_, rather than substance.


 
Hence my comparison to Romney.


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## crhoades (Jun 28, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> Chris, what bluetooth headphones do you have? Do they double as a headset?


I actually have a wired set of stereo earbuds with a mic to talk but I'm working on talking my wife into getting the 
Motorola's S9 . If she gets a pearl we can at least share these.



> Also, have you seen the new Jawbone bluetooth headset? I have it and it is excellent! Give me a good clear headset over a fancy looking screen anyday.


 
I have the Motorola H670 and it works great for me. 3 different earpiece attachments so you can get a good fit. Volume is great on it. Company pays for the Pearl and the earbud so I can't complain too loudly now can I?

If I could design something... I would love a set of Bose, noise-cancelling, bluetooth earbuds that work with the Pearl. Price tag - $5.


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## Michael (Jun 28, 2007)

A timely article from J. Mark Bertrand's site up:



> *The Nefarious iPhone*
> _Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
> on Thursday, June 28, 2007_
> 
> ...


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## ReformedWretch (Jul 2, 2007)

Dagmire said:


> Yeah, it's right here.



Heeeeey, I just realized....


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## Scott (Jul 2, 2007)

crhoades said:


> Scott,
> 
> Do you use a Mac or a PC? Informal survey in good fun.


I use a PC but may upgrade to a Mac at some point. I don't have a cell phone and do not want one. My wife has a basic free phone.


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## jbergsing (Jul 2, 2007)

Boy, am I glad I can't afford one. I know me well enough to know I might have upgraded. (Not that I want to stick with AT&T now that it isn't Cingular anymore...)


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## jbergsing (Jul 4, 2007)

I just got off the phone with my cousin ... a certified MacHead ... and he hates it for all the reasons on the OP. He got his Friday and has already returned it. (I told him he needs to quit drinking that Mac coolaid!)


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## fredtgreco (Jul 4, 2007)

The other thing is - no phone is worth $500+. That is insane.


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## ReformedWretch (Jul 4, 2007)

I dunno Fred, if the iphone would get ALL the features I said it's missing while keeping what it currently has as well, you could make a case for it being worth 500-600 bucks based on the technology within it. As it is now, it shouldn't be more than 300 tops.


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## fredtgreco (Jul 4, 2007)

houseparent said:


> I dunno Fred, if the iphone would get ALL the features I said it's missing while keeping what it currently has as well, you could make a case for it being worth 500-600 bucks based on the technology within it. As it is now, it shouldn't be more than 300 tops.



Adam,

Considering you can get a very good iPod (30GB) for something like $250, and a state of the art Blackberry (that does WAY more than the iPhone) for $100 (and which can also very easily double as an MP3 player), I can't see spending that much.

But I have to give the Apple folks credit. People like new, and people like the _look_ of Apple products. Apple markets _chic_ instead of substance, but that is my opinion.


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## etexas (Jul 4, 2007)

It has gotten raves from Consumer Reports to Wall Street Journal. It is a groundbreaking device! Problems, it needs another carrier secondly we must remember it is NEW! I think they will iron the bugs out, and it will I think in it's second generation be something I would buy. Apple is very good at responding to consumers.


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## fredtgreco (Jul 4, 2007)

I follow Jesus said:


> It has gotten raves from Consumer Reports to Wall Street Journal. It is a groundbreaking device! Problems, it needs another carrier secondly we must remember it is NEW! I think they will iron the bugs out, and it will I think in it's second generation be something I would buy. Apple is very good at responding to consumers.



I guess I don't really get the _groundbreaking_ part. It seems to consist of being able to do not so well what several devices do already. It's not like the Blackberry, that brought email to mobile users, or bluetooth, that made wireless possible. The iPhone doesn't do (at least that I can see) anything _new_. It simply is a single device that does cell phone usage (without many standard features), mp3 playback (with presumably less storage capacity than iPods) and video (on a tiny, tiny screen).

Sorry. I don't get it.


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## etexas (Jul 4, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> I guess I don't really get the _groundbreaking_ part. It seems to consist of being able to do not so well what several devices do already. It's not like the Blackberry, that brought email to mobile users, or bluetooth, that made wireless possible. The iPhone doesn't do (at least that I can see) anything _new_. It simply is a single device that does cell phone usage (without many standard features), mp3 playback (with presumably less storage capacity than iPods) and video (on a tiny, tiny screen).
> 
> Sorry. I don't get it.


The guys at Wall Street Journal "got it".


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## Dagmire (Jul 4, 2007)

It's silly no-matter-what to buy it now. Just like it was silly to buy the Razr when it was $500. How much does a Razr cost now? $5?


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## Scott (Jul 5, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> Apple markets _chic_ instead of substance, but that is my opinion.


Not sure about he iPhone, but I have two windows machines and I rented a Mac for a month to convert all my home videos to DVD. I tried with Windows and it was very painful. It is easy with the Mac. There is a major substantive difference in computers.


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## etexas (Jul 5, 2007)

Dagmire said:


> It's silly no-matter-what to buy it now. Just like it was silly to buy the Razr when it was $500. How much does a Razr cost now? $5?


Chuckle!


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