What do you think about the iPhone? |
The wait is over — and the most-anticipated cell phone in years is now on sale. Tell us what you think about iPhone-mania. Did you buy one? If so, is it worth it? Submit your personal review here — and see what other readers are saying. The AT&T or Cingular network name would actually depend on the SIM card not the handset itself. All the phone sees is a network ID code. The sim translates that into the correct network name. If it’s a more recently issued Cingular/AT&T SIM the phone will display AT&T rather than Cingular.
The iPhone is going to have to support at the very least basic 3G before it launches in Europe and elsewhere. A ’smart phone’ without 3G in Europe would be like trying to sell a laptop that could only be connected to the web with a 56k modem, you’d get laughed at rather hard. Most of the higher end smartphones support full HSPDA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) which gives speeds of 3.6 and 7.2mbit/s on some of the networks already and up to 14.4mbit is possible with current rolled out technology! Also, it’s a terrible shame that the iPhone doesn’t link to the apple laptops by bluetooth for data access i.e. using the iPhone as a bluetooth modem. That would be a rather nice feature in Europe anyway where there is plenty of HSPDA (3GSM). I’m already using my Sony Ericsson as a data modem on a 3G network and it is sooo useful. Broadband anywhere! Posted By John Gibson, London : July 6, 2007 10:56 pm I wasn’t going to get the iPhone. I watched the craziness on TV & saw it on the news this past weekend and I resisted. I’m usually the first in line to get new gadgets &/or try new things…I just didn’t see this as being that necessary of a thing to have. Then I went to the mall Sunday afternoon to pick up a pair of shoes and it was over! While strolling through the mall I passed the Apple store & saw the crowds and thought I’d at least pop in to take a look at one up close. I was amazed at how COOL it was, how easy it was to use, and afte playing with it a few minutes I just had to have it. 10 minutes later, and $599 poorer than I had originally planned, I left the mall with my new shoes…& my new 8gb iPhone! Setting it up was a BREEZE. From start to finish I don’t think it took longer than 15 minutes. All of my Safari bookmarks transferred over easily as well as my contacts from my Mac. I’ve been using it for three days now & I have to honestly say I don’t think I could live without it! Yes, other phones might do similar things (& cost less), but I none of them do it as well as this one…& in such a beautiful package! I hope that the newer versions in the next year or two have more of the “missing” features that alot of people are complaining about now (ability to hold more songs, GPS, ability to test message people, easily replaceable battery), but for the moment I am 110% satisfied with my iPhone! Posted By Joey, Raleigh, NC : July 4, 2007 6:44 pm I bought and it’s fantastic. It’s a major step in the next generation of phones. Anyone who bets against Apple must have ” Irocks” for brains.Jobs has done it again,bravo!! Posted By Michael Rodbell West Palm Beach Fl : July 4, 2007 1:06 pm The reason the US is behind the ball when it comes to 3G/HSPDA roll out has been entirely down to the FCC who, yet again, failed to plan the spectrum needed for 3G roll out. Their initial idea was to squish ‘3GSM’ (UMTS) into the same 1900mhz spectrum used by the existing 2G CDMA and GSM carriers. It would never have worked. European 3G’s been quite a long time in the planning process and the spectrum was ring fenced for it years ago. ‘3GSM’ phones operate on 2100Mhz downlink + 1900 mhz uplink. The US has this at the moment: If the mobile network in the US could have, believe me they would have rolled out 3GSM/UMTS nationally in the same kind of time frame as their European counterparts. It’s nothing to do with lack of demand, technological differences or market differences. It’s simply a case that the FCC didn’t do its job properly. There was a similar mess with the roll out of digital mobile phones in the first place too! It would make sense for Apple to avoid 3G in the US for the timebeing until the FCC and the network operators come to some kind of sensible agreement on spectrum planning. The current system would simply mean the phones are going to have to support way more frequencies than they should need to. In Europe 3G service is an ‘add on’ pretty much. 3GSM / UMTS is fully backwards compatable with 2.5G ‘traditional GSM’. So, basically if you’re in a 3G coverage area you have massively fast data transfer rates as well as all your normal voice/text services and if you’re not in a 3G area, you’ll fall back onto your carrier’s normal 2.5G GSM/EDGE/GPRS network and will just have voice/text and slower data services. It’s all very seamless. They will have to provide a user-accessible SIM card as it’s legally required to have such a setup within the EU to allow customers to switch carrier and keep the handset once the network’s subsidy has been paid off. Also, they’ll have to go with multiple carriers in Europe as even the very biggest networks like Vodafone, Orange, O2/Movistar and T-Mobile are not in absolutely every country. I’d say they’ll have to do quite a few deals to get into all of their European iTunes markets. You can be sure though that the networks will want to get onto the marketing hype bandwagon that is iPhone though. It should be interesting to see who gets it. The technology isn’t too unique anyway as AT&T (Cingular) is simply a GSM network. I can’t imagine they’ll have any issues rolling out visual voicemail etc etc on other GSM / 3GSM platforms in Europe and elsewhere. So my advice is that once its out here (in Europe) the americans can get an iPhone here and use Verizon in US Posted By Pete, Europe : July 4, 2007 6:42 am I’m so glad my new iPhone isn’t made by Microsoft (or else I’d be having to replace my computer, operating system, and so on). My phone was up and running in a short time but I had to call the support line to completely shut off my old phone (my Sprint contract just expired). After that, I’ve been having nothing but fun playing w/ it and showing it off. Granted, there will always be people to complain (you can’t fly the space shuttle w/ it, it isn’t free, it doesn’t help you lose weight, etc.) but it does have a lot of great features rolled into one package and it’s a heck of a lot nicer than what I had before. For the people that bought it, tried it for 10 minutes and called it junk - it’s their loss if they don’t have the patience to check out all the features. No, this phone is not designed to hold your 10,000 song music collection or your entire video library but it has plenty of room for a fair amount of everything (even the 4 gig model). Everything is easy to access and the touch-screen is well - fun. I think Apple did a great job and while I’m sure there will be many improvements over time, I’m already impressed with what I have. Posted By Tim, Orange Park FL : July 3, 2007 4:23 am I ordered mine online and initially it said it would take 2 - 4 weeks and now it plans to ship in 1 - 2! Apple always underpromises and overdelivers! I have never been unsatisfied. I am also a cingular customer. What I don’t get is how AT&T didn’t plan for a million people trying to activate their phones the day they got them. As Homer Simpson says DOH! Anyway, so what is another day to activate since we have already waited 6 months. I got to play with one in the store and I was even more impressed with how light and sleek it was. I can’t believe that Jobs did it. The one thing I didn’t like is that the keyboard wouldn’t move to landscape so that the keys could be larger…that seems like an easy enough thing to do! I could barely type the correct keys with my index finger let alone miss altogether with my thumbs! I know for a fact they can still make it better but it has truly a generation of connected people. Posted By Aimee, Mosciw, ID : July 3, 2007 1:35 am This is a grand slam, home run for Apple. There is nothing particularly wrong with AT&T. The phone will open up in a few years, but Apple had to have a phone company that would work wtih them. To their credit, that was AT&T (Some heads will roll at Verizon, or should, they actually passed on this deal.) The only people that would argue otherwise are just in love with their primitive phones, or Microsoft shareholders, etc… Anyone can see this is an awesome device. People with an axe to grind here (again, the windows administrators, etc…) are refering to this as a ‘non-removeable’ or ‘non-replaceable’ battery? Are you that inept? I changed the battery in my iPod, it was a cinch. You order a kit and do it yourself if you want to save money and you have the dexterity of a sober person. There is a simple plastic tool to open it. Otherwise, you take it to an apple store or at and t store. Just like your WATCH for crying outloud. If you use your comptuer, it will automatically charge the iPhone. You need to connect it to your comptuer to sync contacts and such anyway. If you do this most days, you will never have to ‘charge’ it otherwise. The iPhone has excellent battery life compared to most any of the primitive alternatives. Not that you would have to connect to your comptuer, but it is designed for that, primarily. With the iPhone, you hardly even need a computer for 80% of the things you would do, at least you are much less likely to need one at home, you could probably just get by with the one you use at work. Posted By Brian, Muncie, IN : July 2, 2007 6:26 pm iphone has no GPS option, no fm radio, and uses gsm and edge no umts/hsdpa my sony has GPS option, fm radio, 2 megapixel camera, holds 4 gigs of music/vid with no need for extra software or expensive rate plans. my sony is a year old and cost me $40 bucks. Posted By jason oklahoma city ok : July 2, 2007 7:24 pm I was in a mall with Apple store on Friday and witnessed the massive crowd gathered outside, waiting for the doors to open. I watched the crowd for about 15 minutes, before I went on my way. You would have thought Steve Jobs was inside giving away money! When the doors finally opened, people were let in just a few at a time. If you weren’t there to buy the iPhone, the security guards didn’t let you in at all. Quite a few people walked out of the store with two fresh new iPhones in hand, the Apple employees applauding as they left. I find this funny but also a sad sign of the times that so many were so willing to go to such lengths for a gadget. Posted By Lisa, Los Angeles, CA : July 2, 2007 5:32 pm This may not have all the features of other smartphones…no 3G, no picture messaging, no GPS. It is expensive and the mandatory 2 year contract with AT&T is a severe limitation. That being said, when the iPod came out, people complained that it was too pricey and didn’t have the features of other MP3 players (no FM tuner, no Ogg Vorbis support, etc, etc). The iPhone will be just the same: it’s user interface is so far beyond anything I have seen on any other phone, people will forgive its flaws. The high price will limit it’s initial adoption, but I expect future iPhones that are cheaper and perhaps smaller. Five years from now, you will either be using an iPhone or something that is directly inspired by it. It is that good. Posted By John, Philadephia, PA : July 2, 2007 3:25 pm I actually have an iPhone and love it. I wasn’t going to buy one, and waited until Saturday morning, went to the Apple store and after using it for 5 minutes, spent the $599. I usually have buyer’s remorse about purchases like this, but not in this case. You *have* to have it in your hands and use it to make a decision! Posted By B Ryan, Boston, MA : July 2, 2007 3:12 pm The fact that one has to send the phone back to Apple in order to recharge the battery ( at an unspecified charge ) is one more instance of how Apple has nothing but contempt for its customers. Posted By Samuel Berner,Arlington,Virginia : July 2, 2007 2:07 pm I am extremely pleased with this product. The ease of setup and the ease of use justify the purchase. I teach online classes and the product will enable me to keep in contact with students without having to find a hot spot when I am traveling. This is not a toy in my book, simply a way I can continue to work in situations where it use to be impossible. Posted By Sam Miller, Rocklin, CA : July 2, 2007 1:58 pm I’ve purchased the iPhone and I LOVE it! It’s better than I had dared hope. As with other Apple products, set-up and initial use was intuitive and problem-free. From the sleek, economical packaging (the lack of manuals for every popular language was refreshing) to its seemless plug-and-play functionality (my motorola bluetooth headset paired with it easily)… it is everything I would expect from Apple. And then a little bit more. Posted By Cheryl Nemazie, Salisbury Maryland : July 2, 2007 4:01 am Just not impessed with the phone. Does nothing more than other smartphones, actually does less. Lack of a progamming API will ilmit program availability. My WM phone does everything the iphone does AND I also have TomTom on it to use for GPS navigations. Kudos to Apple on another successful marketing campaign! Posted By Michael, Seattle WA : July 1, 2007 8:27 pm An absolute blast. Got the phone after 45 minutes in line at the San Jose CA Valley Fair store (free coffee handed). I have downloaded the latest version of iTunes early on and had purchased a couple of songs to ensure all was well. The phone got activated with in 3 minutes (converted my current cingular data plan to ATT iPhone). No glitches so far. Video from YouTube is smooth, my corporate email work like a charm, calendar and contacts are synched and my music collection and some photo albums are in as well as a couple of videos. I spent the night managing my folks working on month end closing procedures, monitoring and updating the system via the corporate VPN “All from the iPhone’s Safari browser”. iWait, iGot, iWork Posted By Jorge Zuniga, San Jose, CA : July 1, 2007 3:23 pm. |