iPhone facts from the first reviews
by Ryan Block, posted Jun 26th 2007 at 8:19PM
Well, the
first reviews are in. But you may have missed some of the more interesting factoids unearthed by the trio of gadget reporters deigned worthy by El Jobso to get a pre-launch
iPhone. Here's a few fresh n' interesting iPhone facts right off the presses:
- The mobile version of OS X or whatever it is the iPhone runs takes up 700MB of the device's capacity. Damn son!
- There's no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
- No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
- Sorry, music can't be used as a ringtone -- even if it's just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.
- On a PC the iPhone syncs with Outlook for calendars AND addresses! Noice.
- It supports Exchange in some capacity, according to Walt, but he doesn't exactly say how.
- Pogue again confirms document file reading -- but not editing -- for PDF, Word, and Excel (only).
- Adobe Flash support is officially out. It's just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support. Sorry everybody, that's that.
- It will take snaps, but won't record video. How can Apple love YouTube as much as it does and not realize cellphone-shot movies make up a sizeable chunk of the crazy crap you find on there?
More after the break!
- Oh, and no MMS. And sorry, no voice dialing, either.
- Contact groups can't be emailed as contact lists.
- Apple sez between 300-400 charges the iPhone will lose battery capacity -- you'll send it in and get the cell replaced for a fee. Meh. We knew this would be the case, but still, meh.
- Apple can (and supposedly will) be rolling out periodic updates -- no surprise there.
- Battery life is, somehow, almost as mind-blowingly good as Apple claims for calls, music, and movies.
- As we suspected, users are prompted with lists of WiFi networks if you're not nearby a trusted hotspot. We've seen this on other phones, and we're afraid this would get friggin annoying.
- It's said to be very scratch resistant. The facade both front and rear apparently just doesn't pick up marring like regular iPods do.
- Voice quality is said to be good -- not great.
Anything else we missed from in there?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben @ Jun 26th 2007 8:29PM
I am sorry, but the iPhone may have a great interface it is not revolutionary.
My current xv6700 does all the iPhone can just not as pretty. Release a new iPhone that has all the featueres the xv6700 and then I will buy it.
derX @ Jun 27th 2007 12:25AM
No.
It.
Doesn't.
n00b.
And you aren't a n00b, you're n00bish, which is worse.
Harrison @ Jun 26th 2007 9:09PM
First off I just purchased the Pearl, and am not a potential buyer anyway.
But wow 300 charges and you need to send the phone in for a recall? This phone sounds like its just a money pit. The pearl can do much of the stuff listed there as pros except possibly wifi til the next reiteration of the pearl. This phone just sounds to me like overhyped hoopla, and a status symbol like whenever someone buys a bmw when they don't need one.
MasterCKO @ Jun 27th 2007 12:51PM
unexpected beneficiaries of the iPhone: UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service.
adamzeit @ Jun 26th 2007 9:13PM
Yes - you forgot that in the 8th paragraph down, Mossberg says "and cant use the digital cards (called SIM cards)"!! Does this mean that there is no removable SIM card so I can switch devices between "work" and "non-work" time??????
HORRIBLE! There goes my thoughts for an "evenings / weekend phone"!
Nando @ Jun 26th 2007 9:32PM
Yeah...that sucks! No SIM card support means that it's gonna be a toughie to try to network unlock it.
Phillip Lamb @ Jun 26th 2007 11:17PM
You mean... you keep work and life separate?
What is this strange, new world?
Surely you're not a developer ;)
Dami @ Jun 27th 2007 10:30AM
No, it's locked to AT&T - that's why you can't use Tmobile's SIM. Check Pogue's review. I believe you'll be able to swap AT&T's SIMs, but I read somewhere that visual voicemail and something else are locked to main SIM.
Robbie @ Jun 26th 2007 9:15PM
no mms? i dont believe that one. no way. maybe the demo rate plan they are on just doesnt have it. or maybe the iphone plans arent in the billing systems yet. that one is just way too hard to believe
Dipset @ Jun 26th 2007 10:07PM
I work for AT&T and can confirm that this phone will not have MMS.
Robbie @ Jun 27th 2007 12:33AM
o. m. g.
i guess email will just have to be used instead.
email to other att people at theirnumber@mms.att.net
verizon at @mypixmessages.com
etc
TJ @ Jun 26th 2007 9:18PM
Anyone think this 1G I-phone will flop?
Peter Carey @ Jun 26th 2007 9:25PM
Me. And I called AT&T about a when the MOTORAZR2 would be released and they were like, "We don't know anything about phones other than iPhones. That's all we've been trained on in the past month. We have been receiving hundreds of calls about the iPhone and it's getting very annoying." It looks like its not going to catch on with AT&T folk very well. Also, the Customer Support rep I was talking to said they weren't getting it because of most of the things listed here.
Scoopster @ Jun 26th 2007 9:33PM
Wow.....so you can't have Sprint or Verizon's network speed, but you can have their "tied to this phone only" experience? Gracious - that and the lack of easy navigation through contacts (I have 850+ contacts) are serious deal killers - for me at least.
TJ @ Jun 26th 2007 9:35PM
Too bad we can't hand some of these media reports that give the I-phone a bad name to people waiting in line. But, I am not that type of person to do that.
dak @ Jun 26th 2007 9:43PM
This past weekend I was in NYC and finally visited the Nokia flagship store, and was very very impressed with the N95. Part of what impressed me was how much was packed into a very nice small form factor. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the iPhone looks daggone HUGE...look at it compared to the hand holding it. Am I wrong?
TJ @ Jun 26th 2007 10:48PM
I been played with the N95, and sometimes it was slow at changing from portrait to landscape mode. IMO, the keypad is really small.
Nando @ Jun 26th 2007 9:59PM
Yeah, you're wrong. It's pretty skinny.
Lee Thompson @ Jun 27th 2007 5:53AM
The n95? Small? Since when?
I played with one yesterday in a cellphone store and I was surprised by how fugly and bulky the thing is.
http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/2680-Apple-iPhone-vs-N95-vs-iPod-Nano
db @ Jun 27th 2007 2:54PM
I think what dak meant is that the IPHONE IS TALL. Yes, IT'S THIN, but it's also TALL. It has a 3.5" inch screen which is cool, but bigger isn't always necessarily better (especially when cell phones are supposed to be portable) and if you factor in the rest of the length that the screen doesn't occupy, wouldn't that make the entire phone longer than 3.5" tall? This doesn't really bother me as much since I'm a girl and can always carry my phone with me in my purse, but it's the guys that I'm kinda worried about . . . Unless you have really big deep pockets, wouldn't the iPhone stick out of your pocket? I think that's what dak was trying to imply. In that case, I agree that those pictures of the iPhone above DO make it look big (not thick, but BIG). It especially doesn't help the hand in the picture looks like a fairly big hand too, LOL. Anyway, I'll still go CHECK IT OUT in person just to see how it is.
. . . As for the n95, the form factor of the phone itself is fairly small and COMPACT. It's definitely THICKER than the iPhone, but it's just so compact. I wouldn't exactly call it bulky because it's a lot thinner than my Sharp 903 (that is a REAL bulky phone, but hey, I just bought it for the 3.2MP camera). And yes the keypad is small but I have small fingers so it's ok for me (again, probably a result of the phone being so compact). It's not exactly the best looking phone out there, but the specs sure are awesome. In short, there are other phones out there that are more fugly, but at least the phone has specs to boot.
My 2 cents.
ALex @ Jun 26th 2007 10:02PM
No MMS?
bkmaster02 @ Jun 26th 2007 10:30PM
maybe i'm completely missing something here..but has anyone ever actually seen someone be able to follow a link on a web page in safari on the phone? it has to be possible...i just haven't seen any mention or demonstration of it at all.
Kevin @ Jun 26th 2007 10:57PM
IDK guys I mean for a phone with all this hype, coming from Apple and with such a hefty price tag I was expecting more and I can't help but think that some will be disappointed. For a phone with a built-in ipod to not have A2DP is just bad. No MMS, SIM support, or video recording is not good. With that kind of money I would be expecting so much more. Take the LG Muziq for example, for $100 you can get a phone that has 3G Data (EV-DO) OTA music downloads, TV, GPS Navigation, E-mail client, FM transmitter, 1.3MP camera with video support, MMS, A2DP bluetooth, On-Demand and support for 4GB microSD which will run you about another $100 or so and with Opera Mini browser you have a very good mobile phone browser which is free. The Power Vision Ultimate Package with unlimited SMS will run you $35 - $40 a month and includes TV and GPS Navigation. All for $400 less than the iPhone. You could take that $400 and pay for 3-4 months of service up front or save it or buy yourself something nice like a pair of BT stereo headphones for your brand new phone. Power + Value=No Brainer.
Economist @ Jun 27th 2007 12:51AM
I stopped using my Treo 650 because it was too big for my pocket. The iPhone is basically the same size except thinner.
If it's a top of the line iPod it has vastly too little space. If it's a top of the line phone it lacks many crucial features other phones have. Two bads don't make a good.
Right now I'm pretty happy with the Nokia N75. It is small, has a better camera, and 3G, and it synchronizes flawlessly with iCal and Address Book via iSync.What is ore, it is under $100 with a normal contract, even less via amazon.com. Finally, it uses the Symbian OS (which means you can customize the menus and buttons), there are lots of third party apps and widgets for it, and it runs java-based Gmail quickly and with the same slick interface as the full Mac/PC web version. The only key feature it lacks is Wi-Fi, but 3G is plenty fast.
Maybe the third iteration of the phone will be decent, if it survives the market test and the initial halo effect's wearing off.
Ben @ Jun 27th 2007 3:09AM
There were rumors that it didn't have a vibrate mode...anyone know about this?
derX @ Jun 27th 2007 7:03AM
...are there any pros to the iPhone?
If the iPhone had simply been the iPhone, I might've gotten it, in fact, I had all intentions of doing such. But the iPhone is a device and to use the device that THE CUSTOMER paid for, one must by a gamut of iPhone specific things. To me, too much for too little.
I am a technowhore and I switch between several phones and to pay an absurd amount for an iPlan I'd feel forced to use it and the device isn't an "end all, be all." Although no phone is, this isn't even close (now the 8525, that's a nice piece of machinery).
__________
It's smexii, revolutionary, but it's also pricey, and Nazily regulated: deal breaker for me.
adamzeit @ Jun 27th 2007 8:06AM
Hey there 'Dipset' who works for AT&T - can you confirm if this has a removable SIM card? I would just be blown away if they deviated from standards like that...!
Anthony @ Jun 27th 2007 8:17AM
This phone would've really had some good selling points back in maybe 1999....oh wait MMS was still out.
TimTheFoolMan.com @ Jun 29th 2007 9:30AM
Yeah... funny how the PPC-6700 doesn't support MMS either, but none of the fanboys of that phone (which I own) seem to bother mentioning that. Considering also that the 6700 is basically unusable in bright sunlight, isn't loud enough, and uses an interface that DEMANDS a stylus in many places (I lost both of mine within the first two months), it won't take much for the iPhone to be better than any of the WM5 phones.
Granted, that's a bit like being the best belly dancer on the South Pole... - Tim
Jones @ Jun 27th 2007 8:57AM
Has anyone looked into the possibility that Mossberg (in all his iGlory) meant the phone doesn't except memory cards (i.e. SD, micro-SD, etc.) and not SIM cards when he said it didn't accept digital cards?
Jake @ Jun 27th 2007 9:45AM
Big surprise... Apple produced a glitzy, glam-y piece of hardware with a locked-down, reduced functionality feature set and software environment. This is shocking why? That is the Apply modus operandi.
These reviews suggest something that I've suspected for a while. Everything about this device that is NOT music/video playback, touch interface, or basic voice calling was crammed in as an afterthought. And like most afterthoughts, they are half-assed at best. So, this $500-600 "phone" is one of only, what, 2 GSM phones on the US market that doesn't support SIM cards?
Let me guess: all the Apple engineers all have Verizon and Sprint? "What's a SIM card?"
And my first camera phone--that I bought in 2001--shot video clips. Poor.
Jake @ Jun 27th 2007 9:46AM
Err, sorry, 2003. Trouble with math this morning...
gixxer @ Jun 27th 2007 10:25AM
WWWaaaaa wwwaaaaa!!! I hear a bunch of babies crying. Most of the issues could easily be fixed by sofware upgrades which Apple has already promised, including MMS and video recording. And as far as 3g goes, if you are in an area that has UMTS, you are probably not too far from a wifi hotspot anyway. If you have ever been to Chicago with a device with wifi, you can't go 2 blocks without having 3 or 4 hotspots pop up, most of which are free. And as far as the sim, yes it does have one. It is removable. And if you don't like it, don't buy it. Move along to the 8525 and quit yer bitchin.
MasterCKO @ Jun 27th 2007 12:45PM
that is bullshit because smartphones nowadays have UMTS AND WiFi. AND. not OR.
h3660 @ Jun 27th 2007 11:20AM
USA has always been a bit behind when it comes to cellphones. Unfortunately you don't get phone like SE W950i(now replaced with W960i)
joflow @ Jun 27th 2007 11:34AM
Yeah, all that sounds like a pretty long list of complaints for a phone that "lives up to the hype". I expected Walt to give it a thumbs up since he's super-apple-fanboy, but why the other reviewers still gave it a big seal of approval after all these negatives is a mystery.
J Adam Metcalf @ Jun 27th 2007 11:40AM
2 most annoying things I saw in the reviews .. 1. 6 steps to place a call. 2. no way to search the phonebook.. you have to scroll.
Coolone3000 @ Jun 27th 2007 12:40PM
You know, for as many of you people on here that just write to bash the iPhone, non of you have ever touched it yet (and yes neither have i). I'm pretty sure about half of you will go into a store just to play with one, and leave thinking its a pretty awesome phone with some shortcomings. That doesn't mean you will all buy one, but i bet you won't hate it like you do. Steve has already hinted at a possible software update to allow MMS messaging, obviously thats not for sure but could very well happen. When you buy an apple product you pay a premium. When the ipod came out it was expensive and there were alternatives that did the same thing, exactly like whats happening now with the iPhone. People didn't buy it for all of the advanced features that the ipod had, cause it really didn't do much more then play mp3's (at first). It was the ease of use and intuitive user interface that drove people to get an ipod. And thats what they are expecting to do with the iPhone. Simple syncing with iTunes and an easy touch screen interface. Those who want it will spend the money. For those of you that are pure geniuses and have figured out that you can get a cheaper phone with some better features, this phone is not for you. If you like the WM5/6 interface then by all means get that phone. For those of use that like a richer user interface, ease of use, and simple integration with our music and movies, we will all pay and get the iPhone. And remember that no matter how much time you spend complaining about what the iPhone isn't, won't change a darn thing about what it currently is.
Tomas @ Jun 27th 2007 5:34PM
For all you americans about to get the iPhone, discover the Nokia Nseries N95.... I don't have to say anything more.. just get it!!
Economist @ Jul 3rd 2007 1:24AM
I don't think the N95 has Wi-Fi.
gixxer @ Jun 28th 2007 8:50AM
@MasterCKO
How many phones have WiFi AND UMTS? 1. The 8525, and thats it. The rest have UMTS or EDGE. So it's not UMTS AND WIFI on everything, or even almost everything. It's UMTS on most, EDGE/WIFI next, and LAST is UMTS/WIFI. Both the 8125 and the iPhone will have EDGE and WiFi. So as far as being B.S., I don't think so. Again, if it really bothers you, go buy yourself an 8525, and have fun with WM5.
Jesse @ Jun 29th 2007 9:11AM
Oh, that'd be nice! Sign me up.
pff1029 @ Jun 29th 2007 2:42PM
I don't understand why anyone thinks this could be worth it. You can get a Blackjack for $75 and get access to AT&T's HSDPA. Granted, unlimited web access is steep for my tastes, at $40, but I love mine; it has a sleek style of its own, and it does way more.
Also, it doesn't take me six steps to make a call. Just because it's WinMo doesn't mean it's complicated at all to use. After messing around on a friend's RAZR, I know what bad UI design is like. The lack of input shortcuts, key-/thumbboard, and advanced capabilities (save visual voicemail) make the business end of the iPhone seem convoluted to me--"It's just one big touchscreen!" You can forget E-mail on the go. And yer friggin' SPEED DIAL, too!
Trooth @ Jun 30th 2007 5:02PM
I was over at wired reading this blog http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/your-activation.html. Customers are having to wait 6 to 24 hours to get their I-phone working after dropping $500 plus on the device. Great way to make sure their first experience with AT&T and Apple Iphone is one of frustration.
nitin @ Jul 12th 2007 4:57PM
Oh come on, give it a rest,
its Apple's "first" phone, dont be too harsh on them, compare the phone to nokia's first models, some developers just might have forgotten to code few requirements properly.
Also i didnt see this anywhere, but does it have FM radio capabilities?