Apple iPhone

[DocBobo]

Link (http://www.apple.com/iphone/) *joygasm*
I *need* to have this baby!
But don't believe me, listen to Steve Jobs selling it directly to you: Quicktime movie of yesterday's keynote (http://stream.qtv.apple.com/events/jan/j47d52oo/m_8848125_350_ref.mov)

Okay, as an afterthought I realized I posted this in a review forum, so here's my opinion on what information I gathered so far...
The iPhone will turn the cell phone market on its head or fail in a grand way. Basically it's a Newton crammed into the same casing as a cell phone and an iPod. Put together with some genuine design for soft- and hardware it's certainly something else than what you can buy so far. If it delivers on its promise the cell phone competition will face a hard time. And the Zune will crash hard before it even lifts off.

The display might be a problem. The later iPods suffered from a display surface that was too soft and scratched easily. A device that consists 50% (the front) of display needs to do better than that.
For the european market EDGE is less interesting than UMTS, a feature the iPhone does not have at the moment. And the price tag, man that really hurts.

[Dawn White]

My husband was all excited about this, yesterday. I was worried that it might be a knee-jerk reaction to other phone/mp3 player combinations that have recently hit the market.

However, after watching the keynote speech, I gotta say... the touch screen is REALLY exciting. My husband will most likely upgrade his phone, and pass me down his iPod. *sigh* I don't mind, but my own smartphone drives me nuts. I hardly ever use it. Ah, well. I can wait a year or two or three.

[Takara]

I loved Craig Ferguson's diatribe on the iPhone on last nights "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" about companies combining all sorts of crap with phones for technophiles.

"Look, they combined a phone and an iron!"
*ring ring*
"SSSSSSSSTTTT! AHHHH!!"
....
"Great for wrinkles though."

[Dawn White]

*snort* :D (note to self: axe that plan to incorporate a phone into a weedwhacker. can't afford the lawsuits.)

Frank says he may not get one, for several reasons:

1) phone 1.0 is always troublesome, or has been for him every time in the past.

2) he isn't sure the screen is going to be sturdy enough and

3) we use Verizon for the entire family and his work... and he isn't sure he wants to switch to Cingular.

But damn... that touch screen sure is cool.

[TVs Frank]

We've got an original Mac that still works fine. Apple always tends to release stuff that works great. But as they said, it's a LOT of new patented technology in it. So I'd wait and see.

[Cobble]

waaaaaay too much money for a song playing phone

[Kyllinge]

Apparently, some kid in New Jersey just "unlocked" his iPhone to work with T-Mobile instead of AT&T and then sold it on eBay for over $12k. I have no idea why anyone would pay $500-600 for one of these, let alone that much.
Kid's name was George Hotz, a 17 y/o with WAY too much free time in the summer. And the kicker is, unlocking cell phones are intentionally excluded from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act so neither Apple or AT&T can press charges.
Now, the article claims, the "How To" is public information as he posted it on Blogs and such. Happy Hunting to anyone interested in switching from AT&T, but it sounds like a grueling process.

[KaiTenSatsuma]

:sighs: I don't get it.

I mean, the pricetag is a granted, but people paying a load for an unlocked phone? Jesus Mary and Joseph, its not like its the only technological thing people will ever own, I'd be willing to be people who WANT one are people who already HAVE a lot of tech gear in the first place, so whats the point of unlocking it? Maybe someone who can see much more lucrative ways to use an unlocked phone can explain, because All I can think of is "Oh, so its like letting the internet pollute a nice thing"

[Kyllinge]

Looks like Apple is countering the hacked phones BUT "not on purpose" with it's software update. It basically disables more features and homebrew programs that use something other than AT&T.

Read more here:
http://www.thenewsvault.com/cgi/xtra.pl?go=11912369776