[TonyD]

what is this iPhone that has been on apple.com forever.

from what i can gather it does EVERYTHING. and will be available from The New AT&T.

i cant find any date or mention of it at cingular/at&t.

looks like i want one, whatever it is.

[Christ Reynolds]

if you search at cingular.com, it's the first thing listed.

http://www.cingular.com/iphone

I'd buy it, but I hate cell phones and refuse to buy one. I love everything else though. Look for Apple's keynote address on the phone, the demonstration is amazing.

CJ

[Andrew Pratt]

Its a revolutionary twist to the cellphone concept. Basically its got the potential to do to cell phones what the iPod did for portable music with its interface and features. As is often the case its not so much that Apple invents something totally new it just takes the best idea's and builds them into a slick package that "just works".

Here's a video on it. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definit...240539,00.html

[Michael_K_Sr]

I may wind up getting one, but as someone used to Sprint and Verizon's EVDO network for data service, Cingular's EDGE network is just way too slow and a big drawback for me.

[Oren]

To me, the big deal is that it's just a really good phone. It's my personal opinion that all the phones currently available, including the one in my pocket, have atrocious interfaces. It's not about the signal, it's about the interface. Finally, a phone that is just easy to use with an interface that adapts to what you're doing. I plan to buy one as soon as it's available.

The camera, iPod, and internet abilities are just icing on the cake.

[Michael_K_Sr]

Quote:

To me, the big deal is that it's just a really good phone.

I guess I'll withhold judgement until I can get my hands on one and/or until I see some objective reviews. Sure the feature set looks good, but right now everything is marketing spin from Apple and AT&T. Nobody else has been able to test one.

[Oren]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael_K_Sr

I guess I'll withhold judgement until I can get my hands on one and/or until I see some objective reviews. Sure the feature set looks good, but right now everything is marketing spin from Apple and AT&T. Nobody else has been able to test one.

I did.

By that I mean I know someone at Apple, and some time ago Apple let about 15 of them out in the wild (the phones, not the employees). So I sat down with him and he demoed it to me in person.

It wasn't much different than the demo Jobs did. If you haven't seen the video, you should watch it. The little videos on the web site show the same stuff.

So, yes, if the actual signal quality is awful, then it won't be a great phone. I think, though, that the basic phone technology of sending and receiving the signal is pretty much standard, but I could be wrong. To me the only unknown at this point is the battery life.

Whether it's a closed system or open isn't too important to me. It'd be nice for it to be open, but even if it's closed there will still be a process by which third parties can add their software (via Apple).

Not to be overly dramatic, but this phone is one of the few things over the last 20 years that I'd stand out in line for hours to buy.

[Kimmo Jaskari]

The Windows Mobile phones are both more open and have greater feature sets, but the interfaces on these things pretty much stink. It's not just the fact that they aren't streamlined or easy to use; the fact that the interface is sometimes slow, jerky and flickers, and menus are slow to appear, etc, make them look pretty amateurish and bad. The user inteface really isn't that great, and it mimics desktop things that just aren't suitable for a handheld. If you want to do something on a WM screen, you have to stop walking and focus on what you're trying to accomplish, and you need both hands.

The same is true for Symbian phones. The interface is slow to respond and not very attractive, but they are definitely better at one-handed usage.

It's not, in other words, so much what the iPhone can do, it is the way it does it. I'm very intrigued with it myself, it's one of those "instant gadget lust" things that just cry out "buy me!".

[Oren]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oren

To me the only unknown at this point is the battery life.

Well, today's press release pretty much puts that to rest. 8 hours of talk time?!

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/18iphone.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimmo Jaskari

The Windows Mobile phones. . . . .have greater feature sets. . . .

I don't know if I agree with that. Collectively they may, but I'm not sure there is a single phone out there that has all the core features the iPhone has plus more. And the iPhone has some things no other phone has. I'm not aware of any other phone that has an orientation sensor, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, soft keyboard, and such a large screen (but small overall size/weight).

Also, third party applications (in the form of AJAX web apps) are starting to appear:

http://iphoneapplicationlist.com/