Here comes the iPhone entry I’ve been waiting to post… since it was introduced just short of a week ago.
Let’s start with the rumors. Oh man, there were so MANY rumors… my RSS feed reader was burning UP with iPhone rumors, as well as reaction pieces after the iPhone was introduced. I got sick and tired of it. Yes, I enjoyed refreshing and reloading two separate coverage (engadget and macrumors) of Macworld San Francisco. Yes, I enjoyed watching the iPhone keynote the second it was available. Yes, I enjoyed memorizing all the stats available from the Apple website (I realized a couple days later that there was an iPhone tab added to the top navigation…). Yes, I enjoyed reading Mr. Pogue’s Ultimate Q&A, both Part 1 and Part 2. Yes, I enjoyed reading like the bazillion other pages that had talked about this thing… (I really really liked 37signals article… which makes me wonder why I didn’t write up a piece like that…).
Here’s was my rule to sifting through the garbage and the awesome articles: If the reviewer touched the iPhone, I would read it. If the reviewer didn’t, then I would delete it immediately and move on to the next article in my feed reader, which was most likely yet another iPhone article. Sometimes, I’d have to undo, because while the writer might not have touched the iPhone, he or she had some amazing insight on the devices (like the 37signals post).
Instead of trying to “review” the gadget that I’ve never touched, I’m only going to talk about how it might impact my life in six months. That’s all I want to do.
I’m going to assume for the rest of this article that you know everything there is to know about the iPhone, except for not knowing how it feels… or smells… or tastes… yum… iPhone… I’m just going to start hammering out points I thought are relevant to me… and those that might be reading it.
As I’ve said before… if this devices delivers on the functionality… I’ll be very amazed. I’m a very picky person when it comes to gadgets, but I’ve learned to just deal with minor nuisances here and there. I’ve wanted something like this ever since I had a cellphone. I looked up into the stars and asked, “Where is my all-in-one? WHERE?”. I think it might be here… and no, not like how Brent is calling it the second coming. (But I think it’s hilarious…)
I don’t have to carry my phone and iPod anymore. I already killed my digital camera because I wanted to be ready for the next generation of phones that will have 2 Megapixel cameras… (don’t need any more megapixels than that for me, but I do need better frame rates if I want to take video clips) Not only would the iPhone lessen the number of gadgets I need to carry, it also cuts down on cables I need to carry around with me. (But why isn’t iPhone using the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to transfer data from a computer? This doesn’t worry me though… because this is an obvious next step to improving the iPhone) However, that battery life is not pretty. 5 hours of talk time/video/everything else isn’t pretty.
The interface will be killer. It has to be. If not, I’m not buying into it. Take, for example, my phone: Samsung d807. I was told that it plays mp3s… but man, that is not an interface worth saving. However, I’m just used to the crappy way we deal with contact information, and so I was fine with the phone as a cellular device. But now that Apple has swooped in and changed that intangible “nice”-ness of making phone calls… Okay, once again, this depends on how the iPhone is when I play with it. I better be just as surprised as I was when I got my first mac. After all… it does have Mac (EDIT: Correction by Raj, through Alex… Jobs never said Mac…) OS X (Or so they say… it’s supposed to be a whittled down half a GB version of it… and I really hope it doesn’t eat into the 4/8 GB the iPhone is supposed to come with.)
And it’s not just the gadget you’re buying into. Just like when you buy a mac, you’re buying into a way of life. From the interface down to the physical 30-pin connector that it uses, you’re buying into a community… an ecosystem. No, I’m not trying to hype anything up, but with anything Apple, you get something much more than the product. If you have a mac (the 5.7% of us) or even an iPod, you know what that is. If you don’t (yet), you’ll find out soon enough.
So for all of you that know me as the Apple fanatic, here’s my answer to your question “Will I buy it?”.
I’ll buy it… only if I get to play with it first. I don’t think I will be torn over whether or not if I should buy it. If it’s worth it, I’m getting it. If it’s not, I can live without it.
Ah, so you people are talking about the extra costs (AKA data plans…) Yes… and this troubles me too. If 3rd parties could develop on this platform… we’d easily have VoIP happiness wherever there was WiFi, and we’d never have to use our minutes at our homes. I could even start programming applications using the user interface… But really, if Cingular doesn’t change the data plans for this gadget… I’m definitely NOT going to buy this thing. There is no way Cingular is going to charge me per KB to use this.
This should go into another rant about how we shouldn’t be charing per minutes or per text message to phone companies, but that’ll be for another day.
I have a feeling Apple is definitely going to change the wireless industry, just like it changed the music one. I don’t know if it’ll be a runaway success like the iPod, but it’ll leave it’s mark in history. Hey, it can’t be as bad as the Newton…
I think this pretty much summarizes my views on the iPhone. Do whatever you want with it. Delete it, quick!
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