*sigh* IT'S JUST A PHONE!

[Funkstar]

i've been thinking about this thing a lot and i've boiled it down to:
- it looks great, if a little plain
- the interface looks very easy to use - but will it actually be easy to use?
- has some great mobile multimedia features

But
- i think there could easily be some significant reliability problems
- Battery looks to be very low
- Really isn't for everyone. size alone will rule it out for many
- this is apples first phone - do you really think they will get it right first time round?

When it comes out and i can play with it, i'll be happy to say "it's great, i want one", but equally, i'm quite prepared to say "meh, i'll take a SE xxxx instead".

[MadduckUK]

nah, playing a different game to everything but the sonyericsson P series, its HTC and co. that its lining up against

[803hart]

Wow, Im my own opinion i would rather have on dedicated mobile phone and one dedicated mp3 player tbh. seems like manufacturers are now trying to cram a lot of functions into one gadget i.e. mp3 player, mobile phone, camera etc. So tell me people, whats next huh? Gotta admit, its one sleek looking device, love the whole touchscreen feature... kudos to apple

[Funkstar]

the next big feature will be mobile TV.

For some reason i was thinking about this while in town today.

I know they have spoken about a new DVB-H OTA TV format with reduced resolution and bitrate, perhaps using MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2 that DVB-T uses here. but by the time this gets implimented (has to go through the government as it is part of the national TV broadcast system) high end phones are going to be able to cope with live DVB-T in MPEG-2. The Archos AV700TV already has a buil DVB-T tuner built in and PVR functionality.

This was also touched on in a BBC News24 business report I caught about 20min ago

[bsodmike]

Someone earlier mentioned that the iTV didn't have HD support - tbh the iTV is a gimmick to impress the 'masses' that simply don't know better (sorry people don't shoot the horse I'm on right now...I'll get to my point).

Frontrow, may look cool, but I personally prefer VLC - it is just so much better with full xvid/DivX support and even plays AC3 rips nicely (after enabling full SPDIF output in adv settings). So do yourself a favour and connect your mac to your TV over DVI - ofc, your options are,

- dedicated Mac mini to do the job
- Second hand G5

I went the second route and my main G5 has the plasma as the second display (via a third-party ADC to DVI adaptor) and does the job extremely well. I've also heard that iTV downloads content for 640x480 (not sure how true) and it's prolly h264 and just does it's magic upscaling.

[iamtheoneneo]

the iphone is pure genious!its more then a phone can ever be . going to be expensive tho!

[pollaxe]

Wow, Im my own opinion i would rather have on dedicated mobile phone and one dedicated mp3 player tbh. seems like manufacturers are now trying to cram a lot of functions into one gadget i.e. mp3 player, mobile phone, camera etc.

Yes, I tend to be of the school of thought that the more a gadget can do then the more chances it has of going wrong..

I am a bit of a dinosaur though.

[chrestomanci]

Questions i have are, battery life, and protection.

Its a mobile phone, it MUST have a good talk life, standby etc, i know most mac fan boys always end up sleeping in the same place every night, after not going out, but some of us have issues with their life, that they love jumping on a train, staying out all night somewhere new, and getting back home before monday... with enough battery life for a good chinwag on the way if need be. Will this do it?

Doubt it.

That huge screen will be a major drain on the battery. Not may people know, but these days colours screen on mobiles use more power than the Celular radio. That is why the screen backlight goes out very quickly after you stop using it, even during calls.

The problem for the iPhone is that the screen is huge, and a 4 square inch screen will draw 4 times the power of a one square inch one, and secondly as it is a touch screen as is unlocked via the touch screen, the screen will have to come on every time it is touched in order that the user can see to unlock it. This means that it will use a lot of power bumping arround in pockets.

On other phones, the backlight does not come on from pressing keys in locked mode untill after the keypad is unlocked, so this prevents power drain from accedental bumps in pockets. The iPhone will not be able to work this way because there will be no tactile information for the user to find where to push or slide to unlock the phone.

[[GSV]Trig]

Slate it as much as you want, its an Apple product and people will buy it just so they look cool...

[Mike Fishcake]

what are you talking about in your first post? i dont see a link or anything which related to the topic? or is it just me?

Sorry Josh, I didn't bother linking because loads and loads and loads of people had already blithered on to me about it, I thought everyone on here would have also been bombarded with it as well

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

[Marcos]

4 pages and no links to images or anything?

[MadduckUK]

4 pages and no links to images or anything?

its above youuuuuu!

[pollaxe]

4 pages and no links to images or anything?

Here's Dale Winton for your viewing pleasure!

[Knoxville]

Apple's gone and shat itself out a phone then has it?

Can't say I'm too fussed, I own a phone, it makes calls, it texts, takes the odd photo and even serenades me with mp3's from time to time, unless it can give me a swedish massage and then service me orally until I climax all over my iJeans I won't be changing handsets in the near future.

Of course I imagine to most people that'll buy one it's about as close as they'll ever get to the excitement of being tounged lovingly, well that and picking up the their pre-ordered ps3 or horrendously expensive watches with 8 time zones built in.

Ah well, i'm sure they'll enjoy the ten minutes of attention that said gadgets will obtain for them at the pub to justify the expense.....really sure........completely and utterly sure......yeah.....so there.

[Mike Fishcake]

Apple's gone and shat itself out a phone then has it?

Can't say I'm too fussed, I own a phone, it makes calls, it texts, takes the odd photo and even serenades me with mp3's from time to time, unless it can give me a swedish massage and then service me orally until I climax all over my iJeans I won't be changing handsets in the near future.

Of course I imagine to most people that'll buy one it's about as close as they'll ever get to the excitement of being tounged lovingly, well that and picking up the their pre-ordered ps3 or horrendously expensive watches with 8 time zones built in.

Ah well, i'm sure they'll enjoy the ten minutes of attention that said gadgets will obtain for them at the pub to justify the expense.....really sure........completely and utterly sure......yeah.....so there.

I think I love you.

[autopilot]

I'm with the OP here.

It is just a phone. A bloody big one which wont let you install third party apps either.

I don't even think it looks that nice.

Im going to have to stop reading engadget for a while too, they need to get over it.

I have absolutely zero interest in iPhone either.