I want to get into this issue right now, because a lot of people bashing the iPhone without using it are basing their claims on the speed of the AT&T Edge network. First of all we need to understand that the Edge network is the largest wireless data network in the United States. We also need to understand that it has been undergoing a pretty significant upgrade. We also need to realize that under ideal conditions 3G is not many times faster than Edge, it is a couple of times faster.
All that is irrelevant though, when you factor in how most people will use the iPhone and where they will use the iPhone and in reality the average data thoroughput for the average user will be much higher than any other comparable smartphone. That is Wifi. I don’t know where some of these critics and analysts live, but where I live I have Wifi. So Wifi will always be the order of the day at my house. Now I work at home so that also covers me there. Regardless, I suspect a lot of people will have Wifi access at or near their work. Add in all the other Wifi hotspots that exist, and in some cities where total Wifi is free everywhere, and you have to understand Wifi is the future of portable device communications, not cellular broadband networks. Apple is embracing the future with this, and it will only help to increase the availability of Wifi.
So while those of you who are pining away for 3G and your miniscule battery life, I will be zooming around on Wifi, and for those times when I am in transient or out of a Wifi area, I will use the slightly slower Edge network and not have any problems with it.
It was interesting to see on the front page of my local paper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Business Section a big article and picture of the iPhone. A few things caught me right away about the picture though. First of all it only had eleven icons, it was missing the recently revealed YouTube icon, and it also said “Cingular” in the upper-left hand corner, not AT&T. Since both these items have been changed for at least a while now it seems they could have gotten updated images. Doing a quick Google search though, I find many other news sources have been using this older picture to show with recent articles.
I don’t see any straight on images of the iPhone with the updated changes on the Apple site, but I suspect media outlets do have access to newer images from Apple’s PR department, just call it a guess. So why are these media types using old pictures? Probably the same reason why they are going to the same industry pundits and analysts who tend to provide commentary and opinions based on nothing more then conjecture. With the internal headline of “Limitations May Hinder Sales of iPhone” I get to read through a litnany of fancy titles who act like they have actually used the device or have something useful to contribute about it, yet in actuality all I get is a lot of hot air and in some cases bad information.
I boil it down to lazy reporting. They are too lazy to get new images, and they are too lazy to actually do any work for a story, so they e-mail a handful of the same people they always e-mail, put it together and write a story. I probably put my effort into this blog entry then David Wethe put into his Business Page article on the iPhone in the Star-Telegram. You can ask him yourself if you like. Dwethe@star-telegram.com
The Boy Genius Report, which has been an excellent source of iPhone information has released this internal document for AT&T detailing their plans and methods for Launch Day for the iPhone. You can check it out Here.
Adult entertainer Digital Playground is whacking up a staggering 158 trailers for iPhone users,
Of course as they mention there is nothing special about these trailers for the iPhone. They are in a standard mobile video format. However, they will play on the iPhone.
Some people digging around came across this .Mac page here. Essentially it says it is only viewable on the iPhone. Those who changed the User Agent to say “iPhone” or something related, or used iPhoney, were able to see the page, but nothing yet is there. Should be interesting to see what Apple has in store for us though.
3 Things You Should Know with Anne P. Mitchell and Bryan McCullogh interview Shawn King of Mac Life about the iPhone. He works closely with David Pogue of the New York Times so got some up-close experience with the phone.
You can listen to it via iTunes here. It is episode 25.
Apple has released a demo of their touchscreen keyboard here. Personally I am very interested to see it. I know people who have long double-thumbed it on regular keyboards want to believe there is no way it can be faster, or without tactile feedback as useful, but the demo does point to some interesting tools it uses to help the overall experience.
It is interesting to see someone typing away at lightning speed with both thumbs at the end of the demo. Personally I will wait and see for myself, but considering all the benfefits the device is able to have because it does not have a hardware keyboard, anything that gets this “soft” keyboard in the ballpark will make it more than a worthwhile trade-off.
The iPhone review deluge has already begun. They are coming fast and furious at this point. The best one I have seen so far is a video demo from David Pogue at the New York Times. View it below:
Other Reviews:
New York Post - Found this one weird as he compared the iPhone to a laptop. Wall Street Journal - Pretty complete review with pros and cons.
iTunes will be handling all of the activations for iTunes. This is seemingly good and bad. Good in that I will be able to get my iPhone and go home and activate. Bad because E-Bay Resellers will have nothing to keep them from hording the items.
Apple has a Video demonstrating the activation process here.
Apple has released the rate plans for the iPhone on their site here. Taking a look at it, it looks about what people expected. As an existing customer I am most concerned with those rates:
$20.00 gets you all service and 200 sms messages a month
$30.00 gets you all service and 1500 sms messages a month
$40.00 gets you all service and unlimited sms messages a month
The individual plans start at $59.99 a month and include phone service, and also start at $80 a month for family plan service. A family plan with 1400 shared minutes, and 200 sms messages and full iPhone access would be $100.00 a month. I consider that a pretty good deal.
