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Apple iPhone Glass Surface and Battery Life Improved

Padriac said:
I don't discount the value of GPS when travelling. That's the 1% of your life where you are "lost" compared to the 99% part where you are not. However, your example doesn't really work because the iPhone's EDGE data won't really work in Europe (I believe that's correct: the phone will work fine, but not the data). I'm not really a homebody, but I don't know what crazy awesome job you have that lets you travel to Europe for more than 2 weeks out of the year.

I live in Los Angeles. It's a big city, but it would be pretty hard for me to be completely and utterly lost in it. I could map any location relative to some LA landmark by default (LAX, UCLA, etc.) and be able to get there just fine. Or I could take the two seconds to input my exact cross streets and get perfectly accurate directions. I see the convenience in avoiding that last step, but my point is that if you're near where you live or work (which is 99% of the time) you don't really need that level of precision. It's hardly a deal breaker. Without GPS, perhaps once a month when I'm venturing somewhere I need to type a new location. With GPS, I can avoid that step. Cool, but not nearly enough to matter all that much.
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I guess we differ there, since I spend at least 2 months per year in places I never or very seldom have visited. I am always short of time and I can afford the luxury to get lost. I have no ideas where to eat and what is available. I am often ignorant what could be interesting for me to see/experience in the city I am in.

Same thing when I am on vacation. Little time and I want to be able to see as much as I can the short time I am there. Finding good places to eat can be a b***h. If you happen to stumble on a nice place you might want to go there again. Try to do find that small restaurant with the strange name in e.g. Cairo.
 
Evangelion said:
Can it? Yes, we saw the Calamari-ad. But how does the iPhone know where you are? All signs point to that it doesn't know. You have to tell it where you are before it can do anything for you. Now, I'm sure that you know that that is not how GPS works?
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Right, GPS tells it where you are. OR you have a list of default locations and it maps everything relative to that.

Evangelion said:
I don't know about you, but I usually move around with my phone. In my case, I move between two points that are 40 kilometers apart from each other just about every day. If I set my "default area" to be my home, how does it help me find the closest restaurant when I'm in downtown Helsinki, 40 kilometers from my home?
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AFAIK, you can have a list of default locations and switch amongst them. Yes, you'd have to click something and GPS would save you that trouble. I see the convenience there, but it's not much of a big deal if you already have the program open anyway.

Evangelion said:
And could the iPhone direct me to that place? Nope.
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Actually, Yes. It will direct you based on your default locations.

Evangelion said:
That's where the world is moving towards.
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Maybe, but it doesn't mean it's a compelling feature.

Evangelion said:
You are not seeing the big picture here. You are looking, but you are not seeing. GPS right now is like the very first websites were in mid-nineties. Joe Sixpack would have looked at them and thought "What's the point?".
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Given the lifespan of most cellphones (2 year contracts and then upgrade), GPS needs to have compelling features pretty soon for the lack of GPS to be a problem with my using an iPhone NOW. In 2 years, if some awesome uses for GPS have been developed I'm sure the iPhone2 will include it.

Unless you are lost, GPS is at best convenience because you always can type in your location. Right now the killer feature for GPS is being lost, and I (and most people) aren't really lost all that much.
 
Dr.Gargoyle said:
I guess we differ there, since I spend at least 2 months per year in places I never or very seldom have visited. I am always short of time and I can afford the luxury to get lost. I have no ideas where to eat and what is available. I am often ignorant what could be interesting for me to see/experience in the city I am in.

Same thing when I am on vacation. Little time and I want to be able to see as much as I can the short time I am there. Finding good places to eat can be a b***h. If you happen to stumble on a nice place you might want to go there again. Try to do find that small restaurant with the strange name in e.g. Cairo.
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Well, when I become a rich world traveller like you, I guess I can complain about no GPS. Don't see that happening in the life-span of the iPhone, so I think I'm good. I am jealous of you though ;)
 
Sweetfeld28 said:
Does the iPhone have one big battery, or the rumored two individual batteries? One for the iPod side, and then one for the Phone [Talk-time] part?
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thats the rumor from the idiot digg guy who also said the iphone was "small as s***" and going to come out for all major frequencies.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Padriac said:
Well, when I become a rich world traveller like you, I guess I can complain about no GPS. Don't see that happening in the life-span of the iPhone, so I think I'm good. I am jealous of you though ;)
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I wish you were correct about being rich... I travel through work (researcher) and I spend a lot of time at places I have no clue about. Surprisingly many people share my situation.
You do on vacations now and then don't you? perhaps a road trip through the San Fernando valley? Wouldn't it be nice to have your cellphone guide you? Just imagine being able to dl your route when you came home, so you could make your own personal point of interest next time you are in the same neighborhood, or perhaps share it with your friends.
If you took some pics you could add the the data to the file or transfer it directly via BT from the phone to the camera.
The options are endless...
 
ajhill said:
Okay, 8 hours sounds like good news, but this is definitely the ideal. Check the fine print for the tweaks that they made to the settings to get to that point. Like turning ON call forwarding does that mean that any incoming calls are rerouted while you're on the phone? And the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Does this mean that you have to manually select your Wi-Fi networks to get optimal battery life? This might not be too bad an inconvenience, given the batter life.

And the browsing was based of WiFi with no mention of the cell browsing time.

Hmmmm....
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I don't see this fine print anywhere. Where are you seeing it?

Call forwarding may mean anything from forwarded at AT&T's end (ie, incoming calls never hit the iPhone) to forwarded on the iPhone. I'm not sure what your question is there, though.

Turning off the WiFi "Ask to Join Networks" means that your WiFi transmitter will not be turned on at all times. You would still presumably be able to pick from a list of available networks when you tell it to connect; it just wouldn't be poppin gup dialogs saying "You are now in range of the Bob's Coffee Shop" WiFi network; Connect?" while you walk down the street. This (asking off) is how I always operate my WiFi devices, personally.

IMHO, we're in a gray area here with Apple's battery claims. Their computer battery claims have historically been really high relative to real-world usage. On the other hand, their iPod battery claims have historically been extremely accurate. Still, I take the claims here with a bit of a grain of salt.
 
But..

..when will they make it so I can get my work email on this thing? I want one BAD but will not jump in until I can get my work email on it. My IT guy says at this point, it doesn't look possible. Anyone who wants work email on a personal device now at my work, gets a blackberry. Apparently, the device needs to be compatible with an exchange server or something, which Blackberry is, but the iPhone is not going to be.

I thought maybe I could use webmail, but our webmail at work is only compatible with Firefox, not Safari (thanks Lotus Notes.)

So as much as I would love to have one of these things, it would be worthless without the ability to get my work email.
 
starkmj said:
..when will they make it so I can get my work email on this thing? I want one BAD but will not jump in until I can get my work email on it. My IT guy says at this point, it doesn't look possible. Anyone who wants work email on a personal device now at my work, gets a blackberry. Apparently, the device needs to be compatible with an exchange server or something, which Blackberry is, but the iPhone is not going to be.

I thought maybe I could use webmail, but our webmail at work is only compatible with Firefox, not Safari (thanks Lotus Notes.)

So as much as I would love to have one of these things, it would be worthless without the ability to get my work email.
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Try mail2web :)
 
Maybe Batman is a doctor, too.

lazyrighteye said:
<rant>Unless you are Batman, you have no business wearing any electronic device(s) on your belt. Period.

And putting any device in a case is redundant.
The freakin' thing COMES in a case already!</rant>
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Not necessarily....I routinely have a cell phone and two pagers hanging off my scrubs, so I'm definitely going to get some sort of case/holster when I buy an iPhone.

Of course when I am in my street clothes, you'd better believe all those devices are in my pockets!!
 
Padriac said:
default locations...
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Is your life so boring that you spend most of your time in "default locations"?

Given the lifespan of most cellphones (2 year contracts and then upgrade), GPS needs to have compelling features pretty soon for the lack of GPS to be a problem with my using an iPhone NOW.
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Um, I'm not claiming that iPhone NEEDS GPS right now. I'm saying that in the future, just about all mid- to hi-end phones will have GPS, and iPhone will get it as well someday. That said, I could picture myself getting the current iPhone, and lack of GPS is not a big deal for me at this moment. But I do think that GPS will be very important in the future.

It's like cameras in phones. People wondered "what's the point?". And now, most people insist that phone must have a camera. Sure, it' not as good as a "real" camera, but it's always with you. OVer here people use them to take quick notes in lectures for example: just take a picture of teachers notes. Pople ue them as memory-aids when going to new places: take pictures of points of interest, so you can track where you were. Things like that weren't thought about when first cameraphones were releaed, but the cameras enabled all those things. Same thing will happen with GPS.
 
Bat. looks good to me. 10 Days standby time thats better then my SE K750i
 
Padriac said:
Can somebody explain to me the day to day use of GPS in a phone?
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  • Twitter on steroids. Now you can know where all your friends are all the time.
  • GPS information embedded in the metadata of the pictures you take with your cellphone. Integrate with a photo site and Google Maps, and you have a cool Web 2.0 service. Or integrate with an automated photo album of your vacation.
  • Go out hiking, biking, or driving where you have never been. See something interesting, take a picture (and record the location), and then look it up when you get home.
  • Flying cross country and see an interesting land formation? Take a picture, record your location, and look it up when you get home.
  • Singles service. Enter your information and likes/dislikes into a service, and the map shows the general location of other singles with similar likes/dislikes in your area. Maybe add an anonymous "invite" message to the service ("Want to have a coffee at the starbucks on 3rd street?").
  • Every second record your location and then when you get home download it to your computer. You can build up a database of all your locations.
  • Record your location while running, and map your location and speed. Track peformance improvements.
 
backspinner said:
No it's not. It's more like $30 and $5 for a big antenna. And they suck batteries very fast!
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In case anyone has not answered this..(I think I am only on page 3 or 4).. I am pretty sure the GPS is normally integrated into the chipset and is not merely adding antenna.
 
Merser said:
Anyone know if Cingular will cover the iPhone with its equiptment protection plan? I know when I was looking to switch providers a year or so ago, Cingular would not offer coverage on thier line of PDA's. It was a deal breaker for me since Verizon has already replaced my Blackberry once for only $50 since i have their plan of $5.99 month.

Mind you this may have changed since then but... I have not been able to find an answer on their website and have yet to have the chance to get down to their retail store.
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If they don't (which I think they used to do via 3rd parties on smartphones) there will be plenty of companies that will sell you insurance on the iPhone at comparable rates (insurance for PDAs).
 
fluidinclusion said:
The point of GPS devices (yes, even on a phone) is that it will locate you by satellite regardless of if there is cell phone reception. I need GPS to tell me where I am away from cities. You folks in NY City, etc. Don't need it - just look at the road signs. If you're out hiking, doing field research, etc. (Yes, there are lots of us!!!), real GPS is a must.

I probably won't buy one if there's not a GPS option. Or I'll wait until there is, since the other GPS options on Mac suck so bad.
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With all due respect, if you are out hiking or doing field research, are you REALLY looking to the iPhone as a solution? I must have missed something on their commercials.

www.garmin.com
 
Random Ping said:
  • Twitter on steroids. Now you can know where all your friends are all the time.
  • GPS information embedded in the metadata of the pictures you take with your cellphone. Integrate with a photo site and Google Maps, and you have a cool Web 2.0 service. Or integrate with an automated photo album of your vacation.
  • Go out hiking, biking, or driving where you have never been. See something interesting, take a picture (and record the location), and then look it up when you get home.
  • Flying cross country and see an interesting land formation? Take a picture, record your location, and look it up when you get home.
  • Singles service. Enter your information and likes/dislikes into a service, and the map shows the general location of other singles with similar likes/dislikes in your area. Maybe add an anonymous "invite" message to the service ("Want to have a coffee at the starbucks on 3rd street?").
  • Every second record your location and then when you get home download it to your computer. You can build up a database of all your locations.
  • Record your location while running, and map your location and speed. Track peformance improvements.
Click to expand...

For some people GPS could be very useful but you all are forgetting one major thing here - will the military let us all use the satellites to their fullest function? For those of you who don't know, the sats are pretty incredible in what they can do in terms of location. I know modern commercial GPS have been hindered by limitations put on by the military. It doesn't matter how great your web apps are if it takes for ever to acquire enough sats, limited location accuracy, reduced sat signals, etc. etc.
 
gri said:
Asked once in an AT&T store - says that you will need the usual plan + additionally $60 a month for the internet access (mandatory), so depending on your minute requirements it will be >$130 and more....
:eek:
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I call BS. So you are saying an AT&T rep or CW rep quoted you a $60 data plan for the iPhone. A data plan that is double the normal Blackberry plan and maybe triple some of the other unlimited plans..

I seriously doubt this.
 
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