Apple Phone In August?

[illegalprelude]

If apple could get one of the phone carriers to go with the free song plan, maybe one of the smaller ones like Alltel, they could single handedly turn Alltel into a major player. Alltel and Apple would both win.

one problem, that will never happen. Alltel does not own their network or even remotly have any form of cash to set it up. they just rent their network. Second, you can offer as much as of a cool device as you want, but its not going to cause millions of people to just dump their plans, break their contracts and switch. Mac cool-aid, down, now!

As far as Verizon goes, they used to be ahead of the game with having LG exclusive, used to be a big thing but no more and they are late on some phones but always have LG. Now, ive been with verizon with 5 years and had it from when I was in Michigan to now in Cali and their service has always been superb. Although, due to a lack of new cool phones and the stupid menue on all the phones thatlooks the same, ive been tempted to switch to Cingular, cause I love the Sony Erricson phones.

 

[ug.mac]

This is bad, I mean BAD if it's ture
I just finished with Fido and got a Razr V3c from Telus, I'm happy with it so far but if Apple really get into cell phone business I may let my GF get one of that if they won't make CDMA version and available to Canda.

 

[xPismo]

one problem, that will never happen...

Nor, methinks this iPhone shall ever happen. What would Apple gain in becoming a cell phone provider? Its a nasty market with no concensus between camps.

Sorry, its vaporware.

 

[Xander562]

Maybe the key would be to offer the IPhone for all providers, make it run
a mobile version of OS X with IChat video. I have Sprint and their music store downloads in AAC format. I have wondered if their music store is actually ITunes and they resell it as their own. Does any other carriers download in AAC?

i second this, i would only buy this is i could use it with my Verizon account.

 

[craigatkinson]

I beg to differ. I've even heard stock analysts anticipating the release of the iPhone. It's not a matter if Apple is going to release it, its a matter of when.

Nor, methinks this iPhone shall ever happen. What would Apple gain in becoming a cell phone provider? Its a nasty market with no concensus between camps.

Sorry, its vaporware.

 

[BenRoethig]

I'll believe the iPhone when I see it. It's been "just around the corner" for what, a year and a half now.

 

[Silentwave]

I can see the crafty photoshop composites now...a keypad from this funky german gadget, a display from an old star trek episode, a set of floating M&Ms stylized as hot buttons...

there we go!

wouldn't surprise me, considering they ran the entire bridge of the Enterprise NX-01 in the series Star Trek: Enterprise using PM G4 Cubes

 

[kskill]

none-touch interface on iphone?

they guy says it's the sleekest phone he's ever seen? i wonder if it incorporates this "none-touch" interface that was posted earlier in the week for the iPod. that'd be pretty awesome.

 

[jephrey]

So I thought... Would apple release a phone-only? No chance. It will most definitely have music features including wireless downloads from the iTMS (including a way to put the songs on your computer)... If this rumor is true of course.

My hope is for the phone to work on the Nextel / Sprint network not just because I have a Nextel, but because they have had time with their walkie-talkie feature, and I'd imagine that that would benefit the use of something like iChat over the phone.

Ah well, only a little over a week till the big day!

Jephrey

 

[Silentwave]

Oh I hope for these to be false, I hate cell phones and I don't want to hate an apple product. But if they did make a phone it would require the following features.

-At least 5 megapixel camera, I'd love to minimize the amount of things in my pocket by combing my camera and my cell phone ( i hate the beast but my mother makes me carry it) but there isint a camera phone good enough to actually use to take a picture other than an imac G5 in an elevator.

As a photo geek I would have to disagree with you here. I don't believe myself that the lens quality for something so small would be good enough, and I especially don't believe that the sensors @ 5mp that small would be up to it. You'd have ridiculous amounts of noise in almost any photo, and optical aberrations would be easily picked up. Pixel density would be incredible. They have trouble getting good performance out of 6mp sensors that are several times as large as the one that would be here, and lenses on those same point and shoot digital cameras often will show massive amounts of chromatic aberrations particularly around strong light sources and highlight-shadow transitions even with lenses that are many many times larger.

You would also probably not have a real zoom.

This is all speculation on my part, but based on the price points of the best point and shoots, to get decent performance out of a cell camera that small and with that much resolution, you'd have to pay a huge price tag.

 

[moot]

I will now be picturing Steve Jobs answering that phone during his Keynote in my dreams.

I cannot see it happening. I am not saying it won't be released in August but it wont be at the WWDC.

For a start, the Worldwide Developers conference is not a suitable place to release an American-centric consumer product.

Secondly, this would be big news and would require its own dedicated news conference. It would be really hyped up to all the assembled press.

Not coming at WWDC.

oh, and I hope this thing makes it international when it does finally come.

 

[Mal]

My hope is for the phone to work on the Nextel / Sprint network not just because I have a Nextel, but because they have had time with their walkie-talkie feature, and I'd imagine that that would benefit the use of something like iChat over the phone.

I can't see Apple releasing an iDEN compatible phone ever. iDEN (Nextel) is going away by 2010 supposedly, and it'll be just the CDMA and GSM networks. Apple needs to either support both (like the Treo) or stick with GSM so they don't get locked into a single carrier. Cingular's good, but I want to use it with T-Mobile too. Lots of people on Verizon or Sprint want to as well, though it'll be trickier to do that, since the carriers have to make the ESN swaps and they don't want to do that to a phone they don't sell/support (read: make money off of). I do agree that the walkie-talkie function could potentially be used, but all the big networks have a version of it, and Cingular, T-Mobile, and Verizon's are all supposed to be made compatible before too much longer, whereas Sprint/Nextel is keeping both versions of theirs exclusive, which limits it's usefulness.

jW

 

[spicyapple]

The Apple iPhone would have to be better in functionality than a Blackberry to be considered useful, unless they can work out a better input device method or utilize Microsoft's Vista speech recognition program.

 

[ravenvii]

The Apple iPhone would have to be better in functionality than a Blackberry to be considered useful, unless they can work out a better input device method or utilize Microsoft's Vista speech recognition program.

Hurray! Exactly what I'm thinking.

If Apple accomplishes this, I'll sell my Blackberry and buy Apple's phone in a flash.

But please, no speech recnogization... have you seen Microsoft's demo of their technology? Hilarious.

 

[spicyapple]

... have you seen Microsoft's demo of their technology?

Yeah.

 

[iMacZealot]

I can't see Apple releasing an iDEN compatible phone ever. iDEN (Nextel) is going away by 2010 supposedly, and it'll be just the CDMA and GSM networks. Apple needs to either support both (like the Treo) or stick with GSM so they don't get locked into a single carrier. Cingular's good, but I want to use it with T-Mobile too. Lots of people on Verizon or Sprint want to as well, though it'll be trickier to do that, since the carriers have to make the ESN swaps and they don't want to do that to a phone they don't sell/support (read: make money off of). I do agree that the walkie-talkie function could potentially be used, but all the big networks have a version of it, and Cingular, T-Mobile, and Verizon's are all supposed to be made compatible before too much longer, whereas Sprint/Nextel is keeping both versions of theirs exclusive, which limits it's usefulness.

jW

I bet that if Apple is making a phone, I would guess that they'd make it a GSM. I just see CDMA eventually going away. Sure CDMA has more subscribers (Sprint+Verizon=100M; Cingular+T-Mobile=75M) in the USA, but more in the world are GSM subscribers and I just see the norm having people carrying around their quad-band phones everywhere and working everywhere. Those are just my thoughts, though.

 

[DTphonehome]

The Apple iPhone would have to be better in functionality than a Blackberry to be considered useful, unless they can work out a better input device method or utilize Microsoft's Vista speech recognition program.

Riiiiight...Apple is going to utilize Microsoft's speech recognition...

And why "better than Blackberry"? The Blackberry is practically the perfect corporate phone...the iPhone will probably not compete in that market.

 

[Tommyg117]

If this had Verizon support, I'd be really pumped. My plan is up in 2 months!

 

[moot]

Actually what happened to the rumor about Apple making a phone for the Japanese Softbank/Vodaphone network.

https://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/05/20060512153306.shtml

Was this all speculation as well?

 

[direzz]

I dunno, i still think its a stupid idea, not to mention how expensive it will be.

 

[commonpeople]

As a photo geek I would have to disagree with you here. I don't believe myself that the lens quality for something so small would be good enough, and I especially don't believe that the sensors @ 5mp that small would be up to it. You'd have ridiculous amounts of noise in almost any photo, and optical aberrations would be easily picked up. Pixel density would be incredible. They have trouble getting good performance out of 6mp sensors that are several times as large as the one that would be here, and lenses on those same point and shoot digital cameras often will show massive amounts of chromatic aberrations particularly around strong light sources and highlight-shadow transitions even with lenses that are many many times larger.

You would also probably not have a real zoom.

This is all speculation on my part, but based on the price points of the best point and shoots, to get decent performance out of a cell camera that small and with that much resolution, you'd have to pay a huge price tag.

Given the quality (sic) of iSight, I'm not sure that Apple is going to make a camera phone that will satisfy you. Come back in 30 years and we'll see.

 

[Darrin Bell]

Me too

crap. I just got a new phone.

Same here. I just got a LG cu500 from Cingular to use as a mobile broadband modem. I have one month to return it, which is proof that Apple will come out with a G3 phone/ipod/can opener in 32 days.

 

[chasemac]

I just hope Apple doesn't trip over their own feet on this if it is true. I still want an iPod with a built-in radio.

 

[kev0476]

That is pure, Apple style right there. Of course, I don't picture this phone being a flip phones. I believe (and hope) flip phones are on their way out. They were a fad, but aren't as practical as candy bar phones. They have more moving parts that can break and take longer to answer, especially if your hands are full or you're driving your car. (All you flip-phone people out there, before you start lashing out in defense, just accept those statements as truth, because you know they are.) Nothing beats hearing your phone, looking down, and pushing a button to start talking. As far as accidently calling people, I lock my phone with the push of a button and don't have any problems.

One thing about flip phones, they don't get nearly as much screen damage, which apple is known with having some problems with. and for answering, you just flip it open, how hard is that? and flip phones can have a much larger screen. and with all those people bitching about how low the screen resolution is, it may be the way to go.

Only problem with my flip-phone, battery life is crap.

 

[yg17]

I think it's real. No signs of photoshopping and the pic was taken in an elevator