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AT&T Mobility CEO: 3G iPhone Coming in 'Months'

macUser2007 said:
O.K., 3G is good news, about 2 years after it became available to mobile phone users.

But what about GPS? I've been itching to trade my HTC Trinity for an iPhone, but without GPS, it just ain't cutting it.

Even though I have GPS in both my cars, I still find it very useful when I travel, and wouldn't want to be without it.

If Apple wants to woo business consumers, 3G is a must, but so is GPS. There are enough combo chips to chose from out there.

If Apple doesn't do GPS, by next year half the "free" phones will have it, and Apple will have a hard time competing, particularly in Europe and Asia.
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GPSs are a niche thing. I've lived in the same city for over 20 years. I don't own a GPS and don't need one. If i ever travel, I can find my way around, or rent a car with one.

Don't get me wrong, having a GPS is nice, but it's not a necessity that i think Apple is really trying hard to implement in the iPhone.
 
L3X said:
Don't get me wrong, having a GPS is nice, but it's not a necessity that i think Apple is really trying hard to implement in the iPhone.
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Same could be said about a camera, or internet access, or all the other stuff we don't *need*. The thing is, it's a smartphone, a gadget that is supposed to be the best phone, with most of the latest tech, and I think for its category, it should have GPS.
 
iEdd said:
Same could be said about a camera, or internet access, or all the other stuff we don't *need*. The thing is, it's a smartphone, a gadget that is supposed to be the best phone, with most of the latest tech, and I think for its category, it should have GPS.
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I think listing 'internet access' as something that's icing on the cake and not completely central to it's purpose is completely missing the point.

The iPhone is not a smartphone. It's a small, always connected computer. The phone function is almost secondary (I mean this in a very good way, of course).

I'd say GPS is low down the priorities really. However, I think that some very interesting marketing possibilities open themselves up with GPS which is why Google are interested in it for Android and possibly why Apple might include it in the next generation (also a lot of comms chips these days include GPS support as one of the functions).
 
Digging a hole are we not?!

shvartsies said:
If you're trying to be sarcastic, you don't have to be just because I'm younger than you, and it makes you feel powerful to think that my brains not devoloped enough to remember something that my cousin (who writes the friggin iphone patents) clearly.

if you weren't being sarcastic, never mind.
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BUt the funny part is after this is said...... there is this little note attached
Last edited by Rower_CPU : Yesterday at 01:11 AM. Reason: don't circumvent the profanity filter
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Smart, yes. Alas, lacking in common courtesy and sense.

And BTW, the original post stating October. If your cousin made this information available to you, and they have a non disclosure agreement, you just proved that they violated the agreement, by disclosing information to you, and could jeopardize their current position of being a financial beneficiary of Apple, Inc.
 
Still nationally locked phones?

Geez, If we'd ever get past this point. you yould figgure they would make the limitations at the gsm (country specific) chip level for exclusivity.

So where is all the "greenies" spouting about unnecessary e-waste through duplication?

this is the only reason I keep my old S&*%$Y Motorola around...:mad:
 
iEdd said:
Same could be said about a camera, or internet access, or all the other stuff we don't *need*. The thing is, it's a smartphone, a gadget that is supposed to be the best phone, with most of the latest tech, and I think for its category, it should have GPS.
Click to expand...

Agreed. What are needs are change with the times. We didn't need home computers 40 years ago.

A GPS would be a wonderful addition to a portable device. Since, if you're using a portable device, you are often mobile. And for those of us that travel, much better than always unfolding maps.
 
L3X said:
... Don't get me wrong, having a GPS is nice, but it's not a necessity that i think Apple is really trying hard to implement in the iPhone.
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A fairly large portion of smart phones coming out have on-chip GPS. It's not really much more of a niche, than using the internet at 3G speeds, or using the built-in camera, or having music on the device.

Apple is actually trying, as they have recently implemented "poor man's GPS" with the iPhone's map function. GPS is useful for things beyond traveling, such as making it easier to find things in a particular locale, such as restaurants, shops, movie theaters. Once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine not having it.

If Apple doesn't think forward, someone else will. NVIDIA is coming out with some interesting chips, there are a whole bunch of touch UIs being worked on....
 
TLewis said:
The real question is, "What will AT&T's 3G rates be?". I'd hate it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 3G plans cost more than the current EDGE ones.
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I don't know how much it has to be said: it costs nothing extra. I could already get the data plan on my 3G phone for the same price. It doesn't matter how fast it is, it's still the same thing they're charging for—bandwidth.
 
zenntench_oni said:
im going to be :mad: if its going to come out early. .
ill be :eek: if its going to come out later on like say Q3 - Q4?
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June is Q3.

netdog said:
With the exclusive AT&T deal, and as CDMA (with a few exceptions) is an American phenomenon, there will not be a CDMA iPhone at least until the AT&T contract runs out, and probably not then either.
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Exactly. Besides, when exclusivity runs out, CDMA won't even exist anymore.
 
zync said:
June is Q3.
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You sure? ;)

Jan, Feb, Mar - Q1
Apr, May, Jun - Q2
Jul, Aug, Sep - Q3
Oct, Nov, Dec - Q4

Unless you meant if it is announced in June, it will be Q3 by the time we get them, which yeah, kinda sucks. :(
 
iEdd said:
You sure? ;)

Jan, Feb, Mar - Q1
Apr, May, Jun - Q2
Jul, Aug, Sep - Q3
Oct, Nov, Dec - Q4

Unless you meant if it is announced in June, it will be Q3 by the time we get them, which yeah, kinda sucks. :(
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No, I was going by fiscal quarters. Which, I believe, is how Apple counts their quarters. Quarter 1 ended on December 29, 2007 according to this.

Oct - Dec = Q1
Jan - Mar = Q2
Apr - June = Q3
July - Sep = Q4
 
sleepingworker said:
Agreed. What are needs are change with the times. We didn't need home computers 40 years ago.

A GPS would be a wonderful addition to a portable device. Since, if you're using a portable device, you are often mobile. And for those of us that travel, much better than always unfolding maps.
Click to expand...

I bought a Garmin for a vacation on the LA/San Diego freeway system. Also had my iPhone. And an mp3 player. Tall with bluetooth. If you haven't done this, it is hard to convey how very useful the GPS is and how hard it is to integrate all this so that it operates correctly and safely.

GPS is great, not a toy, and on a phone for hiking and geocaching as well, even better.

Also, please, some more silly towers for us semi-rural folks. 3G, 8G, a simple phone call; it doesn't matter when you have no bars.
 
sleepingworker said:
Agreed. What are needs are change with the times. We didn't need home computers 40 years ago.

A GPS would be a wonderful addition to a portable device. Since, if you're using a portable device, you are often mobile. And for those of us that travel, much better than always unfolding maps.
Click to expand...

I know a lot of friends and professonals -- none of whom use GPS. Do you get lost that often? And who said the iPhone was a business phone anyway? It's meant to be a phone with a revolutionary touch interface and GUI that anyone can pick up and use.
 
kockgunner said:
I know a lot of friends and professonals -- none of whom use GPS. Do you get lost that often? And who said the iPhone was a business phone anyway? It's meant to be a phone with a revolutionary touch interface and GUI that anyone can pick up and use.
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I don't use GPS either - but I travel a lot and would enjoy using GPS if the iPhone could include it. SJ seems to love Google Maps on the iPhone so he is definitely thinking in this direction. Oh, I never said that it was a business phone - I always said it was a portable Safari device with a phone attached. ;)
 
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