Cingular Ties, Several More iPhone Models? And More Details...

[blurtigo]

It was asked once before already, and I'll ask it again. "No iTunes songs as ringtones" does this mean mp3s in general, or JUST songs purchased from iTunes ??

Last time I had a Cingular phone, I was easily able to select mp3s as a ringtone ????

No one knows until it's clarified.

Depends if it's the RIAA's restriction (most likely), in which case you'd still be able to use mp3's without DRM, or if it's Cingular getting greedy because of the potential sales of this thing and wanting a slice of the ringtone action.

 

[babyj]

- now in Europe some company called O2 wants to be exlusive.
(Im in Hungary and have heard of Vodaphone and T-Mobile...whoe the ***is O2. Knowing my luck, O2 will win, and I wont have to worry about the iphone.)

Peace

dAlen

O2 is owned by Telefonica.

The suggestion is that the European exclusive will go to one company for all countries. I guess that if they don't have a presence in a certain country then they'll either arrange one or license it out to someone else.

This could actually work well for everyone in Europe, if we end up with a European wide tariff. I'm with Orange, they have a big network in France but if I use my phone there I get charged standard international rates. There is absolutely no reason at all for them to do this, except it makes them a lot of money.

 

[Sabenth]

god save my soul...never thought I would see the demise of apple as a innovative company.

cool gui interface, but wait!

- no 3rd party apps (you dont need them, because we said so!)
- no ringtones from music from itunes (so Cingular can make more by charging for lower quality ringtones? whats up?)
- now in Europe some company called O2 wants to be exlusive.
(Im in Hungary and have heard of Vodaphone and T-Mobile...whoe the ***is O2. Knowing my luck, O2 will win, and I wont have to worry about the iphone.)

dAlen

O2 Is what used to be British telecom cellnet ... I would have thought that vodaphone or tmobile would get it not o2. mind u there rates are better than vodaphone for me...

 

[ts1973]

O2 is owned by Telefonica.

The suggestion is that the European exclusive will go to one company for all countries. I guess that if they don't have a presence in a certain country then they'll either arrange one or license it out to someone else.

This could actually work well for everyone in Europe, if we end up with a European wide tariff. I'm with Orange, they have a big network in France but if I use my phone there I get charged standard international rates. There is absolutely no reason at all for them to do this, except it makes them a lot of money.

Unless SJ can change country laws, this won't happen. There are several countries in which coupling/locking of phones with one provider is forbidden. One of them is my own country.

 

[MacPhreak]

I never thought I'd say this about an Apple product, but the iPhone is DOA as far as i'm concerned. It would be very nice to have a device that is everything as Lord Steve is promoting the iPhone, but in its current state, the iPhone ain't it. If I can't add my own applications, and truely make the computer/phone/iPod mine, then it isn't worth it to me. I'd be better off with a Nano and a Blackberry or Treo. The two year lock-in to Cingular I may be able to tolerate, but the inability to do VoIP, SSH, etc., really ruins it for me. I'll be keeping my on-its-last-legs PoS Axim for a while longer, I guess. At least it runs Skype.

I was an AT&T Wireless customer, and put up with Cingular for a couple of years after the buyout. But I couldn't take it anymore, and bailed, and am now using a Net10 Prepay phone, just waiting for a decent phone & plan. Right now, for the amount that I use a phone, that's Nextel or T-Mobile. But I've been screwed by T-Mobile in the past, so I'm hesistant to sign back up.

So it was with baited breath that I read the announcement of the iPhone. I'm finally close to finishing my second graduate degree, and have a well-paying job lined up, so I am planning to splash out on a nice phone, rather than the bottom-of-the-barrel Moto I have with Net10. Too bad it's not going to be an Apple phone...

 

[randygentry]

more models = good news

"'all models' of the iPhone, including several other devices in the works"
I'll take a more simple, smaller, less expensive model. Thanks.

 

[yg17]

I hope they go with T-Mobile in the UK or other countries....because from what I've heard on HowardForums.com, phones locked to T-Mo in Europe will still work with T-Mo SIM cards in the US. And since I have T-Mo, if I could ever get my hands on an iPhone locked to European T-Mo, then I could probably use it...

 

[Trekkie]

They could have put the final nail in the zune coffin if they allowed you to buy iTunes music over the wireless connection and use your own music for ringtones. I hope the 'no ringtone' applies to iTunes purchased music only maybe.

It's stupid, but I'm sure Cingular and the RIAA wanted a piece of the pie too.

 

[peharri]

Unlocking these phones will be easier than unlocking a RAZR.
No need to worry

Your faith is touching, but factory unlocked RAZRs are easy to buy, whereas factory unlocked iPhones will almost certainly be unavailable, at least until (unless?) Apple sells them in markets that require unlocked phones be available.

 

[peharri]

After a recent DMCA update, I believe, carriers now have to make it possible to unlock their phones. Would this apply in this situation?

Nope, the importance of the decision by the copyright office has been overstated.

Carriers and manufacturers (and everyone else) can no longer sue you if you make a modification to a phone you've bought to allow it to be used with a different carrier. Previously, certain types of modification (based around reflashing the firmware) could be seen as violations of copyright.

This is a long way from saying carriers can't lock their phones, or have to help you unlock them. While some countries have laws requiring the unlocking of phones (either by default, or upon request), the US isn't one of them, and that's unlikely to change any time soon.

 

[jesteraver]

I'm gonna get the Nokia N95.

It's built-in GPS, navigation for 100 countries, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and DVD-quality video recording are more appealing. It still has a Safari-based browser and with HSDPA at 3.6 Mbit, it's connected features work at a usable speed!

I might do the same until, iPhone comes to Canada. One thing thats nice the N95 does VoIP over WiFi.

Plus the iPhone will change over the years anyways. Too bad the first one supposably wont let you use tunes for ringtones and what not. Also over the years the iPhone will change with the market hopefully. Seeing by 2012, which is around the corner almost WiMax and other stuff should be all being used around the global market.

 

[djscouserboy]

I hope they go with T-Mobile in the UK or other countries....because from what I've heard on HowardForums.com, phones locked to T-Mo in Europe will still work with T-Mo SIM cards in the US. And since I have T-Mo, if I could ever get my hands on an iPhone locked to European T-Mo, then I could probably use it...

Not so in the UK in December ... a T-Mobile (UK) RAZR did not play with my T-Mobile (US) SIM. It may be a phone specific thing but it doesn't give me any hope on the iPhone front.

 

[mac-er]

I just read on MDN that

"AT&T Inc. will rebrand its Cingular Wireless service with the AT&T name starting Monday, a move aimed at bringing together the company's newly acquired entities and services under a single moniker," Dionne Searcey reports for The Wall Street Journal."

So will the iPhone still be branded Cingular?

I doubt it. The Cingular name will be gone and a distant memory by June.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/12/news/companies/bc.att.cingular.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007011209

 

[Mac Pro 5GB]

I now doubt if the phone will say Cingular on it on the screen. I heard this morning AT&T is going to do away with the Cingular branding.

 

[Cybergypsy]

I think I will wait on this I love small phones... willl stick with what i have for now...

 

[Trekkie]

Your faith is touching, but factory unlocked RAZRs are easy to buy, whereas factory unlocked iPhones will almost certainly be unavailable, at least until (unless?) Apple sells them in markets that require unlocked phones be available.

Not to mention you'll have TWO vendors working against you unlocking it if the press reports are true. It appears both Apple and Cingular will be working on locking it.

For all we know the firmware itself will check for a cingular SIM and if it's not there, buh bye.

 

[Trekkie]

I now doubt if the phone will say Cingular on it on the screen. I heard this morning AT&T is going to do away with the Cingular branding.

Can't find the link right this second but either CNN or one of the big news sites like Pogue or something have reported the only place it'll say Cingular is on the LCD when it's connected to that network. So when they change it back to AT&T it'll probably change back but there will be no cingular branding silk screened/painted/whatever on the phone itself.

 

[mac-er]

Can't find the link right this second but either CNN or one of the big news sites like Pogue or something have reported the only place it'll say Cingular is on the LCD when it's connected to that network. So when they change it back to AT&T it'll probably change back but there will be no cingular branding silk screened/painted/whatever on the phone itself.

How about looking and reading one post above the one you quoted?

 

[aristobrat]

Apple will sell additionall widget, games etc. Also they will get royalties from every third party app they allow to run on this thing. All of this of course marketed as superb user experience.

At work I have people bringing me their fubared BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile phones all freaking day long where some 3rd party application they've installed is causing chaos. If Apple can guarantee that anything a user can add to their iPhone has been checked to not cause issues, I'd say that's a huge improvement towards a "superb user experience".

I don't use my phone enough to justify a £20+ monthly fee.

I don't think the iPhone's market is "people who really don't use their phone a lot".

- no purchasing music from the iphone from itunes, etc. etc.

It is sooo sad that Apple would sacrifice VOIP cabaility just to call it iPhone.

Both of those activities are likely to shorten the battery life significantly (based on my experience with other smartphones). What's the point of downloading 2 songs from iTunes to your iPhone or having a 30-minute VOIP call if you only have 45 minutes of battery left on your phone when you're done?

 

[Trekkie]

How about looking and reading one post above the one you quoted?

I did, and that talked about Cingular re-branding to AT&T. It didn't talk about how most mobile phone vendors put their stickers and logos all over the phone pysically too. That's what I was talking about, not that they're rebranding.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I think the lake of iTunes stuff being set as a ring tone is an apple limitation not a Cingular or at least the pressure on apple to do that is not coming from Cingular because most Cingular phones that are apple to function as a mp3 player do not have that limitation on it at all. Hell any of Cingular phones that you can transfer files on by Bluetooth of a USB connector does not have that limitation put on it.
I have a Sony Ericsson z252a and I have never paid for a ring tone on it. I just put them all on there by blue tooth from my Macbook. I use iTunes to convert the song to the 22 sec clip I want, put it on my phone and set it to ring tone. No real hoops to jump though, no tricks. Base on that and many other Cingular phones Cingular just does not care. I know my brother Samsung phone is the same way. Just move the file on there by blue tooth and set as the ring tone. Other Cingular phones that my friends have that work.
An LG phone and you can use the expand storage card to load even move on. All the Motorola phones with blue tooth. Noki phones. the only limitation really is as long as it has blue tooth or a USB connection to the computer you are good to go. It really seems like Cingular does not care about that.

Now I can see the record companies caring and putting that pressure on apple. But I do not see Cingular doing it because other wise at least some of there other phones would be limited by that.

 

[blufire]

I love that they put the keynote up as a podcast. This is awesome.. much better than the stuttering high-demand streams (IMO)

 

[ncbill]

On the EDGE network?

You do realize EDGE speeds in practice are barely better than dial-up?

I bet they went with EDGE to keep down the monthly fee.

True broadband access over cellular would probably double the monthly fee ($60/month w/ a voice plan for Verizon EVDO).

Not to mention there is currently much less GSM than CDMA broadband coverage (EVDO is available here in a city <150,000 population)

>Portable Internet access without Wi-Fi

 

[lmalave]

iPhone nano?

I'm excited to hear that other models will be coming fairly rapidly. I think a smaller form factor with simplified functionality makes sense. I'd settle for a phone that just had the basic phone functionality along with the new touch-screen music player interface, visual voice mail, threaded SMS, etc. I mean, the web browsing looked cool, but I can live without it. I'd settle for having Opera mini on it (if they open up the phone to Java). And in terms of text input for emails or SMS - I can live without the onscreen qwerty keyboard. Maybe for the iPhone nano they just have a regular on-screen numeric keypad with predictive text input - I'd be happy with that.

 

[uNext]

Apple is taking additional efforts to prevent the unlocking of the phones

This is apple giving the "i dont care about the world" finger to its loyal fans.

This phone is so crippled i can name 4-5 phones that are really worth 499-599

I will pass as more information gets leaked that steve did not disclose during his 2hr presenation this is coming out to be more more less attractive.