Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone First Impressions / Reviews
- Thread starter arn
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think developers may be underestimating the need for a external antenna.
I dont have a thousand sources or anything, just in general external antenna-phones get significantly better reception. I had a LG vx6100 without one, rarely could I talk inside at home. Had to go outside and freeze my ass off. Then I dropped it and it broke the LCD.
Got a Morotala somethin or other off ebay for 90 bucks shipped with a external antenna and I can talk flawlessley and much clearer all around.
Activation Trick?
This may just be coincidence but it's worked with two phones so far. We've been waiting about two hours. On a whim, I quit out of iTunes, removed the iPhone from the dock, replaced it, brought back iTunes which re-started the activation process. Five minutes later, phones were activated!
Hope this works for anyone else who is waiting.
This may just be coincidence but it's worked with two phones so far. We've been waiting about two hours. On a whim, I quit out of iTunes, removed the iPhone from the dock, replaced it, brought back iTunes which re-started the activation process. Five minutes later, phones were activated!
Hope this works for anyone else who is waiting.
i have been trying this all day and still nothing. i have to say, i am extremely pissed at this point. we are now at hour 26 with NO ACTIVATION. I call at&t and they basically tell me that there is nothing I can do other than return the phone and pay a restocking fee. it's bull. what's even more frustrating is the sheer fact that my husband, who activated his phone a good 4 hours after I tried activating mine, has been using his phone since about an hour after he went through the activation process. blows my mind. there is no way to cancel the current activation process that has been started. I just dont understand how they can build up anticipation for this product, create such hype where you have people, such as myself, waiting in line for HOURS to get this phone, and then they are not prepared to handle the demand of activations of the phones they are selling. and to not have a plan implemented for people to cancel the activation. the fact that the people at at&t are saying they cannot cancel the activation of the phone blows my mind. it makes me feel like they were only concerned with the sells of the product but not the care of the customers once they show the receipt to the guards and walk out the door with them. i'm highly pissed.
Not a bad piece of advice at all; you could even save that e-mail address in the contact info for people you regularly MMS to make it more convnient.
Are there size limitations when e-mailing photos using MMS though?
Update:
It appears it works with wpa afterall.
There should be a "user error" detected when entering invalid passwords.
Bluetooth synching with my Nissan Sentra 20007 voice-activated cellphone system went smooth.
It sounds like you didn't really want this thing.
Try going into the settings icon, try the email settings, try switching from "manual" mode.
Try going into the settings icon, try the email settings, try switching from "manual" mode.
YAY! I got it! My First Impressions...
Ok, so I got the iPhone. The Appleton, Wi store had more come in today that wern't suposed to come in until Monday. They were sold out last night so I was super pumped when I was able to cancel the online order and pick one up today.
First Impressions:
1) It's beauitful, the most gorgeous phone I have ever seen. Period.
2)The keyboard works amazingly well, I thought it would be hard to type but after about an hour of texting, it is much easier than i expected! Great great great recognition of what you are trying to type
3) AT&T has the only 50% of your minutes and such can be on a different network which sucks becuase I live where it's Cell one (dobson) and I can't/shouldn't really use it much there until next month when i go to College in Minneapolis. That is a kinda silly rule they have but it makes sense. I'm just hoping that Cellone and AT&T join forces so that 1 mobile-to-mobile with my cellone friends works and 2 I can actually use it in my town without the threat of getting kicked off the network
4) It's fricking great. Everyone needs one.
Any questions for me, just as I'll try it out on the phone.
P.S. texting is super cool when it's iChat style. Love it.
Ok, so I got the iPhone. The Appleton, Wi store had more come in today that wern't suposed to come in until Monday. They were sold out last night so I was super pumped when I was able to cancel the online order and pick one up today.
First Impressions:
1) It's beauitful, the most gorgeous phone I have ever seen. Period.
2)The keyboard works amazingly well, I thought it would be hard to type but after about an hour of texting, it is much easier than i expected! Great great great recognition of what you are trying to type
3) AT&T has the only 50% of your minutes and such can be on a different network which sucks becuase I live where it's Cell one (dobson) and I can't/shouldn't really use it much there until next month when i go to College in Minneapolis. That is a kinda silly rule they have but it makes sense. I'm just hoping that Cellone and AT&T join forces so that 1 mobile-to-mobile with my cellone friends works and 2 I can actually use it in my town without the threat of getting kicked off the network
4) It's fricking great. Everyone needs one.
Any questions for me, just as I'll try it out on the phone.
P.S. texting is super cool when it's iChat style. Love it.
keep your fingers crossed for me, please
i've been calling and asking if there was any way to reset the phone and start the activation over. i have been told NUMEROUS times.
so get this...I had been calling the 800# that itunes provides and that is in the email sent out stating that the activation needed more time. I have hit non stop walls with those people, basically telling me there was nothing they could do for me.
so I went to at&t's website and found a link "if you are having problems activating your new iphone"....."we may need additional information"...blah blah blah. i called the number. sure enough, my activation has been sitting in dead air this whole time. the agent said to me "i will push it through for manual activation, you should be in business in no more than 2 hours".
well CRAP why didn't I get any emails or alerts that there was a problem? why didn't apple or itunes or WHOEVER provide this number for activation support all along?????? I asked the guy "so you mean if I knew about this phone number last night I would have been activated immediately??" he said "yes...you certainly wouldn't have had to wait nearly 26 hours and counting".
well.....hmm...
so hopefully i will be up and running soon. we'll see...and you know i will let you know
i've been calling and asking if there was any way to reset the phone and start the activation over. i have been told NUMEROUS times.
so get this...I had been calling the 800# that itunes provides and that is in the email sent out stating that the activation needed more time. I have hit non stop walls with those people, basically telling me there was nothing they could do for me.
so I went to at&t's website and found a link "if you are having problems activating your new iphone"....."we may need additional information"...blah blah blah. i called the number. sure enough, my activation has been sitting in dead air this whole time. the agent said to me "i will push it through for manual activation, you should be in business in no more than 2 hours".
well CRAP why didn't I get any emails or alerts that there was a problem? why didn't apple or itunes or WHOEVER provide this number for activation support all along?????? I asked the guy "so you mean if I knew about this phone number last night I would have been activated immediately??" he said "yes...you certainly wouldn't have had to wait nearly 26 hours and counting".
well.....hmm...
so hopefully i will be up and running soon. we'll see...and you know i will let you know
For me, I was rather surprised at how good the keyboard was. I had been rather dubious of the whole "Trust the keyboard" (Use the force!) line Apple had been saying, but here was my experience (which was at the AT&T store using a sample iPhone before I actually bought it and showed off my typing skills):
Instead, I looked in shock a moment later as there were hardly any mistakes in what I had typed. The keyboard had corrected most of the mistakes for me.
- Try 1: Not so great. I kept making mistakes, and had to correct myself. I was starting to get worried, and irritated. I was, by the way, trying with two fingers.
- Try 2: I suppressed my pride. Usually, upon making a mistake, I must fix it right away. Well, I viciously buried that emotion, and then completely ignored the mistakes I made, thinking that I, with my fat thumbs, would then type even worse than before.
Instead, I looked in shock a moment later as there were hardly any mistakes in what I had typed. The keyboard had corrected most of the mistakes for me.
I love this thing, I swear. It was SO easy to activate (being an existing customer).
I waited at an AT&T store in Mnahttan for about 6-7hrs, I was 7th in line. They let us in 10 at a time with 7 registers open. Somehow I was first to leave however and when teh doors open and I came out, I came out to an ovation of happy folks waiting to get theirs. I dashed to my office and downloaded 10.4.10 and iTunes 7.3 (took a while for the download). Activation throuogh iTunes took about 20min or so and my phone was working 3-5min after activation process was complete.
-I have put an iPhone playlist together in iTunes with about 2GB of music so far, I've also converted some divx movies to MP4 and man, Robot Chicken ans Super Troopers on this thing is awesome.
-Cover flow is an awesome way to browse music on the device.
-EDGE is pretty usable. I have 4/5 bars in my apt and after 2 tests from Bandwidthplace.com, I'm averaging about 161kb/s.
-After a solid day of use, I am getting better at typing and navigating webpages using the pinching, etc.
-Calendaring is VERY cool. Imported all my stuff from iCal so I can see Yankees schedule, Movie Premieres, etc
-Maps are VERY cool. I went to dinner with my gf after I activated the phone and for SnG, we typed in "10011 Mexican" and the restuarant we were at was one listed, gave us NYC's MTA website for a Subway, the number of the restaurant, etc. The traffic and directions are INSANELY useful.
-All three email accounts I have imported and are working flawlessly.
I seriously think I'll make excellent use of this thing, less the stocks function.
I waited at an AT&T store in Mnahttan for about 6-7hrs, I was 7th in line. They let us in 10 at a time with 7 registers open. Somehow I was first to leave however and when teh doors open and I came out, I came out to an ovation of happy folks waiting to get theirs. I dashed to my office and downloaded 10.4.10 and iTunes 7.3 (took a while for the download). Activation throuogh iTunes took about 20min or so and my phone was working 3-5min after activation process was complete.
-I have put an iPhone playlist together in iTunes with about 2GB of music so far, I've also converted some divx movies to MP4 and man, Robot Chicken ans Super Troopers on this thing is awesome.
-Cover flow is an awesome way to browse music on the device.
-EDGE is pretty usable. I have 4/5 bars in my apt and after 2 tests from Bandwidthplace.com, I'm averaging about 161kb/s.
-After a solid day of use, I am getting better at typing and navigating webpages using the pinching, etc.
-Calendaring is VERY cool. Imported all my stuff from iCal so I can see Yankees schedule, Movie Premieres, etc
-Maps are VERY cool. I went to dinner with my gf after I activated the phone and for SnG, we typed in "10011 Mexican" and the restuarant we were at was one listed, gave us NYC's MTA website for a Subway, the number of the restaurant, etc. The traffic and directions are INSANELY useful.
-All three email accounts I have imported and are working flawlessly.
I seriously think I'll make excellent use of this thing, less the stocks function.
I love this thing, I swear. It was SO easy to activate (being an existing customer).
-I have put an iPhone playlist together in iTunes with about 2GB of music so far, I've also converted some divx movies to MP4 and man, Robot Chicken ans Super Troopers on this thing is awesome.
-Cover flow is an awesome way to browse music on the device.
-EDGE is pretty usable. I have 4/5 bars in my apt and after 2 tests from Bandwidthplace.com, I'm averaging about 161kb/s.
-After a solid day of use, I am getting better at typing and navigating webpages using the pinching, etc.
-Calendaring is VERY cool. Imported all my stuff from iCal so I can see Yankees schedule, Movie Premieres, etc
-Maps are VERY cool. I went to dinner with my gf after I activated the phone and for SnG, we typed in "10011 Mexican" and the restuarant we were at was one listed, gave us NYC's MTA website for a Subway, the number of the restaurant, etc. The traffic and directions are INSANELY useful.
-All three email accounts I have imported and are working flawlessly.
I seriously think I'll make excellent use of this thing, less the stocks function.
Just curious, what apps are people using to convert their existing videos to an iPod/iPhone capable format? On OS X and Windows?
You live in NYC and you are ordering pizza from Papa Johns????????
lol
I live in NYC too and I just ate Papa John's tonight. For 'fast food pizza', it's the best. The local pizza parlor closest to my apt is expensive and sometimes arrives colder than I would like.
I used ffmpegx, I adjusted most to 900kbps bitrate and 4:3 ratio at 29.9fps, 640x480. I added to my iTunes library and then set to Sync to iPhone. I did a manual Sync and whamo, Robot Chicken, Pablo Francisco and Super Troopers onthe iPhone. All look awesome.
So Far, So Great
I can't think of any true criticisms of the device so far. Although, after a few intensive sessions on Safari (seeing how much you can actually do) and Google Maps they began to unexpectedly crash. After a quick reboot (hold sleep button down for a few seconds to get confirmation) they are back to working order again. I hope we get a quick fix for these minor issues.
Incidentally, meebo.com is like "this close" to having a chat client that would serve nicely on iPhone for most IM account types. You can log in, receive messages but their interfaces lack of a send button is the only thing keeping you from responding. You also cannot initiate a conversation. I'll bet they'll update this fairly quick though.
I can't think of any true criticisms of the device so far. Although, after a few intensive sessions on Safari (seeing how much you can actually do) and Google Maps they began to unexpectedly crash. After a quick reboot (hold sleep button down for a few seconds to get confirmation) they are back to working order again. I hope we get a quick fix for these minor issues.
Incidentally, meebo.com is like "this close" to having a chat client that would serve nicely on iPhone for most IM account types. You can log in, receive messages but their interfaces lack of a send button is the only thing keeping you from responding. You also cannot initiate a conversation. I'll bet they'll update this fairly quick though.
Only two problems so far:
1) my house gets a spotty At&t signal.
2) Screen is beautiful except around the edges there are areas (about the same thickness as the status bar) like the LCD backlight is too strong... especially along the right edge. You can most easily see it on a black screen as whitish light, but also on a white screen it shows up as slightly yellow. It's actually pretty minor, so I would almost feel silly trying to exchange it, but I may try. Just wondering if anyone else has seen something similar. (EDIT: ok, going back and looking at it, it is really very very minor.)
(oh found a link that sorta describes it: http://web.mac.com/bluloo/iWeb/Site/Blog/BD6DEBD5-BA8E-490D-8EF2-D4B046E0B594.html)
As for impressions... definitely very cool gadget. One cool thing I hadn't seen before was when you delete a mail or photo it gets sucked down into the trash. Cool effect.
1) my house gets a spotty At&t signal.
2) Screen is beautiful except around the edges there are areas (about the same thickness as the status bar) like the LCD backlight is too strong... especially along the right edge. You can most easily see it on a black screen as whitish light, but also on a white screen it shows up as slightly yellow. It's actually pretty minor, so I would almost feel silly trying to exchange it, but I may try. Just wondering if anyone else has seen something similar. (EDIT: ok, going back and looking at it, it is really very very minor.)
(oh found a link that sorta describes it: http://web.mac.com/bluloo/iWeb/Site/Blog/BD6DEBD5-BA8E-490D-8EF2-D4B046E0B594.html)
As for impressions... definitely very cool gadget. One cool thing I hadn't seen before was when you delete a mail or photo it gets sucked down into the trash. Cool effect.
Weird, I got 7.6Mbps on my WiFi connected to my FiOS connection. That's slower than it should be, it should be at least twice that but the test I used is not rated well for connections greater than 8Mbps.
Also I believe it's pull email, not push. Push would be Blackberry-type email I believe, but I see your point. I thought it would download my mail in the background on a certain interval, but it only seems to do so when I click the Mail icon.
Just bought an 8GB! I was going to wait for the 2nd gen, going to wait for AT&T to get better in tucson (but after speaking to other ATT customers at Apple, sounds like they're much better than they used to be) - I'm so excited! When I get off work (in 3 hours ugh) I'll activate and post my lengthy insights into this amazing phone. Just hoping battery life is as good as they say, and that Apple will add full flash support in a software update
Handbrake is the best I am sure that they will release a preset for the iphone if not im sure the ipod preset will work. I know that the apple TV one does not (even when bumped down to 1500). I tried putting a movie ripped in that preset on the iphone and it wouldn't work I will be messing around with different settings this week.
This phone is great I had some trouble with my email (gmail) I had to delete about 200 messages off of the phone but now that that is done I am up to speed and I can pick and choose which ones stay on my phone. I have my mac mail client set to archive emails after downloading them from the server. I still get these messages on the iPhone even if I check mail on the phone after the message has been archived. This could be good or bad depending on the message. I am sure it will get annoying deleting mail from my comp only to have it reappear on my phone.
I had no trouble activating my phone (current ATT customer). I bought it at the King of Prussia Apple store outside of Philly, I got there around 6:30 PM and waited in line only about 20 min. walked to my car pulled out my laptop and connected to the internet via bluetooth on my blackberry. The process took about 20 min and then 30 min later my old phone stopped working and I was a go (anybody wanna buy a pearl?). My girlfriend is having activation troubles though her account is attached to her work and apparently that is a no go with the iPhone. She is going to have to separate her number from her business and pay her own bill. This is a big hit to business users and there was no warning I saw about this.
You tube is fun, the camera is better than what I had on my blackberry and on my Razor before that, maps are super useful, I wish I could get rid of the stocks icon I will never use that, call quality is stellar, visual voicemail rocks especially being able to rewind and re-listen to a message, and what I love most is it is heavy, it feels substantial not like a cheap piece of plastic. I already dropped it on the kitchen tile floor and it came away without a scratch (my pearl would have exploded and I would have spent the next 20 min. looking for my SIM). The web is great on WiFi and good (I mean it) on Edge. Edge is not for surfing but if you need a fix it will supply. The iPod is beautiful. Period. I could care less if it has IM, SMS is great for me.
The headphones are great (clear mike people cant tell and the just look like iPod headphones...
I really do hope they continue to develop apps for this baby and once they have a bunch let the user manage which apps are on the home screen even customize the order of them.
Typing is a breeze. Any person who has become quick on a treo (double thumb typing) will immediately be very decent and quick on the iPhone. My bookmarks don't make as much sense on the iphone as the do on my computer so it'll take some rearranging.
I have tons of thoughts on this phone. I you have any specific questions pm me
So far, this thing seems to have a lot of toy appeal (although I will certainly wait until the next iteration). Can it currently be plugged into a corporate context as a blackberry replacement?
it's got about as much "toy" appeal as OSX... sounds like a Windows Mobile device and dell desktop would suite you well