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iPhone - Questions and Missing Features

G

godspropy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I don't want to sound unimpressed. The demo of the iPhone was amazing. At least 5 years ahead of any mobile device today. I wanted to get some thoughts off of my chest. I would by an iPhone and switch from Verizon today if I could. And, I hope that some of these items are already implemented or are implemented before the release.

1. I don't know if it was done on purpose but Steve completely left off Windows Mobile 5 Phone edition when detailing the current mobile phone scene. Granted the iPhone does them 10 times better but my XV6700 does a lot (when it works).

2. Bluetooth DUN ?? Will I be able to use the iPhone as a modem with my PC or Mac ? (I can do that with my XV6700 - with a hack)

3. The iPhone runs OSX, right? That's great. Like Steve said, it has everything he/they/I want built in. But, will I be able to take advantage of those features beyond the out-of-the-box setup? Windows Mobile is buggy and slow but it is expandable. There are many apps available for Windows Mobile: games, email, Google Maps (iPhone is not the first), Microsoft Virtual Earth, Internet Browsers, MS Money, emulators, Pocket MS Office Applications, AIM, gTalk, ... Will developers be able to develop desktop-grade applications for the iPhone?

4. I realize that the iPhone has a 4-8G drive but I would still miss external media (Mini/Micro SD). I keep a usb SD reader in my bag and often use it to transfer data from my SD card to other computers (that might not have bluetooth or when a wireless network is not available).

5. I don't use Voice Command often but I like knowing that it's there if I wanted to. I'm really surprised this was not implemented (or at least in the demo). Voice Command is one of those features that I want that is built into OSX.

Hilarious, I just grabbed my phone to see if there was anything else and it's frozen DSOD (dead screen of death). Time to reboot (nearly 2 minutes).
 
By the way Steve listed the Widgets (for now) it seems as though it will be able to have add-on software. Though it won't have the huge add-on base that Palm and/or WM have but I'd rather have solidly coded apps (even if I had to pay for them) then live with the buggy nature of Palm or WM.
 
intensionally or not, Jobs didn't give out answers to your questions, 😀 wait untill some experts get hands on it.
 
dvkid said:
By the way Steve listed the Widgets (for now) it seems as though it will be able to have add-on software. Though it won't have the huge add-on base that Palm and/or WM have but I'd rather have solidly coded apps (even if I had to pay for them) then live with the buggy nature of Palm or WM.
Click to expand...

Yes, Steve did list widgets. But, he didn't mention any way for those widgets to be installed. I'm not a big fan of widgets. In fact, I've never used the dashboard for anything more than, I wonder what that looks like. But, I do see that you could create a pretty complex application using a widget as the GUI.

This was the first public introduction of the device and it is still months from release. So, the final touches may not yet be decided. There was no mention of customization or even setup (other than changing the wallpaper). So, there may be a lot left to be discovered.

So, on the one hand I am hopeful because the entire topic was possibly merely avoided as being beyond the scope of the presentation. But on the other hand I am disappointed that there was no mention of any possibilities of expansion, new features, or plugin-ability for 3rd parties for fear that they might not exist. How would you even initiate an installation based on what was displayed? Well, maybe through Safari.

I'm sure I would feel much better about it if I had one in my hands right now!
 
Is bluetooth on the phone?

Can you install Office on the phone?

Does the phone have wifi capability?

I am confused. If it has these things, it's worth the cash.

And I think the small hard drive size is due to the fact that flash memory drives are just not that big yet?
 
godspropy said:
Yes, Steve did list widgets. But, he didn't mention any way for those widgets to be installed. I'm not a big fan of widgets. In fact, I've never used the dashboard for anything more than, I wonder what that looks like. But, I do see that you could create a pretty complex application using a widget as the GUI.

This was the first public introduction of the device and it is still months from release. So, the final touches may not yet be decided. There was no mention of customization or even setup (other than changing the wallpaper). So, there may be a lot left to be discovered.

So, on the one hand I am hopeful because the entire topic was possibly merely avoided as being beyond the scope of the presentation. But on the other hand I am disappointed that there was no mention of any possibilities of expansion, new features, or plugin-ability for 3rd parties for fear that they might not exist. How would you even initiate an installation based on what was displayed? Well, maybe through Safari.

I'm sure I would feel much better about it if I had one in my hands right now!
Click to expand...

With a fully featured web browser on board, one would assume that you could use internet applications with the iPhone. Could you not then use google's suite of internet apps - the spreadsheet calendar, etc?

Steve
 
California said:
Is bluetooth on the phone?

Can you install Office on the phone?

Does the phone have wifi capability?

I am confused. If it has these things, it's worth the cash.

And I think the small hard drive size is due to the fact that flash memory drives are just not that big yet?
Click to expand...

Bluetooth and WiFi -- YES.
Office --- He didn't say but unlikely

I think a "killer application" would be Remote Desktop. Having
the ability to run something on your computer in the office and have the display routed to your phone. But if Safari runs on the Phone there are VNC viewers that would run inside Safari. So wow, it would work.
 
California said:
Is bluetooth on the phone?

Can you install Office on the phone?

Does the phone have wifi capability?

I am confused. If it has these things, it's worth the cash.

And I think the small hard drive size is due to the fact that flash memory drives are just not that big yet?
Click to expand...

Answers:
Yes, unknown, Yes, I think its worth it, Yeah, flash is $$$. May see a silent (or not so silent) space upgrade/price cut in the next 6 months like the Macbook Pros did between Macworld and shipping. For all we know, the second batch might also have an upgrade (like the MBPs again, when they gave the 2.16 option and later, when they dropped the 1.83)


We should also consider that one of the biggest benefits of our beloved iPod has for some time been the huge third party support for it in terms of accessories.
There is no reason to think that this won't be the same for the iPhone.
Storage modules via dock connector? just a thought.
 
back_to_the_future.jpg
 
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