Just Sharing: Gadgets Killed By The iPhone

[ViViDboarder]

I was referring specifically to those saying that the iPhone can replace all these devices

Phones like the Motorola Zine ZN5 , and sony k850i have amazing optics and are slowly getting close... but the iPhone is worthless for pictures


Oh hey look i can take a picture of a beer, that is one foot away from me... standing still, in a well lit area

even still your picture is grainy and not that well focused.

A camera's goal is to capture a moment. Sure sometimes its a picture of some delicious beer, other times though its a picture of your friend tackling your other friend ( see below).

It's not the best camera. Nobody is claiming that. It's near rubbish. Still, I don't hardly cary a digicam around because it works and is really easy. I do have one though, so it's not phased it out totally yet. I have a point and shoot (not a cheap one, it's a cannon powershot) and I use it when I'm going sight seeing, but I don't have to cary it around all the time because of my phone's camera.

Also, I don't know of a bar that's well-lit. It was fairly dark, the phone compensated by changing the aperture. This also makes things blurry if you're not careful. It is conceivable that these phone cams will get better and phase point and shoots totally out.

 

[9822679]

hmmm i think that maybe we're on the same boat, but on different sides of the camera debate

to be honest I think that pagers, are not going to die for a while for people who use them

At our hospital pager are still used because of

- Reliability, one reason is that the FCC allows for much higher burst signals in pagers than in cell phones, ie higher power.
- cheaper
- cell phones cause interference with medical equipment
- I've had pager batteries last me months

 

[Tenorsaw]

It's not the best camera. Nobody is claiming that. It's near rubbish. Still, I don't hardly cary a digicam around because it works and is really easy. I do have one though, so it's not phased it out totally yet. I have a point and shoot (not a cheap one, it's a cannon powershot) and I use it when I'm going sight seeing, but I don't have to cary it around all the time because of my phone's camera.

Also, I don't know of a bar that's well-lit. It was fairly dark, the phone compensated by changing the aperture. This also makes things blurry if you're not careful. It is conceivable that these phone cams will get better and phase point and shoots totally out.

I agree. Just like phones taking over the MP3 market, I can see the cameras improving and eventually taking over the point and shoot market. It may not be next year or the year after, but eventually it will happen.

 

[Michael CM1]

It's not the best camera. Nobody is claiming that. It's near rubbish. Still, I don't hardly cary a digicam around because it works and is really easy. I do have one though, so it's not phased it out totally yet. I have a point and shoot (not a cheap one, it's a cannon powershot) and I use it when I'm going sight seeing, but I don't have to cary it around all the time because of my phone's camera.

Also, I don't know of a bar that's well-lit. It was fairly dark, the phone compensated by changing the aperture. This also makes things blurry if you're not careful. It is conceivable that these phone cams will get better and phase point and shoots totally out.

I'm also not claiming that the iPhone camera takes pictures as good as cheap digital cameras. But I'm not going to carry around an ultra-cheap camera with me for the "well, since I've got a camera..." pictures that I take with my phone. You have to admit that cell phone cameras are killing the disposable cameras that a lot of people used from time to time about 5 years ago.

You also won't find me claiming that 2MP camera = another 2MP camera. I know this stat is about as reliable as just looking at the CPU clock speed on a computer. There's a helluva lot more inside. But a lot of dumb people out there just see "ooh, more megapixels" and will buy the 28 megapixel camera even though the rest of it is crap.

The iPhone camera needs to get better, and it eventually will. But my point was that it replaces cheapos because it's a part of your phone. I'm not going to tuck any camera in my pocket and carry it around. Same deal with my previous iPod. But now that it's all in my phone, I've always got it. Best technology doesn't always win out (from what I've heard, see Betamax vs. VHS).

 

[troublesomekila]

I dont think a cellphone will kill a Laptop, or books. My mom did get rid of our landline because we never used it once we got cellphones, and I hate calling landlines.

 

[spikedfo]

The camera and books would not be replaced by iphone.

 

[milani]

Dr. Cabrera, why are you going on a tirade? The article is absolutely right about the camera. Nowhere did the article or anyone else say the iPhone was a better camera, but the fact that everyone has a camera right on their phone means it's ubiquitous, and since most people don't carry a conventional camera around, for the vast majority of the regular public it has undoubtedly replaced the pocket camera as the most used. Nothing really to debate about it - I don't disagree with you that the camera sucks, and that people ought to take pictures with better cameras, but for the sake of convenience the cellphone camera has become the choice most opted for.

 

[9822679]

Dr. Cabrera, why are you going on a tirade? The article is absolutely right about the camera. Nowhere did the article or anyone else say the iPhone was a better camera, but the fact that everyone has a camera right on their phone means it's ubiquitous, and since most people don't carry a conventional camera around, for the vast majority of the regular public it has undoubtedly replaced the pocket camera as the most used. Nothing really to debate about it - I don't disagree with you that the camera sucks, and that people ought to take pictures with better cameras, but for the sake of convenience the cellphone camera has become the choice most opted for.

Previous posts edited for tirade-ness ( there's no point in arguing on the intrawebs )

 

[kas23]

Don't most doctors have cellphones? Why wouldn't they just send SMS to them instead of paging? Seems archaic.

Pagers may seem archaic, but they are very cheap and very reliable. We don't carry around cell phones in our hospital because we wouldn't likely get a signal in some places. My pager has always gone off, no matter what. And like someone else has pointed out too, you don't ever have to recharge a pager (you just throw new batteries in). Additionally, I would never want someone calling me on my personal phone about something work-related. So, if we were to have phones, it would be in addition to our own personal phones. And whose going to pay for a cell and its plan? I know of not one hospital that gives out cell phones for this very reason. That would be crazy expensive.

I was at one place that gave us text pagers. Those were awesome. We would just chat back-and-forth to each other on them - usually about non-work stuff. Sending each other joke pages. The department would get mad at us because they had to pay for each letter we would write on them.

 

[Rybold]

The Tablet PC. I couldn't fit it into my pocket. Now I have an iPhone!

But, I still want an Apple tablet PC, even though it won't fit in my pocket.

 

[kas23]

The Tablet PC. I couldn't fit it into my pocket. Now I have an iPhone!

But, I still want an Apple tablet PC, even though it won't fit in my pocket.

Damn, I thought that was an Etch-A-Sketch for a moment. Just another device killed by the iPhone.

 

[markgamber]

Really? I don't think I know anyone that has a landline anymore except for my parents and maybe a couple of my relatives above the age of 55 or so. I cut the wire in 2003 and went cell only back then. I'm surprised you don't see this around you.

No one trusts cell carriers around here. They go down more often than Paris Hilton when she wasn't beef jerky. If someone broke into my house, I'd make the extra run for the house phone before I relied on AT&T to actually be there when I needed it.

The camera item was technically incorrect, the iPhone isn't killing "the camera" any time soon, but it's practically correct because the best camera IS the one you have with you. On an average day when I'm out, if something notable happens, chances are I'm taking the picture with the iPhone. Even when I do have my $800 Nikon with me, I STILL take pictures with the iPhone because I can immediately post them for others to see. So yeah, this item was more needless bull than fact but so were most of the replies.

BTW, it's not hard to make a UMPC with OS X. There are a number of articles about how to install OS X on a EEE PC and so on. I haven't tried it, personally, because I have a Samsung Q1 which doesn't like OS X and I'm not buying a new one any time soon, but it can be done.

 

[tys]

Just speaking for myself, there are many gadgets I no longer use since getting my iPhone:

My old mobile phone. (I haven't had a landline in 5 years)
My Laptop (I actually still use it occasionally at home, but no longer for travel)
notepad/address book.
camera
iPod
calculator
pocket medication guidebook
pocket Portuguese dictionary
road maps
bicycle speedometer
wristwatch
magazines I used to carry around in case I get bored
I no longer carry around pocket video games like when I was a kid, but I can now play some of those very same games on my iPhone
Unfortunately I'm required to carry an old-fashioned pager for work, but my iPhone could easily replace that as well.
I do use the iPhone to text-page my coworkers. Instead of paging them to my number and waiting for them call back, I just write what I need to say.
With tethering, I suppose I could even lose my home internet service.

Definitely a worthwhile device for me!

tys

 

[milani]

Previous posts edited for tirade-ness ( there's no point in arguing on the intrawebs )

Sorry didn't mean to attack you either. I was just tired after having spent all day and night writing papers. I think that reply of mine was made at like 2AM my time LOL!

 

[fleshman03]

Sorry didn't mean to attack you either. I was just tired after having spent all day and night writing papers. I think that reply of mine was made at like 2AM my time LOL!

Lol. Don't want to go more than 12 hours without MacRumors? I'm the same way.

I think it would have been a better article if they had said iPhone/Cell Phone.


I gave up a wrist watch when I got my first cell.

PDA was killed by a cell/iPhone. Who needs that when I have iCal?

Navigation will get better and eventually can replace a in car system.

Same with a Camera. It'll get there. (Hopefully in our lifetime.)

iPhone is an MP3 player, but they were talking about a stand alone MP3. How does the Audio Chipset in the iPhone stack up against the iPod Classic? I think there is a difference between my week 1 iPod Touch and my 5g iPod.

I know people who use an iPod Touch/iPhone as a netbook of sorts. This person don't have a computer and uses it to check course work online. This is something I would never do, if I had a laptop.

If you count in Apps, the iPhone can kill the etch-a-sketch.

 

[Rybold]

Damn, I thought that was an Etch-A-Sketch for a moment. Just another device killed by the iPhone.

Would you trade-in your iPhone for an Etch-A-Sketch if it had a built in phone?
I know, it would be a tough decision, wouldn't it?

 

[articlegenesis]

Thank you for sharing useful information.We want you to come up with advanced information so that will be helpful to everyone.

 

[Michael CM1]

TYS, you're not going to ditch your home Internet service with tethering. They're not going to let people use the amount of bandwidth that most of us use a DSL or cable connection for. Download 2 albums from iTunes in the same day and AT&T will probably send the men in white coats to drag you away.

 

[PowerFullMac]

I agree with all of those except the laptop one, laptops wont be replaced by phones. I like using my iPhone 3G for stuff but when it comes to typing I'm always releived to be back to my MacBook.

EDIT: Also my landline is still used quite frequently.

 

[kas23]

Would you trade-in your iPhone for an Etch-A-Sketch if it had a built in phone?
I know, it would be a tough decision, wouldn't it?

Only if it had MMS, c/p, and the ability to natively download and view documents.

 

[japanime]

Just speaking for myself, there are many gadgets I no longer use since getting my iPhone:

bicycle speedometer

tys

I'm very interested in this one. I'd love to use an iPhone rather than a "dedicated" unit such as a Garmin.

What app do you use to calculate your speed, and how do you mount the iPhone to your bike?

 

[milani]

Lol. Don't want to go more than 12 hours without MacRumors? I'm the same way.

Well it's more like I can't stay away (regardless of whether I want to or not), haha.