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More Questionable iPhone Photos Pre-WWDC

soLoredd said:
Every year these pre-WWDC threads are full of great speculation, interesting ideas, and hilarious banter. Unforunately, Apple has been underwhelming of late. Maybe it is expecting too much, maybe reading these threads invites the feeling of letdown, I don't know.

Of course, 3.0 will be introduced and a few features will rely on the new iPhone. My 1G won't be able to do what I want most (MMS) so I'll be forced to upgrade. However, I once loved MMS now I've grown to be without it. Now, Apple wants me to want it again? For all it's great innovation, Apple certainly has shot themselves in the foot by taking steps with these yearly iPhone releases. I'm supposed to get giggly for voice recording? The fact that I might be able to actually use Notes and sync them to my computer is worth an upgrade? To me, these are things that should have been added in the 3G.

And, of course, Apple will announce a change in pricing structure with AT&T. We got burned by the 3G tax, now it will be something else related to the way the new iPhone will interact with the AT&T network. Another $5-$10 dollar increase in your bill to send MMS. But, you should buy this iPhone because the camera is improved and now features auto-focus. Hmmm.

I'll read the post-WWDC highlights, as always, with great anticipation and slowly be weaned down to a :confused: look on my face at the end. Oh, and one more thing...
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I guess AT&T could charge extra for MMS, but MMS is currently included in AT&T text plans. I play $30 for family unlimited texting and that includes SMS and MMS. I guess At&T could make a separate MMS plan for iPhone....who knows
 
jayducharme said:
I don't hear complaints about typical PCs looking old, even though their design hasn't changed much in nearly 20 years!
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You're right. The difference between this 1989 IBM PC and this 2009 Lenovo Ideacentre shows no progress in exterior design whatsoever.

2006_08_11_m_ibm_pc.jpg


lenovo-ideacentre-600-the-imac-killer-2009.jpg


It's just like all non-iPhone cellphones, they all look like this 20 year old Kraco:

Kraco_Cell_Phone_OLD.jpg
 
I think if the pictures were actually faked/photoshopped it would not say 16 GB on the back, but something like 32GB, even though the new line of iphones will include 16GB...think about it
 
kitch95 said:
Loving the black brushed metal FLAT back. But I much prefer the silver chrome bezel, it makes the iphone look much more classy. But I'm sure even if it dose have a black bezel it will look great in the flesh.
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Exactly.

The chrome bezel was the only part left on the iPhone exterior to convey a touch of class. All matte black screams of low-budget desperation.

575749.jpg


This is a real, American built Gibson Les Paul "Black Beauty". Glossy black, chrome and gold. It's a $5,000 guitar.

162.jpg


This is an Epiphone Les Paul "Goth". It's all matte black because this appeals to 14-year old goth kids. It's a $299 guitar.

I'll pass on the Goth-kid iPhone, thanks. If the iPhone indeed ends up looking like that, I shall henceforth refer to it as the epiPhone, since that's Gibson's subsidiary for cheap entry-level guitars like the Goth series.
 
I prefer the black bezel. I like to watch videos on my iPods and would like an all-dark front to the unit, like my 5.5G black iPod. When I watch videos on it all I see is the display, with the iPhone I could see the bezel around it.
So roll on this update. I hope it happens. Though I can imagine the black bezel will go to the low-end iPhone and the remaining high-end iPhones will keep the silver one.
 
Anuba said:
You're right. The difference between this 1989 IBM PC and this 2009 Lenovo Ideacentre shows no progress in exterior design whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Well, the Lenovo was a design response to the iMac. It and a handfull of other companies make all-in-ones. But for most PC manufacturers (*cough* Dell *cough*) the home computer is still an ugly metal and plastic box tethered to a separate monitor.
 
I wouldn't expect this model of iPhone to take the platform in some revolutionary new direction. Apple is still new to the market and is sticking with a winning formula. Incremental upgrades and new features will be how Apple builds its presence in the cell market.

People expecting 5G internet, OLED screens, HD cameras, and holographic projectors tomorrow are setting themselves up for disappointment. Or, perhaps, false outrage just for sport.
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
I doubt that Apple would go through all the effort of going to a new network. There's the hardware aspect and I'm sure there'd be a fair bit of programming involved. But you never know, this is Apple. They've always got the answer to the question nobody has asked (i.e. the G4 Cube, MBA, etc).



Sound recorder.
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Why do people always rag on the MBA, just because it's not for you, you don't have to hate on it. It must be selling well for Apple if they're still keeping it around, and we've seen the likes of Lenovo, Dell, Voodoo bring their own similar offerings so therefore there must be room in the market for similar machines.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

The exact same homescreen (with same time, battery health and Airport mode) that is on the images of that iPhone are available on Google image search if you type 'iphone 3.0 homescreen.

Clearly a FORGERY
 
LagunaSol said:
If this is real, I'm liking the matte finish on the back, but I'm not digging the monochrome bezel. Looks cheaper than the current chrome bezel. I wouldn't mind seeing a brushed metal finish. The dark bezel looks too much like the iPod touch - where's the "premium" differentiation?
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Yeah, but we're talking about the first generation iPod touch here, because the second generation touch also sports the chrome bezel and front on looks near identical to the current iPhone.

My wife, who has just been given my first gen iPod touch after I bought a second gen last weekend, is laughing because I loved the "iPhone look" and now with the "iPhone Video" they've resorted to a dark bezel more like the first iPod touch she's just inherited. Of course, the first touch had a more dark gray than black bezel, but still the design and look is very similar.

Ah well, for what it's worth, I think it's looks incredibly bland.
 
I much prefer the black trim. The chrome trim on the current iphone looks great.. until it gets scratched to hell and looks like crap. Most all of the cases on the market cover the trim anyways, just to try and keep it from getting scratched. (most times actually further scratching it) I think the black trim is a move in the right direction.
 
I call it a fake also...

The scheme of things don't look right, why this photo immerged NOW and as what some others have said, the homescreen is a rip off (see how there're 5 other screens) since everything else on the display is the same as stock images found thanks to Google. If it was a stock new phone, why would it have 5 pages??
 
sjo said:
well if you consider killer feature in the context of established "lock-in" customers, the killer feature needs to be such that it makes the customers want to upgrade. i kind of doubt "video" is such a feature - after all those customers who considered that as a killer feature wouldn't have chosen iphone in the first place, right? it might be ok for customers upgrading anyway, though.

but existing iphone user base is minuscule compared to the cellular user base so if we consider video as a killer feature in the market place as a whole, such a marketing proposition would be no go, at least outside the us. us is sometimes a little behind in the cellular gadgets, so it might be successful there.

an add "iphone, now with video!" would not do good for the apple brand in europe or in asia.
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I'm sure Apple knows more about marketing and branding than you do.
 
slippery-pete said:
I guess AT&T could charge extra for MMS, but MMS is currently included in AT&T text plans. I play $30 for family unlimited texting and that includes SMS and MMS. I guess At&T could make a separate MMS plan for iPhone....who knows
Click to expand...

The problem is most MMS is done with pictures. To this point, the attempts at video MMS have been poor and not really worth the time. If Apple figures out how to get the videos compressed enough to where sending them by MMS is not a nag, I certainly can see AT&T saying "Wait, back the truck up. You will be pushing more data through our network - the perfect reasoning why we should increase the price." And people will pay it. They know they will. I can see, literally, each new iPhone release bringing with it an increase in cost on the billing side. Next year will be 4G or whatever increase in speed, then the next year will be a new technologic advance on the OS/iPhone side, so on and so on.
 
In fairness, my mate had a Nokia phone two years ago that done video calling, and the quality was very reasonable. OK, it wasn't anything like iChat, but it was clear and fluid enough even then, so I'm not seeing what all the fuss is about over being able to make video calls.

And, if the rumours of the camera being "upgraded" to just 3.2mp are true, then the photo side of things will remain light years behind other, cheaper, more mainstream handsets.

I love the iPhone and the iPod touch, but this update does not seem worth all the massive hype and excitement when you break it down.
 
jayducharme said:
Well, the Lenovo was a design response to the iMac. It and a handfull of other companies make all-in-ones. But for most PC manufacturers (*cough* Dell *cough*) the home computer is still an ugly metal and plastic box tethered to a separate monitor.
Click to expand...
Regardless of whether they choose to deliver machines in separate boxes or retarded all-in-ones with underwhelming performance, the fact is that cosmetic changes happen all the time, and neither PCs nor Macs look anything like they looked 20 years ago.

Furthermore, we're not talking about PCs, we're talking about Apple, and the expectations on design can and should be high.

I'm happy with all of Apple's designs on the computer side, as well as the iPods. The alu iMac looks better than any iMac before it, I love the unibody MB/MBP design, the Mac Pro is sweet, the iPod lineup is better than ever, but the iPhone design seems to be going backwards. The best design was the original one, then came the iPhone 3G which looked like a poor man's original iPhone, and now it seems the new iPhone "Video" will look like a homeless guy's iPhone 3G. If the new target demographic is goth kids, then by all means, go ahead with dipping the iPhone 3G in matte black paint, but for the rest of us this design is a joke. And knowing Apple, the driving force is probably corner-cutting, not aesthetics. They're looking to save a few cents by replacing the chrome with paint, and they're probably itching to remove the charger from the package (just like they yanked away the dock that came with the original iPhone) so that you'll have to buy it separately.
 
Goona said:
Why do people always rag on the MBA, just because it's not for you, you don't have to hate on it. It must be selling well for Apple if they're still keeping it around, and we've seen the likes of Lenovo, Dell, Voodoo bring their own similar offerings so therefore there must be room in the market for similar machines.
Click to expand...

Because a good bit of people don't want to pay $1800 for an underpowered system whose specs are pretty much locked up at the factory settings. For $200 more, you could get a MBP, or for $800 less, you could get the WhiteBook, or for $500 less, you could get the base uMB.
 
Anuba said:
Regardless of whether they choose to deliver machines in separate boxes or retarded all-in-ones with underwhelming performance, the fact is that cosmetic changes happen all the time, and neither PCs nor Macs look anything like they looked 20 years ago.

Furthermore, we're not talking about PCs, we're talking about Apple, and the expectations on design can and should be high.

I'm happy with all of Apple's designs on the computer side, as well as the iPods. The alu iMac looks better than any iMac before it, I love the unibody MB/MBP design, the Mac Pro is sweet, the iPod lineup is better than ever, but the iPhone design seems to be going backwards. The best design was the original one, then came the iPhone 3G which looked like a poor man's original iPhone, and now it seems the new iPhone "Video" will look like a homeless guy's iPhone 3G. If the new target demographic is goth kids, then by all means, go ahead with dipping the iPhone 3G in matte black paint, but for the rest of us this design is a joke. And knowing Apple, the driving force is probably corner-cutting, not aesthetics. They're looking to save a few cents by replacing the chrome with paint, and they're probably itching to remove the charger from the package (just like they yanked away the dock that came with the original iPhone) so that you'll have to buy it separately.
Click to expand...

You and I have had some disagreements on here in the laptop hunters threads, but I found myself reading this post and nodding along in agreement.
 
Thunder82 said:
I much prefer the black trim. The chrome trim on the current iphone looks great.. until it gets scratched to hell and looks like crap.
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The fact that Apple can't manufacture anything where the chrome looks OK after more than 2 days of use shouldn't be held against chrome.

They could replace it with a brushed aluminium trim if the chrome is that much of a problem... as long as there's some sort of metal trim, it'll look fine. But this whole monochrome deal looks like poo. It looks like some sort of dummy iPhone you buy as a toy for your kids. It's one step closer to the cheapo look of Palm Pre, at a time when iPhone needs it the least.
WeegieMac said:
You and I have had some disagreements on here in the laptop hunters threads, but I found myself reading this post and nodding along in agreement.
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Sounds plausible -- I think I had disagreements with everyone in the laptop hunters threads. ;)
 
Keeping up appearances

As a long time Mac user, I'm thinking they have a good reason to keep the looks basically the same.

Mac designs some of the coolest looking stuff in the world. Don't just take my shonky word for it, check out all their design awards.

Part of owning a Mac or Apple product is the extra coolness points you get flashing it in public.

If the new iPhone is again/still the market leader in features/performance, it will again be a hot seller. If the looks are the same as the existing iPhones still floating around, there will appear to be a LOT of people using the new iPhone.

For non-iPhone users seeing all these iPhones about, they will likely assume them all to be the same model phone, thus increasing their confidence that it is the proverbial shiznit.

It also makes the people with older iPhones still feel cool enough to go out in public with their iPhone 2G and give little secret nods to 3G users while in Starbucks wasting their money...

As a married guy who has let himself go and also as a devout hackintosh user, I couldn't care what myself or my phone looks like, so long as the system and feature set are awesome!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Shake 'n' Bake said:
Goona said:
Why do people always rag on the MBA, just because it's not for you, you don't have to hate on it. It must be selling well for Apple if they're still keeping it around, and we've seen the likes of Lenovo, Dell, Voodoo bring their own similar offerings so therefore there must be room in the market for similar machines.
Click to expand...

Because a good bit of people don't want to pay $1800 for an underpowered system whose specs are pretty much locked up at the factory settings. For $200 more, you could get a MBP, or for $800 less, you could get the WhiteBook, or for $500 less, you could get the base uMB.
Click to expand...

That's beside the point. There's clearly a market for it and a good bit of people are willing to pay $200 less or $500/800 more for the MBA form factor.
 
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