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Pogue's iPhone Frequently Asked Questions

As Apple have found out in the past, Eye Candy isn't everything, you need substance, i.e., flexible functionality.
asphalt-proof said:
I can't believe that I am writing this, but the more I hear about this iPhone, the more I am disinclined to purchase it when it comes out. No Outlook!? That is a huge deal breaker for me. Not open to other developers?! There are several Palm programs I use FREQUENTLY that are 3rd party only. Most people that own smartphones are the same.
The more I hear about this phone the more I realize that this is NOT a smartphone and I don't think Apple has tried to hide it. Its a media phone ala LG Chocolate or SE W810i.
I assume Apple knows what they are doing and I have no doubt that it will be a huge hit. It will do what it does very well and look dead sexy while doing it. Its just not going to be in my pocket.:(
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i have been on a flash game kick and i have noticed that MANY games crash on a mac that do not crash on a PC. Flash for the mac is terribly written. bad code is to blame, but so is flash itself.

that said, i think "no flash" falls under the desire to ensure a pleasant user experience. no flash will frustrate some people...but not NEARLY as much as the PHONE crashing.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by macFanDave
Was I excited by the iPhone when Steve showed it off? Yes.

Was I prepared to buy one or two (one for the wife) and pay Cingular whatever exorbitant costs it demands to buy and use them? Yes.

If the answers to Pogue's questions are still the same in June, will I still be making this move? No . . . make that a "Hell, no!"
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Do you remind me of the surgeon from scrubs that Turk labels a 'question talker'? Yes you do... lol
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Did I see that episode of Scrubs? No.

Did I think that someone might pick up on a Donald Rumsfeld thing? Yes.

Why can't I stop talking like this? Because it is gratifying to carry on your own dialogue.

Will I ever end this post? Ye
 
Surreal said:
i have been on a flash game kick and i have noticed that MANY games crash on a mac that do not crash on a PC. Flash for the mac is terribly written. bad code is to blame, but so is flash itself.

that said, i think "no flash" falls under the desire to ensure a pleasant user experience. no flash will frustrate some people...but not NEARLY as much as the PHONE crashing.
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Hmmm it wouldn't be bothersome unless there was no plan to account for it happening. Say it uses a journaled filesystem to keep track of everything so you don't lose any data... and it automatically restarts (can't take long a few seconds at most).... worst thing that could happen is you drop a call cause you were playing a flash game while on hold or something ;-p

Now full fledged apps... they could be trouble if there's no Desktop application manager for the iPhone... how else would you get a buggy app off the device?

So until Apple announces some sort of application syncing through iTunes or whatever (not out of the question, especially for widgets at first) there won't be ANY additional apps.

Plus side, I can see a big market FOR widgets rather than full fledged apps.. you can do a lot with widgets (calculators, text editors, etc).
 
Surreal said:
i have been on a flash game kick and i have noticed that MANY games crash on a mac that do not crash on a PC. Flash for the mac is terribly written. bad code is to blame, but so is flash itself.

that said, i think "no flash" falls under the desire to ensure a pleasant user experience. no flash will frustrate some people...but not NEARLY as much as the PHONE crashing.
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Safari is more crash-prone than firefox. Firefox also has session restore which brings you back to where you were right before it crashed.

FF is also faster and my websites are optimized for it. I'm waiting for a real javascript debugger for Safari before I start really paying attention to it.
 
I think that most of the stuff that this guy brought up can, and will probably happen by the time that June rolls around. I just can't believe Apple being so stupid as to not have Outlook integration (which they never really said it did or didn't so I don't know how anyone can really know), not open office documents, and not have at least Java in the browser. Don't forget, SJ (supposedly) didn't say there would be no third party support, he just said that it would be regulated heavily by Apple, and even that could change as well by June.

I think the lack of voice dial proves that while the iPhone was ready to demo, it was not ready to sell. The hardware may be pretty much finalized, but the software definitely isn't. If it was, we'd have it now, wouldn't we?

Relax, you'll loose weight.
 
Outlook synchronization is vital for corporate use.

However, you have to believe this product that has not even been released wil evole and mature. Sit back and enjoy the ride...at the very least it will shake up every other phone manufacturer.
 
Widescreen Ipod - not anytime soon IMO

I don't think Apple will be releasing a wide screen Ipod with touch screen anytime soon - like not this year. . .There is little upside for them to do this as it would canabalize sales of the IPhone and all metrics for success will be on sales of the IPhone, not on IPods.

Existing IPods will continue to sell once they announce that no new ones will be avail until 08 - to "meet the demand for the IPhone" and when they do release them the price will be close to the Iphone, again, to reduce the impact on the IPhone.

Apple will force users to choose - "old" IPods or new IPhone if you want widescreen functionality. . .this is typical Apple and it will probably work as many/most on this board would, given the choice, opt for a widescreen IPod.
 
There are differences between the iPod market and the cell phone market that Apple is entering. Clearly, one nice thing about the Treo is the huge selection of third-party apps. I would say the software lockdown and the lack of easily removable battery may be two areas where Apple will perhaps need to make some adjustments. Although, I could see other, Apple-like solutions as well.

To wit: Apple is no slouch at software development. They could (and maybe indeed plan to) create some must-have applications for the iPhone that will be so desirable that the failure to leverage third-party mindshare will seem less of a problem. Or, they could solve the potential problems with strict quality control. As for the end of life of the battery, maybe a part of the battery exchange program could include a temporary phone to tide one over until the new battery is installed one's iPhone.

In any event, let's all keep in mind that this is an initial entry of a more advanced technology.

I'm still hoping for a non-phone version with a nice, big hard drive, wide screen, and wi-fi (there's plenty of free wi-fi in my area). Now THAT would be a must-have iPod. PDA functions and games could be included as well.
 
JavaScript support

What's far more important than supporting Java in this day and age of rich browser-based apps is to support *JavaScript*. Two different animals.

Take a look at Gmail or various yahoo web properties. None of them use Java, but they do use 1,000s of lines of JavaScript. Flash would be very nice.
 
I agree with the majority of posters here who are saying to be patient and just wait and see what Apple does. June is a long ways off and that's plenty of time to add features to the iPhone. Not including Outlook support would not be very smart... and I think Apple knows this.

The moral of this thread: Be patient. :)
 
It's articles like this one that I don't like. Nowhere did he preface the article by stating that he was working with a pre-release version of the phone. In the keynote, Jobs stated that they are working on getting as many Safari plugins working on the iPhone before release. Does anyone really think they will not have Java/Flash support??? A lot of the issues can be handled by future software upgrades as well, except the 3G support.

As far as 3rd party apps are concerned, I do not want to edit documents on this phone. It's a phone; if I want to do some bigger computer work, I'll pull out my laptop. This is meant to get you information in a quick and easy manner, not replace laptops. I would like 3rd party widget support, and their are some apps that need to be added (RSS reader, but then again maybe the mobile Safari can handle these). A iPhone NetNewsWire would be awesome!
 
blurtigo said:
I think there's a 3rd way though. You could still let developers have the freedom to develop on it, while offering a selection of all that to the general public. Similar to how the Apple site tends to highlight the better shareware and 3rd party apps.
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And similar to WHAT STEVE ACTUALLY HAS SAID.

Jeezus. For a bunch of smart people, there's a real lack of reading comprehension going on around here.
 
Warbrain said:
Such wonderful insight. Thanks.

For those that actually contribute to the conversation, the price is justified. You need to take out the price of the iPod that you're buying with the iPhone to understand it. 499-199=300. That's about right for a brand new, top of the line smartphone.
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More like 499 - 199 - 100 (for shared components) = 200
Price should be 399, an ipod needs screen, a phone needs a screen, both need a battery, both need an enclosure, those are build in into the price of separate devices, here you only get one of the two, so you should deduct like 100 for what you are not getting. At a minimum it should come down 50.
 
Not Likely.

macFanDave said:
Was I excited by the iPhone when Steve showed it off? Yes.

Was I prepared to buy one or two (one for the wife) and pay Cingular whatever exorbitant costs it demands to buy and use them? Yes.

If the answers to Pogue's questions are still the same in June, will I still be making this move? No . . . make that a "Hell, no!"
Click to expand...

Consider, the old saying, "Redmond, start your photocopiers!" which occured just about every time Apple released a new product. I believe the same could be said, about the iphone. Keep in mind that it may be another company, but as we all know, apple's level of secrecy is very high. To think that as much time that went into the design and function i.e proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, et cetera only to leave out simple software applications is premature. Every cell phone designer is taking cue of the specs involved in the iphone. If apple stated for instance "oh by the way, the iphone also has a built in projector to play your downloaded content onto a 50 ft screen" surely you could imagine nokia or some other company yelling to thier R & D "Johnson!!! I want a projector on the next KRAZR, BLAZR, PROJECTR whatever. Moreover Dave Pogue did not know the specs until it was released, Granted he is a mac advocate, even Cingular, the only carrier for the iphone did not know the final product before the release.
I say this iphone will be everything and then some, although personally I liked the name inewton. Now thats gangsta!
 
EagerDragon said:
More like 499 - 199 - 100 (for shared components) = 200
Price should be 399, an ipod needs screen, a phone needs a screen, both need a battery, both need an enclosure, those are build in into the price of separate devices, here you only get one of the two, so you should deduct like 100 for what you are not getting. At a minimum it should come down 50.
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What you're forgetting is that these devices cost very little to produce. That's why they make kids work 18 hour days in China to make them.

Your figures don't stack up because of that.

The original argument is what it costs you to have that fucntionality with you.
 
I'm sorry, but I will wait until either

a) The product is released.
b) Apple makes an official annoucement

Before getting all worked up about what features the phone has or does not have, rather than trusting the hazy recollection and guesswork of various bloggers who I've never heard of. When David Pogue says "The iPhone doesn't do X", we don't know if he means "I don't think it will do X," "The pre-release version I had didn't do X," or "Steve Jobs said it won't do X.

I mean, iTunes synchronizes Outlook contacts with iPods already - there is no way the iPhone won't.
 
Yeah... early adopters will get screwed....

I think the iPhone is a great concept and looks terrific -- but it has too many strikes against it right now. Exclusive U.S. deal with Cingular is a big one. Nobody I know likes Cingular! If US Cellular carried this phone, I'm 95% sure I'd fork over the money and use it. But Cingular is a deal-breaker for me.

But ignoring that issue, the non-replaceable battery is a big negative too. I'm actually ok with that on iPods, because they're just an entertainment device anyway. If the battery quits charging after I've gotten a year or two of good use out of it, who cares really? Just pay for the repair, buy a 3rd. party battery and struggle for 30 mins. or so to get the thing swapped out, or sell it cheap and upgrade to the latest model for $300 or less.

But on a cellphone this expensive? No way! If my battery even loses 1/2 of its original life, that means I'm missing important business calls by the end of the day - and I can't live with that! I can't live without my phone for a few days while it's sent out someplace to be serviced either!


dornoforpyros said:
I'm starting to think the iPhone is gonna kinda iStink.

Apple is on a roll right now, but let's not act like everything they do is success. Remember that whole "iPod by HP thing"? And the g4 cube?

In fact I'm calling it right now, the iPhone shall suffer the same faith as the g4 cube. Stunning design, but it just won't find success in the market place.

Although I am looking forward to the full screen iPods of the future, after apple learns from it's mistakes on this first touch screen endeavor.

/trolling :p
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acrafton said:
I don't think Apple will be releasing a wide screen Ipod with touch screen anytime soon - like not this year. . .There is little upside for them to do this as it would canabalize sales of the IPhone and all metrics for success will be on sales of the IPhone, not on IPods.

Existing IPods will continue to sell once they announce that no new ones will be avail until 08 - to "meet the demand for the IPhone" and when they do release them the price will be close to the Iphone, again, to reduce the impact on the IPhone.

Apple will force users to choose - "old" IPods or new IPhone if you want widescreen functionality. . .this is typical Apple and it will probably work as many/most on this board would, given the choice, opt for a widescreen IPod.
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I think your logic is in error. I believe Apple will indeed make a Widescreen ipod without the phone option. They now have the set-up. They will, however wait till the stores of the current ipods are low before they introduce the new product and at a time when they need a new buzz. Maybe between they give out information on the new OS and the time the phone actually appears. They have to pace themselves. Ipod people does not = iphone people. I'm a music and computer person, I don't give a crap about a new phone.
 
Hi! Im new here... my insight...

It's sad that people here in this forum doesn't realize that the iPhone is a software runned cellphone (or smartphone), that's why it doesnt have any buttons except for the home button. So, what im pointing out is that there's alot of room for software expansion and updates from Apple. Steve Jobs and Apple are trying to control the environment of the Apple because it has a complicated software and it's a risk for them and for the phone to have bugs and errors from other programs made by 3rd party companies. It might ruin all the crucial application that runs the whole thing. And also, we still have like almost 5 months of wait and we might never know if Apple has something up their sleeves that is not annouced or even demoed at the keynote. Remember that the iPhone that they showed is just a prototype. So Flash/Java support will come anytime soon, it's just one installation away so it's not that serious issue. And also they might add some support like Outlook integration, maybe Word on the cellphone or any other programs that Apple will offer. There's alot of room for expansion software wise.

About the hardware issues, well it's hard to tell that Apple will have support for updates from them but still this is a good start for Apple and their iPhone. It sucks though that you can't change or replace your battery and you have to go to the Apple store or send it for battery replacement. They should have hardware expansion program too if users wants to upgrade from EDGE to 3G connection instead of buying a new phone just for that. So the only problem with iPhone is the hardware. But still I'm gonna buy it anyways, and I'm Cingular so it's ok for me coz I can update my phone in August.

So thats it. I'm having fun at this forum and thanks to MacRumors for the updates from the keynote. I still am excited for the products that they annouced from the keynote. :)
 
Er---

zelet said:
Who pays $600 for a cell phone besides business users who are going to require Outlook integration? I was excited about this phone now I'm just disappointed. Its even worse that Apple is going to cripple the ability to add 3rd party applications. Now all the shortcomings of the phone can't be addressed by 3rd parties.

At the same time, this is Apple, and Apple makes sure they are as restrictive and proprietary as possible. You can't expect anything different from their cell phones. Plus, you are also dealing with cell phone companies - the biggest rip-off artists of all time.
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So your point would be------- or did I miss the other 12 paragraphs?
 
mdntcallr said:
it is retarded for apple to NOT Allow anyone to swap batteries on the cell phone. we need that.
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This seems strange, having to send in your lifeline (for many people) to some central depot to replace a battery. Takes days in transit alone, maybe gets stolen or lost. My mailman can't read, so I get other's mail and they get mine half the time. Might not ever see it again.:mad:

But, iPod owners, can't you just take it down to the Apple store or local computer repair place and have them replace it while u wait? Or, how hard is it really to replace an iPod battery yourself if you are a handy person?
 
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