Thinking of buying an iPhone - Need advice

[Matty55]

Hey, I'm very very close to buying an iphone. The thing is, I have a few questions and querieas and am hoping somebody can help me, so here goes.............

1. Should I buy the 8GB or 16GB?
2. Should I buy now or will there be a new release soon?
3. If there is a release, what are the likely differences?
4. What is EDGE?
5. O2 boast 7500 wi-fi hotspots around the UK, are these free to connect to?
6. I understand that surfing the net through wi-fi/EDGE/normal GPRS is free at all times, how about abroad?

Thanks in advance for the help

Matt

 

[jimN]

to address your questions:
1. Entirely up to you. If you are likely to be watching a lot of video without being able to get back to your PC to re-sync then 16GB may be better for you. I don't really have any troubles using my 8GB but I would be sorely tempted to buy the larger model if buying now. Have you got the spare £60?

2. New release highly unlikely. Any new release will likely happen first/simultaneous with the US. They need FCC approval for new devices and therefore apple will likely pre-announce to avoid their thunder being stolen. An apple even is predicted for the end of this month, your guess is as good as mine as to what this will involve, although the Software Developer's Kit is likely.

3. No-one knows but we will almost certainly see 3G by the end of the year.

4. Sometimes called 2.5G, EDGE is a data transfer standard that is quicker than GPRS, but a good deal slower than full speed 3G (anecdotally 3G often isn't at full speed). It is faster than dial-up but not that much but the internet experience on the iPhone is very useable. You could always go into an O2 store, switch off the wi-fi and see how the speed is.

5. they are included in your contract, therefore if you are running the phone with the full O2 contract (as opposed to unlocked) then you can use these. Some of them are free to anyone anyway.

6. You have to pay to surf/call/email abroad. Unfortunately these rates appear quite high and there are stories of iPhone users who failed to turn off their email checking and therefore ran-up huge bills whilst abroad. Data roaming can be turned off.

 

[parham55]

take this with a grain of salt: two days ago a friend of a friend (i know, great source, right) that works for a cellular phone parts supplier supposedly made an interesting iphone comment. He suggested waiting until June because they have just started supplying apple with a new piece of hardware that is not currently in the iphone. Apparently he was unable to comment further on the nature of the hardware. I'm trying to find out more information and will post if it becomes available.

 

[elmo151]

go the 16. check for apples new price structure