iPhone 3G

[andrew]

I think it's absolutely brilliant, but then again, I'm an Apple fanboy. It's not without quirks though. Software has some bugs and gets sluggish at times, could use some more things, but all in all, its pretty nice.

I tried MobileMe too, and it's a big mess, most likely due to the million people signing up with iPhones. I think it's clearing up now, but we'll see within the next few weeks.

Overall, I love it.

Thoughts? Discuss.

[Doku]

I think that it is a fairly high price to pay for a piece of bling that crashes more often than Windows does.

Note: My 6 year old Nokia that I got for free with the plan (that I spend about 40/month on) still makes and receives PHONE calls, and doesn't crash.

[JimOfferman]

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive
I fully expect it to work just as good as my other Apple gear, though.

Doku: the crash thing... that fact or opinion?

[Doku]

Jim: The crash thing meaning the reports of various bugs, various apps locking up, and the widely publicized activation problems.

Oh! And another cool feature of my 6 year old phone... I only have to charge it once every week or two. (even though I use it daily)

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Doku

The crash thing meaning the reports of various bugs, various apps locking up, and the widely publicized activation problems.

Yeah, well, I'm sure your phone had its share of start up problems too, when it was new technology six years ago... that's just the price of being new

By al means, continue to enjoy your old phone - I hope it still works six years from now! I'll have to put a reminder in my iPhone's calendar to follow up with you on that... a lot can happen in six years

cheers,
Jim.

[Dave Kaminski]

Shiny and new 'eh?

I went through three gen 1 iPhones before I went back to the Nokia 1600. Turns out I don't need all that crap on my phone after all.

[Grandiouse]

There is still a big line-up at my local Apple store - everyone waiting to get their iPhone. I don't think they were letting customers not interested in the iPhone go in without going through the line.

[TAS]

OMGEEE, I want one!!

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Grandiouse

There is still a big line-up at my local Apple store - everyone waiting to get their iPhone. I don't think they were letting customers not interested in the iPhone go in without going through the line.

Madness!

Why people are prepared to wait in line for a product that will be readily available a month from now is quite beyond me...

[Dan.Linehan]

My personal issues with the iPhone are expressed pretty well in this article. Obviously, I won't be buying one.

The New Apple Walled Garden


*cough* Open Moko *cough* HTC Touch Pro *cough*

[Jcs]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

My personal issues with the iPhone are expressed pretty well in this article. Obviously, I won't be buying one.

The New Apple Walled Garden


*cough* Open Moko *cough* HTC Touch Pro *cough*

How many people that buy phones care about the points listed in that article? That's right .

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

My personal issues with the iPhone are expressed pretty well in this article. Obviously, I won't be buying one.

The New Apple Walled Garden


*cough* Open Moko *cough* HTC Touch Pro *cough*

That article makes some pretty good points, as well as painting a picture that hasn't even come to pass, nor looks like it will anytime soon. If you are going to paint a picture of a doomsday scenario (itunes to install software on the Mac), make sure theres something to it.

I personally don't want or need an iPhone. I like to disconnect from the web for a portion of my day and carrying around a phone thats still jacked in seems counterproductive to me.

[Dan.Linehan]

Support of open source products is more principled, but it's frequently more pragmatic as well.

It comes down to this: Can I install VLC on my phone to watch a movie in iso format? No? Why not?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Support of open source products is more principled, but it's frequently more pragmatic as well.

It comes down to this: Can I install VLC on my phone to watch a movie in iso format? No? Why not?

I agree with that. My problem was with the foreboding idea that we will have to use iTunes to install programs on our Macs. Chicken Little syndrome of the highest magnitude.


I dont know, is VLC available for the iPhone yet?

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I dont know, is VLC available for the iPhone yet?

Is there a way for me to check without installing iTunes or AppStore?

[Jcs]

They want to control the experience. One of the reasons you can't develop applications to run in the background.

For example; Badly programmed application that drain the battery life while running in the background. If this is a popular app (twitter client for example), any idea how many people are gonna call support cause their iPhone battery doesn't last as long as advertised?

And the 'mainstream' customer doesn't (and shouldn't have to) know about things like a task/process manager.

Whatever they do, its clearly working. Although the MobileMe launch could have been better :P.

I dont know, is VLC available for the iPhone yet?

vlc4iPhone. Not from the AppStore though.

we will have to use iTunes to install programs on our Macs

Ha, no way . Think we can safely say that will never happen.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Jcs

vlc4iPhone. Not from the AppStore though.

Only works for jailbroken iPhones though, right?

Interview With The Creator of VLC4iPhone

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I like to disconnect from the web for a portion of my day and carrying around a phone thats still jacked in seems counterproductive to me.

That's why the thing comes with an 'off' switch.

As for the Apple walled garden article... *sigh*

To be perfectly honest, I don't care how open or closed is the software (and hardware) that I use - all that I care about is what I can do with it. There is no open source software that even comes close to the products I use daily to do my work... so I'm not really convinced that software being open is such a good thing for me.

Besides, it's a darn pretty garden

[Dan.Linehan]

Re: Pretty gardens.

Every dollar is a vote.

'Blood cell phones' worsen crisis in the Congo

iGenocide: Mass Murder, the iPhone, and You

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Is there a way for me to check without installing iTunes or AppStore?

VLC media player - Overview

Don't see one.

[Jcs]

Dan, you don't have to buy one you know . Besides, you should probably return a lot of electronic products by the looks of it.

Not that I support those practices of course.

[Brutha]

To be perfectly honest, I don't care how open or closed is the software (and hardware) that I use - all that I care about is what I can do with it. There is no open source software that even comes close to the products I use daily to do my work... so I'm not really convinced that software being open is such a good thing for me.

It's not about open source vs. closed source.
It's about whether you can plugin other software.
You can use plugins from any software company with photoshop and you can install any program (well, nearly any ) on windows.

Microsoft should be able to forbid you to run a software that they don't like. Neither should Abode forbid you to run a plugin that you like.
Apple wants the ability to forbid you from running software of their choosing.

It's not healthy to give one company the entire control over your computer.

[Niki]

I recently got myself a Neo Freerunner with the FOSS Openmoko Stack on it(linux). I have to admit, it's still buggy as hell, and battery doesn't last a day, but I love the machine. I'm sure the software will improve drastically now, because more and more Neo's being shipped.

Imagine, plug in the usb cable of your phone, fire up a terminal and SSH into you phone with network over usb.

Imagine, you want to program an app for you phone, no problem . You can use QT, GTK and even non-graphical programs that run in a terminal. Wanna do some low level stuff? No problem, order an optional debug bord that ships with additional screw drivers so you can painlesly open you phone and connect it all the way.

It lacks some stuff ok, no camera (but it's a usb host(with power) so you can plugin your own webcam :-d ) and it doesn't have 3g. If you really want 3g you can plugin a usb stick with a 3g chip.

This phone is a nice tool if you are into security. You can easily turn it into a wireless security scanner with GPS. You can use it in cooperation with a laptop to do security audits that require two wifi connections, or you can silently let it scan from within your pocket.

Hell, you can even run a webserver on it(a bit out of the purpose for the phone, but hey fun is anything right ?.)

You don't like the case ? No problem download the gpl'd CAD drawings form their website, and modify it to look like what you like!

Not recommend for non-geeky people.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Brutha

It's not about open source vs. closed source.
It's about whether you can plugin other software.
You can use plugins from any software company with photoshop and you can install any program (well, nearly any ) on windows.

Microsoft should be able to forbid you to run a software that they don't like. Neither should Abode forbid you to run a plugin that you like.
Apple wants the ability to forbid you from running software of their choosing.

It's not healthy to give one company the entire control over your computer.

Are we talking about Macs or the iPhone? They are two completely separate platforms and I don't understand how you are comparing Windows vs the iPhone as platforms.

At the same time, you have the choice not to buy the iPhone and use any of the phone platforms you want. A little bit of control over the platform has always been pert of the bargain when dealing with Apple products (in the Mac I think its an advantage, but thats a whole other thread). What this argument seems to come down to, is people wanting the iPhone platform, but wanting it in a way that never was going to happen, ever (completely open).

Theres plenty of phones that run the Symbian OS, so I dont understand all the nerd tears pouring over this. Oh wait, its cause the iPhone is popular, and the FOSS community really never has had a product really take much marketshare on the front lines, becoming a household name.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Apple wants the ability to forbid you from running software of their choosing.

Apple wants the ability to control the quality of the user experience on the iPhone - not the same thing.

It's not healthy to give one company the entire control over your computer.

I disagree. This seems to be working out pretty well for game consoles. Most cell phones on the market - especially the six year old models - are also pretty much closed systems.

"Open" doesn't necessarily mean "better".

[Niki]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

Apple wants the ability to control the quality of the user experience on the iPhone - not the same thing.

I disagree. This seems to be working out pretty well for game consoles. Most cell phones on the market - especially the six year old models - are also pretty much closed systems.

"Open" doesn't necessarily mean "better".

It's true that open doesn't mean it's better, but it doesn't mean its worse neither, and it also means that it can be made better, by the people who don't like it, and who can do something about it.

Closed doesn't mean it's superior neither. There is so much closed "crap", and even worse, nothing can be done about it.

It also doesn't mean that if one specific model is working,(closed game consoles) that other models are worse.

Apple wants to control the user experience, yes, but they also want evil overlord world domination !! (just kidding, but they do want to have a little bit too much control, and that is never gonna work(see MS))

[Jcs]

Gates is pretty rich. It didn't work out you say?

Ahwell to people who think its crap: come up with something better yourself instead of complaining about it. Cause that is never gonna work (see the many years of Microsoft bashing).

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Niki

It's true that open doesn't mean it's better, but it doesn't mean its worse neither, and it also means that it can be made better, by the people who don't like it, and who can do something about it.

That's the theory, yeah, but it doesn't always work out in practice.

I'm not against open source at all. If that's what works, then great! I love my Apache server

What I do oppose, though, is the rather short sighted train of thought that equates "open" with "good" and "closed" with "evil". Closed can be good, open can be evil.

but they do want to have a little bit too much control, and that is never gonna work

I think it works just fine.

[Brutha]

I disagree. This seems to be working out pretty well for game consoles. Most cell phones on the market - especially the six year old models - are also pretty much closed systems.

A phone will soon become more and more a multipurpose devide.

Apple wants the ability to control the quality of the user experience on the iPhone - not the same thing.

Apple wants to control everything.

Apple is also interested a lot in intellectual property protection.

You want to use the connection of the iPhone to go into the net with your laptop? I don't think that Apple will allow software that uses up traffic like that.

Are we talking about Macs or the iPhone? They are two completely separate platforms and I don't understand how you are comparing Windows vs the iPhone as platforms.

We are talking about the iPhone and smartphones more and more become real platforms.
The problem with the iPhone isn't that it's closed source but that it doesn't let you run the software you want.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Brutha

A phone will soon become more and more a multipurpose devide.

Yes, a multi purpose - that's not the same as all purpose.

Apple wants to control everything.

Nonsense! They're not some evil empire seeking to dominate us all.

Apple is also interested a lot in intellectual property protection.

As are most companies that have intellectual property to protect. I bet Steve cares about protecting his intellectual property (say the contents of his new book) as well.

The problem with the iPhone isn't that it's closed source but that it doesn't let you run the software you want.

Yet another gross overstatement. The iPhone lets you run plenty of software, just not everything and the kitchen sink.