Iphone Time

[livecam]

I had a chance to play with an Iphone for about 15 minutes earlier today.  The company bought one basically to experiment with so I got a crack at it along with several others.

The phone's features all seem to work pretty much as advertised.  The web browsing experience over AT&T's edge network was on the slow side.  The phone also has built in wifi connectivity so I married it to my 802.11g access point here in the shop for a test.  Browsing seemed to happen at about the same speed both on the edge network and on local wireless.

For websites that require Adobe Flash Player there was no compatibility and no way to download a functioning flash player add-in to Safari (the browser).  Lots of websites require this so when you try to look at a flash enabled site portions of those pages will be missing.

The Ipod feature of the phone worked well with audio files displayed in a large pleasing manner.

The camera in the Iphone is a 2 megapixel device and took some very nice pictures both inside and out, the best I've seen from a phone so far.

The phones other features like a calendar, contact list, world time, etc. all seemed to work well and as advertised.

Is it worth it?  The least expensive Iphone will set you back $500 plus required activation of $36 on a minimum service commitment of about $60 a month for two years.  Do the math and you'll see that the cost of buying and operating a first generation Iphone over two years is about $1976 for the least expensive model.  The 8gb model will cost a hundred dollars more.

Do I want one?  No..I can do almost as much with my existing phone and more than make up the difference with a small laptop or PDA. 

This is a cool, fun to play with product but not one I would want to invest lots of money in.

[thegrammalady]

even if i was still working i wouldn't want all that stuff on my phone, since i'm not, i still don't. i don't even answer my house phone. if i want to talk to you, you have my cell number. my phone just makes/receives calls, posted price, $20. i got it for free. $500 for a phone, crazy i am, stupid i'm not. like calculators, the price will come way down within 2 years and they will work so much better.

[goofynina]

Thank you for your rundown on the iPhone Livecam, i was wondering if anyone had gotten one or had even seen one, i am with you grammalady, call me crazy just dont call me stupid (or late for dinner)    

[Sluff]

Don't forget to add the $1000.00 to skip in the waiting line just to get one first.

[Chicken Little]

I used to think I wouldn't use all the things on my Palm Treo, but after having access to all of it I'll never be able to go back to a regular cell phone.  I use my internet, email, calendar, address book, games, camera, GPS, music and movie player all the time.  

I keep my PD logs on an Excel spreadsheet, that I've downloaded to the Treo, so I always have my records with me.   I also track what I eat using sparkpeople.com and I can look up food values, to make better decisions, and enter them in my log while I'm out of the house.  PDA's are really great tools.  I will get an iPhone when it's available from other carriers.      

[Joe Paul]

Bad enough people use cell phones while driving, now this 
Thanks for the info livecam.

[boxman55]

bring back the 10 cent pay phone Boxmnan

[Sluff]

bring back the 10 cent pay phone Boxmnan

5 cent

[Falkenbach]

That was a detailed review livecam, thanks. They won't be available here until next year, but with their price tag, I'm not interested.

My phone is 7 years old and works fine. I've never used the WAP capabilities it has. It doesn't have any of the other extras. It's just a phone, for me.

When it's time to replace my phone, I will replace it with another very basic model. 

[Bajanne]

Forgive my stick-in-the-mudness!  But as I tell my daughter "I need a phone to be able to phone".  That's it for me.  My cellphone is not even blue tooth, whatever that it.  I have a digital camera, I have a computer. Each has its function. And I am happy to leave it at that.  I don't mind playing around with cutting edge technology, but when it comes to shelling out, nope!
My graduation gift to my daughter was a cellphone which cost nearly $400.  But for myself, $59 will do!

[BigSky]

It will be interesting to see if the hackers succeed in breaking the phone so that it can be used on other networks instead of only AT&T.

[kitkatz]

Forgive my stick-in-the-mudness!  But as I tell my daughter "I need a phone to be able to phone".  That's it for me.  My cellphone is not even blue tooth, whatever that it.  I have a digital camera, I have a computer. Each has its function. And I am happy to leave it at that.  I don't mind playing around with cutting edge technology, but when it comes to shelling out, nope!
My graduation gift to my daughter was a cellphone which cost nearly $400.  But for myself, $59 will do!

Me too. All I need is a phone that lets me call out and lets other people call me.  And I really do not care if they call me.  I feel like a polar bear that has been tagged when my phone rings when I am out.  Do I really need to be in contact with the the rest of the world 24 hours a day!