Nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever. The reports of it crashing have been covered fairly extensively too. In fact, whenever you sync up the iphone, it will send the crash logs to Apple with your permission. I have had it crash on a regular basis...having to either reset the iphone, or force close the application by holding down the home key. It isn't pretty...and is rather annoying.
Actually I don't think that's going to happen. The appeal of this phone is not trivial - it runs very deep. It's genuinely a better way to do it. I think the real problem is that it's going to be very hard to use any other phone after you get used to iPhone.
Thus far, I can say that for me, much of its appeal definitely is novelty. Certainly the interface could arguably be deemed revolutionary, but in the end, it doesn't change my workflow, it ultimately doesn't appeal to the business type because of the lack of office functionality, and it doesn't constructively make you more efficient or effective. Certainly, the phone is a joy to use, but in the end, it really is just a phone. With a gestapo like hold on third party development, and an anemic feature set (a weather widget is not something I would call a feature)...my smile might in fact be short lived. Time will tell whether Apple is going to make the same mistake it made prior with a closed system...Apple is on a roll, but the market can cure its hubris very quick if it isn't careful.
@ChiefTWiT Certainly I can agree with you, that it is a better way of "doing it", but it really does nothing new. I concur that what it does do, it does very well...but I kept looking at the home screen...with a burning feeling that there are just some glaring feature omissions on the phone...that a bottom row of icons should in fact be present.
I've been using a treo for ages, there are third-party apps that I can't imagine not having handy, and I listen to my iPod mostly in the car (through an installed player) or with the collection of speaker/players I have around the house. Nevertheless, I went into the Apple store today to check out the phone, and I'm here to report that neither I nor the helpful sales person could type in 'Laporte' successfully. (Just doing my usual in-store chat-up about podcasts, including your show, Leo.)
The iPhone is beautiful, and it does a [small] number of nice things well, but when I spend that sort of money on beautiful, it goes on my wall and not in my purse.
it's already changed my work flow. I used to hate getting phone calls. I'm now thinking of doing a lot more on the phone. I've also visited some websites today that definitely didn't have WML versions. The googlemap integration is beautiful and simple. I can say "how can I get to my friend steve's house" and "by the way, how's the traffic getting there" very easy.
There's nothing in the iPhone that you can't cobble together with a lot of little downloads and widgets and stuff. The point of the iPhone is that it's integrated very perfectly with my Mac, as if my phone is just a part of my laptop and online experience. Nothing else could possibly solve the integration issue any easier.
Sure, rev 2.0 of iPhOneSX will be welcome, just as 10.1 was a huge improvement over 10.0. But 1.0 is good enough that it got me using my phone again. That's the win.
@chiefTWiT said: "Actually I don't think that's going to happen. The appeal of this phone is not trivial - it runs very deep."
I agree; I could see that coming back in January at MacWorld. And I can see the UI fanning out to other Apple products... with further refinements and enhancements.
It's groundbreaking -- if you can just stand back and imagine ....
@cook - do you have one? I think it's hard to understand the seductive power of the iPhone until you use it for a few days. I know I didn't. As Randal pointed out, even the phone interface alone is revolutionary. It's an order of magnitude cleaner and more functional than anything out there. But, I'm sure there are people to whom it doesn't speak. It's just that it speaks to me. Really truly. And I've played with a lot of technology over the past 30 years.
@chieftwit: so do you feel that you were wrong about the interface? In your podcasts, you had said you felt that the smooth interface was the magic of film editing. Do you still feel that way?
Yeah that's one of the amazing things - for the most part it works just as smoothly as the commercials. Of course, if they tried it with Edge the 30 second spot would have taken five minutes. But the interface is fast.
Glad to hear it :) I was always puzzled by the postulation on that because the only thing I noticed that seemed slow was Safari and its rendering of pages (the checkerboards).
@chieftwit: Leo as I commented to you in the chat room on the radio show, you should have trusted in apple's track record more. I said look at the iPod that has not disappointed and has been more or less solid for 5+ years
Trust Apple's track record? Remember the Lisa. Apple ///. Newton. Emate. Eworld. Cube. I guess I just have a longer memory than you! Apple has made more than its share of mistakes.
@pccstreetcar Its hard to judge if ordinary people are going to fork out massive wads of cash for an iPhone, as it seems to only be the tech elite buying these things at the moment. But Apple have certainly priced themselves with room to move, and this thing is only going to get cheaper by the minute. But everyone seems to wants one atm, so I'd be shocked if its not a winner.
Fortunately, Apple's mistakes have been getting fewer and fewer since the return of Steve Jobs. I just read that some analysts are suggesting a 700,000 sales figure for the iPhone so far. Wow!
Man, I wanted a Newton. Spent an entire day at WWDC that year listening to the Newton track in San Jose. They announced the pricing for the dev kit at the end, and man was the entire room pissed off! I dropped any ideas I had about coding for it then.
And I really liked my Cube (and Qube2, but that's a different story). I can't stand loud computers to this day.
@thecreativelife: whether or not some of apple's devices have failed, a lot of them haven't succeeded the way apple wants them to (appleTV anyone? mac mini?)
Darn you AT&T/Cingular i have to wait another year before my contract runs out and i can buy one!! AAARRRGGGG! Yall, have fun with yours and I look forward to hearing all about it on the netcasts.
@ChiefTWit Absolutely I have one...anemic featureset...crashes and all. Like I said, kudos to Apple, it does what it does absolutely splendidly, the interface is amazing...but the feature set...hardly so. EDGE, as you stated previously as well...makes my heart break. Certainly it is cleaner...but more functional? Maybe we have a different idea of what qualifies as an increase in "functionality".
@Merlyn Please don't compare the iPhone to a Mac. I would be happy if we could have access to a few more dashboard widgets that are available on the mac, including package tracking etc. Also, if the phone itself was the impetus behind you not receiving as many phone calls...that would just tell me that your phone calls might be trite...that is a change in your lifestyle, not your workflow. My workflow has remained the same, albeit now maybe the phone related items might be a bit more enjoyable.
@Everyone Don't get me wrong, I am not dogging the iPhone whatsoever. I just don't want people overstating its effects or its purpose. It is a phone, and only a phone...but man, its a damn good phone. If you expected more, you will be sorely disappointed.
I look at the iPhone as a new platform... are there phones out there with more features... absolutely. However, throwing more & more features at a device doesn't make it more functional... at least not how I define functionality. In fact, it normally is quite the opposite IMHO. A lot of the things that I miss on the iPhone can (and hopefully will) be added down the line through software/firmware updates. The only 2 things I keep seeing complaints about that would require new hardware are 3G and GPS... neither of which are that important to me. 3G would be nice but I will take battery life over that any day... and as far as GPS I have it now in my Blackberry 8800 but never use it as I own a Nuvi 660 which is infinitely more capable than the GPS in any phone. I think that the "functionality" of the iphone as it relates to usability is a huge leap forward in this space and provides an amazing platform for future development.
Ask yourself... would you really be cutting the iPhone any amount of slack if it wasn't an apple product? I think people are being soft on it. They're reviewing it for potential and flash and design, and not what it actually does functionally right now.
@kirkk "platform" insinuates extensibility...which is not one of the iphone's strengths...at least right now. And "functionality" doesn't include interface design, although that may be a semantic debate.
@danhendricks I completely agree. The apologists for Apple do the company, and its loyal fanbase a huge disservice.
45 comments so far
I can't stop playing with it. The phone I mean. It's really growing on me.
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
The phone I mean!
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
ROFL. Leo, that's funny. The iPhone really does live up to the hype, huh?
2 years, 4 months ago by jawshy
So guys, two questions. Could you load a photo to tumblr (that might bypass the size limit?)
and second, is there anyway to form a vpn on the phone (that's what I am doing now for my email for security)
2 years, 4 months ago by kalidor
Yes, there is built-in VPN support.
2 years, 4 months ago by isani
What hype?
2 years, 4 months ago by experiment626
Apple have a phone out?
2 years, 4 months ago by Anome
Damn you Anome, I was going to use that line! hehe :D
2 years, 4 months ago by Y83ross
Apple who?
2 years, 4 months ago by hnrkhmmr
You know, the Beatles' publishing company.
2 years, 4 months ago by Anome
Nah, you know Apple, the round red/green things, like Orange, Mango ...
2 years, 4 months ago by Mahadewa
Sorry, Leo. There's no graceful way out of that one. :-)
2 years, 4 months ago by dknighton
Re VPN... it offers L2TP & PPTP
2 years, 4 months ago by kirkk
I've posted a couple of images to tumblr from my iPhone.
2 years, 4 months ago by pegibson
Question for Leo: How does the iPhone compare to your N95 ?
2 years, 4 months ago by Mahadewa
I just got to play with one a few minutes ago. Amazing User Interface. Wow. I also typed on it and didn't have a problem at all. I'm so jealous!
2 years, 4 months ago by douglaskarr
@CanWeBowlPlease That just means they're better at mass-production!
2 years, 4 months ago by jawshy
now if I could just get it to stop crashing...
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
Nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever. The reports of it crashing have been covered fairly extensively too. In fact, whenever you sync up the iphone, it will send the crash logs to Apple with your permission. I have had it crash on a regular basis...having to either reset the iphone, or force close the application by holding down the home key. It isn't pretty...and is rather annoying.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
Actually I don't think that's going to happen. The appeal of this phone is not trivial - it runs very deep. It's genuinely a better way to do it. I think the real problem is that it's going to be very hard to use any other phone after you get used to iPhone.
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
Thus far, I can say that for me, much of its appeal definitely is novelty. Certainly the interface could arguably be deemed revolutionary, but in the end, it doesn't change my workflow, it ultimately doesn't appeal to the business type because of the lack of office functionality, and it doesn't constructively make you more efficient or effective. Certainly, the phone is a joy to use, but in the end, it really is just a phone. With a gestapo like hold on third party development, and an anemic feature set (a weather widget is not something I would call a feature)...my smile might in fact be short lived. Time will tell whether Apple is going to make the same mistake it made prior with a closed system...Apple is on a roll, but the market can cure its hubris very quick if it isn't careful.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
@ChiefTWiT Certainly I can agree with you, that it is a better way of "doing it", but it really does nothing new. I concur that what it does do, it does very well...but I kept looking at the home screen...with a burning feeling that there are just some glaring feature omissions on the phone...that a bottom row of icons should in fact be present.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
So is apple juice, that doesn't mean it makes a good dinner.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
I've been using a treo for ages, there are third-party apps that I can't imagine not having handy, and I listen to my iPod mostly in the car (through an installed player) or with the collection of speaker/players I have around the house. Nevertheless, I went into the Apple store today to check out the phone, and I'm here to report that neither I nor the helpful sales person could type in 'Laporte' successfully. (Just doing my usual in-store chat-up about podcasts, including your show, Leo.)
The iPhone is beautiful, and it does a [small] number of nice things well, but when I spend that sort of money on beautiful, it goes on my wall and not in my purse.
2 years, 4 months ago by LEMills
it's already changed my work flow. I used to hate getting phone calls. I'm now thinking of doing a lot more on the phone. I've also visited some websites today that definitely didn't have WML versions. The googlemap integration is beautiful and simple. I can say "how can I get to my friend steve's house" and "by the way, how's the traffic getting there" very easy.
There's nothing in the iPhone that you can't cobble together with a lot of little downloads and widgets and stuff. The point of the iPhone is that it's integrated very perfectly with my Mac, as if my phone is just a part of my laptop and online experience. Nothing else could possibly solve the integration issue any easier.
Sure, rev 2.0 of iPhOneSX will be welcome, just as 10.1 was a huge improvement over 10.0. But 1.0 is good enough that it got me using my phone again. That's the win.
2 years, 4 months ago by merlyn
@chiefTWiT said: "Actually I don't think that's going to happen. The appeal of this phone is not trivial - it runs very deep."
I agree; I could see that coming back in January at MacWorld. And I can see the UI fanning out to other Apple products... with further refinements and enhancements.
It's groundbreaking -- if you can just stand back and imagine ....
2 years, 4 months ago by cbee
@cook - do you have one? I think it's hard to understand the seductive power of the iPhone until you use it for a few days. I know I didn't. As Randal pointed out, even the phone interface alone is revolutionary. It's an order of magnitude cleaner and more functional than anything out there. But, I'm sure there are people to whom it doesn't speak. It's just that it speaks to me. Really truly. And I've played with a lot of technology over the past 30 years.
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
@chieftwit: so do you feel that you were wrong about the interface? In your podcasts, you had said you felt that the smooth interface was the magic of film editing. Do you still feel that way?
2 years, 4 months ago by Vermyndax
Yeah that's one of the amazing things - for the most part it works just as smoothly as the commercials. Of course, if they tried it with Edge the 30 second spot would have taken five minutes. But the interface is fast.
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
Glad to hear it :) I was always puzzled by the postulation on that because the only thing I noticed that seemed slow was Safari and its rendering of pages (the checkerboards).
2 years, 4 months ago by Vermyndax
@chieftwit: Leo as I commented to you in the chat room on the radio show, you should have trusted in apple's track record more. I said look at the iPod that has not disappointed and has been more or less solid for 5+ years
2 years, 4 months ago by charholly9
Trust Apple's track record? Remember the Lisa. Apple ///. Newton. Emate. Eworld. Cube. I guess I just have a longer memory than you! Apple has made more than its share of mistakes.
2 years, 4 months ago by ChiefTWiT
@pccstreetcar Its hard to judge if ordinary people are going to fork out massive wads of cash for an iPhone, as it seems to only be the tech elite buying these things at the moment. But Apple have certainly priced themselves with room to move, and this thing is only going to get cheaper by the minute. But everyone seems to wants one atm, so I'd be shocked if its not a winner.
2 years, 4 months ago by Y83ross
Fortunately, Apple's mistakes have been getting fewer and fewer since the return of Steve Jobs. I just read that some analysts are suggesting a 700,000 sales figure for the iPhone so far. Wow!
2 years, 4 months ago by thecreativelife
And they'd have sold at least 700'001 if they released the phone in Australia! :)
2 years, 4 months ago by Y83ross
Man, I wanted a Newton. Spent an entire day at WWDC that year listening to the Newton track in San Jose. They announced the pricing for the dev kit at the end, and man was the entire room pissed off! I dropped any ideas I had about coding for it then.
And I really liked my Cube (and Qube2, but that's a different story). I can't stand loud computers to this day.
2 years, 4 months ago by MotivatedTurnip
I hope to have a better report for iPhone mobile interfacing soon........
2 years, 4 months ago by gregoryvaughn
more than half a million sold according to fifteen news sources, how soon till people travel from the US to Europe with them?
2 years, 4 months ago by warza
@thecreativelife: whether or not some of apple's devices have failed, a lot of them haven't succeeded the way apple wants them to (appleTV anyone? mac mini?)
2 years, 4 months ago by danhendricks
Darn you AT&T/Cingular i have to wait another year before my contract runs out and i can buy one!! AAARRRGGGG! Yall, have fun with yours and I look forward to hearing all about it on the netcasts.
2 years, 4 months ago by Argon52
It's a good thing that Mr. Dvorak doesn't do Jaiku! Or else he would be all over this!
2 years, 4 months ago by GeekSpeaker
@ChiefTWit Absolutely I have one...anemic featureset...crashes and all. Like I said, kudos to Apple, it does what it does absolutely splendidly, the interface is amazing...but the feature set...hardly so. EDGE, as you stated previously as well...makes my heart break. Certainly it is cleaner...but more functional? Maybe we have a different idea of what qualifies as an increase in "functionality".
@Merlyn Please don't compare the iPhone to a Mac. I would be happy if we could have access to a few more dashboard widgets that are available on the mac, including package tracking etc. Also, if the phone itself was the impetus behind you not receiving as many phone calls...that would just tell me that your phone calls might be trite...that is a change in your lifestyle, not your workflow. My workflow has remained the same, albeit now maybe the phone related items might be a bit more enjoyable.
@Everyone Don't get me wrong, I am not dogging the iPhone whatsoever. I just don't want people overstating its effects or its purpose. It is a phone, and only a phone...but man, its a damn good phone. If you expected more, you will be sorely disappointed.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook
I look at the iPhone as a new platform... are there phones out there with more features... absolutely. However, throwing more & more features at a device doesn't make it more functional... at least not how I define functionality. In fact, it normally is quite the opposite IMHO. A lot of the things that I miss on the iPhone can (and hopefully will) be added down the line through software/firmware updates. The only 2 things I keep seeing complaints about that would require new hardware are 3G and GPS... neither of which are that important to me. 3G would be nice but I will take battery life over that any day... and as far as GPS I have it now in my Blackberry 8800 but never use it as I own a Nuvi 660 which is infinitely more capable than the GPS in any phone. I think that the "functionality" of the iphone as it relates to usability is a huge leap forward in this space and provides an amazing platform for future development.
2 years, 4 months ago by kirkk
Ask yourself... would you really be cutting the iPhone any amount of slack if it wasn't an apple product? I think people are being soft on it. They're reviewing it for potential and flash and design, and not what it actually does functionally right now.
2 years, 4 months ago by danhendricks
@kirkk "platform" insinuates extensibility...which is not one of the iphone's strengths...at least right now. And "functionality" doesn't include interface design, although that may be a semantic debate.
@danhendricks I completely agree. The apologists for Apple do the company, and its loyal fanbase a huge disservice.
2 years, 4 months ago by cook