So after a few false starts, I have an iPhone 3G that works.
The journey was a long one; at the end I grew weary and lost faith. But finally, I have a neat iPhone 3G that does cool stuff.
It started this morning at around 5:30. I woke up (though I only got like, 3 hours of sleep since I had taken a nap earlier and messed up my sleep cycle) and took a quick shower. No breakfast. Just took a vitamin water (these things are kinda good!) and a coffee granola bar for energy.
Gaurav (from Troubadour Mobile) picked Adam (also from Troubadour Mobile) and I up. We drove to the mall and saw a bunch of peeps. We also saw some officemates from CampusRoost (yes, that’s a slick mention!). They told us that the AT&T store on Liberty had like, zero people and we should go there.
When we actually got to the AT&T store, it was around 6:30ish. There were actually about 30 people in line. Apparently everyone showed up around 6:15 or so. There was a really cool line wrangler named Steve that kept everyone reasonably informed. We found out there were like, 40 phones. So we should be able to get one. Adam and Brent didn’t want to settle for white ones. Or 8GB ones. But I think eventually Adam got a black 8GB and I dunno what Brent did.
At 8am, the line started moving, and it was moving well. But then disaster struck! It seems either Apple or AT&T didn’t have the resources to take a billion people in the US all wanting iPhones at the same time (and having to activate them in the store). The activations were apparently taking around 45-50 minutes each when they should’ve taken 15 or so.
Eventually, the AT&T people let us just do most of the steps in store and then activate at home. By the time we were done, it was about 11am. I went home and tried to activate the thing for about 15 minutes. iTunes was just being bad. So I went to sleep. I woke up at around 2pm and tried to activate again. This time it worked after about 30 minutes of trying.
I’ve been loading up apps and trying them out. It’s pretty cool. My favorite so far is the PhoneSaber.
So Apple announced the Macbook Air today. I was hoping for something like a major upgrade to the Macbook Pro, but this is kinda cool, too.
It’s thin, which is really nice. I used to have a Dell 300m that was about 3 pounds. I liked it a lot for the portability; unfortunately the build quality wasn’t great and the screen developed some issues.
But basically, that’s all the Macbook Air is: a thinner Macbook with less features that costs more. Unless you’re a weakling, the benefit of having a slightly lighter computer isn’t really worth all that you’re losing. Sure, there’s stuff like the multi-touch and um… isn’t that about it?
I was totally ready to buy whatever new awesomeness Apple had ready for the Macbook Pro, but I guess I’ll forgo buying one until they do get an upgrade. At this point, I can buy a refurbished Macbook Pro for about the same price (or less) as a new Macbook Air. But I don’t really need a Macbook Pro since my normal Macbook is still chugging along nicely…
So I drove on over to the Apple Store today (it was on the way back from some other place I was driving to) and I tried out the iPhone. It’s neat! I tried out all the applications and they work fairly well. The typing is alright, but when you type words that are uncommon in the dictionary, for instance, “truong,” the keyboard kinda compensates in the wrong direction.
Besides that, the applications are pretty fun to use, but they seem a bit more jerky than the commercials would have you believe. For instance, I was using the google maps app and it took forever to download the map tiles! The zooming in and out using the multi touch was way cool, but it also seemed to lag behind a bit as well. I know it’ll take lag to move stuff around, but it was… how should I put it? Slower than I expected.
The iPhone certainly is a cool gadget. I just don’t know why it needs to be a phone. Apple’s created a pretty sweet PDA that includes a phone, which requires a subscription fee. If they had just called it the iPDA, maybe I’d be more willing to get one. That, and if they lowered the price, made it snappier, made the battery life longer, etc. I actually had one die while I was using it in the store. The battery ran out and I had to switch to another one.
Oh well, maybe in the next generation/iteration I’ll be able to afford one. And convince myself that I should pay the price for it.
The focus of today’s Macworld 2007 was definitely the iPhone. While general consensus is that the iPhone is the next killer app, I still have my doubts. Here are 4 reasons why the Apple iPhone will fail:
1. Public Acceptance:
The average person doesn’t even use the WAP browser on their phone, let alone any full blown OSX apps! What people want in a mobile phone is a phone; they don’t need all of these extras. Extra software just makes it more difficult to perform the main function of the phone: to make phone calls.
2. Price:
The price of the iPhone was announced at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB with a 2 year contract. Right now, you can get a T-Mobile MDA smartphone for $0 after rebate. The mass market is not willing to pay this much for a phone.
3. Copyright and Regulations:
There already is an iPhone out. It’s the Linksys Wireless-G Skype iPhone. I hope Apple has a lot of money or lawyers to acquire the rights to the name.
Pair this with the fact that the iPhone doesn’t have FCC approval and we might never see the iPhone get to market. How did Steve make all of those phone calls anyway?
4. Battery Life:
The iPhone runs OSX! This is great for a laptop or a desktop computer, but does a phone really need OSX? The battery life was announced as 5 hours of talk time, browsing, or video. Basically, 5 hours of active use. What happens after that? Your phone is dead and no one can call you.
People are not going to use the iPhone’s features for fear of losing their connectivity when the battery runs out.
First off, I should note that this is a payed review via reviewme.com.
Wirefly is an online store that sells cell phones and service. I think they sell service for just about every carrier, including T-Mobile, Sprint, and Alltel. Taking a quick look at Amazon.com’s mobile phone store, it looks like Alltel is not included. So I guess in that respect, Wirefly wins.
I’m actually thinking about getting a new phone, so I just “pretended” to buy a new phone at both stores. The Motorola Razr V3t immediately comes to mind as something I’d like to buy. At Wirefly, the phone is $49.99 with a $50 rebate. At Amazon.com, the phone is $24.99 with a $50 rebate and a $25 rebate. The prices after rebate are $.01 and -$50.01 for Wirefly and Amazon.com, respectively. These are both the price paid when bought with a plan.
I think Amazon.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to buying phone service online. They have a pretty good reputation and very good prices. I can’t say anything about Wirefly’s service, but it seems okay from the website. I guess the only thing I could say is that if you’re looking for Alltel service, you won’t find it at Amazon.com. Wirefly looks like a decent retailer; it just isn’t as good as Amazon.
I’d still go with Amazon in the end due to the prices and trust I have in that online retailer.
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