[Klug-general] So, this new iPhone

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

On Wed, 2007-01-10 at 17:07 +0000, J D Freeman wrote:

> Well, apple have announced their new iPhone. 
> 
> And reaction so far seems to be that people love it and it will be a
> success (tho most of these people appear to be worshipers at the church
> of apple).
> 
> However, looking at it, its got me thinking:
> 
> - - Its not got buttons so there is no tactile feedback, you can't use the
>   phone unless you are looking at it
> - - What about when wearing gloves?
> - - That screen is likely to scratch to hell, just like the iPods.
> - - Will it withstand the abuse we put our phones through?
> - - What about battery life?

I have a smart phone.  It's an Orange MPV500 running Windows for Pocket
PC 2003 (in my defense, it's the only thing in my house apart from my
sky box that runs windows AFAIK).  It has a camera that also takes
video, a music player which plays wmv, wma or mp3, pocket word, pocket
outlook (mail client and calendar functionality anyway!), pocket excel,
internet explorer - and oh yeah, it makes phone calls too.

It sucks.

Why? The operating system crashes (once it did this and I lost
everything - my contacts, my photos, my music and my SMS messages), the
camera is only 1.5Mpx, I had to install a separate application to play
my music collection as it is all in Ogg format, I never use the word or
excel functions and I rarely use the calendar and it all fits into a
package that's only slightly smaller than the new iPhone and that won't
fit into most of my pockets, leaving me using a carry case that straps
to my belt and making me look a complete c**k.

I have decided that my next phone will require the following:

0) The ability to make calls
1) The ability to send S/MMS messages
2) Bluetooth

I already own a digital camera, a digital video camera, a portable music
player and a laptop.  If I want to go out, I don't want to take all of
these with me, just what I need.

Am I living in the past? Maybe, but until I can get a 7Mpx camera, Music
player and a fully fledged web-browser in a phone the size of my old
Moterola StarTac (still one of the best phones I ever owned!), I'll keep
everything seperate thanks.

Therefore, my verdict on the iPhone is this:

As eye-candy, it rocks.  If you like your labels or are part of the
Apple crowd, it rocks, but I won't be buying one.

My £.02,

Matt