iPhone - WTF?

What's the big deal over this thing? It's just a phone with below average
features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'.
It's got a non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited
support for media formats, no front camera for video calling, no option to
increase memory capacity via SD cards etc....
So it's basically a heap of **** phone with a glitzy UI.

I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the
Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are expected
to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in this case it
looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is going on here?

--
Kwyj.

---

› See More: iPhone - WTF?

On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:46:45 +1000, Kwyjibo wrote:

> What's the big deal over this thing? It's just a phone with below
> average features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'. It's got a
> non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited support for
> media formats, no front camera for video calling, no option to increase
> memory capacity via SD cards etc.... So it's basically a heap of ****
> phone with a glitzy UI.
>
> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the
> Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
> specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are
> expected to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in
> this case it looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is
> going on here?

I agree, to some extent. I do like the touchscreen idea, however
(assuming it works well, unlike most touchscreens I've ever encountered).

I also like the large-size screen. Perfect for watching videos on a
rainy day.

But I've decided against the iPhone personally (perhaps for the kids),
and will be going for the N95 8GB.

PS: Comparative. HTH.

PPS: 3 has suddenly decided to make the standard N95 *MORE* expensive
than the N95 8GB. The 8GB has a $14 handset payment on the $29 cap, and
the standard model has an $18 payment. Weirdos.

On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:41:26 +0000, Horry wrote:

> On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:46:45 +1000, Kwyjibo wrote:
>
>> What's the big deal over this thing? It's just a phone with below
>> average features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'. It's got a
>> non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited support for
>> media formats, no front camera for video calling, no option to increase
>> memory capacity via SD cards etc.... So it's basically a heap of ****
>> phone with a glitzy UI.
>>
>> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype
>> the Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
>> specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are
>> expected to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in
>> this case it looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is
>> going on here?
>
> I agree, to some extent. I do like the touchscreen idea, however
> (assuming it works well, unlike most touchscreens I've ever
> encountered).
>
> I also like the large-size screen. Perfect for watching videos on a
> rainy day.
>
> But I've decided against the iPhone personally (perhaps for the kids),
> and will be going for the N95 8GB.
>
> PS: Comparative. HTH.
>
> PPS: 3 has suddenly decided to make the standard N95 *MORE* expensive
> than the N95 8GB. The 8GB has a $14 handset payment on the $29 cap, and
> the standard model has an $18 payment. Weirdos.

Sorry, the 8GB's handset payment is only $10 vs. $18 for the standard.

Horry <[email protected]> wrote
> Kwyjibo wrote

>> What's the big deal over this thing? It's just a phone with below
>> average features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'. It's got
>> a non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited
>> support for media formats, no front camera for video calling,
>> no option to increase memory capacity via SD cards etc....
>> So it's basically a heap of **** phone with a glitzy UI.

>> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype
>> the Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
>> specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are
>> expected to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in
>> this case it looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF
>> is going on here?

> I agree, to some extent. I do like the touchscreen idea, however (assuming
> it works well, unlike most touchscreens I've ever encountered).

The tomtoms work fine. I'd never go back to non touchscreen again voluntarily, for a GPS.

> I also like the large-size screen. Perfect for watching videos on a rainy day.

Dunno, bit small for me. And the N95 and iphone cant play videos effortlessly
like a wifi laptop can, playing the dvr-ms file that the PVR produces over the
wifi into the device, so you dont have to copy it to the device first. And neither
of them will play dvr-ms files directly out of the box, you have to transcode them
into something else they will play out of the box or find a dvr-ms viewer for them.
Thats likely feasible for the N95 but likely not with the iphone which is much more
restricted about what apps you can run on it.

They should support podcasts tho.

> But I've decided against the iPhone personally (perhaps for the kids),
> and will be going for the N95 8GB.

Kwyjibo <[email protected]> wrote

> What's the big deal over this thing?

Its got some rather innovative ideas, and some massive limitations.

> It's just a phone with below average features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'.

It does have some stuff that others dont have, for example a
sensor that can work out when you have held it sideways so
it can switch the screen display auto.

> It's got a non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited support for media formats, no front camera for
> video calling, no option to increase memory capacity via SD cards etc....

And no cut and paste which is a complete pain in the arse in some situations.

> So it's basically a heap of **** phone with a glitzy UI.

It isnt a heap of **** phone, just quite limited in some areas.

> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the Apple marketing machine generates,

They do have some interesting ideas at times.

> and totally ignore comparitive specifications and value for money.

Its not bad value for money compared with the N95 8G.

> Of course the Mac zealots are expected to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in this case it looks
> like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is going on here?

Usual thing with Apple, some interesting ideas and some severe limitations.

They did put one hell of a bomb under the industry with ipods etc and are likely
to make a difference with mobile phones too, albiet nothing like as dramatically.

"Rod Speed" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

[snip]

> The tomtoms work fine. I'd never go back to non touchscreen again
> voluntarily, for a GPS.
>

Which tomtom model do you use Rod?.

Core2Duo <[email protected]> wrote
> Rod Speed <[email protected]> wrote

>> The tomtoms work fine. I'd never go back to non touchscreen again voluntarily, for a GPS.

> Which tomtom model do you use Rod?.

710, and have used a 720 too.

How long before they bring our version 2 of the 3G iPhone?

I'm thinking if it is within 12 months like the original 2G version, I'll
wait


"Kwyjibo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> What's the big deal over this thing? It's just a phone with below average
> features, and is nowhere near 'state of the art'.
> It's got a non-replaceable battery, ****ty 2 Megapixel camera, limited
> support for media formats, no front camera for video calling, no option to
> increase memory capacity via SD cards etc....
> So it's basically a heap of **** phone with a glitzy UI.
>
> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the
> Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
> specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are expected
> to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in this case it
> looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is going on here?
>
> --
> Kwyj.
>
>

Kwyjibo wrote...

> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the
> Apple marketing machine generates, and totally ignore comparitive
> specifications and value for money. Of course the Mac zealots are expected
> to cream their jeans every time Jobs opens his mouth, but in this case it
> looks like 'normal' people are being suckered too. WTF is going on here?

Marketing hype, perhaps.

What eventually turned us away from the iPhone was the uncertainty of the
pricing, speculation, etc. leading up to the announcements and the fact that
it's missing some basic, if not vital features such as MMS'ing.

We're glad that we went for the Nokia 95i (Optus' 8 gig model). It's a ripper of
a phone. The more that we find what it can do the more that we're pleased with
it. Well, I am for my wife as it's her phone.

Rod Speed wrote...

> Dunno, bit small for me. And the N95 and iphone cant play videos effortlessly
> like a wifi laptop can, playing the dvr-ms file that the PVR produces over the

What videos have you tried on it?

I converted "Good News Week" to a PocketPC avi format using "Super". It
converted from a 350 meg file down to around 45-50megs. I then connected the N95
to the PC via USB and copied it over to the unit.

It plays OK, but it ain't hi-def, that's for sure. The missus iPod Classic 80
seems to play the iPod converted videos (using a converter called Videora) a bit
clearer.

Tell me. What's the easiest way to download shows like this? I spent ages trying
to work out how to get the GNW "Vodcast". Whatever options I tried it didn't
seem to work. In the end I fired up IE and used the iTunes link to download it
to iTunes. I then searched the hard disk for the file (kept on one of those
twenty million character length paths under "My Documents"), then converted it.

The file's s'posed to be a podcast file which I would have thought that it'd
already be in a format ready for sync'ing with a handheld media player. But it
was full size, and perfectly playable on the TV via the Xbox 360.

Rod Speed wrote...

> It does have some stuff that others dont have, for example a
> sensor that can work out when you have held it sideways so
> it can switch the screen display auto.

Some Windows Mobile software automatically does that. I think Coreplayer is one
of them (if you can get the pirated version to work, that is...)

With the TCPMP video player that's installed on my HP iPaq PDA I merely tap an
icon and it goes into WS mode (sideways view) and full screen. But yeah, it
doesn't auto sense it via physical orientation.

> It isnt a heap of **** phone, just quite limited in some areas.

I wonder if Telstra is going to nobble its version. Or rather, what did Telstra
get to do to the one it will be selling that was the cause of the hold up
between it and Apple?

My Motorola V9 mobile phone has quite a few functions that are listed in the
handbook that don't appear anywhere in the phone. Whereas apprently there are
generic models out there that are fully functional. Over on GSMarena.com
apparently there is a lot of discussion about hacking into them to change them.

Discussion in the Motoroala V9 General thread on Whirlpool also talks about
this.

So, for those of you who get the various flavors of iPhones it will be
interesting to hear your feedback on what each variant does.

Or doesn't do...

> > I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall for the hype the Apple marketing machine generates,
>
> They do have some interesting ideas at times.

And iTunes is one of its more "interesting" ideas. What a piece of crap software
it is. Ask anyone who wants to separate talking books from music for example, or
movies from TV shows as another one. It can't be done. They're all lumped in as
movies or music as they are all treated as either video files or music/sound
files, no distinction between them.

My wife spent the past three days trying to find out how to upload or transfer
her music, talking books, a number of TV shows and a couple of movies into their
respective categories in iTunes and hence onto the iPod.

In the end she had to create specific playlists to lump the various files in
them, separate from the others of the same type (mp4, mp3, etc.).

On a generic media player I assume that all you'd need to do is to log in via
Windows Explorer and create the various directories and then to copy the files
as required.

Horry wrote...

> PPS: 3 has suddenly decided to make the standard N95 *MORE* expensive
> than the N95 8GB. The 8GB has a $14 handset payment on the $29 cap, and
> the standard model has an $18 payment. Weirdos.

Hasn't "3" dropped the MRO option on the N95 on some of its capped plans?

Snapper <[email protected]> wrote
> Rod Speed wrote
>> Horry <[email protected]> wrote

>>> I also like the large-size screen. Perfect for watching videos on a rainy day.

>> Dunno, bit small for me. And the N95 and iphone cant
>> play videos effortlessly like a wifi laptop can, playing
>> the dvr-ms file that the PVR produces over the wifi link

> What videos have you tried on it?

Stuff I recorded myself. I dont use VCRs anymore, everything
is recorded to the hard drive using digital TV capture cards.

> I converted "Good News Week" to a PocketPC avi format using "Super".
> It converted from a 350 meg file down to around 45-50megs. I then
> connected the N95 to the PC via USB and copied it over to the unit.

I prefer to play the dvr-ms files that the PVR records, since that requires
no conversion and the associated very significant conversion time.

> It plays OK, but it ain't hi-def, that's for sure.

Thats the other advantage of the dvr-ms files, they are SD files and can
be HD. I dont bother with HD just because the files are so much bigger.

> The missus iPod Classic 80 seems to play the iPod converted
> videos (using a converter called Videora) a bit clearer.

> Tell me. What's the easiest way to download shows like this?

I wasnt talking about downloading, I record them from digital TV using capture cards.

> I spent ages trying to work out how to get the GNW "Vodcast".
> Whatever options I tried it didn't seem to work. In the end I fired
> up IE and used the iTunes link to download it to iTunes. I then
> searched the hard disk for the file (kept on one of those twenty million
> character length paths under "My Documents"), then converted it.

I use one of the various capture systems to get it onto the hard drive
and then use Super to convert it to what the phone wants, with the
odd few things I get off utube etc, usually for someone else.

> The file's s'posed to be a podcast file which I would have thought that it'd
> already be in a format ready for sync'ing with a handheld media player.
> But it was full size, and perfectly playable on the TV via the Xbox 360.

I do watch stuff that I somehow dont manage to record on the
PVR using WMP but dont usually capture that stuff, watch it live.

Snapper <[email protected]> wrote
> Rod Speed wrote

>> It does have some stuff that others dont have, for example a
>> sensor that can work out when you have held it sideways so
>> it can switch the screen display auto.

> Some Windows Mobile software automatically does that.

The phone needs to have a sensor that can detect you've done that.

> I think Coreplayer is one of them (if you can get the pirated version to work, that is...)

> With the TCPMP video player that's installed on my HP iPaq PDA I
> merely tap an icon and it goes into WS mode (sideways view) and
> full screen. But yeah, it doesn't auto sense it via physical orientation.

Yeah, thats whats unusual with the iphone, its got a sensor that detects that and does it auto.

The touch screen is another feature that you dont get with most high end phones like the N95.

>> It isnt a heap of **** phone, just quite limited in some areas.

> I wonder if Telstra is going to nobble its version.

I doubt it. I doubt Apple will let them do that.

> Or rather, what did Telstra get to do to the one it will be selling
> that was the cause of the hold up between it and Apple?

They attempted to get Apple to load their steaming turd navigation software on it.

Apple told them to shove it up their arse.

> My Motorola V9 mobile phone has quite a few functions that are
> listed in the handbook that don't appear anywhere in the phone.
> Whereas apprently there are generic models out there that are
> fully functional. Over on GSMarena.com apparently there is a
> lot of discussion about hacking into them to change them.

> Discussion in the Motoroala V9 General thread on Whirlpool also talks about this.

That hasnt happened with the iphone.

> So, for those of you who get the various flavors of iPhones it will
> be interesting to hear your feedback on what each variant does.

> Or doesn't do...

There have been significant changes between the original iphone and the
iphone 3G, but Apple doesnt fart around with various versions other than that.

>>> I find it amazing that people are stupid enough to fall
>>> for the hype the Apple marketing machine generates,

>> They do have some interesting ideas at times.

> And iTunes is one of its more "interesting" ideas. What a piece of crap software it is.

Yeah, I dont care for it myself.

> Ask anyone who wants to separate talking books from music for
> example, or movies from TV shows as another one. It can't be done.
> They're all lumped in as movies or music as they are all treated as
> either video files or music/sound files, no distinction between them.

Yeah, its pretty crude in some areas.

> My wife spent the past three days trying to find out how to upload or
> transfer her music, talking books, a number of TV shows and a couple of
> movies into their respective categories in iTunes and hence onto the iPod.

> In the end she had to create specific playlists to lump the various files
> in them, separate from the others of the same type (mp4, mp3, etc.).

> On a generic media player I assume that all you'd need to
> do is to log in via Windows Explorer and create the various
> directories and then to copy the files as required.

Sure, but thats quite a bit cruder than iTunes for stupid users.

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:05:11 +1000, Snapper wrote:

> Horry wrote...
>
>> PPS: 3 has suddenly decided to make the standard N95 *MORE* expensive
>> than the N95 8GB. The 8GB has a $14 handset payment on the $29 cap,
>> and the standard model has an $18 payment. Weirdos.
>
> Hasn't "3" dropped the MRO option on the N95 on some of its capped
> plans?

Yes. Both the N95 standard and the N95 8GB are free on the $49 cap.

On the $29 cap, the 8GB model has a monthly handset repayment of $18.

But the 8GB model's monthly handset repayment is $10.

(The $14 figure I quoted was wrong -- that's the repayment for the HTC
TyTn II -- the N95 8GB is $10.)