Always wait for something better. ALWAYS.
ZDNet's David Borlind has a bug up his butt about 3G.
If the report is true, this could be worse news for Apple given that the price drop had to have come so soon to stimulate demand. There's nothing that kills demand for the current generation of a product like an announcement that the next generation won't be stillborn with obsolete networking technology the way the currently available generation was.
Aarrrrrgh!
And that's not the Macalope talking like a pirate (it's Talk Like A Pirate Day)! It's him wanting to stick pointy objects in his eyes to gouge out the offending sight of such claptrap!
We've been over and over and over and OVER this a zillion times in the past nine months and people still refuse to accept the simple fact that there are tradeoffs with battery life and cost.
And not one of the goofballs harping on EDGE will ever mention the iPhone feature that might just trump a slower connection speed - its interface, one the Macalope would argue is superior to that of any other cell phone.
But, shhh. Don't mention that. It's all about 3G. Because it's faster. Whether you can find it or not.
Sure, the next version of anything will always be better than the current one. But iPhone 2.0 will very likely get the things right that iPhone 1.0 got so wrong.
Well, this ought to be good.
For example, in addition to making it work on the faster of the two networks that most GSM-flavored providers like AT&T run (was this really that hard of a decision?)...
Yes! Because EDGE is more ubiquitous in the U.S.! A faster connection is worthless if you can't find it! Are you new here?!
...I'm guessing that it will have removable batteries as well.
Ah! You mean just like when Apple put a removable battery on the iPod when a relatively small group of people clamored for one?
Wait a minute...
Perhaps iPhone 2.0 will also address the third most talked about iPhone flaw (in addition to missing 3G support and non-replaceable batteries): its soft keyboard.
Hey, Dave, you know there's this guy that runs Apple -- his name is Steve Jobs -- and you should really consider looking at some of the things he's said and his track record in sticking to them. Because he's the kind of guy who usually sticks to his guns unless something is really obviously wrong and, well, this just isn't one of those cases.
Might the new design have some sort of hardware-based keyboard...
No.
...or will Apple do what it does with the touchpad on its notebooks...
Huh? Now trackpads aren't big enough for you? Dave, if your fingers are ballooning up to sausage size you might want to see a doctor. You could have a circulation problem.
...and stick us with something that some segment of the market (like those of us with big fingers) simply can't use?
There seems to be this set of technology pundits running around dissing the iPhone's keyboard as too tiny for their big fingers, heh-heh-heh. And you know what they say. Big fingers...
Dave, take a look at those keys. They aren't any smaller than the keys on a Treo so just man up. If the Macalope can operate them with his massive hooves, then you surely can with your apparently overly fleshy digits.
The fourth most talked about flaw - its total RAM - will most definitely get a boost.
WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING TO BRING YOU THIS NEWS FLASH: DEVICES IN THE FUTURE WILL HAVE MORE RAM! FILM AT 11.
...if Apple's is smart, it will also add an SD slot: one that supports the high capacity version of SD known as SDHC.
As long as in this context your definition of "smart" is "stupid". Again, there's this device called the iPod. To borrow a line from Fake Steve, maybe you've heard of it? Do you see any iPods that have upgradeable memory? No, you do not.
It's not, as you claim, a "conspiracy theory" that Apple does not make all of its devices as upgradeable as its pro products. It's a business plan. And it works pretty well because -- guess, what? -- most people are going to upgrade these things in two years anyway.
The Macalope has a 4 GB iPhone and, while you can never have too much RAM or hard drive space, it's fine. A well-selected playlist, some TV shows and a movie are all he needs for trolling around town or even a flight across the country.
The iPhone with its Safari browser may get plenty of rich internet applications via Web sites built in AJAX. But I wonder if the next version will support one of the prevailing runtimes (Java or Flash, I don't think there's a chance in hell that Apple would go for Microsoft's Silverlight) so as to increase the iPhone's appeal due to application availability (especially in overseas markets where mobile runtimes are getting more traction than they get here in the US).
Meh. Maybe. It would certainly help gain some traction in the business market if the iPhone's Safari supported Java. But that's just not a market Apple competes in. And, again, have you heard of Steve Jobs?
But it's that 3G support alone that should kill any desire for iPhone 1.0.
Yes. The idea that something in the future might be better should always kill any desire to own something now. If you time it just right, you can buy that one killer device five minutes before you die and achieve optimal purchasing!
Remember, Berlind is talking not just about Europe here, he's talking about sales of the iPhone everywhere.
Maybe then, there'll be a shred of truth to the Apple TV advertisement that says "It's not the mobile Web, it's just the Web."
Oh, fer...
Have you used Safari on the iPhone? Even on EDGE it's the best web surfing experience on a cell phone money can buy.
Meanwhile, so long as an iPhone is connecting to AT&T's network and not some WiFi network (the iPhone also has a WiFi radio), the browser experience is most definitely saddled with the sort of granny lane performance that has "mobile Web" written all over it. False advertising? You decide.
Silly pundit zombie talking points that will not die. The iPhone will be in its fifth rev and we'll still be talking about the commercial where Apple showed it working faster than it might in suboptimal conditions.
The Macalope has said this before, but pardon Apple for not showing the slowest possible speeds in its commercials. David, there are more and more WiFi hotspots every day. The sandwich shop down the street from the pointy one's office has one, the coffee shop has one, the waiting room in the auto dealer has one.
New Yorkers like to say that the outdoors is something you have to go through to get to the cab. Well, EDGE is something you have to go through to get to WiFi. My god, people act like EDGE is some blight on the human condition like polio or something, as if there were no trade-offs to be made, that 3G was simply better.
It's not.
It's faster, but it uses more power, the hardware is more expensive and it's not as ubiquitous as EDGE in the U.S. where the iPhone needed to be successful first. The Macalope knows that's not the case in Europe, hence the WiFi deal which -- hey! -- is a feature.
Look, the horny one does not expect the iPhone to do as well in Europe as it has in the U.S. and for several of the reasons Berlind lists. The price and, yes, the lack of 3G. But Berlind refuses to look at the iPhone as a package and instead focuses on what he perceives to be deal killers.
And the last two and a half months have proved that they're not. They may be for Berlind, but one of the biggest problems with the current state of punditry is confusing what the public wants with what the pundit wants. The two are not necessarily the same.
Mythical beast and rumormonger extraordinaire, the Macalope writes about all things Apple for the CNET Blog Network. Read more at The Macalope: An Apple blog. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Bluetooth/email/calendar/camera/Windows Mobile 5). What do I use 3G for?
The occasional web browsing nothing else. Its 'killer application' was
supposed to be video calling but that's a novelty that wore off for me pretty
quickly. I could do all I need to on the web from a hot spot, there are loads of
them throughout most UK cities but they're expensive to use so I don't. The
£35 O2 tarriff is pretty competitive, UK data tariffs are expensive, but the
master stroke is bundling the wifi access. For me this pretty much takes the
heat out of the 'no 3G' argument.
Will I buy the iPhone? Probably.
should have a word with a few of your deer friends from this side for a
second. You might find that they care about 3G more than you expect. I'd
suggest they might come up with a couple of reasons:
Firstly, 3G is the expected baseline for a high-end phone here. 3G networks
are more common than Edge anywhere in Europe. We missed that tech out
and went straight for the good stuff, y'see. Moreoever, phone manufacturers
here have got it working - even my cheap little 3G phone has a week in
standby and 8 hours talk time.
That gives us the feeling that Saint Steve is dumping his rev.1 product on us.
His excuse for not selling a 3G phone doesn't ring true. When he said that 3G
doesn't do 8-hour talk he means *his* phone doesn't.
We're not stupid over here. We know when we're being lied to.
Secondly: since Edge has to be back-fitted here, it means that a good
proportion of the time you'll be browsing the web via GPRS. And you gotta
admit that sucks.
To make up for that, Steve cuts a deal to get us free WiFi with The Cloud. But
have you looked at their presence? Granted, it looks pretty good. But you'll
note that a lot of it is based out of call boxes.
So we can stand in a call box, inhaling that particular smell that street people
always lend to them, or we can stand outside in the street, getting rained on.
A less cynical person than me could put the free wifi deal not down to a need
to make product be more appealing, but straight down to maliciousness!
(Guy from Europe) "Lack of 3G's not a problem."
Actually, the Macalope specifically acknowledged that lack of 3G would be an issue for many in Europe. But Borlind's saying that the fact that Jobs said a 3G phone would be coming later means that ALL demand for iPhones will suddenly dry up. That's absurd. Everyone expected there would be a 3G version at some point. No one would ever have bought an iPhone if they didn't think they could bear to live with the scourge that is EDGE until 3G came out.
But I think it's an interesting point that the iPhone is seen as really able partly because it always has a connection. In the UK, I wonder if the frustration level will be high because outside of certain cities, you will have to find a Wi-Fi connection before doing anything.
In the US, not so much an issue (I've been EDGEless in Seattle only a couple of times). But it might blunt demand in Europe for that reason; EDGE was kind of a half-assed US thing for bridging the 3G gap, but it turns out to have legs because it's so damned cheap to install on existing 2G networks.
standby and 8 hours talk time... When he said that 3G doesn't do 8-hour talk he means *his* phone doesn't.
Of course he means *his* phone doesn?t. Apple could have made a cheap little 3G phone that gets 8 hours talk time, but instead they chose to make the iPhone, which gets 8 hours talk time *and* sold a million in 74 days.
You might be right about the lack of 3G turning off UK purchasers, but come down to the Apple Store on Regent Street on 9th November and find me in the queue. We?ll see how long it is.
Actually, I might get a t-shirt printed up for it. ?No 3G. Fewer megapixels than an N95. Lame.?
> The Macalope has a 4 GB iPhone
Man. To think I used to respect you.
To present this like an unsolveable problem that only the future can solve is silly. 3G is in 75% of modern phones sold now so pretending Apple can't figure out a solution is embarassing both to them and to th consumer.
replaceable batteries, ESPECIALLY on a small device like a cell phone, make
the phone thicker and clunkier. And who wants to swap batteries every hour
anyway?
No the solution to the 3G problem is either wait until semiconductor
designers come up with a lower power solution, or upgrade to 4G (or
whatever its called), which has lower power than 3G and is faster. Look
people, EDGE is fine when looking at the whole package. Yeah, faster is
better, but not at the expense of way worse battery life.
And Apple will never change the keyboard- that's the whole point of the
iPhone- no keyboard, all touch. And I love it.
worthless if you can't find it! Are you new here?!"
Because it's not like you can auto-fallback from 3G to EDGE or anything. I
think the iPhone's great, really, but there are many ways to make a 3G device
that also has good battery life. I remember seeing tests done with a Samsung
Blackjack that showed that 3G data actually used less power than EDGE,
although 3G calling used more. Anyway, here are some ideas off the top of
my head to have your 3G cake and eat it too: When the screen is turned off
and you're not using the iPhone, have it switch to EDGE for basic things like
checking for email. When you unlock it or when a call comes in, have it
switch back to 3G if available. Or, if the user decides that they'd rather have
longer battery life at the price of slower data, have an option that makes the
iPhone only use EDGE.
It just seems silly to me to have a device that lets you do anything on the
internet, anywhere, anytime, and then have a caveat that, well, it really works
best when you're at a wifi hotspot and youtube is painful to use otherwise.
Wifi is far from ubiquitous unless you're in a very dense area. Though it's
great now, I don't think the full power of the iPhone will be unlocked until it
has 3G. HSDPA makes wifi almost unnecessary, or at the very least, much less
needed.
That being said, I'll probably break down and get a non-3G iPhone (:P), but it
would just be so perfect if it had 3G.
Oh, and the rest of his points are just ridiculous. Removable memory? Are
you kidding?
Once again I conccur with the furry one. I like your style Mr. Macalope! Keep it goin'.
- 3G=Battery Life measured in minutes
- by mrhappyct September 22, 2007 10:19 AM PDT
- Has no one else suffered the pain of a 3G Smartphone with an ability to
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(11 Comments)empty a battery faster than a blackjack table can empty your wallet? Of
course you had to have a replaceable battery...A year with a Moto Q on
Verizon quickly became a ritual of carrying one or sometimes two extra
batteries to get through a full day of calling and data usage with Wireless
Sync turned on. But when all of the data service was turned off on the same
phone--one battery could last for three days of voice calling.
Same usage patterns on an iPhone net me two full days of usage on a single
charge. And frankly from an unscientific usage standpoint, EDGE doesn't
seem that much slower than EV-DO did, and there were just as many places
where you would see a "1X" indicator instead of the EV-DO signal being
available.
As always, this was my experience...your mileage may vary.
Would it be great to have a faster wireless data connection on the iPhone? Of
course--but it isn't like the iPhone is unusable because it doesn't. Hundreds
of thousands of users in the US would seem to agree.