iPhone - Official Thread

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AirBrian said:
The average joey isn't going to jailbreak his/her phone.



Yeah, fair point. Tapping words (assuming it gets the spaces in between words right) could work well and avoid the imprecision of dragging.

maybe but now my iphone is almost perfect
i had many pocket pc / smartphone (last was htc diamond)
i was always pissed how slow windows mobile is , and i like to go on internet and either opera or internet explorer sux really hard.

Now with my jb iphone everything is almost perfect

SMS (with landscape mode) / Mms / email (with landscape) with Push/ Msn / yellow page with localisation/ Subway with localisation / Pdanet, and all the others apps/games , makes it really great.
 
xabre said:
I still want to blame Apple in some way because I just don't like them anymore. They should have made more effort in negotiations with google to ensure gmail push functionality was there on day one. Instead they seem to have left google to their own devices and this has caused the delay.

Oh, well, okay then. At least you admit you just don't like Apple. You have no idea what the "negations" were between Apple and Google and neither do I. But the evidence is pretty clear that the phone does indeed support Push, and that it's up to the e-mail provider to implement it. Yahoo did so, and I believe Google will do so too. Just a matter of when they get around to it. Remember, Google isn't exactly well known for rushing on things.
 
f@luS said:
maybe but now my iphone is almost perfect
i had many pocket pc / smartphone (last was htc diamond)
i was always pissed how slow windows mobile is , and i like to go on internet and either opera or internet explorer sux really hard.

Now with my jb iphone everything is almost perfect

SMS (with landscape mode) / Mms / email (with landscape) with Push/ Msn / yellow page with localisation/ Subway with localisation / Pdanet, and all the others apps/games , makes it really great.
What do you use for yellow page and subways?
 
Charred Greyface said:
What do you use for yellow page and subways?
im in france so its "pagesjaunes" and official subway app from applestore. (99c)
theyre both great coz they have geolocal, meaning i need something, it tells me from where i stand
 
Something is wrong with my iPhone. 3g speeds are piss poor slow, on testmyiphone.com my speeds are about 22Kbps on 3G. Took it into Apple, the idiot or genius tested it on dslreports and it varied between 100kbps-700kbps, he says that's normal. Currently running it on diagnostic mode or something and to come back in a couple of days.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for the best free or cheap IM app on the app store that uses windows live? My friend uses beejive which is apparently amazing but I don't feel like dishing out 10 quid for it.
 
DMeisterJ said:
Damn, once I get my iPhone 3G, I'm going to pick this up. Looks sexy. Thank you.

If you know for sure you're getting the iphone 3g I would buy the case now. I've had my iphone for about a month and just today received the case. This case is going out of stock like crazy.
 
xabre said:
I still want to blame Apple in some way because I just don't like them anymore. They should have made more effort in negotiations with google to ensure gmail push functionality was there on day one. Instead they seem to have left google to their own devices and this has caused the delay.

So Apple should just tell Google what to do?

Something tells me you don't order Google around.
 
RedShift said:
Does anyone have any suggestions for the best free or cheap IM app on the app store that uses windows live? My friend uses beejive which is apparently amazing but I don't feel like dishing out 10 quid for it.

Fring.
 
Fyrus said:
I just ordered my CapsuleRebel (devil/red+black) How long does it take to get to you? I live in Texas if that matters any.

They shipped it last Thursday and I received it today. I had to wait about 2 weeks because they ran out of the Rebel Serpent.
 
Speaking of which, what can we expect in the next iPhone update?

Multi-tasking apps?
Bumped up hardware specs?
Improved camera(s)?
Improved battery?

Nothing that I can think of seems to be as big a jump as 2.0 was but I'd love to be proven wrong.
 
The current camera was prehistoric when the first iPhone came out. They've got to fix that. And the lack of video calls seems like an obvious thing to fix. Basically: add stuff from 3 years ago.
 
TheGreatDave said:
The current camera was prehistoric when the first iPhone came out. They've got to fix that. And the lack of video calls seems like an obvious thing to fix. Basically: add stuff from 3 years ago.
basically add stuff u already have with a JB...
 
krypt0nian said:
Why wouldn't it?

Touch.Touch.Copy bubble.

Unfortunately touch/touch is captured by a number of iPhone applications. As soon as Apple released an SDK, they limited their options for implementation significantly - which is actually one of the reasons they never wanted to release one in the first place.
 
I don't give a rip about the camera. It's fine for what I need. All I want is that sweet rumored matte aluminum shell and 32GB. Anything else is gravy.
 
B!TCH said:
Speaking of which, what can we expect in the next iPhone update?

Multi-tasking apps?
Bumped up hardware specs?
Improved camera(s)?
Improved battery?

Nothing that I can think of seems to be as big a jump as 2.0 was but I'd love to be proven wrong.

I doubt we'll see the ability for apps to run in the background.

Definitely improved processor/RAM I think (I'm pretty sure the new iPod touch has a faster processor than the iPhone, does it not?) although it might not be advertised that much. Battery might see minor improvement, but again, slight changes. No idea if they'll touch the camera.

I would say 32GB is almost guaranteed.

Hopefully the push notification service finally gets rolled out around the launch of this years iPhone at the latest. While Beejive's makeshift notification system is nice, once the system they promised is up and running I think everything will fall into place and there will be even less reason for wanting apps to run in the background. I'd also like to think they've been working on things people have been asking about for a while with the next major firmware update, but it's impossible for me to predict at this point.

Edit:

Also I noticed some talk about why goes Gmail push to blackberries and not the iPhone on the page earlier, it's due to the infrastructure RIM has in place. Google hasn't done anything to ensure their mail is pushed to blackberries (well, aside from enabling POP/IMAP access), RIM has infrastructure setup that pushes any mail account you setup with the BIS to your device (as far as I understand it).

Anyway I don't think we'll be bitching about Gmail not pushing email that much longer, now that they have Exchange up and running it's only a matter of time until they extend that service to mail. (Though I wish push didn't eat more battery than fetching every 15 minutes)
 
DarkJC said:
(Though I wish push didn't eat more battery than fetching every 15 minutes)
Huh? I have my work email and Yahoo! on push and it doesn't really faze my battery life.

I have found the battery life on the 3G to be amazing. I often get 6 hours of voice/data on a single charge (only 2G, that goes down to maybe 3 on 3G but that is true of all phones as far as I can tell). The only thing I like about 3G is the ability to download podcasts (this is so awesome) and ability to use data while on phone. Otherwise I prefer 2G as the battery life is so much better and I barely notice the difference in speed in browsing.
 
bionic77 said:
Huh? I have my work email and Yahoo! on push and it doesn't really faze my battery life.

I have found the battery life on the 3G to be amazing. I often get 6 hours of voice/data on a single charge (only 2G, that goes down to maybe 3 on 3G but that is true of all phones as far as I can tell). The only thing I like about 3G is the ability to download podcasts (this is so awesome) and ability to use data while on phone. Otherwise I prefer 2G as the battery life is so much better and I barely notice the difference in speed in browsing.

I think it affects standby life more than anything. If you use it heavy every day you probably won't notice a difference, but as of late my usage has been fairly light with standby in between. Turning off push and using 15 minute fetch makes it last much longer when its not doing anything.

To be fair though, if I were using an email that supported push, I'd have it on anyway.

As for 3G vs. 2G, I can definitely tell a huge difference when I'm on the edge network for whatever reason. Also I get better call quality and can use data w/ calls on 3G, so I leave it on unless I really need to save power for the day.
 
Does anybody have this problem? My iphone will not receive random calls and won't receive voicemails for hours afterwards. So far I've missed a couple packages, the plumber, and multiple calls from my gf. It is really starting to annoy me. I've already swapped my phone with apple once and gotten a new sim card from att. I have full bars or 1 bar from full everytime this happens. I'd rather not but I might just have to try to see if I can get a blackberry or something since being able to receive calls is a pretty important part of a phone.
 
Does anyone have recommendations for educational-type apps, like word-of-the-day, etc.? Offline, if possible -- I have an iPod touch and I usually just play solitaire on the bus, but I'd like to be doing something worthwhile.
 
Ummm, I just accessed my regular hotmail account through my phones mail app.

For some reason I was playing with this today and entered the info and it gave me the usual message about needing hotmail premium etc. I tried it again tonight and it connected no problem.

Can anyone confirm this works now?
 
Desperado said:
Does anyone have recommendations for educational-type apps, like word-of-the-day, etc.? Offline, if possible -- I have an iPod touch and I usually just play solitaire on the bus, but I'd like to be doing something worthwhile.
You are more likely to get an answer in this thread. That said, get Wurdle and any dictionary app (are there any good offline ones? I usually use wikipanion or a dictionary bookmarklet in safari)
 
DarkJC said:
I doubt we'll see the ability for apps to run in the background.

Actually, there have been rumbling that due to the push features Apple promised still not being where they need to be, background application running (at least to some degree) is indeed coming.

And, to be honest, even without that situation, I think it's only a matter of time anyhow. This is something I think Apple is going to have to bend on.
 
Buckethead said:
So does any of the enlightened ones who follow this stuff know when the new iPhone will be out? Rumors, etc?

At a guess, I'd say June/July (based off release dates of the previous iPhones).
 
shidoshi said:
Actually, there have been rumbling that due to the push features Apple promised still not being where they need to be, background application running (at least to some degree) is indeed coming.

And, to be honest, even without that situation, I think it's only a matter of time anyhow. This is something I think Apple is going to have to bend on.
It would make sense, and it would be cheaper for Apple and easier on the batteries of users than push notifications. The notification system seemed like reinventing the wheel when there was such a simple and obvious solution to what wasn't really much of a difficult problem to fix in the first place.

As long as Apple limits the amount of RAM and CPU that an app can consume when running in the background I can't see it being a problem. The jailbreak apps that allow it work fine even with the apps running in their entirety.
 
PlayStation Tree said:
Ummm, I just accessed my regular hotmail account through my phones mail app.

For some reason I was playing with this today and entered the info and it gave me the usual message about needing hotmail premium etc. I tried it again tonight and it connected no problem.

Can anyone confirm this works now?


So apparently this is legit: http://www.iphonealley.com/news/hotmail-pop3-now-available-in-the-us-iphone-friendly?

Did everyone know about this? This is huge for us live mail/hotmail hold outs. Glad I didn't buy that hotmail app.
 
PlayStation Tree said:
Ummm, I just accessed my regular hotmail account through my phones mail app.

For some reason I was playing with this today and entered the info and it gave me the usual message about needing hotmail premium etc. I tried it again tonight and it connected no problem.

Can anyone confirm this works now?

Hotmail via the iphone mail app was made available a few weeks ago
 
magus said:
Just received my Rebel Serpent iPhone 3G case!

This thing is sexy.

I decided not to put on the screen protector as I'd probably mess that up. The case was very easy to put on.
Sexy! I really want to replace my finger mark collecting chrome backing from my 2g touch and something like that would be amazing.
 
Downloaded Tower Bloxx Deluxe (free) last night and I love the game. Very addictive and perfect for the iPhone.

Is it worth buying the full version?
 
Kastro said:
anyone else having problems with youtube? i keep getting a "this movie could not be played" error message.

I've been getting the same error a lot as well. Desn't happen with all vids but more then I would like. :/
 
Why the Japanese Hate [sic] the iPhone
Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free.

What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese.

In an effort to boost business, Japanese carrier SoftBank this week launched the "iPhone for Everybody" campaign, which gives away the 8-GB model of the iPhone 3G if customers agree to a two-year contract.

"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," said Global Crown Research analyst Tero Kuittinen in regard to Apple's iPhone prices internationally. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."

Apple's iPhone is inarguably popular elsewhere: CEO Steve Jobs announced in October that the handset drove Apple to becoming the third-largest mobile supplier in the world, after selling 10 million units in 2008. However, even before the iPhone 3G's July launch in Japan, analysts were predicting the handset would fail to crack the Japanese market. Japan has been historically hostile toward western brands — including Nokia and Motorola, whose attempts to grab Japanese customers were futile.

Besides cultural opposition, Japanese citizens possess high, complex standards when it comes to cellphones. The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner, according to Kuittinen.

What else bugs the Japanese about the iPhone? The pricing plans, Kuittinen said. Japan's carrier environment is very competitive, which equates to relatively low monthly rates for handsets. The iPhone's monthly plan starts at about $60, which is too high compared to competitors, Kuittinen added.

And then there's the matter of compartmentalization. A large portion of Japanese citizens live with only a cellphone as their computing device — not a personal computer, said Hideshi Hamaguchi, a concept creator and chief operating officer of LUNARR. And the problem with the iPhone is it depends on a computer for syncing media and running software updates via iTunes.

"iPhone penetration is very high among the Mac users, but it has a huge physical and mental hurdle to the majority who just get used to live with their cellphone, which does not require PC for many services," Hamaguchi said.

Cellphones are also more of a fashion accessory in Japan than in the United States, according to Daiji Hirata, chief financial officer of News2u Corporation and creator of Japan's first wireless LAN.

So that would suggest that in Japan, carrying around an iPhone — an outdated handset compared to Japanese cellphones — could make you look pretty lame.

Take for example Nobi Hayashi, a journalist and author of Steve Jobs: The Greatest Creative Director. His cellular weapon of choice when he spoke to Wired.com June 2008? A Panasonic P905i, a fancy cellphone that doubles as a 3-inch TV. It also features 3-G, GPS, a 5.1-megapixel camera and motion sensors for Wii-style games.

"When I show this to visitors from the U.S, they're amazed," Hayashi told Wired.com. "They think there's no way anybody would want an iPhone in Japan. But that's only because I'm setting it up for them so that they can see the cool features."

Kuittinen said he's predicting Apple's next iPhone will have better photo capabilities, which could increase its odds of success in Japan. However, he said the monthly rates must be lowered as well.

Otherwise, Apple might as well say sayonara to Japan.

Comment from Wired blog:
kohai said:
No electronic wallet/payment system, no SUICA/PASMO dowload(these are elctronic ticketing systems for public transportation ystems such as trains and subways).
Do you see the pattern here? Stuff that comes standard on other cellphones is not standard on the IPhone? No mystery as to why most people will not buy it.


Comment from Reddit
:
Saiing said:
The Japanese don't hate the iPhone - they haven't been won over by it, but hate is a silly word to pick.

Up until now, I think it's been due to a variety of factors.

It's seen as expensive (whether the new cheap giveaway will change that remains to be seen). It certainly costs me more than any phone I've previously owned -around 9,000 yen a month before I've made any calls, whereas previously I averaged around 6-7,000 including calls. The idea of being tied into a 2 year contract is also a bit of a difficult concept to grasp for many Japanese - especially the cool young things who might want to change their phone every year.

Size matters here. The iPhone, even given it's slimline form factor, doesn't have that clamshell shape that the Japanese are used to. It looks wider and taller.

I don't think it's been particularly brilliantly marketed, nor targeted at those who would be likely to try it. Blackberry hasn't done well here either. Neither have really hit the same demographic as they have in the US or other countries.

It doesn't have QR Code recognition. Far more Japanese surf the web using their phone than by computer. QR codes appear on absolutely everything these days. It's a big miss for the iPhone. (Edit: having checked, there are apps in the app store to do this, but every other phone in Japan has it as standard).

Having said all that, every single time I get my phone out in a bar or somewhere public, at least one person starts cooing and says "oooh iPhone da!" and then sits gazing at it as I demonstrate some of the features. Super Monkey Ball is a huge hit at the local hostess bar where I occasionally go (on business obviously!)

The idea that Japanese phones are still hugely ahead of the rest of the world is something of a myth. European phones in particular have more or less caught up - there's really only so much that you can do with a device so small. The Japanese still have a number of innovations I haven't seen elsewhere (phones that can be used like credit cards to pay for stuff at the checkout would be one example) but these are getting less and less.

More than all of the above though, I think there are two further and more fundamental points:

Firstly, it's not that the Japanese already have good phones, because lots of countries already have good phones. It's that the Japanese have been used to having good phones for a very long time now compared to other countries, so a new phone release, even when it's some funky foreign product just isn't that exciting here any more. Been there, done that a decade ago.

Secondly (and this may be the clincher), the iPhone is on Softbank Mobile. Softbank is very much the third network in Japan and has a reputation for pisspoor coverage compared to the other 2 big networks (DoCoMo and AU). I can absolutely vouch for this. It's been something of a disaster until recently. It started out as J-Phone, then got sold to Vodafone, who gave up trying to make it work and sold it again to Softbank -all in the space of about 5-6 years. The data rates I get up here in Hokkaido are just shitty. I've found myself swearing at the damn thing on many occasions because it just seems so slow compared to what I was used to with my previous AU handset.

Apple originally wanted to go with DoCoMo, but the big D pulled out of the deal (and it was a smart business decision in my opinion) saying that they didn't need the iPhone and weren't happy to give Apple a big chunk of their revenue just for the 'privilege' of having it on their network.

So with all this against it, it's not really surprising it's failed to set the country on fire. Give it time and it'll do ok, but it's never going to do the kind of business that it has elsewhere.

I have a little more sympathy for RevenantKioku's constant bitching about using the iPhone in Japan.
 
Free iPhone 3G or heavily discounted 16GB one in Japan with a two year Softbank contract.

Screw jailbreaking my American one, I'm going for that deal.
 
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