iPhone - Official Thread
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So looks like every AT&T store was a complete disaster, I'm glad it wasn't just the one near me. There's gonna be a lot of angry people.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Ashburn_ATT_Store_Leaves_Dozens_iPhoneless/1183180359
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/06/11303/
Pretty pathetic. You'd think AT&T would be prepared for the huge rush, apparently not. They should've handed out wrist bracelets or certificates or something instead of wasting everyones time. First time I went to an AT&T store and it'll be the last.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Ashburn_ATT_Store_Leaves_Dozens_iPhoneless/1183180359
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/06/11303/
Pretty pathetic. You'd think AT&T would be prepared for the huge rush, apparently not. They should've handed out wrist bracelets or certificates or something instead of wasting everyones time. First time I went to an AT&T store and it'll be the last.
WickedAngel
Banned
I can't believe that AT&T would staff a store with only two people during what was likely the most anticipated cell phone launch in history. That's just bad business...it did nothing for AT&T and it certainly did nothing for the iPhone to piss off all those people. Heads should roll on that one.
The rest of the story sounded like a complete cluster**** as well. The secretive inventory shit is nonsense and it ****ed a lot of people over during the PS3/Xbox360 launches as well. You don't let people sit hours and hours for something when you know you don't have enough to satisfy the demand.
It baffles me that stores still haven't figured out how to manage a queu yet. It's really not that complicated.
The rest of the story sounded like a complete cluster**** as well. The secretive inventory shit is nonsense and it ****ed a lot of people over during the PS3/Xbox360 launches as well. You don't let people sit hours and hours for something when you know you don't have enough to satisfy the demand.
It baffles me that stores still haven't figured out how to manage a queu yet. It's really not that complicated.
futnownarcade
Member
I guess the Carlsbad AT&T store in the mall rules then because I went by tonight at around 7:30, there was an orderly line outside, plenty of staff inside helping people, got in line, friendly staff were walking around the line answering questions, got out with my iPhone by 8 
Edit - oh yeah my one complaint, it thinks a bunch of my gmail mail is unread even though its read, and am I deleting emails or archiving them when I click delete? I dunno yet. Should I get a screen protector? I am kinda panicing and kept the plastic cover on there until I felt it kind of heating up but I guess thats normal
Edit - oh yeah my one complaint, it thinks a bunch of my gmail mail is unread even though its read, and am I deleting emails or archiving them when I click delete? I dunno yet. Should I get a screen protector? I am kinda panicing and kept the plastic cover on there until I felt it kind of heating up but I guess thats normal
I bought mine at what would be the flagship AT&T store in the area (no Apple stores within a couple hours drive so that wasn't an option). They were staffed with about ten people, they were fairly professional and friendly, and they successfully sold me an iPhone: I can't fault them too harshly. However, they did let about ten people in at 6pm and then locked the door, letting one customer in as each customer left at that point. Perhaps practical for avoiding overcrowding the store and sowing confusion, but not the best customer service when it's Florida in June, it's 93 degrees outside and there's no shade in front of your store. They also weren't giving any feedback at all about quantities of phones in stock, and they had not distributed any numbers or other organizing tools used by many stores during the console launches.
I was twentieth in line, some people in front of me were in groups so I probably purchased the sixteenth or seventeenth iPhone from the store (and it was an 8GB model). They seemed well stocked. When I left, though, there were still at least twenty people waiting and more pulling up, making me wonder how many of them went home disappointed.
I was twentieth in line, some people in front of me were in groups so I probably purchased the sixteenth or seventeenth iPhone from the store (and it was an 8GB model). They seemed well stocked. When I left, though, there were still at least twenty people waiting and more pulling up, making me wonder how many of them went home disappointed.
sportzhead
Member
Kaeru said:
Some pictures I just took. Of course the screen looks a million times better in person.
sportzhead
Member
A few more pictures.
greatestjediever
Member
Got my itunes to install after some issues and had the phone activated (which was actually very painless and quick for me). Pretty impressed by the phone so far. Screen quality is top notch, and the interface is great. Haven't had to use visual voicemail yet (i'm looking forward to that), but email client is great. Camera takes nice pictures as long as you have a decent light source, especially since there's no flash.
Safari browser is fantastic for a mobile (though I wouldnt substitute it for one on your PC or Mac). I only really wish flash and java were supported as so many sites rely on them. Aside from youtube, I wouldn't expect to stream anything. iChat would've been nice, as web based clients like AIM express just aren't very usuable. Oh, and I still don't like iTunes =P
Safari browser is fantastic for a mobile (though I wouldnt substitute it for one on your PC or Mac). I only really wish flash and java were supported as so many sites rely on them. Aside from youtube, I wouldn't expect to stream anything. iChat would've been nice, as web based clients like AIM express just aren't very usuable. Oh, and I still don't like iTunes =P
Battery just died out on me after heavily usage (mostly non-stop) from around 9:30 PM to 5:18AM... Pretty impressive.
I had Wifi on the whole time and was watching video podcasts, brightness was around 80%, volume at highest level, etc. Was using every single feature for hours pretty much. Very surprised, I thought it would be only around half of Apple's battery life claims. I'm impressed.
Heh, will probably happen very soon. I'm expecting the iPhone will be hacked before the weekend is up. Maybe one week tops.
I had Wifi on the whole time and was watching video podcasts, brightness was around 80%, volume at highest level, etc. Was using every single feature for hours pretty much. Very surprised, I thought it would be only around half of Apple's battery life claims. I'm impressed.
Yixian said:
Heh, will probably happen very soon. I'm expecting the iPhone will be hacked before the weekend is up. Maybe one week tops.
Corwood Rep
Member
Yixian said:
ScummVM could be so ****ing amazing on the iPhone. I don't know how SNES would work though without real buttons.
Humphrey Bogart
Banned
that could very well be the most beautiful thing i've ever seen.Flo_Evans said:the screen is really awsome...
Jill Sandwich
the turds of Optimus Prime
ManaByte said:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133636-pg,1/article.html ridiculous, no scratches :lol
Really makes me comfortable carrying this around in my pocket..
Aristotlekh said:
You could play the game in a window at native res, and have buttons in the black space either side.
Although button response times would have to be really, really good I suppose. Maybe someone could tell us whether or not the on screen buttons have a quick response, how it relates to physical buttons?
ScummVM is obviously peeeerfect for the iPhone. Imagine how good Broken Sword would look at that size/res. Christ... they HAVE to open it up.
Patrick Bateman
Member
Flo_Evans said:
This looks really nice. From the price-performance ratio it may be not that great, but from the design point it just looks awesome.
Obviously, it depends on the type of materials and the force involved, but if metal takes a direct hit, it might dent but it won't break. If the same force is applied to glass, it'll likely shatter. My guess is that the body of the iPhone is absorbing the impact of the falls, and not the screen.acidviper said:
Still, it's good engineering on Apple's part to make it more durable than the iPod given the type of use that cells go through versus iPods.
Looks like the iPhone, for the most part, lives up to the hype. It just sucks that Apple couldn't fix THE most annoying thing about cell phones. The fact that they aren't network agnostic. It would have truly been a revolutionary device if you were able to buy the phone then, when you go to activate it through iTunes, choose the network that offered you the best value (coverage/minutes/data), instead of having to choose At&t/Cingular and agree to a 2 year contract as well. There are a lot of people who want an iPhone but can't get one because they're tied to their network (either through contractual obligations or preference). I have read enough about the development of the iPhone to understand why it ended up on At&t but that doesn't do anything to diminish my disappointment that Apple wasn't able to alleviate one of the main problems consumers have with cell phones.
The glass is coated in plastic though.
acidviper said:
The glass is coated in plastic though.
MistakenMobius
Member
and you'd probably have to shell a 150/200more.
We have this system in Belgium: no subisidized phone so all phone works on any network.
Phoenix
Member
The day the open up the iPhone is the day I take it off my banned list. Until then, they can lick my balls 
I need a Cisco VPN client for corporate mail, OpenGL ES for rendering, Bluetooth for a GPS and a J2ME JVM for software. Without all of that, its just a very expensive toy that can't do everything my last 3 phones could do.
I need a Cisco VPN client for corporate mail, OpenGL ES for rendering, Bluetooth for a GPS and a J2ME JVM for software. Without all of that, its just a very expensive toy that can't do everything my last 3 phones could do.
Phoenix
Member
B!tch said:
That's well beyond Apple's abilities to fix. AT&T and TMobile are on one type of network (GSM) and that is entirely 100% incompatible with the technology for Verizon and Sprint. At best they could have put two radios in the phone, but that would have made the phone stupidly expensive and far more complex to manufacture.
StrikerObi
Member
The countdown starts now... I have to wait a month until August for one of these things. I'm trying to hold out for my extra paycheck in August.
Patrick Bateman
Member
Dumb question from a dumb person:
Does the iPhone have a speaker so that you can play your songs with no headphones?
Does the iPhone have a speaker so that you can play your songs with no headphones?
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Phoenix said:
I'm pretty sure Verizon supports GSM as well. Only Sprint is CDMA-only now, and that's why they often get the cool phones last.
pringles said:
No MMS, sending or receiving. You can always email the pic, but we both know that's not the same. I send tons of MMS, so it's a killer loss for me.
Also, another gripe I have with the iphone is that the phone sounds a little too quiet for my tastes. Not the speaker, but the speaker on the headset, if that makes sense. When you make calls. I'm going out and about here in Manhattan today, so we'll see how it holds up after a day of random use. I don't want to be forced to use some bluetooth ear piece. If it's too quiet, back to the apple store it'd go, despite how much I love it.
Got an 8GB version last night...still can't use it due to the activation snafu. I'm still waiting for an email indicating that the unit is good to go...and I started the process 10 hours ago. Of course, activation is only half the battle. Getting my old number over from Verizon will take until Sunday.
From a "ooh shiny small metal/glass object" point of view, it's impressively small. More impressions later...I hope.
From a "ooh shiny small metal/glass object" point of view, it's impressively small. More impressions later...I hope.
Gary Whitta
Member
Some initial impressions after several hours of use:
* Interface = mind-boggling. Compared to my BlackBerry... well, there's just no comparison. It feels like my BB was designed by the Maquis de Sade next to this thing. Everything is incredibly intuitive (there isn't even a manual as such, just a booklet of "finger tips". There basically isn't anything I don't already know how to do easily and quickly on this phone - I understand it better than I do my BB, which I've had for a year.
* Screen = wonderful. Incredibly crisp and clear. Yes it does smudge but the smudges are only visible when you angle the screen to the light in a certain way and/or the screen is powered down. When you're just looking right at the screen during general use, you can't see any smudges or smears no matter how many there may be.
* Email and web-browsing = sweet. Email looks really beautiful and it's so easy to manage. The web browser works incredibly well with minimal need for zooming (particularly if you keep it in landscape mode) although it is a bit slow, even on wifi. I haven't dared try it on Edge yet, but I'll give that a shot when I'm out and about later today.
* YouTube = haven't really gotten this to work yet. I wonder if the service is getting hammered; even short videos are taking so long to load over wifi that I just gave up. We'll see how it shakes out - I considered this a bit of a gimmicky feature so I'm not that fussed.
iPod = yeah it really is the best iPod they've ever made. Cover flow looks beautiful, the touch controls are flawless and it's the first video iPod actually worth watching video on thanks to the big widescreen. Downloaded an episode of The Office to check out and it looks fab.
Syncing and activation = can't praise this enough. Activation was fast and intuitive, and iTunes syncs everything - mail accounts, music, photos, contacts, calendars, bookmarks - seamlessly. Compared to the nightmare that was trying to keep my contacts up to date and synced on my BB, this is just a dream.
Camera = very nice. Good picture quality, and the phone will upload your images into iPhoto as part of syncing if you wish. The big screen makes it easy to frame the picture, and the interface is great - very simple process to assign a photo to a contact (including multi-touch zooming and positioning).
Keyboard = love it. I'm already as fast on it as I was with BB's physical keyboard and I'm making fewer mistakes because the predictive correction really does work well. The way the keys expand when you touch them is critical to avoiding mistakes. They do need to fix the issue with making the keyboard available in landscape mode outside of just the web browser, though.
Can't think of too many substantial criticisms at this point, I'm just in love with this thing. It's so much more elegant and advanced than every other phone I've ever used it's difficult to even make comparisons.
* Interface = mind-boggling. Compared to my BlackBerry... well, there's just no comparison. It feels like my BB was designed by the Maquis de Sade next to this thing. Everything is incredibly intuitive (there isn't even a manual as such, just a booklet of "finger tips". There basically isn't anything I don't already know how to do easily and quickly on this phone - I understand it better than I do my BB, which I've had for a year.
* Screen = wonderful. Incredibly crisp and clear. Yes it does smudge but the smudges are only visible when you angle the screen to the light in a certain way and/or the screen is powered down. When you're just looking right at the screen during general use, you can't see any smudges or smears no matter how many there may be.
* Email and web-browsing = sweet. Email looks really beautiful and it's so easy to manage. The web browser works incredibly well with minimal need for zooming (particularly if you keep it in landscape mode) although it is a bit slow, even on wifi. I haven't dared try it on Edge yet, but I'll give that a shot when I'm out and about later today.
* YouTube = haven't really gotten this to work yet. I wonder if the service is getting hammered; even short videos are taking so long to load over wifi that I just gave up. We'll see how it shakes out - I considered this a bit of a gimmicky feature so I'm not that fussed.
iPod = yeah it really is the best iPod they've ever made. Cover flow looks beautiful, the touch controls are flawless and it's the first video iPod actually worth watching video on thanks to the big widescreen. Downloaded an episode of The Office to check out and it looks fab.
Syncing and activation = can't praise this enough. Activation was fast and intuitive, and iTunes syncs everything - mail accounts, music, photos, contacts, calendars, bookmarks - seamlessly. Compared to the nightmare that was trying to keep my contacts up to date and synced on my BB, this is just a dream.
Camera = very nice. Good picture quality, and the phone will upload your images into iPhoto as part of syncing if you wish. The big screen makes it easy to frame the picture, and the interface is great - very simple process to assign a photo to a contact (including multi-touch zooming and positioning).
Keyboard = love it. I'm already as fast on it as I was with BB's physical keyboard and I'm making fewer mistakes because the predictive correction really does work well. The way the keys expand when you touch them is critical to avoiding mistakes. They do need to fix the issue with making the keyboard available in landscape mode outside of just the web browser, though.
Can't think of too many substantial criticisms at this point, I'm just in love with this thing. It's so much more elegant and advanced than every other phone I've ever used it's difficult to even make comparisons.
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