Buying an iPhone is like going to the movies and paying half price but only getting to see the trailers. Apart from its advances in touch screen technology and innovation in manufacturing hype, the iPhone charges users to be introduced to a monopoly market of Apple branded products. It is hoped you would start buying songs, movies and TV shows from iTunes, iPhone applications from the apple iStore, wireless headsets to enjoy your music and who knows, the bitten apple might even convince you to get a matching colour iMac or iBook. Even better, upgrade your iphone to the next model coming out in a few months time, which may make baby steps towards being comparable to similar smartphones on the market.
If accessorising is your thing, then the following features that the iPhone doesn't have won't concern you.
If accessorising is your thing, then the following features that the iPhone doesn't have won't concern you.
Voice dialling I already mentioned in the previous post that one of the most celebrated features of the iphone (touch screen) is also its downfall, but equally amazing is that they have not made the effort to enable voice dialling on the iphone - something that comes standard on the Nokia E65.
The Toy Camera There is nothing funnier than hearing media organisations seemingly reading out of the Apple media release about the features on the iPhone. The camera resolution is a poultry 2 megapixels which is less than half that of the Nokia N95 and the same as the Nokia E65 (though released two years after the E65). On top of that, it has no zoom, can't take videos and don't even think about taking photos at night because there is no flash. I think the Nokia 6230 in 2003 was able to take videos and zoom. Flash comes standard with all N-series and most other Nokias.
What's MMS? Well, maybe in a few years time you will hear about MMS capability on the iphone. For the rest of us, its the ability to send pictures and videos over the network to your friend for only 2x the cost of a SMS. Iphones have no MMS capability. Again, this feature was out in 2003 with Nokias and of course with the E65.
Disabled Bluetooth capability How's this for annoying? Bluetooth technology allows phones to wirelessley connect to other phones, computers, advertising promotions etc (see this link for bluetooth capabilities in the E65) has been installed on iPhones ... but you can only connect to audio headsets. Correct me if I'm wrong.. this means that the iphone cannot receive contacts from another phone via bluetooth?
Predictive text Perhaps designers of the iphone thought users would only watch videos and listen to itunes downloaded music. It was mentioned before that you cutting and pasting is impossible on iphone but also the predictive text feature is hard to escape from when the words you want to use are not there.
Limited access to Online Videos etc You hear a lot about iphone enabled websites coming up to meet the demand of iphone users but for some reason we didn't hear such a response to other smartphones. This is partly because iphone does not include a flash player and therefore a lot of online content such as those provided by Australia's Optus network, Telstra and Vodafone actually do not work on the iphone but do work on the Nokia E65 and other Nokia phones. An analyst has suggested in a recent article that Apple's strategy could be to force users to buy content from iTunes instead.
One thing I especially object to is the continual use of "Jesus phone" as a reference to the iPhone. Since when did marketing involve blasphemy, especially with such a low-features product such as the iphone? Those in true search for salvation should go here instead.
Part one of this post can be found here:Warning about iEnvy
What's MMS? Well, maybe in a few years time you will hear about MMS capability on the iphone. For the rest of us, its the ability to send pictures and videos over the network to your friend for only 2x the cost of a SMS. Iphones have no MMS capability. Again, this feature was out in 2003 with Nokias and of course with the E65.
Disabled Bluetooth capability How's this for annoying? Bluetooth technology allows phones to wirelessley connect to other phones, computers, advertising promotions etc (see this link for bluetooth capabilities in the E65) has been installed on iPhones ... but you can only connect to audio headsets. Correct me if I'm wrong.. this means that the iphone cannot receive contacts from another phone via bluetooth?
Predictive text Perhaps designers of the iphone thought users would only watch videos and listen to itunes downloaded music. It was mentioned before that you cutting and pasting is impossible on iphone but also the predictive text feature is hard to escape from when the words you want to use are not there.
Limited access to Online Videos etc You hear a lot about iphone enabled websites coming up to meet the demand of iphone users but for some reason we didn't hear such a response to other smartphones. This is partly because iphone does not include a flash player and therefore a lot of online content such as those provided by Australia's Optus network, Telstra and Vodafone actually do not work on the iphone but do work on the Nokia E65 and other Nokia phones. An analyst has suggested in a recent article that Apple's strategy could be to force users to buy content from iTunes instead.
One thing I especially object to is the continual use of "Jesus phone" as a reference to the iPhone. Since when did marketing involve blasphemy, especially with such a low-features product such as the iphone? Those in true search for salvation should go here instead.
Part one of this post can be found here:Warning about iEnvy
Just a few comments to make as I ended up jumping onto the iPhone band wagon. Few things that you have mentioned are a bit misleading and not well researched.
ReplyDelete1. Toy Camera
I initially thought that the 2mega pixel camera a bit of a joke to start off with. But after taking a few photos I was pleasantly suprised. The camera itself does an excellent job. Many people think that the higher the mega pixel the better the picture quality. This is indeed wrong as alot of it depends on the processing chip in the camera. The megapixel mainly determines the resolution of the picture. Here is a photo I took - http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2924/photolc4.jpg . I do however agree that it should be alot higher as today's standard is a lot higher than 2 megapixels.
2. Predictive text
The iphone doesnt need predictive text because it doesn't use a numeric keypad. Predictive text is only required in a situation when a QWERTY keyboard isn't present. In saying that predictive text is still available but presented in a different way. For example, when partially typing a word a dialog box will appear to suggest words for you, if the word you are looking for is in that box then you select it, if not you close the dialog box. Also if you mis spell a word i.e. "teh" instead of "the" it will automatically correct it. The common words that you use are also saved into the system.
3. Video access
It is correct that Flash is not intergrated into the iphones, and therefore cannot play alot of online videos. First off Apple is finding a way to install the full version Flash instead of Flash lite which many Nokias and SE are currently using. Secondly the iphone has a native YouTube application. This app runs extremely fast as it doesn't use a browser. Also if you want to view youtube videos integrated into a website you can. Quicktime videos are also viewable. Most consumers wouldn't view more than youtube and quicktime videos so it really isn't a problem.
Over the next few months Apple will address the issue of Cut and Paste with software updates. Rumour has it that MMS will be included. IF that happens the iphone doesn't lack much except for the low megapixel camera and degraded bluetooth.
It is now November 2008 and we are still waiting on these supposed 'updates' from Apple...
ReplyDeleteThey are too busy ripping people off with their toy phones.
ReplyDelete"The camera resolution is a poultry 2 megapixels which is less than half that of the Nokia N95..."
ReplyDeleteI think you meant paltry. hehe
@Red86: Most cell phone cameras aren't much better than 2.0 mp-but somehow, iPhone pictures always look a little...grainy. Also, I think my main problem with the iPhone is the no-video thing. Come on. Every ten-dollar phone in the world has video. And the most hyped-up "smartphone" doesn't have it? I saw the ad for the newer iPhone 3Gs today-"now with video!" as if it were a new technology, and not something that should have been included in the original iPhone.
ReplyDeleteApple really, really bugs me.
my sentiments exactly. They may be a very good company but the way they rip people off gets to me. They treat people like idiots which in many cases they may be right.
ReplyDelete