We are going to bring Jajah Mobile to the iPhone as soon as it becomes available. iPhone users will be able to make free or very low cost global Jajah calls with a single click, without a special download, other equipment, wi-fi or broadband access.
Personally, I am completely mezmerized by the iphone. I've had one of those first-gen "computer phones" - it was an HP iPaq. It was massive. It required a special belt to carry it around. One thing I absolutely hated about that phone was the fact that when you put it up to your ear, your ear would inevitably touch the screen. It so happened that my ear would always hit the volume control and the person on the other end would get muted. I'm serious.
When I first read about the iphone, the feature that stuck out for me was that this type of thing can't happen. They already thought of and dealt with that. It's the little things that count, and this is just one of the many many many little things they've dealt with.
It makes me think that I'd love to be involved with the design (both functional and form) teams at Apple. The work they do is incredible and well beyond any of their competition (if you can call it that).
We are going to bring Jajah Mobile to the iPhone as soon as it becomes available. iPhone users will be able to make free or very low cost global Jajah calls with a single click, without a special download, other equipment, wi-fi or broadband access.
I don't think this will be allowed under the terms of agreement between Apple Inc. and their partner carrier. Anything that takes away from the carrier's (Verizon is it?) potential to charge for service will surely be restricted.
This is sad because Apple does not restrict by principle, however it is going to have to compromise certain principles to get the phone to market initially. Once it succeeds to the point where it impacts positively and profitably and the agreement with the carrier expires, the re-negotiation will surely benefit us, the consumers, more favorably.
its AT&T/Cingular. Verizon declined to carry the iphone, citing Apple was too aggressive, and wanted lot of concessions. jajah works in windows mobile phones, the carriers don't mind. ur still using their minutes so they are still making money
@MySchizoBuddy
"Smartphones use Windows Mobile Standard version
PDA's use Windows Mobile Professional version"
Is my Qtek s200/HTC Prophet a PDA?
It has a touchscreen, Pocket Word and was/is sold as a cellphone.
I like that iPhone. I will buy two. One for me and one for my girlfriend.
And I think I will buy one of those black iMacs I read about @ macworld.se too. Then my phone will match my computer.
From: http://www.macrumors.com/2007/06/08/iphone-details-from-atandts-sales-training-workbook/
Revolutionary Mobile Phone
- Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger - I don't know about you but I use my fingers on my current mobile phone. It's not a dic(k)taphone.
- Create and manage a list of telephone numbers you call most - Speed Dial?
- If you choose to answer the call, the video will pause and resume once the call ends - That's standard.
- iPhone syncs contact information from the computer to iPhone (from Address Book on a Mac or Outlook or Outlook Express on a Windows PC). - OK, no other phone syncs with iTunes so I'll let that go.
- Built-in speakerphone - Standard for any phone at that price point.
- iPhone lets you carry on a phone conversation while you simultaneously browse the Internet or send an email. - Once again, standard for any phone at that price point.
- There is a vibrate mode. - They finally made the iBrator.
Photos
- Sync photos from Mac or PC - Already present on most, if not all, new Nokias.
SMS Text Messaging
- SMS text message button shows how many new messages are waiting - Like all phones have done since SMS was introduced?
- Threaded conversations - Now this IS good. Why has this not been done before? I want this feature.
- Hear an audio alert for new messages - Seriously, they think that's worth mentioning?
- Error correction and prevention in the keyboard. Only displayed when you need it. - Really only applies to the iPhone. A useful feature.
- iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with instant messaging users - Probably can now you're able to install 3rd party apps. Unless there's some sort of network block.
- Does not support MMS messaging for photos or videos - WTF? What's the point of putting a camera in the phone if you're not going to let people send them straight off in a message? e-mailing a message is all well and good but an MMS is because not everyone has e-mail on their phone. Poor show Apple.
Music and Video
- All videos play in landscape mode - Woop de doo!
- If you prefer your widescreen content to take up the entire screen, you can double tap the video and iPhone will automatically scale the video to take up the entire screen - When it says scales I guess it means cropping the edges as I doubt Apple would let the image be distorted.
- Sync music with iTunes just like any other iPod - Well, that's much better than the way I have to do it with my N95.
- Select how to display music: by playlist, artist, songs or more. - Meh.
- Media Net, MobiTV, or Cellular Video are not available on iPhone - I can only guess what those are.
Email
- Rich formatting - OK, this is nice. Nokia haven't included this and I wish they had so full marks here.
- Support for IMAP and POP3 - Old.
- Yahoo! Push Mail - Does this mean the Push feature Jobs talked about when he introduced the iPhone only works with Yahoo? If so that sucks. I thought it was going to be a much nicer feature.
- Automatic address completion - Nice!
Safari
- Double tap an object to make it fill the screen, and double tap to zoom out - OK.
- Can have multiple websites open at once and switch between them - Can do that on my N95 using the browser built in and been able to do it with Opera Mini for a long time.
- Websites you have bookmarked on your computer will be transfered to your iPhone from your Mac or PC - That's cool.
Google Maps
- iPhone will not support the TeleNav solutions currently offered by other AT&T devices - Don't know what that is. I assume it's some sort of location service.
- GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set. - Shame but I doubted it would be as it would've been mentioned initially. I've got it on my N95 though.
So in summary. A lovely looking phone with a gorgeous interface but pretty standard/below par features elsewhere. Shame, this phone could've been so damn good. They're charging far too much for this phone. Especially when they're making a 50% profit on the thing. They could get much better penetration by dropping the price. They're fleecing people who are willing to pay to be part of an open Apple Beta test and aren't even calling it that. For shame.
Hopefully they'll get their act together and do something truly revolutionary for the second revision. If it's as good/better than my N95 then I'll be getting it. If it follow the iPod then it'll be an awesome next version. Bring on iPhone²!
Personally, I think one of the best features is that (as Steve Jobs has publicly stated) that Apple will push out regular software and OS upgrades (via iTunes) to the iPhone over time to implement new features.
So, just like the iPod, you'll go to do a Sync on your iPhone, and when a new update is available, it will ask you if you want to upgrade the software on your iPhone (a simple yes/no). And in one click, you're iPhone will do things it never did before. Apple already does that with the iPod and is doing that with the AppleTV in the next two weeks (when they add in a new YouTube channel to everyone's AppleTV boxes).
In reality it should really be that easy to upgrade the software on all phones. But, sadly, it's just not the case. With most phones, the software that comes on them is the same software you throw them away with. With the iPhone, the features and experiences will only continue to grow and improve. This is not to say that you can't upgrade the software on other phones. Obviously, you can. But it's not nearly as easy.
So, everyone can complain about how the iPhone doesn't have this or doesn't have that, but at least those features can easily be improved over time. So what if only Yahoo is the only Push provider right now?..It's not like GMail won't be far behind with a similar service that you'll be able to upgrade to... If you think about it that way, it doesn't pay to wait for a second revision. Get the iPhone now, and just upgrade it as you go...
The features I really want upgraded are hardware though which means I can't really justify getting one.
3G
Better camera
Larger drive space.
The 3G is essential with such a data heavy phone.
The camera is just me being spoilt by my N95 camera. It's great.
Larger space is also me being greedy. I have a 40gig iPod and find that limiting for space. I love my music and I love having lots of music but I often find myself wanting to listen to something that's not on my iPod. That's because I'm a dirty communist and have a 120gig music collection. I daren't think what it'll be like when I add in my vinyl as I'm planning :s I hope the next version has an 80gig option. Larger would be appreciated but I'm being reasonable ;)
As for software updates, I get over the air on my phone (minor updates) and major updates through the PC software. I couldn't call them regular but they exist.
http://www.nokia.com/A4176089
I, personally don't find it at all tricky. Whilst not as simple as simply connecting your phone to the one piece of software it's still pretty simple.
The syncing of your iPhone with iTunes is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. Even though I'm not a big fan of iTunes I do appreciate it's simpleness. Sticking with that software is a master stroke and something for which Apple should be applauded.
As you say, everyone can complain that the iPhone doesn't have this or that but that's because it was presented in such fanfare that most people expected nothing but the most perfect phone. Instead it's not that and I feel a bit let down.
Watching that Keynote address when it was announced I wondered if I was seeing the same thing as everyone in the room. They cheered as if Jobs had just turned lead into gold when he demonstrated a conference call! That's insane. That's not revolutionary. The only revolutionary part of the phone is the OS it's running on and the touch screen interface. I just wish the hardware could back that up.
I love having the latest phones and I just find myself getting annoyed that the iPhone isn't a major step forward for phones. I wanted Apple to step into the arena and give a proper earthquake style shake up to the rest of the companies doing phones. To be honest, I wish they'd let Nokia do the hardware and stuck to the software. If they had then I'd be in heaven. Perfect software and perfect hardware. Oh yeaaaaaah.
I'm pretty sure that the keynote conference call happened with only one touch to the interface. It was a flawless execution of something that's otherwise usually a pain to do. That's probably what most people found to be revolutionary. (Granted it's not the same is touching a voice-controlled lapel-communicator with one finger, but it's not bad). It's important to note that the iPhone isn't really about doing revolutionary things. It's about doing tasks better than they were ever possible in the past. For instance, most phones brag that they do Internet browsing. But as of yet, nothing comes close to the iPhone's full web browser (with CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 support).
Plus, the iPhone does true multi tasking. And, there's no other phone out there that can switch between apps so gracefully and quickly (check out the latest commercials on Apple.com). If you're downloading a huge web page, you can do other things while it continues to download in the background.
The Treo, for instance, only does "limited multitasking" to certain applications -- which means on a Treo you can't multi-task to apps which use the serial library during a call, such as another wireless application. So, on a Treo, you can't download a web page in the background while you are making a voice call. And if anything, most smart-phones only do "suspend one application and switch to another one." That's not true multi-tasking. So, it appears as though the iPhone is the first mobile phone with a true multi-tasking OS. (It is OS X after all).
But, I'm not sure what I understand what you're expecting the hardware to be other than 3G (which I believe will be added next year with software updates) a bigger hard drive and a better camera. To be honest, I don't think Noika could have done a better job. It's not like Nokia does anything earth shattering with their phones either. Nokia basically does what everyone else does.
So, OK then. Let's hear it...
If you could design the perfect phone (Hardware and Software) what would it have in it?
OK, I'll give you that the conference call was smooth but I still don't feel it was worthy of that sort of applause.
I don't know about the CSS support on the Nokia browser. I've not encountered a problem yet with any site not displaying correctly though. I do doubt it has CSS3 support. I suppose I could check on the W3C site.
As for multi-tasking I would say the N95 does it and does it well. I was speaking to a friend using VOIP, handsfree, whilst recording a video of my mate being a fool on Sing Star. At the same time I sent an e-mail out to friends about a night out that I was arranging with the person on the other end of the line. When I'd done that I loaded up Google Calendar and added the night out to that. I call that multi-tasking myself. What I didn't do was mix GPRS and Wireless access. I always use the wireless at home. I don't doubt they would work together nicely. There was definitely three things happening at a time there without any app being suspended.
I don't know if 3G can be added via software unless they've included the hardware already and it needs to be activated via a software update. I know they did this with the Wireless N hardware. I don't know about you but I wouldn't be happy paying $500 for a phone then having to pay extra to use 3G.
If I could design the perfect phone then it would have the iPhone interface, including the touch screen action and the N95 internals. Ideally it'd have that 80gig internal memory but that's a year or two away right now. I'd also have a better GPS chip than there is currently in the N95. I know that a new one has just come out that's significantly better than the one in there right now. Faster satellite pickup and with lower energy consumption. However, that came out too late to be in the N95. The rest of the phone is great.
I hope that's answered your question :)
Before anyone says it, I'm not looking at you Dan39, I'm not bashing the iPhone. I'm just expressing a desire that it was as great as it's being made out to be. I used the word revolutionary because that's the word I've heard most in connection with the iPhone.
I see your point, and I do agree.
On a side note, Apple has said that they're not going to charge users in the future for the ability to switch on hidden functionality -- like they did with the 802.11n wireless upgrade via software update. They got a lot of flack for that.
BTW, thought you'd like to know that the Nokia Web Browser (first introduced in the Nokia S60) was actually spawned from a port of the WebCore and JavaScriptCore components of Apple's Safari WebKit. (WebKit is the OpenSource rendering engine that powers Safari in OS X and the iPhone):
http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Browser_for_S60
So, Nokia's Mobile Web Browser is pretty much the same rendering engine as the iPhone's. That would explain why they both have such good support for CSS2/CSS3.
You can read more about it here:
http://webkit.org/blog/58/nokias-first-step/
http://press.nokia.com/PR/200511/1019239_5.html
–Dan
I'm glad we agree :)
Hidden functionality certainly makes me think of 3G action. Nice.
I like those facts about the rendering engine. Could explain why it's pretty fast.
Optical glass is pretty tough, however, like anything else this precious, don't drop it! This is to ensure it does not scratch as easily as plastic on current devices. As for the price, it's more than a phone, it's a state-of-the-art iPod, web browser, email doovie and sexy toy-gadget, there is nothing to compare it to so it sets the standard as far as price goes. If you can't afford one, just get a bib to catch the drool! I can't afford one either, which is just as well since we won't get it down-under for a while yet.
Hmm. Interesting promo video. One major gripe I have with it is that throughout the ENTIRE thing (except about 10 seconds worth of typing), he was interfacing with it purely using his index finger. Call me young and modern, but when I'm doing pretty much anything with my phone (except frantic texting) I hold it in my right hand and use my thumb to interface with it. Although I realise (particularly having had a touchscreen phone for the past 12 days which today I got rid of for various reasons) that designing the phone in order to be useable when held like this is a challenge, I'd be willing to bet that if I tried to use the iphone single handedly it would be pretty annoying. I dont know what they can do about that but it does bug me slightly. Maybe I'm just being pedantic.
Regardless we dont get it on this side of the pond for many months to come, so I'd rather you guys quit teasing me.
Comments
Personally, I am completely mezmerized by the iphone. I've had one of those first-gen "computer phones" - it was an HP iPaq. It was massive. It required a special belt to carry it around. One thing I absolutely hated about that phone was the fact that when you put it up to your ear, your ear would inevitably touch the screen. It so happened that my ear would always hit the volume control and the person on the other end would get muted. I'm serious.
When I first read about the iphone, the feature that stuck out for me was that this type of thing can't happen. They already thought of and dealt with that. It's the little things that count, and this is just one of the many many many little things they've dealt with.
It makes me think that I'd love to be involved with the design (both functional and form) teams at Apple. The work they do is incredible and well beyond any of their competition (if you can call it that).
This is sad because Apple does not restrict by principle, however it is going to have to compromise certain principles to get the phone to market initially. Once it succeeds to the point where it impacts positively and profitably and the agreement with the carrier expires, the re-negotiation will surely benefit us, the consumers, more favorably.
Posted: Saturday, 3 March 2007 at 12:57PM (AEDT)
Verizon declined to carry the iphone, citing Apple was too aggressive, and wanted lot of concessions.
jajah works in windows mobile phones, the carriers don't mind. ur still using their minutes so they are still making money
Posted: Tuesday, 26 June 2007 at 9:11PM
This is to ensure it does not scratch as easily as plastic on current devices.
As for the price, it's more than a phone, it's a state-of-the-art iPod, web browser, email doovie and sexy toy-gadget, there is nothing to compare it to so it sets the standard as far as price goes. If you can't afford one, just get a bib to catch the drool!
I can't afford one either, which is just as well since we won't get it down-under for a while yet.
Posted: Wednesday, 27 June 2007 at 10:37AM
As for teasing, I'm at the bottom end of the pond!
Posted: Thursday, 28 June 2007 at 10:31AM