Is the iPhone overhyped?

[PNWbrit]

Sounds like exactly the opposite of what steve was talking about. Thanks for paying attention.

Unity will transcribe voice mail to text

which is what he wanted?

voice recognition to text interface - so I could "read" my voicemail

and generate voice message from text

[wi3dzmin]

My bad.

[PNWbrit]

My bad.

Yep.

I was going to offer to email you the text of a voice mail explaining how it worked since other forms of communication were proving so challenging for you.

Consider how voice mail works on most phones. You've been skiing all day and when you grab your phone you find that you have seven voice mails. You were waiting for one important call, but you need to go through them one at a time in order they were received.

If you have visual voice mail (like on the iPhone) your voice mails will be shown on the screen in a list (like they were email) and you can select which one you want to listen to first, second, etc, or even delete ones right away if you see it's that annoying sales guy phoning again.

Just a little thing, but a handy feature.

Unity does this as well. Voice mails appear as messages within outlook and are handled as media files either playing through computer sound or using a simple tool bar to control an associated phone for playback. They can be stored locally like email, forwarded as simple sound file attachments to regular emails using outlook for distribution or transcribed and printed.

Stunningly good software.

Satisfied customer.

[steve]

Consider how voice mail works on most phones. You've been skiing all day and when you grab your phone you find that you have seven voice mails. You were waiting for one important call, but you need to go through them one at a time in order they were received.

If you have visual voicemail (like on the iPhone) your voice mails will be shown on the screen in a list (like they were email) and you can select which one you want to listen to first, second, etc, or even delete ones right away if you see it's that annoying sales guy phoning again.

Just a little thing, but a handy feature.

ahh, that's cool.
i was thinking the "visualizations" that came with windows media player.

does anyone actually like that?

[wi3dzmin]

Yep.

I was going to offer to email you the text of a voicemail explaining how it worked since other forms of communication were proving so challenging for you.

Doubt it would help.

You are welcome to send some vibes though.

[cj001f]

You are welcome to send some vibes though.

did the batteries die on your iVibe?

[The Jackamo]

Doesn't sound like it syncs to exchange.

not by the looks of it, no. just outlook and entourage.

edit: but the rumor mill is still contentedly spewing out guesses

[wi3dzmin]

did the batteries die on your iVibe?

Would that explain a pink bunny that jumped out yelling "iGoing, iGoing... iGone!" then made a "Pffft" noise while gradually vanishing into thin air?

[cj001f]

Would that explain a pink bunny that jumped out yelling "iGoing, iGoing... iGone!" then made a "Pffft" noise while gradually vanishing into thin air?

is that a normal orgasm for you?

[wi3dzmin]

is that a normal orgasm for you?

Ever since allofmp3.com got shut down it's been... no, this is just too soon.

Edit: You mean like sneeze?

[jibij]

Pretty funny review:

[skier0178]

not by the looks of it, no. just outlook and entourage.

edit: but the rumor mill is still contentedly spewing out guesses

Not a rumor, it's been confirmed in the reviews:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182...ain_promo_left

"Email: The iPhone can connect with most popular consumer email services, including Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, EarthLink and others. It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft's Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server."

[wi3dzmin]

It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft's Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server.

Yay WSJ for revealing the mystery of that "operate Exchange in the iPhone compatible mode" check box.

[Free Range Lobster]

NYTimes

THE SHITTY
There’s no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can’t install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser can’t handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos.

The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted. But it can’t capture video. And you can’t send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.

Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges. Eventually, you’ll have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement, much as you do now with an iPod, for a fee.

Then there’s the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.

Two things make the job tolerable. First, some very smart software offers to complete words for you, and, when you tap the wrong letter, figures out what word you intended. In both cases, tapping the Space bar accepts its suggestion.

Second, the instructional leaflet encourages you to “trust” the keyboard (or, as a product manager jokingly put it, to “use the Force”). It sounds like new-age baloney, but it works; once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably.

Even so, text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit. The BlackBerry won’t be going away anytime soon.

The bigger problem is the AT&T network. In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T’s signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizon’s slogan is, “Can you hear me now?” AT&T’s should be, “I’m losing you.”

Then there’s the Internet problem. When you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, going online is fast and satisfying.

But otherwise, you have to use AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.

THE GOOD
On the iPhone, you don’t check your voice mail; it checks you. One button press reveals your waiting messages, listed like e-mail. There’s no dialing in, no password — and no sleepy robot intoning, “You...have...twenty...one...messages.”

To answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up. (When you’re listening to music, that pinch pauses the song. A double-pinch advances to the next song.)

Making a call, though, can take as many as six steps: wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name. Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal.

E-mail is fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.

The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler. This isn’t some stripped-down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.

Finally, you can enlarge a Web page — or an e-mail message, or a photo — by spreading your thumb and forefinger on the glass. The image grows as though it’s on a sheet of latex.

The iPhone is also an iPod. When in its U.S.B. charging cradle, the iPhone slurps in music, videos and photos from your Mac or Windows PC. Photos, movies and even YouTube videos look spectacular on the bright 3.5-inch very-high-resolution screen.

The Google Maps module lets you view street maps or aerial photos for any address. It can provide driving directions, too. It’s not real G.P.S. — the iPhone doesn’t actually know where you are — so you tap the screen when you’re ready for the next driving instruction.

But how’s this for a consolation prize? Free live traffic reporting, indicated by color-coded roads on the map.

Apple says one battery charge is enough for 8 hours of calls, 7 hours of video or 24 hours of audio. My results weren’t quite as impressive: I got 5 hours of video and 23 hours of audio, probably because I didn’t turn off the phone, Wi-Fi and other features, as Apple did in its tests. In practice, you’ll probably wind up recharging about every other day.

[Free Range Lobster]

Technology
Seven Things to Consider Before Buying an iPhone
by Maria Godoy
The Apple iPhone

NPR.org, June 27, 2007 · Apple's iPhone isn't even for sale yet, but already, consumers are lining up to purchase the gadget. But do you really need the iPhone? Here are seven factors to consider before you buy:

1. The Cool Factor: As is true for many other Apple products, the iPhone's biggest "I want that" factor is its sleek styling. "If you love Apple, you love their gadgets, you have an iPod, you'll be one of the first in line," says Kent German, senior editor for cell phones at CNET.com, a technology news and reviews site.

The most eye-catching detail is, of course, the touch screen interface. You use your fingertips to access all of the iPhone's features: the music player, Web browser, calendar, etc. And of course, there's no keyboard, so to send e-mails, you'll need to get used to typing on a touch screen. "It takes practice," says New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, who has already tested out the iPhone.

2. Multimedia Mojo: It's a cell phone, it's a music player, it's a camera, it's a Web browser, and more. Ask yourself if you really need all that high-tech bling. (According to Forrester Research, most consumers say that what they want in a cell phone is that it actually work, last long and be easy to use.) If the answer is yes, then you should know that, according to Pogue, the video capability is "spectacular."

German notes that while other cell phones also offer an mp3 player, the iPhone is the only one that syncs with iTunes – the world's most popular music-download system – automatically. Of course, you do have to buy the song on your computer first, then transfer it to the iPhone.

3. Interacting With the Office: Then there's the straight-laced stuff to consider, such as how well you can work on the iPhone. If you're a Blackberry user who's always sending e-mails back and forth while away from your desk, getting used to the keyboard-less typing could take some time. "You'll really want to test that process before buying," German says. He notes that it's not yet known how well the iPhone will work with corporate servers to access e-mails and address books, or how it interacts with other computers. "If it does that well, then we might see a larger business audience," he says. But for now, he says, "Apple is certainly positioning this device for multimedia, for listening to music, for taking photos and for surfing the Web."

4. Internet Ease of Use: Because the touch screen essentially spans the length of the iPhone, users will get a wider viewing area than what the typical Internet-enabled phone offers. And the browser renders Web pages in full html – which means sites will look as they do on a regular computer.

Speed is another issue altogether. In wireless hot spots, Pogue says, getting online is a breeze. Otherwise, you're forced to rely on AT&T's wireless network – and that can make you "long for the days of a dialup modem," Pogue says.

5. Cell Phone Carrier: The iPhone can only be used with cell phone service from AT&T. "AT&T is the largest carrier," German says. "It has a very widespread network. It has the largest number of customers. So it is a natural choice for Apple."

But Pogue says his biggest gripe with the iPhone is AT&T's wireless cell phone and Internet service, which he calls "not good." If this is an issue, take heart: German notes that a strong debut for the iPhone could possibly prompt Apple to adapt it to work with other cell phone service providers.

6. Price: The iPhone will set you back $499 for the 4-gigabyte model, and $599 for the 8-gigabyte version. Beyond that, there's the service plan to consider. AT&T announced this week that its iPhone service plans will start at $59.99 a month, with a minimum two-year contract. There's also a $36 activation fee. And if you have to switch service providers, you may have to pay an early-termination fee as well.

7. Other Options: If you're ready to spend at least $500 for a cell phone, what else should you consider? In the $500 to $800 price range is the Prada-branded cell phone from LG and the HTC Touch; both also feature a touch screen. German says the Nokia N95 is a "really powerful smart phone" with a 5-megapixel built-in camera (the iPhone's camera is 2 megapixels); it also has a music player, e-mail capabilities and "other productivity applications." And if what you want is a phone that does double-duty as an mp3 player, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia all have phones that fit the bill.

[MrZach]

screw the iPhone, I want one of these:



http://www.piratepalooza.com/rphone/

[skier666]

Pros and cons from engadget...no mp3 ringtones? WTF? That means no aggressive alpine skier? The horror.

Well, the first reviews are in. But you may have missed some of the more interesting factoids unearthed by the trio of gadget reporters deigned worthy by El Jobso to get a pre-launch iPhone. Here's a few fresh n' interesting iPhone facts right off the presses:

The mobile version of OS X or whatever it is the iPhone runs takes up 700MB of the device's capacity. Damn son!
There's no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
Sorry, music can't be used as a ringtone -- even if it's just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.

On a PC the iPhone syncs with Outlook for calendars AND addresses! Noice.
It supports Exchange in some capacity, according to Walt, but he doesn't exactly say how.
Pogue again confirms document file reading -- but not editing -- for PDF, Word, and Excel (only).
Adobe Flash support is officially out. It's just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support. Sorry everybody, that's that.

It will take snaps, but won't record video. How can Apple love YouTube as much as it does and not realize cellphone-shot movies make up a sizeable chunk of the crazy crap you find on there?

[jibij]

iPhone, bitch!

[jibij]

Answering the question via my iPhone. Not overhyped.

[ryanvdonk]

but is it a pain in the ass to use it as a phone?

[edg]

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/...d=1.1.1&sflg=1

edg

[jibij]

but is it a pain in the ass to use it as a phone?

Nothing about the interface is difficult. As expected, Apple completely nailed it. Functionally, it's flawless. My only gripe is the speed of EDGE when DL'ing email or the web. Sounds like AT&T has been rolling out higher speeds across the country, so it's likely that gripe will go away soon.

[Arty50]

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/...d=1.1.1&sflg=1

edg

That's awesome. Stupid Texans. She's the kind of person that would have bought a PS2 box on ebay for $1,000. Nothing like spending 1k on a piece of cardboard.

In other news, my sister called and left me a message this morning to let me know that I was the first phone call on her brand new iPhone. Since she called really early and I was asleep at the time, I was thinking to myself "That's great, I really want to turn your iPhone into iTrash right now."

[skier666]

Hopefully they get5 the HaXX0rs involved soon, so we can get some cool shit on this thing, I'm still on the fence whether to keep it, sell it, or return it, when it arrives.

[Benny Profane]

Speed is another issue altogether. In wireless hot spots, Pogue says, getting online is a breeze. Otherwise, you're forced to rely on AT&T's wireless network – and that can make you "long for the days of a dialup modem," Pogue says.

well, that's nice. And AT&T coverage blows around here, compared to my Verizon.