Happily Returning iPhone & Getting Blackberry Back...

[J-Sauce]

With all due respect Apple may actually be helping our future generation by not including words in their dictionary such as fo shizzle, or dat instead of that. The list goes on and on. I guess I am one of the very few who speak and type normal proper words, so the keyboard is welcome to me.

100% agreed. Amen

 

[GregMcMuffin]

I've been in an Apple Store 3 times this week, spending long periods of time interacting with the iPhone. I want to love this phone so badly but...

It obviously was not ready for prime time. Apple over promised and under delivered. There are so many shortcomings with this product. Watch the next few weeks for all the other people speaking up about their disappointment.

First of all, for all those saying "this is a new product, don't expect it to be perfect... Apple will be providing software updates... etc" that is unacceptable. The device is $600 and you're paying a minimum of $60/month. Email communication should be very sophisticated and flexible on the iPhone -- besides making a phone call email is the next most important feature for people away from their home or office. Getting email 4 times an hour maximum is simply not frequent enough. There should be push email for sure ala blackberry. Here are some of the other shortcomings:

-- Safari crashes frequently. It crashed 3 times in one 15 minute session I had with the phone
-- Some apps you can rotate, some you can't. You end up guessing, and oh surprise it won't rotate the view. Sometimes there is long delay. One video I went to on Apple's website didn't play and I just got a black screen. Some consistency would be good there.
-- if you're browsing the web, calls go directly voicemail. why?
-- expensive headphones won't work without an adapter.
-- no realtime ichat
-- can't update any info on the phone through bluetooth connection with your main computer. Lame.
-- the so called third party apps can't be stored on the phone itself. You have to bookmark them and can only get them while online. Jobs calls them "Web 2.0 applications" but there is another name for them: "websites". That is all they are. HTML/Javascript/AJAX. Not very sophisticated. No Java, No Flash, No games.
-- maybe I missed it but I couldn't find out how to search the music library with keywords like we do with iTunes on the desktop. Sometimes still the fastest way to find a track.

On the good side:

--beautiful industrial design and user interface.
--multitouch very innovative. Although constantly pinching and stretching web pages in Safari to get them how I like them to appear was a constant amount of work. Get's tedious after a while. Still better than all other phones but not perfect either.
-- great iPod features.

And yes I'm a mac nut. I have an 8 core mac pro, a 17 inch macbook pro, 30 inch Cinema Display, 3 ipods, Final Cut Studio, Aperture, and just about every other Mac accessory. Apple makes fantastic products but the iPhone just needed more time. 12 months from now it will be great. But now it is a double instead of a home run. For those that love it -- awesome. For those that are disappointed -- you're not alone.

 

[bcaslis]

Seriously if you think having email settings allowing every minute versus every quarter hour is the difference between a good or bad product you're crazy.

It's called ease of use. 99.99% of all users will be perfectly happy with Apple's choices. If you can't stand them, then you can return it. You want every option under the sun? Get a Windows Mobile product. And be ready to spend a lot of your time dealing with hangs, crashes, and incompatibilities. Been there, done that. The iPhone is an excellent product, I think you have some things you frankly don't know about it and aren't really interested in learning. Your messages about having to delete the trash show that you didn't even take the time to properly setup your email that seems to be your big source of complaints.

Not sure what you are looking for here, but if you are looking for agreement or sympathy, this is the wrong place.

You are missing the point. Its not that I cant wait 15 mins for my email, its that Apple decided to put a limit on it and not give their users the option.

Whether I need my email checked every minute or every hour, is irrelevant. You have to take into account what your competitors are doing and when most other phones give their users the freedom to either set a check time or are automatically checking every 5 mins, it makes Apple look archaic.

 

[bcaslis]

I disagree. I've owned almost every smartphone out there. The iPhone has been more stable so far (had it since iDay) then every other smartphone I've used. It doesn't have all the functions in the world, but the one it does have work great. That's not being released too early, that's called proper design. The hardest thing in designing a product (I do product planning for software products) is to decide what not to put in. And that's what makes the difference between a product that excels at it's task and one that's bloatware.

I've been in an Apple Store 3 times this week, spending long periods of time interacting with the iPhone. I want to love this phone so badly but...

It obviously was not ready for prime time. Apple over promised and under delivered. There are so many shortcomings with this product. Watch the next few weeks for all the other people speaking up about their disappointment.
...

 

[GregMcMuffin]

I disagree. I've owned almost every smartphone out there. The iPhone has been more stable so far (had it since iDay) then every other smartphone I've used. It doesn't have all the functions in the world, but the one it does have work great. That's not being released too early, that's called proper design. The hardest thing in designing a product (I do product planning for software products) is to decide what not to put in. And that's what makes the difference between a product that excels at it's task and one that's bloatware.

Well I can relate -- I design software for a living. Not claiming to know everything about everything, but I know Apple quite well. Publicly, they disclosed that resources were diverted from Leopard to work on the iPhone. That's an indicator right there that it was a challenge to get it out on time and you can safely bet some features were "delayed" (aka scrapped) just to get it out the door. It shows. I'm not saying it's a disaster by any means. It's a very good product. But it's buggy and clearly rushed. The silver lining for the early adopters is that the hardware won't be obsolete for a long time and you WILL get software updates. And in the meantime you have a very usable mobile phone. But Apple is capable of that extra icing on the cake.

 

[kgelner]

There should be push email for sure ala blackberry. Here are some of the other shortcomings:

There is push email, but only from Yahoo. What other devices do consumer push?

-- Safari crashes frequently. It crashed 3 times in one 15 minute session I had with the phone

I've had it crash a few times, but not that often - but the nice thing is when it does crash you are just back Home and go into it again without restarting the phone.

-- if you're browsing the web, calls go directly voicemail. why?

That's only when browsing using EDGE, which can't support a voice call at the same time. If you are on WiFi you can take calls.

-- expensive headphones won't work without an adapter.

Only $9.99, and actually as someone else was telling me earlier today, the benefit is that the jack itself is then less prone to damage from headphones yanking the devices about (my 1st gen iPod jack is starting to have some issues so I think this may be a decent point, though I still wish it were less recessed.

-- no realtime ichat

Meebo works in the browser.

-- can't update any info on the phone through bluetooth connection with your main computer. Lame.

I'd like to see that to, but the nice thing is sync also is charging the phone.

-- the so called third party apps can't be stored on the phone itself. You have to bookmark them and can only get them while online. Jobs calls them "Web 2.0 applications" but there is another name for them: "websites". That is all they are. HTML/Javascript/AJAX. Not very sophisticated. No Java, No Flash, No games.

There are some (very few) Javascript games. But I think we'll see some iPhone games rather soon from ITMS.

-- maybe I missed it but I couldn't find out how to search the music library with keywords like we do with iTunes on the desktop. Sometimes still the fastest way to find a track.

The closest you can come to that is configuing the iPhone part to have specific categories you are likley to search by on the front page, and having you use the scroll bar and letter seelction to jump quickly to items.

--multitouch very innovative. Although constantly pinching and stretching web pages in Safari to get them how I like them to appear was a constant amount of work. Get's tedious after a while. Still better than all other phones but not perfect either.

Helped a lot using the double-tap to zoom on a text region. Also you can press the top bar (around the time) to jump quickly to the top of a page.

 

[tamakin]

The device is $600 and you're paying a minimum of $60/month.

Greg, I'm paying $46 a month.. I have an old cingular voice plan that is $26 a month.. add the iPhone unlimited data plan for $20 and I'm only paying $46.. in the long run, I'll be saving more money than the average blackberry user who pays $39.99 for unlimited data ALONE... I love my iPhone

 

[Fafafoooey]

I am so disappointed with the iPhone. How Apple managed to take such a pretty looking device and screw it up so bad is just awful.

The email program is absolutely awful. Checking only 15mins...not being able to select multiple emails for delete...on top of that, having to then go into the Trash folder and AGAIN, delete one by one...no copy and paste...etc.

I don't think i am being picky. These are functions that PDA's have had for YEARS! Its like Apple decided to take a step backwards with the email program.

Additionally, the battery life sucks. Why its not removable is just stupid. Another way for Apple to make more money off us. $80 for a replacement once a year. Forget that!

The keyboard...not even going to get into it. If you have an iPhone, you know my frustrations. In todays world, we email and text in cyber-slang. Almost every email i have written, it has changed the word i meant for it to be, to something completely different.

I haven't been waiting 5 months for this device...i have been waiting over 5 years, since the Newton, for Apple to come back out with a handheld.

Wasted time.

Hey, sorry the iPhone was not for you, and I can understand that. I have the iPhone and a Blackberry 8800 from work. They definitely serve 2 different types of people, and 2 very different audiences.

Maybe when the iPhone updates the software and tweaks it and adds the bunch of features that they are supposed to be, you might change your mind.

Remember, the version of software is 1.0, so this is the same version as whenever they started manufacturing, which means it is quite old. Probably since the announcement in Jan 2007. When they provide the update, the first of which is supposed to come out before Leopard, I am sure that a lot of peoples' concerns will be addressed.

 

[applefreak]

Clearly the author (troll) never owned an iPhone and probably can't afford one. Jealous, he comes here to try and rile up the more affluent members of society that own the best phone ever conceived.

Can't believe you all fell for this. The clear bullshit flag was raised on the "poor battery life" comment.

 

[justahsquirrel]

you should give it a chance i mean they are going to fix these problems through updates and then some. and for me the battery is not a problem because hwens the last time i had to replace a phone battery or even ipod battery for that matter? never.and if it comes down to it cool i send my iPhone in the Apple and i get it back within a week for free. no problem.

The squirrels view on these whiney bit*he's:

All I hear are all these damn complaints about battery life and being able to do certain things like copy and paste. Damn people. We have to learn to crawl before we can walk right? Right. Some yall seem to have forgotten that this is Apples first phone and you all knew to expect a few bugs along the way. The issues will have to be addressed. If all of the one million iPhone were returned that would look bad on Apple. So its certain that there will be and update to fiX these problems. As for the keyboard issues some of you are bit*hing about.... Well I have no problems with it at all. I find it fun. It does take some time to get used too but hey it works fine. It was not meant to type out your damn thesis on thermodynamics but its made to get your message across. If you feel the need to return your phone go right ahead and I will quote someone......"don't let the door hit yah on yah way out".....oh yeah.... The dictionary learned all my words so it knows me. I think your phone hates you.


The squirrel.

 

[GregMcMuffin]

Clearly the author (troll) never owned an iPhone and probably can't afford one. Jealous, he comes here to try and rile up the more affluent members of society that own the best phone ever conceived.

woah stand back everyone, Donald Trump is in the house!

 

[applefreak]

Well I'm doing well for myself and earned every bit of it.

 

[oembios]

RIM and Palm were new companies that released new devices. Apple has been around since the 80's and already has the experience. don't make excuses for them.

Kudos to you AppleLA!

For putting up with the direct attacks on you and your (right to your own) opinions. It's very telling when Apple lovers fall into the gutter, take it personally, and go on the attack.......

Nice Work AppleLA, it's refreshing to hear from an intelligent adult. Someone that knows how to think for themselves.

 

[Platinum]

Kudos to you AppleLA!

For putting up with the direct attacks on you and your (right to your own) opinions. It's very telling when Apple lovers fall into the gutter, take it personally, and go on the attack.......

Nice Work AppleLA, it's refreshing to hear from an intelligent adult. Someone that knows how to think for themselves.

Trolls unite, eh?

 

[oembios]

I've owned almost every smartphone out there.

I have too.

The iPhone has been more stable so far (had it since iDay) then every other smartphone I've used.

Wish I could say that. My iPhone experience has been very mixed.

And I'm writing this from my new MacBook Pro, my 6th Apple laptop. I'm on my 4th new iPod, love em all.

Based on my long time Apple experience I'm standing ready to plunk down the cash for the next version. Hurry Apple, you can do much better that this, you always do after a few tries.

 

[blkgenji]

Kudos to you AppleLA!

For putting up with the direct attacks on you and your (right to your own) opinions. It's very telling when Apple lovers fall into the gutter, take it personally, and go on the attack.......

Nice Work AppleLA, it's refreshing to hear from an intelligent adult. Someone that knows how to think for themselves.

It is funny how folks try to compare the iPhone to a BlackBerry. That is like comparing an Apple to an Orange. I own both an 8700c Blackberry and an 8Gb iPhone. Each function well at what they were intended to do

Just my 2Cents

 

[oembios]

Trolls unite, eh?

This comment above proves the point. Touchy Touchy.....

 

[oembios]

It is funny how folks try to compare the iPhone to a BlackBerry. That is like comparing an Apple to an Orange. I own both an 8700c Blackberry and an 8Gb iPhone. Each function well at what they were intended to do

I agree with you, they are two different devices within one group (mobile smart phones).

I read it more as an observation, not a comparison. It seemed to be a comment on what was important to the OP and what device provides that feature.

My iPhone is definitely an Apple entertainment device.
My BlackBerry is a professional communications device.
My Samsung A717 is a Fast 3G, ultra thin & light flip phone.
My MacBook Pro is certainly an Apple computer.

And they all have their purpose.....

 

[oembios]

woah stand back everyone, Donald Trump is in the house!

10 points for your humor!

 

[gt1948]

I am so disappointed with the iPhone. How Apple managed to take such a pretty looking device and screw it up so bad is just awful.

The email program is absolutely awful. Checking only 15mins...not being able to select multiple emails for delete...on top of that, having to then go into the Trash folder and AGAIN, delete one by one...no copy and paste...etc.

I don't think i am being picky. These are functions that PDA's have had for YEARS! Its like Apple decided to take a step backwards with the email program.

Additionally, the battery life sucks. Why its not removable is just stupid. Another way for Apple to make more money off us. $80 for a replacement once a year. Forget that!

The keyboard...not even going to get into it. If you have an iPhone, you know my frustrations. In todays world, we email and text in cyber-slang. Almost every email i have written, it has changed the word i meant for it to be, to something completely different.

I haven't been waiting 5 months for this device...i have been waiting over 5 years, since the Newton, for Apple to come back out with a handheld.

Wasted time.

you work for MS?