I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Posted by Rod in Apple, Communications at 11:37 am on Friday, 6 July 2007
Simmsy popped in today with his new iPhone. It is gorgeous! Much thinner than what I thought. The hi-res screen is just lovely.
As a wifi surfing + iPod device it is not too bad. Ordered.
blog
gear freak!
I just bought a new smart phone and I like that - it’ll do me for awhile anyway!
Hmmm…
I personally don’t think we are going to see legit iPhone in NZ for a great length of time. Telecom’s current network is a no-go, and going off the rumors that 02 have the contract in the UK (and likely Europe in general) I can’t see Vodafone NZ having much luck. I suspect out great white hope is Vodafone OZ securing a deal which may include NZ too.
Until then you’ve got yourself an ipod without the highly regarded traditional scrollwheel interface, and a rather expensive touchscreen wifi web client.
Even if the hacks do come out to get the phone working on other networks, you are going to be waving goodbye to updates, patches, warranty, downloaded voicemail, and probably google maps etc. Apple could even lock down SMS if they wanted to.
So then are you left with a device that was great because of the “beautiful seams” user experience, but most of the seams have been ripped out.
The constrained ecosystem apple employs to give such great user experiences worked fine for the ipod (for most), as the experience gets wider on the iphone the constraints are starting to be more of a problem.
I’m more optimistic than Ross. Similar debate to the one about Windows running on OSX.
Reading …
iPhone independence day
http://nanocr.eu/2007/07/03/iphone-without-att/
Also, default (root and mobile) passwords are out …
http://www.builderau.com.au/blogs/byteclub/viewblogpost.htm?p=339270810
http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2007-07/0015.html
It’s a phone.
Went into the Apple store here in Bellevue yesterday and had a play with one of them. Beautiful looking machine, nice and light, keyboard surprisingly accurate to type on, but not what I want to be using as part of my day-to-day work just yet. I spent one-sixth of the price on a Samsung Blackjack instead…. just for starters, the 3G UTMS is definitely nicer than EDGE. :)
I’m desperately resisting my early adopter desires the same as I did for PS3. I hate to say it, but Apple’s first release of hardware these days is rarely good. I bought one of the very first MacBook Pro’s and it is poked. I’ve had to replace logic board, memory (twice) and now the optical drive. The batteries on the first gen iPod’s would die after about 9 months on average and weren’t covered by warranty. I have had 2 first gen iPod Shuffles die within 2 months of getting them. I predict a number of iPhone related woes in the next few months.
Is that an accounting system in your pocket? Very subtle Rod.
Of course you could always get an iPhone in the States, sign-up with AT&T (using some US credentials I imagine), and then roam in NZ. If you thought Vodafone’s charges were high, those roaming charges would be a killer - still you’d have a working iPhone years before other kiwis. Or just make do with your (cheaper) Treo or Blackberry. Nice marketing toy from Apple though.
I would dread the day it’s lost, dropped or stolen!
Too much responsibility for me. ;-)
Buena Suerte!
maitland
it’s funny how a LOT of Steve Jobs demo focused on the iPod features like the album art and the scrolling through songs… definitely another candidate for the “eye-candy” awards
I came across this: (not endorsing it)
http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-00-stdkit.html
sounds interesting - an open source phone.
Yes, but will it blend?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8Y
(credits to Catalyst’s internal IRC channel).
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/iphone-death-star-upgrade-coming/
I’ve just picked one up in the States from the SF apple store. I plan to use it as my US cell on trips assuming the prepaid activation trick works (sick of massive NZ roaming bills for US calls) and as my mp3 / mobile web device back home.
Pricey but I like shiny things. Rod - let me know how you get on with yours.
Jos
I got mine a few weeks ago and my turbo sim arrived today. Got the phone working over the vodafone network so now I can ditch my razr.
Jeremy, that’s great news, I was a little nervous about the Turbo SIM, but sounds like it’s all go :), good thing I’m in NY for the next 4 weeks.
To all.
This just came out this morning:
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/147767159/
So very soon it looks like we could all have 90% functioning iphones on a local network!
Some of the prettier features are lost (i.e visual voicemail) and I wouldn’t want to see the bill for a month of using gmaps, but still, it looks as though we’re getting close.
But Rod, would you throw out your blackberry for this?
I have a 8gb 100% working iphone for the Vodafone ( 021 ) network. This phone has been fully unlocked and it comes with a 1 year warranty. Everything except the you tube feature doesnt work. this includes a working google maps, wifi, phone, sms, ipod. its F**Kin Awesome!
Appletheif - Where did you get it from?! I’m about to buy one from NZiPhone but it only has a 3 month warranty..
I bought the iphone from parallel importers in Queen St Ak.,
after 2 days got everything to work much better than my Palm Treo 680.
Utube on wifi great, had to get Gmail a/c to get mail to work but its
better than vodafone email that I had been using.Fingers crossed it stays
like this thumbs up to Apple.
well been using this iphone for a month now. If you are going to use it on pre pay forget it. Browser and email work well till you run out of credit then vodaphone lock you out. When you put more in it don’t happen anymore answer new sim and never let it run out or you need their data plan.
Still using my iphone email and web browser is on again off again very confusing
I’m sure it’s vodafone fault anyway I still like the phone. No news about updating
itunes and phone.reCAPTCHA WP Error:incorrect-captcha-sol
[...] is interesting is flicking back to a post from Rod back in July 2007 showing off Xero on an iPhone (this was before the iPod touch was [...]