iPhone 4

[Belial6]

I've been waiting to hear what they were bringing to the table.  Unfortunately for Apple, there is nothing in the announcement that makes them a break out product.  They are now, even with their newest product, slightly behind their competition.  The new phone sounds like a good solid improvement on the 3G, but it still lacks key features.

Apple is now officially off track.  The 3G is plenty thin.  To get the 4G unnecessarily thinner thy have decided to keep the major flaws of no external memory, and non-replicable battery as well as giving up the ability to basically double the battery size.  They have also started to take their abuse of developers as a point of personal pride, or at least laugh them off as a joke.  That doesn't bode well for their future market share.

The front facing phone is nice, but that is about all they have on the competition, and if that matters to consumers, we will see it on other phones REALLY quickly.

[Belial6]

Anybody that owns an iPhone knows that one little flaw we try to keep hidden from the world.  Battery life is the suck.  

I'd rather keep the same thickness and get 24 percent longer battery life.

I hear that.  I have an iPhone from work, and I gave up on carrying it because the battery is so bad that I had to keep a charger everyplace or it would die on me.  Of course, maybe the battery has just gone, but I'm not willing to jump through the hoops and risk damaging the phone to open it up since it belongs to work.

The other big secret that no one talks about is how incredibly noisy they are.  If there are any speakers near the phone, they start clicking and popping like crazy at random times.  And, no, telling everyone on the planet to replace their speakers with shielded speakers so that the iPhone doesn't cause a problem with them is not the answer.

[Belial6]

I have both an iPhone and and Android.  My original Android was the MyTouch 3G.  I have to say that the phone was a little underpowered for the OS.  It was still a great phone, and I liked it a little better than the iPhone, but it was a tough call.  Using a class 6 SD card made a huge difference, as well as rooting it and putting on cynogen's OS image helped.  With both changes, the hardware is just enough.  I suspect that when 2.2 rolls out, it will make the hardware plenty adequet, and better than an iPhone 3G.

I recently passed my MyTouch on to my son, and upgraded to a Nexus One.  Hands down it is a better phone than the iPhone.  The only piece that I miss is that Lotus Traveler is not available for it yet.  Given the specs of the iPhone 4, I don't see it blowing the Nexus One out of the water, and since there is a continuous stream on new Android hardware being released, I don't hold much hope for iPhone's future.

Earlier in the thread, someone claimed that Apple was the new Microsoft.  It would be better to describe Apple as the new Apple, and Google as the new Microsoft.  Apple is taking the same path that they did with the Mac.  They produced a very good product that is a fine integration between hardware and software.  They deny their failings, thus continuing on with them, and expect people to just assume that they are better.  This compared to their competition which produces an OS that starts out kludgier, but keeps refining itself until it is better than Apples offerings.  At the same time leaving dozens of other companies to push the hardware limits past what a single company can accomplish on their own.

Oh, and I can play Amiga games on my Nexus One without having to void the warranty.

[Belial6]

To be fair, If you just use the iPhone as a phone it has great battery life... It's when you start surfing the net, playing games and watching movies, that's when it really sucks the battery... And the situation is identical on the NexusONE (the only android phone I have regular access to)... All smart phones are at the mercy of battery physics.

Certainly my Nexus One has battery issues as well.  These devices are not really as much phones as they are Personal Computers with some phone features.  That being said, my Nexus One has noticeably better battery life than my iPhone 3G ever had, and the battery in my iPhone is showing it's age.  Even when left in sleep mode it will not last through a work day without being plugged in.  If I could just pop the back off and put in a new battery I would unfortunately, when it comes to replacing batteries, "Just Works" simply doesn't apply to Apple.

The big complaint with the iPhone 4 though is besides the continued flaw of not being able to replace the battery, Apple decided that shaving a 1/4 inch of the previously acceptable thickness was more important than having the phone last the whole day without needing to be charged.  If they had left the same form factor, they could have doubled the size of the battery.

[Belial6]

tom UK.. wondering how people get exiting about a phone ?? maybe I'm getting old :/

I said the same thing when a phone was a phone.  That really isn't the case anymore.  These are full fledged personal computers that just happen to have phone calls as one of the features.  You can even run your Amiga software on the Android devices.  I'm sure you can on the 'i' devices as well if your willing to void your warranty.

[Belial6]

I do find the android a bit fiddly.

I have heard a couple of people make this claim.  I don't see it.  What is fiddly about the android interface.  Other than having a drag to garbage instead of an X on each icon, and Androids ability to show only the icons you want shown on your desktop, what is the difference?  I really do ask in all sincerity.

[Belial6]

Ummm... Are you sure about that? Last time I checked, you had to buy a PC and a copy of Windows to develop for it. The only reason that doesn't seem strange is that most people already have a PC and a copy or 2 of Windows, whereas not everybody has a Mac.

Although I might be mistaken... Have MS released Visual Studio for the Mac? Or for Linux?

Nope, you could write your code on your Amiga, and instruct your users to run your software using the WinUAE virtual machine.  You do not need Windows to write software that will run on Windows machines.  You need a Mac to write software that will run on the iPhone.

There is one exception though... The javascript interpreter is the one place that you can write software for the iPhone without a Mac.

You can also sell your software anywhere you want with a Windows PC, the same is not true with the iPhone.

For developer freedom, Windows beats iPhone hands down.

[Belial6]

Maybe the one bloodline was playing with this had this app installed! http://www.androlib.com/android.application.wsv-slayton-twwm.aspx

I've used both the iPhone and Android (recently switched from Windows Mobile to Android, actually,) and while Android provides a much better UI than WM does, the iPhone is still simpler to navigate.  (Though my iPhone experience is limited to unlocking a couple for coworkers.)

I am still looking for an example of this simpler navigation.  Dumping every single installed app onto the desktop certainly isn't easier navigation.

As far as I can tell, the iPhone is like the Mac... A slightly worse UI than it's competition, but a reputation that convinces people it must be better.