3G

[Colani1200]

Wayne wrote:

Are you, or are you not going to have a cellphone during that same 24 months?

That's a good question indeed. What happens if you loose this hi-tech-musthave-shiny-geek-phallus-symbol or if it gets stolen (not that unlikely in 24 months)?

[motorollin]

alexh wrote:

motorollin wrote:
There are many, many phones which require you to take out a contract. The iPhone isn't unique in that respect.

But you can get a decent contract for 1/3rd the price of an iPhone contract.

In the UK for example you can get a free handset + 200 mins (to any network) + 200 txts per month for £10 ($20) per month.

And get some clunky phone I don't really want? No thanks. I'd rather pay the extra and get an iPhone. It's worth paying for IMO and in my experience.

--
moto

[motorollin]

Colani1200 wrote:

Wayne wrote:

Are you, or are you not going to have a cellphone during that same 24 months?

That's a good question indeed. What happens if you loose this hi-tech-musthave-shiny-geek-phallus-symbol or if it gets stolen (not that unlikely in 24 months)?

Obviously you get it replaced by your insurance, as you would with any valuable item you lost or was stolen.

--
moto

[Colani1200]

I'm not sure that it is that easy, as you can't buy one without contract (at least where I live).

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:

motorollin wrote:
There are many, many phones which require you to take out a contract. The iPhone isn't unique in that respect.

But you can get a decent contract for 1/3rd the price of an iPhone contract.

In the UK for example you can get a free handset + 200 mins (to any network) + 200 txts per month for £10 ($20) per month.

Well, for that £10... you get a basic mobile Phone... not a PDA/iPod/Phone... Remember that for £35, I not only get 500mins and 500Text (or there abouts, Moto might remember) and UNLIMITED data, that's the crunch here... the iPhone is VERY data heavy... what with Emails, internet, you tube, and (on the G3) Push calender... I easily download about 800Megs per month... on any other contract that would cost me something like an extra £400 per month...

Ok, I had to pay for my iPhone (£260, if memory serves), but the contract was a good deal... I was happy to pay to be an early user, the iPhone has been great fun... and I needed to replace my old HP iPAQ PDA, so the iPhone wasn't really much of a price hit for me.

[darksun9210]

well, i'm happy with my (free) 3G nokia 6120 classic on payg. no line rental/monthly fee, £2.50 for 5 days unlimited data. and a fairly open dev comunity, so loads of apps...
i was well impressed with streaming TV from a home machine via orb over 3G while traveling on the train to and from work. audio is solid, video just slows down or hiccups on cell changes, but stays in sync.
3G tears into the battery life though :-D .
plus it runs quake as fast or faster than my PPC A1200 :lol: haven't tried quake2 yet...

word on the street is that in the US, verizon is going to limit the 3G iPhone to 1.4Mb in order to not strain the network backbone with a garrenteed high selling device. plus the side effect of improving battery life ;-)

[alexh]

motorollin wrote:
And get some clunky phone I don't really want? No thanks. I'd rather pay the extra and get an iPhone. It's worth paying for IMO and in my experience.

Another weak minded Jedi sucked in by the marketing of the Dark side ;-)

£35/month is too much to pay for any private mobile phone contract.

bloodline wrote:
I easily download about 800Megs per month [on my iPhone]...

Doing what?

What is worse, you're a Londoner.. in the city you're never more than a few feet from a free WiFi hotspot?

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:

bloodline wrote:
I easily download about 800Megs per month [on my iPhone]...

Doing what?

A.org mostly :-D Well, I'm always checking various web sites... I'm almost always on Wikipedia... I reviece lots of Emails, from various people, quite a lot of work is sent to me via Email, which includes PDFs, Album/promo artwork, spreadsheets word documents, and obviously music files, a lot of music files...

I use You Tube to check out artists and to find songs that I want to hear...

I use the wetter app (my iPhone is in German :-D) to check the weather... and the Karten app (Google Maps) to find out where my next meeting is... I also use my iPhone to take test shots location scouts and then Email them to various people (though that is upstream rather than downstream)... Plus when I had my iPhone jailbroken, I ran VNC to control my Mac at home :-)

The iPhone is VERY data heavy...

That's a good question indeed. What happens if you loose this hi-tech-musthave-shiny-geek-phallus-symbol or if it gets stolen (not that unlikely in 24 months)?

Most phone companies provide you with insurance for like $5.00 per month or so.  Granted over 2 years, that's like $120 but it beats buying a replacement $200 phone -- regardless of who makes it (nokia, samsung, t-mobile, apple, etc).  Smart phones, like the iPhone all generally cost the same amount (not counting "please switch to xyz rebates"), so I'm not shocked at a $200 phone any more.

Wayne

[alexh]

But surely a lot of the time you're at your desk at work, library / computer room at university or at home? Where you can use a computer and land line broadband?

And when you get email, surely you dont download the attachments to the iPhone? Most will be unusable?

Even when I am out I tend to use WiFi in one of the pubs rather than "Dial up". More and more pubs are offering it.

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:
What is worse, you're a Londoner.. in the city you're never more than a few feet from a free WiFi hotspot?

:lol: Well the O2 Contract does include free "The Cloud" Wi-Fi connection, that proves good in pubs and in the docklands... But most of the time I'm not near a Free or Cloud Wi-Fi point...

alexh wrote:
£35/month is too much to pay for any private mobile phone contract.

True.  Granted, but it is what it is, and it would seem that -- at least in the states -- all of the major carriers are almost identical in pricing when it comes to their full data plans.  My T-mobile plan (1500 anytime minutes) is within $5.00 of the AT&T plan by the time I add unlimited data and SMS.  Same with Sprint.  

The difference, at least for me, is that AT&T seems to be the only carrier that can provide service in my office.

[jj]

I have just had an SMS off O2 (phone network in the UK) even though I am not with them.

Offering me the new 3g Iphone 8GB for free on all traiffs over £45.

Ummmmmmmm , no thanks

Am I correct that genrally in America that you have to pay for the handset even on contract ?

[Oliver]

I can certainly see the value of the iPhone for someone who needs real mobile connectivity. I just don't. As Alex suggested, I am rarely far from a desktop machine. I certainly don't spend anything like that on my mobile contract.

@Bloodline I guess you do business on the move? I'm in an R&D department, and don't have much need to travel.

How good are the personal organiser functions on the iPhone? Is it really convenient and fully featured? I haven't yet found anything I will use other than desktop apps for this. I only really derive schedules, appointments, meetings from project plans anyway. If it could perform that function well, that would be a lot more attractive to me. As it is, I only use my phone's organiser as a reminder service, synced to desktop apps.

I think I will not be really happy with a PDA until there is robust and convenient handwriting interpretation. So far, I am yet to be really impressed, though I haven't bothered looking in depth for some time.

[bloodline]

JJ wrote:
I have just had an SMS off O2 (phone network in the UK) even though I am not with them.

"an SMS from O2"... sorry to be a grammar pedant, but that's a pet hate of mine.

Offering me the new 3g Iphone 8GB for free on all traiffs over £45.

If you don't need a billion minutes and texts (I cetainly don't... I'm very Email driven)... then it's better to get either the £35 or Pay-as-you-go and just buy the iPhone... it's pretty good value for a touch screen iPod...

Ummmmmmmm , no thanks

I agree, get the 16gig instead.

Am I correct that genrally in America that you have to pay for the handset even on contract ?

No idea :-)

[bloodline]

Oliver wrote:
I can certainly see the value of the iPhone for someone who needs real mobile connectivity. I just don't. As Alex suggested, I am rarely far from a desktop machine. I certainly don't spend anything like that on my mobile contract.

@Bloodline I guess you do business on the move? I'm in an R&D department, and don't have much need to travel.

Ahh right, yeah! I'm pretty much on the move all the time... and probably more so, with my current work! I guess the iPhone won't be that useful for you...

How good are the personal organiser functions on the iPhone? Is it really convenient and fully featured? I haven't yet found anything I will use other than desktop apps for this. I only really derive schedules, appointments, meetings from project plans anyway. If it could perform that function well, that would be a lot more attractive to me. As it is, I only use my phone's organiser as a reminder service, synced to desktop apps.

As an organiser, the integrated Email/Kalender is brilliant, With my old HP iPAQ it had Wi-Fi (but the sercurity was always out of date) and it wouldn't live sync over the air, so I had to update using a teather back at home... that basicly kept my PDA one day behind at best and more if I couldn't get home... the iPhone is always up to date, it's always on line, live... great :-)

I can't wait for push and exchange support comming in July, that will make my life even easier... as many companies I work with, use M$ Exchange and the push support will be brillint!

I think I will not be really happy with a PDA until there is robust and convenient handwriting interpretation. So far, I am yet to be really impressed, though I haven't bothered looking in depth for some time.

My HP iPAQ had pretty damn good handwriting software, but I found that what I wanted to achive on the move was not best suited to hand writing... and the WindowsCE mobile interface sucks big time... The iPhone's interface is what really sets it apart... it's the first mobile device has a proper interface designed for mobile computing... I wouldn't want the iPhone interface on my Desktop though... :-)