It ain't THAT slow. My computer reports speeds of around 25KB (yes, kiloBYTES) per second when connected through edge. That's roughly slow (256kbps) DSL speeds. It's tolerable.
That'd have to be around major cities, where the coverage is good. Most places you'll be lucky to get half that. To be fair, the same pattern exists with the other cellular broadband offerings, but they're all still a
lot faster.
And how is 256kbps (which, let's be honest, won't do the experience of using the full web browser any favors) "revolutionary"?
Ah, but it does. The full-blown web browser is a big improvement over most other cell phones. I've had enough of "The page is too large to load. Please select another link" for one lifetime.
The non-"candy bar" Blackberries have a pretty robust browser. It's not a
real browser, but it's close. And it's got a keyboard. Again, the iPhone does it
better, but that's hardly "revolutionary".
The spiffy UI is where it's at. As mentioned, my current phone does almost everything the iPhone does and some things it doesn't, and that's why I bought it... But it's such a pain in the butt to use those features that I just haven't. I've taken a grand total of under 50 pics with it, I've put three songs onto it, I haven't done any of the custom-ringtone stuff that I wanted it for, blah blah blah. The UI is the only thing I'm really missing.
Well good on ya, then.
I'm just not into the idea of spending $500+, ditching two devices I currently have, getting locked in to a vendor with sub-par service and broadband capabilities, and
losing key functionality (a decent keyboard) all for a fancy UI. It just ain't worth it.
Why on earth would you want to download music over a cell network? *yawn*
Why wouldn't I? If they're going to market this as a pocket computer (and if you do look at it that way, even the UMPCs have it beat hands down becaue they
actually are PCs), I'd think it'd make sense to be able to move
one function of my PC to it. And it's just the next logical progression... the kind of thing that comes
close to being revolutionary. Putting wifi and cellular broadband in an iPod, and still saying, "Sorry, you still gotta take it home and plug it into a PC if you want to grab a new song" just isn't cool -- and isn't revolutionary. And if I had the ability to hear a song in passing on the street or just randomly remember one, download it, and listen to it right there, all with the super-cool UI of the iPhone,
that is something that is something I'd think would be worth $300-$400.
Agree wholeheartedly. It'll come, but it'll take a year or two.
I don't doubt it will. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd have to agree with a lot of speculators out there say that this is Apple's "trojan horse" into the cell market. Sure it's locked down, but eventually it won't be and it won't be vendor-specific. Then, hopefully, Apple will really go to town and release a device that's actually
worth $500.
It's got e-mail...
But with that keyboard, I'd be better off trying to type using T9 on a run-of-the-mill cell phone. Doesn't come close to giving me the functionality of the Blackberry. It'd be a step backwards for people with Blackberries (like me) to buy an iPhone.
Ah, but it is... Again, it's all in the UI.
I just don't agree... It's a lot of bells and whistles and "ooh-and-ahh" inducing schmaltz... okay, okay, it's actually really cool looking
... but there's just very little meat there. Like you said, the only thing it has that current devices don't is a full browser (and while that's pretty sweet, that's hardly the stuff of game-changing revolution). And I'm just not of the school of thought that believes taking existing capabilities and slapping a better UI on top of them is "revolutionary". It's the RDF at work. Functionality wise, there's no "there" there.
That said, yeah, it looks really cool. And if it cost $200 (and had a workable keyboard), I
might consider it. But it's just not there -- not $300 there, let alone $500 or $600 there.
I'll have to figure out which pics and which songs I'm really going to want on it.
