Skip to main content

iDon't Want One

As I've mentioned, Jeff Kirvin and I don't see eye to eye on politics, but when he's buzzing on technology, he's spot on more often than not. In The iPhone is a bad phone he writes:

Let’s look at this objectively. This is, at minimum, a $500 phone that has no tactile feedback for dialing, no voice dial, no smart dial (ie dialing 5478 to narrow your contacts to KIRV), no Bluetooth stereo headset support, no dial-up networking support for an attached computer, 2.5G data that is normally about 2-3 times dial-up modem speed, no video recording, no MMS for sending pictures, only takes pictures at 2MP and automatically resizes them to VGA for email (no way to override either of those sizes). The SIM card is removable and will work in other devices, but other SIMs will not work in this GSM world phone, so you’ll have to pay AT&T roaming charges to use this outside the US. Unlike every other phone available today, there is no free 14-day grace period and if you buy an iPhone today and return it tomorrow, you’ll have to eat a 10% ($50-60) restocking fee. The battery is not only not removable, and when it dies (after 300-400 full charges) you have to send it back, for a fee, to Apple and get it replaced, meaning you’ll be without your cell phone for Apple’s standard 3 business days. And as for talk time, Mobile Tech Review reports that an hour long call dropped the battery to 15%.

And in his follow-up, iPhone Hands-on, he goes on...

In many ways, the iPhone reminds me of the HTC Touch in reverse. While both devices sport finger-friendly and artistically gorgeous home screens, on the Touch you find yourself digging for the stylus and familiar Windows Mobile complexity once you get past the veneer. On the iPhone, by contrast, once you get past the beauty and style of the UI, you pretty much have nothing.

Like Jeff, I don't understand the insane desire for an iPhone that grips these people. Then again, I didn't understand the insane desire that gripped people when they had to have a Mac. It's a purely aesthetic appeal that appeals to me not.

There's little that the iPhone does that my 2+ year old Treo 650 can't do already, including suffering with AT&T EDGE connect speeds. This first generation iPhone is horribly crippled, yet the style conscious line right up. Remember the striper in Independence Day, as she looked up at the alien ship and cooed, "Pretty!" And then she and the rest got blasted.

The iPhone is a barely adequate phone and it doesn't do any of the things I assume a "smartphone" should do (e.g., create and edit Word and Excel documents). Thus, as my Treo begins to flake and I approach the end of my indentured servitude with AT&T, I look elsewhere, and the current gem in my eye is the Sprint Mogul. The Mogul is a true smartphone, does pretty much everything the iPhone does (albeit without the same grace and style; whoop), plus: accesses a true 3G network; edits/creates Word, Excel, and even OneNote files (once you install the OneNote app, included when you buy the desktop version); costs $100 less than the iPhone; and has a data plan that's a shade more expensive than the cheapest AT&T iPhone plan, but that includes unlimited text messages, unlimited data access, plus a slew of other features either not offered or unsupported on the iPhone.

All I "lose" is the 4GB/8GB internal memory, a problem that is cured, as far as I'm concerned, by the the MicroSD slot built into the Mogul, for effectively unlimited memory expansion.

Hmm, let me think. Cheaper, faster, more capable, better phone and data plan for about the same rate.... Tell me again how great the iPhone is(n't).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Wow, it’s been over a year. What a way to get back to this blog because… Are the films of the MCU getting worse? It’s a serious question because the latest that I’ve seen, Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , are strong arguments that the answer is “yes.” Summary: Ant-Man & Ant-Family get sucked into the quantum realm, where skullduggery is afoot. A load of crap ensues. I’m an Ant-Man fan. I loved the first film despite its flaws. It would have been wonderful to see what Edgar Wright may have wrought. It was clear, though, that replacement director Peyton Reed kept some of Wright’s ideas alive. The result was one of the MCU’s most intimate films, a straight-forward tale of a Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) desperate to remain in his daughter’s life while being “gifted” the life of a superhero. Ant-Man and the Wasp sorta stayed that course, but naturally, because this is the modern MCU, we had to have a female superhero take over, the titular Wasp (Hope van Dyne,
Post a Comment
Read more

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that
Post a Comment
Read more

Rogan

The entire Joe Rogan controversy is an example of the kids being left in charge and the adults refusing to teach them any better. I’m not a regular consumer of podcasts. There are a couple I listen to from time to time, but nothing on a regular basis. While I’ve caught a few minutes of the Joe Rogan Experience on YouTube, I’ve never listened to his podcast. One of the primary reasons for that is that you have to subscribe to Spotify to do so, and I prefer Qobuz, Tidal, or even Amazon Music. Rogan is behind Spotify’s paywall and that’s that. But the nature of the fight is about more than who does or does not listen to Rogan. This fight goes to the very nature of the First Amendment and the fundamental concept of the United States. And yes, I understand that cuts both ways. What’s his name and Joni Mitchell are free to yank their creations from Spotify, no ifs, ands, or buts. I’m not denying their right, I’m questioning their reasons. Rogan talks to people. He does so largely unfiltered.
Post a Comment
Read more