... and promptly bought it. It took forever to find one, but apparently Apple Stores are getting regular shipments. A trip to the Aventura Apple Store was all it took. If anyone's on the fence about this thing, you should head down to an Apple Store and try one out. They have about four or five set up for free demonstration. It's a clear upgrade over the first model, and the AT&T billing plans aren't horrendously bad; then again, I picked the cheapest options. I'm really tempted to head over to a practice one day this week and give a live report. Should be very easy with this thing.
Oh, the Sawgrass store had some? Nice, it looks like they're starting to finally get some supply back in the channels. I will say that the Apple Store-enforced line in the middle of the walkway seems more to do with marketing and less to do with ensuring people get to buy a phone in a reasonable timeframe. But what the hell, I have one.
Apple sucks. theyre always pulling this crap...my 1.5 yr old ipod is antiquated. my iphone is next. wtf.
The first iPhone is still a pretty valuable piece of electronic gadgetry, namely because you can easily Jailbreak it. 3G iPhone is much harder to get working with. If you want to upgrade, go for it and eBay the first iPhone. You'll get a nice chunk of change back. That said, I plan to keep this phone for the full two years. I can't imagine any new features that would prompt me to upgrade.
not a bad idea. and i do like the extra storage capacity in my original. and the iphone bluetooth earpiece is cool.
i want to get the first generation iPhone but its still to expensive ill just stick with my phone now
The original was 4GB/8GB at launch, then upgraded to 8GB/16GB. Which one do you have? (16GB in black here.) I skipped it. Already have a Jawbone earpiece. I do like the dual-charging dock for the iPhone and the Apple earpiece, though. Slick.
i am still trying to find a way to get out of my iphone... i hate it. i miss my old blackberry & 8525. if i could get out of the iphone and back into my old smartphone for no money, i would.
The new ones are pretty nice. If I lived in one of the major cities that had 3G network service I'd consider upgrading but IMO the only other major difference is the GPS directions, which I don't really need. Looking forward to see what they include in the next model though.
pics or ban! 1) dropped calls (i get piss-poor reception even on major highways, inside buildings, etc.... and i've had the same service provider for many years and many different phones 2) internet speeds - downright horrible 3) camera phone is worse than the 1Mp i had on my flip phone like 10 years ago 4) no MMS 5) internet browser crashes just about every other time i use it... wayy too often for anything to "crash" 6) limited functionality with programs/ringtones (yes you can "hack" it, but i don't want to lose warranty/service plan with my provider, plus i don't know enough to hack anything. ringtones can only be used if you purchase a song from itunes, can't be a song/mp3 you have on your hd) 7) hardware design - due to the design of the unit, you can't replace the battery, no sim card, etc... (i.e. no way to save information through re-using sim-card, no way to "reset" phone if it freezes (which mine has done before - had to take it to apple store to get it fixed), and no way to replace/tend to battery 8) IE browser cannot run many things due to no plugins, no support for some plugins (try accessing the viewmymessage.com site from your iphone browser, not happening) 9) email application claims to have "push', but it doesn't really. also i set it for email check every so often, it doesn't always update and/or check. and there's more, but honestly my interest in talking about the "cons" has already waned, and i'm tired of talking about it.
You don't need 3G service; if no 3G network is found it'll revert to the standard (and far more widespread) EDGE. Bonus: longer battery life. I turn 3G off unless I intend to use the App Store or Safari. At home, I use WiFi. I think these two are related. They seem atypical and it might have something to do with AT&T's coverage in Seattle. Then again, AT&T's online coverage viewer tells me Seattle is pretty damn blanketed. Have you called AT&T's support? Well, if the pictures suck, why do you want to send them to others? Honestly, the camera's an upgrade from my old RIZR, so I'm happy with it. And it's not bad at all for what it is. If you're loading huge pages or keep multiple pages open at once, yeah, it'll crash. The iPhone just doesn't have the RAM capacity that desktop computers do. Scale back on the porn, man. Download a program called iRinger. It lets you import an mp3, select up to a 30 second section of the song, add fades, and will export to iTunes. It doesn't violate your warranty or service plan. A non-replaceable battery is indeed annoying, but IMO it's not a deal breaker. The iPhone DOES have a SIM card. It fits in a slot at the top. To reset the iPhone, just hold the sleep/wake button and the home button for five seconds. That's a conscious decision. Flash is EXTREMELY inefficient, so much so that Apple removed support for it entirely. Same with in-browser video and audio. If battery technology were better than what it is today, then we'd have Flash on the iPhone. Yahoo, MobileMe, and Exchange accounts are all push email. GMail is not, which is Google's fault, not Apple's. If you use any other service, the service has to support push. It's a two-way street.
Just explaining my personal habits. Since it can still use EDGE, I personally don't see the obstacle... unless you crave a Blackberry more. Which is kind of understandable, but not. Which reminds me; when I went to buy the phone, I forgot my mobile account number. I had to call T-Mobile support to get it. The support rep refused to give me the number until he had completed a (mandatory) sales pitch for the T-Mobile Wing. I wonder how many customers T-Mo has lost to AT&T over this.
Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that AT&T's coverage is piss-poor here, I'd be getting an iPhone. My friends need to go outside or on rooftops to get reception while I can even get calls in an underground parking lot with Verizon. But I'm happy with my 32GB iPod touch as it is since there's always a Wi-fi wherever I am and it retains a good portion of the functionality that I desire and I'm satisfied with letting my razr handle the rest like texting, taking photos, and last but not least, calling.
I had an 8GB Touch, but was pretty unsatisfied with it. Free Wi-Fi isn't very widespread around here, so having EDGE/3G access makes all the difference. Don't blame you for not getting one though. If you can't get a signal, what's the point?
Yea, exactly. I guess it's one nice little perk about living in LA is the free Wi-Fi. If they offered a 32GB or more 3G iPhone under Verizon or even Sprint, I'd be lining at the Apple Store in the Grove or any Verizon store in no time.
Ironically, Verizon was the first carrier Apple approached about the iPhone. Verizon saw the Visual Voicemail feature and told Steve Jobs to take a long walk off a short pier. (I'm sure Jobs' refusal to lather the Verizon logo all over the iPhone was a factor, too.) Jobs got in contact with AT&T after that and AT&T bent over backwards to do what it took to get the phone up and running on their network.
Yea, really a shame. When I first heard that, I readied for a new phone change. But Jobs has been willing to renegotiate with companies who have refused him in the past (see Disney-Pixar deal) so there's some hope.
I just did the math with what I pay on freaking Verizon... and it is actually cheaper for me to break my contract and buy an iphone than it is to continue on Verizon... so I will be doing that as soon as I finish my move
dude i pay like 120 a month.... and everytime i tell them they come up with a new reason to surcharge me up the whazoo.... I am supposed to be on the 79.99 plan, somehow that means 120 a month... dunno how. Enough has been enough and I am just gonna leave them.
thanks for taking the time to respond to all my issues with the iphone. i do want to make the disclaimer that my point of reference for quality of sound, connectivity, etc is all based on my prior smartphone i've had with AT&T up here in the Seattle area. so i had an expectation of a floor of operability & connectivity when i "upgraded".
i think you need to take some time to educate yourself on the rate plans and taxation, brother. (not meaning this as an attack at all). Verizon is a solid service provider with great pricing structures. either you are not on the best plan for how you use your phone, or your'e not looking at the taxes you get hit with (which, by the way, you will get charged with at AT&T on the iphone too, but they don't show you the taxes when you guesstimate the $120 or whatever rate plan you pick). probably $30+ of your bill is just taxes.... add that same amount to your "bill" you're predicting you'll have with the iphone if you want to compare it apples to apples. Just bear in mind the taxes & specific rate plan you have. my buddy pays less for the same plan for his smartphone through verizon than i pay for my iphone through AT&T
I know and I don't really plan on getting one anytime before then unless AT&T improves their coverage here. Not quite recently maybe, but I've been on my plan for some time and I've never had to pay more than $60 a month. It's been good enough for me. But I guess maybe different areas have different fees.
I have 4 cell phones (Me, wife, two kids) and pay less than that with Verizon, you need to talk to someone. Verizon has 100000X's the service in this area than AT&T.
I don't know where UCLA is EXACTLY, but I'm looking at the coverage map and LA seems pretty well blanketed to me. Good but not stellar 3G coverage as well. I must have lucked out living in South Florida, because we're blanketed in EDGE and 3G from here to Orlando.
i have the 8 gig. that was top of the line when i got it. head sets that loop around the ear, for whatever reason, are really uncomfortable to me. thats why i like this little thing, just pops right in.
It's closer to Beverly Hills. Well, I tend not to trust those anyways. I looked at the coverage map and it was all dark orange. But, almost always, you'd need to walk outside to get reception to make a call on campus. You'll be lucky to get a bar on Bruinwalk at times. Heck, the AT&T store is right across the street and you can't even get reception in there. I find it's the same to a lesser extent for T-Mobile too. The coverage is slightly better at home in the suburbs but good luck trying to get a signal anywhere with buildings taller than 4 stories. Same here, the family plan.
One problem people have been having across the country is their iPhone continuously toggling between EDGE/3G. And it's causing the phones' batteries to die rather quickly. Personally, I'll stick with a smartphone for the forseeable future. My Moto's 8-hour talk time is pretty tough to beat. After 10 years with Nextel, I can't imagine going back to a lower quality network.
All they have to do is disable 3G in the options menu. Though honestly, I think features like continuous wifi searching drains the battery more than switching to and from 3G while moving from point to point.