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Imperator Fyron said:
Those look like above average prices to me. Plus its AT&T only...
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It's not above average for what's being offered. AT&T's regular 450 peak-minute plan is 39.99. Their bundle with 200 text messages and unlimited web access is 19.99. 39.99+19.99 = 59.98... and if you are gonna complain about the iPhone plan being 1 cent more expensive, you got some serious issues.
There isn't any wireless carrier that is offering similar usage (with similar coverage area) for less. So the only real price consideration is the price of the phone itself, which is still expensive for what people are used to for phones in the US (free - $250 or so).
Quote:
Kamog said:
Well, iPhone came out today, right? If you got one, what do you think of it?
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Well, I didn't buy one because it isn't really practical for me... I work in government, so I am not allowed to carry various things into my office, and the iPhone falls into several of the categories of banned items (cell phone, wireless transmitter, camera, removable storage device). Which sort of makes getting one impractical, since I would hardly ever be able to actually USE it.
However, I do happen to live about a five minute walk away from an Apple store. So I strolled over around 7 last night to check it out. And it is very cool. Smaller than I expected, even knowing its dimensions beforehand. Works pretty much just like you see it in the commercials, there wasn't any doctoring going on there.
It was ridiculously easy to type one-handed with my thumb, and its prediction was pretty decent (I only had to backspace twice in typing around 150-200 or so characters).
The contact list was done very well, better than pretty much any phone I've ever used. You can scroll entry by entry by just dragging your finger down, or there is a column on the right side that has A-Z, and you can scroll directly to those letters by just moving your finger into that area. I already use a Mac, so the synching with Address Book and iCal is a big plus. I'm sure someone will figure out a way to get e.g. Outlook contacts and calendars synched as well. The interface to the calendar is just as nice as the contact list interface. There's also a bunch of other little mini apps that are done well (e.g. weather like in Apple's Dashboard widgets).
I can't comment much on the internet access. Speed was about similar to dialup in the store, but the phone was using the store's Wi-Fi connection instead of the EDGE cell network; and I know that the store's connection is fairly crappy, probably a single 768kbit DSL line. And with 50 or so phones in the store accessing the network, and who knows how many more outside around the store, it's not surprising that the speed was slow.
The other thing I'm not so sure about is battery life. Unlike the iPods 1G-5G, and the Minis, the battery isn't user-replaceable with minimal effort. It's pretty easy to open the iPod cases, but I haven't seen much success in opening the iPhone without substantially deforming the outer casing. Plus, the leads are soldered directly onto the PCB rather than using a small plug, so it requires using a soldering iron to replace the battery. I've also seen that it's a lithium-polymer battery rather than a lithium-ion, which I've heard the polymer variant gets fewer power cycles than the ion.
Anyway, my overall verdict is it's definitely worth it to find a place selling them and at least get a demo of it to see for yourself. It really is very cool.