iphone?

[MikeH]

sweet thanks for your review. Ill haveto look into it abitmore, maybe go have a play with one too. But i may wait till april to get one anyway

[Matt Clark]

Pilot25dmc Wrote:But and its a big "BUT" anyone who tells you that the iPhone is not worth the money either has not got the money to afford one

Heaven forbid someone would have a different opinion to yours!

It was pretty clear that before they released the phone, it was shipping with half the features it should have, and if they're releasing a newer, better model within 12 months, then that to me is a big enough sign to stay away. That's the way all Apple's hardware has been, actually, phone or not. They use the early adopters as their bug/issue testers and then release a better unit 6-12 months later. The features it *does* have are great, but there's no reason you should have to pay all that money for a phone, and then go and get everything unlocked, jailbroken, downloaded, etc, just to get some of the features that it should have shipped with, especially when a proper working one is just around the corner. That might be your idea of a good time, but to the vast majority of people, it's not.

That's why I consider it not worth the money, but feel free to tell me that it's cos I'm too poor for it!

I know we like DeLoreans, but not everything has to come broken from the factory...

[NickT]

bozzzydmc Wrote:I remember when people used to ring each other on these phone thingies ....

How things have changed

Mike and I have got the latest in Russian valve Technology !



NickT

[Pilot25dmc]

Anyone who buys the iPhone buys it because the functions it has work perfectly, why buy an iPhone and then stick a Nintendo emulator on it? The iPhone is made for Business users, it does not need a Video Camera, Sat Nav or the ability to control your tv.

Look at any iPhone modding site and the programs that are being added are programs that most people would never use, you can add a Playstation emulator, the abilty to change the icons... All of these things are not needed to make the iPhone any better than it already is.

I will accept that my comment about people not being able to afford one is a reason to knock it was not fair, I am sorry, most of the critisism I hear about the iPhone is from people who dont own one, I have had mine for about 5 months now and it has never let me down, I left it in the house for one day and felt lost without it!

If you dont like having a Laptop with you at all times and need to have access to emails and the internet wherever you are then the iPhone will be perfect for you, if you want a fancy looking iPod then get the iPod Touch.

[bozzzydmc]

NickT Wrote:

bozzzydmc Wrote:I remember when people used to ring each other on these phone thingies ....

How things have changed

Mike and I have got the latest in Russian valve Technology !



NickT

Now i do like that... is that the newer improved IBrick ?

Will it available on my own 'One 2 No-One' Network??

[frostrobo]

Pilot25dmc Wrote:With a standard £35 month contract you get UNLIMITED FREE internet, yes thats right UNLIMITED FREE.

From the O2 Website: http://shop.o2.co.uk/promo/iphonetariffs

(bold my emphisis)

Quote:Data and Wi-Fi fair usage policy
Your O2 tariff for iPhone allows you unlimited use of O2 UK's Edge/GPRS networks and The Cloud's UK Wireless LAN network, for personal internet use, email and Visual Voicemail (VVM) on your iPhone only. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes. You may not use your SIM Card in any other device, or use your SIM Card or iPhone to allow the continuous streaming of any audio/video content, enable P2P or file sharing or use them in such a way that adversely impacts the service to other O2 customers. If O2 reasonably suspect you are not acting in accordance with this policy O2 reserves the right to impose further charges or disconnect your tariff at any time, having attempted to contact you first.

This basically means "free" access to email and http based services, but try to download files, stream video, use p2p, IRC, google maps/google earth etc and you will face (expensive) extra charges. Several people have recently been issued with bills in excess of £20,000 on similar "unlimited internet" schemes sold by mobile phone companies. This is one such case for example, where a user was charged £18 a minute for downloading non http based data: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/27 ... data_bill/

Granted, he was using the phone as a modem for his laptop, but it does show that people don't always read the small print.

The ability to get basic internet "free" in coffee shops is good, but it certainly is not "free unlimited" internet useage. It should be labled "free restricted" usage IMHO. There really needs to be some regulation on service providers on the terms they use for marketing, as people are getting caught out all the time.

The iPhone is a nice product and an impressive piece of kit, and if you can make use of all the functionality it provides without wanting to "hack" it (modding sites) then you are not going to run into any problems. I would just be careful with the internet side of things. Don't go downloading all those DeLorean documentries on YouTube!

[Pilot25dmc]

"Your O2 tariff for iPhone allows you unlimited use of O2 UK's Edge/GPRS networks and The Cloud's UK Wireless LAN network, for personal internet use, email and Visual Voicemail (VVM) on your iPhone only. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes."

Thats the part you should read.....

The iPhone has a block on it that does not allow you to watch videos or download videos that are not on an Apple server, if I was to type in www.youtube.com and click on a video nothing would happen, if I was to search the same video on the built in youtube on the iPhone then I could watch it. Same thing goes for any video on the net, you cant download movies, music, pictures or programs, nothing at all in fact! Thats why the internet usage is free, you can do everything but download.

Google earth and Youtube come pre-loaded on the iPhone and there is no extra charges for using them, I have used Youtube to watch a whole episode of Topgear and when I got my bill it was no more expensive than usual. You dont "download" from youtube, you "stream" from the Apple/youtube server.

There are far to many miths surrounding the iPhone, the internet is FREE on it, there is no hidden charges.

[frostrobo]

Pilot25dmc Wrote:"Your O2 tariff for iPhone allows you unlimited use of O2 UK's Edge/GPRS networks and The Cloud's UK Wireless LAN network, for personal internet use, email and Visual Voicemail (VVM) on your iPhone only. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes."

Thats the part you should read.....

I don't know what that networks offers but I'll go have a look tomorrow!

Pilot25dmc Wrote:"
The iPhone has a block on it that does not allow you to watch videos or download videos that are not on an Apple server, if I was to type in www.youtube.com and click on a video nothing would happen, if I was to search the same video on the built in youtube on the iPhone then I could watch it. Same thing goes for any video on the net, you cant download movies, music, pictures or programs, nothing at all in fact! Thats why the internet usage is free, you can do everything but download.

That sounds pretty restrictive TBH. So basically you can only watch video if its streamed from an Apple server? So if you go to the BBC website can you see the news streams for example or are those blocked?

How about pictures? If I went to a site to look at some artwork, or a 3d graphics forum, would I be able to see images people had posted? (I don't mean thumbnail previews, I mean the full res images)

Does the phone just simply not let me download a file, or does it come up with some sort of "you can download this but you need to pay a fee" option?

Quote:Google earth and Youtube come pre-loaded on the iPhone and there is no extra charges for using them, I have used Youtube to watch a whole episode of Topgear and when I got my bill it was no more expensive than usual. You dont "download" from youtube, you "stream" from the Apple/youtube server.

Youtube.com is a progressive download server, not streaming. I did however look up how the iPhone gets video and you are correct in the fact that the iPhone exculsively uses a new Apple/Youtube server which is able to stream video to the phone.

Quote:There are far to many miths surrounding the iPhone, the internet is FREE on it, there is no hidden charges.

I never said there were any hidden charges. Don't get me wrong I have no argument with you or the iPhone. I simple want to point out that "unlimited free internet" as advertised by many companies is not always actually what it seems. The iPhone is an impressive piece of kit and I'm glad you are happy with yours.

[Tourettes Tony]

got mine :wink: TT

[Pilot25dmc]

Hi again

I will answer each of your questions bullet style

"That sounds pretty restrictive TBH. So basically you can only watch video if its streamed from an Apple server? So if you go to the BBC website can you see the news streams for example or are those blocked?

How about pictures? If I went to a site to look at some artwork, or a 3d graphics forum, would I be able to see images people had posted? (I don't mean thumbnail previews, I mean the full res images)

Does the phone just simply not let me download a file, or does it come up with some sort of "you can download this but you need to pay a fee" option?"

No is the basic answer for that, you can not view ANY videos or files that are not encoded to suit the iPhone (on the BBC site the screen will just freeze if you try to play a video). You can look at pictures but not ones that require fancy software, flash wont work on it either so cartoons wont play. There is no pay-as-you-watch videos, the built in youtube on the iPhone works well and let you watch all the videos that are on the proper youtube.com site. Some sites are now offering iPhone friendly videos, again these are free. You can also view PDF, Word & Exel documents.

"Youtube.com is a progressive download server, not streaming. I did however look up how the iPhone gets video and you are correct in the fact that the iPhone exculsively uses a new Apple/Youtube server which is able to stream video to the phone."

Yes, your right, Youtube.com is a progressive download server, Youtube on the iPhone is a streaming media server, much smaller file size so much easier to stream. To encode the video to allow it to be shown on the iPhone, Apple and Youtube share a new server with iPhone only videos stored on it, every video uploaded to the youtube.com server will then be encoded and stored on the iPhone server.

I know your not bashing it and your right about it having some flaws, but for every bad thing about it there is about 3 good things to take your mind off it!

[TheOriginalMrP]

What about the "confirm birth date" video's though? If you go to www.youtube.com on the iphone, you can log into your account, but you can't watch them on the webpage. The ones that need this age verification won't be displayed in the first place through iphone's own youtube. Therefore making it only a majority of the youtube database, not in it's entirety.

I would say about 20% of videos need you to confirm your age. And the ones you need to do this are amongst the most watched.

I love it though, works well with the car kit, looks the part, its all down to individual reqirement.

Good points though guys.......

[Pilot25dmc]

Interesting point, I have never thought about the age verification videos.

Saying that, I also have the Apple TV and it has a Youtube facility too, I am able to watch the age rated videos on that and its search menu is the same as the iPhones.

Wonder if this is one of the features being introduced in the next firmware update?

[TheOriginalMrP]

I'll never find out, because if i update my firmware, it will lock the phone back up

Its swings and roundabouts isnt it? I do believe the best way to get the full features is to pay the wonga, and have done with it. I usually have this frame of mind, and if I didn't already have another contract till next january with vodaphone at £20 a month, then I might have gone for an iphone on contract with o2

But this way, i'm having the fun of owning an iphone on pay as you go, full featured or not, giving technology a chance to let the little things get ironed out on it, then by the time my voda contract is up, I can decide if I want the all singing all dancing version, plus I'll have an iphone and a sony-ericsson W850i to shift on ebay, which should cover some of the contract cost

[Pilot25dmc]

I bought an unlocked iPhone when I was in the states last year, when I say unlocked, I unlocked it....

I used it up untill o2 started offering it for sale, upgrading from my Nokia 8800.

Its a shame that Apple have to resort to these firmware updates that "brick" iPhones, part of the fun of having a computer is hacking into it and changing things, thats how computers where invented! I gave my old pay&go iPhone to my brother and he loves it, I was able to get the last update onto it and he has all the things I have on my legit phone except visual voicemail.

When the new firmware comes out give it a week and someone will have found a hack for it. Keep your eyes on www.modmyifone.com

[Daniel Shane]

My iPhone does not need unlocking.

I Just used a TurboSim in it and it works a treat. I dont have to worry about firmware updates etc, it works fine on Vodaphone

Dan