The article, by Managing Editor for PCMag Mobile, Sascha Segan, begins matter of factly:
"The iPhone 4 is the best iPhone ever. That's for certain. It's the best media playing phone on the market, a terrific camera phone, and a truly awesome game-playing phone.".Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all that, but I want to know about the quality of the calls--coverage, clarity, etc. I mean, afterall, it IS a phone, no?
Sascha must have read my thoughts because his next sentence was:
"It's not the best phone-calling phone, but we've gone well beyond the era when everyone bought handheld, networked computers primarily for making long voice calls"We had? I must have fallen for that nano-age-old marketing ploy of calling it the "i-PHONE." Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em...or just gracefully admit that you are extinct. When I was looking for a picture of a Mudgeasaurus
to close out this post,
wouldn't you know it, I found a dinosaur app for the iPhone. It shouldn't be much longer that my liquid carbon remains will be bubbling up from the Gulf.
The iPhone is the first hand held networked computer...with a phone attached. To look at it as just a cell phone with cool features is putting the cart before the horse.
ReplyDeleteHammer is correct. With all the reports of crappy phone coverage - calls dropping because one "doesn't hold the iPhone in the correct place; one must not touch the metal band which circumnavigates the edge of the phone." Oh yes, the response from Apple:
ReplyDelete"In a statement released by Apple, Jobs said that the users should avoid gripping the iPhone in the lower left corner. The company said that the user should avoid holding the phone in a way that covers both sides of the black strip. Apple CEO advised to use the iPhone cases to avoid the problem."
Oh yes, the rubber bumper case which was announced as an accessory - at $29.95. So the basterds (nod to the movie)knew about this before they released the phone (of course they did, who are we kidding?) and to mitigate the chance of a fan-boy attenuating the signal, you may purchase a device which keeps attenuation at bay.
What magnificent marketing bastards they are. Pander to the fan-boy fools!
Oh, and Mudge...I too must be a dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteFan-boy? Moi?
ReplyDeleteHey Doc, I've had one for two years and I live in the damn sticks and I've never had a problem with coverage. As a matter of fact before the iPhone I must have had 10 plus phones with 10 plus companies and not a single one would work in my house, except the iPhone.
Look, there might be better stuff out there, I don't know. But iPhones are like iPods, they're cool. Tell you what, buy your teenager a Zune for Christmas and see how long you stay on his shit-list. And by the way, that anti-Apple attitude you have, there's an ap for that.
Hammer - I am referring to the just announced and released for sale (June 24?) Apple iPhone 4. A slew of reports have been coming in regarding less than stellar signal strength and calls dropping like crazy.
ReplyDeleteI know Doc, it seems the thing sucks outloud. WTF, even Ted Williams struck out every now and again.
ReplyDeleteYes, I Google myself.
ReplyDeleteYou're making a good point with good humor, but I just wanted to clarify something because a lot of people tend to get bizarrely offended when we talk about these "handheld computers with a phone attached." (The Hammer has ... uh ... hit the nail on the head here.)
I just want to make clear - there are still *tons* of phones available for people who want to primarily make phone calls. There are even some great mobile phones for people who only want to make voice calls and nothing else. (The Samsung Knack and LG Accolade come to mind.)
Yeah, the Youth Of Today are turning away from voice calls and towards more computer-type usage of their handheld devices. But don't worry. As long as you dinosaurs still have your Liberty Dollars, Pieces of Eight and Denarii to spend, I'm pretty sure the market will keep offering options to fit.
Thanks for reading my review!
Sascha - And thanks for visiting The Conservative Wahoo. Actually, I hope you and others know that I wrote with whatever the keyboard and mouse equivalent of tongue in cheek is. Truth be told, I'd drop my comparatively useless Blackberry in a heartbeat in exchange for the iPhone if Apple could acknowledge that amazingly good as the iPhone is, not everyone needs a camera attached to his handheld networked computer with a phone attached. Much of industry and government (and even some of the entertainment venues that Hammer frequents) make you leave your cameras with security when entering their buildings. I'm not ready to leave my expensive handheld networked computer with a phone and a camera attached containing all my networking information and accesses with anyone. Yeah, there is a cottage industry of people who will, for around 200 Liberty Dolllars, remove your iPhone camera, but that is just one of those things that, while I can afford it, I just can't seem to bring myself to do. So I'll just continue to suffer through a phone that allows me to call people reliably, do emails and not a heck of a lot else.
ReplyDelete"Suffer"...ha!...how DID we ever survive before cell phones, digital cameras and handheld networked computers with or without attachments?