Apple iPhone

[paolo]

The edge coverage will be entirely down to the software in the cells base station if the Inquirer is to be believed, and O2 have been installing it, so it might well be better now than people imagine.

Yep, Edge is a software upgrade. I think there's an hour or so downtime per cell. If the leaked plan I saw has been implemented, they should have done nearly 3000 cells by now. (The biiig problem with mobile browsing is latency, and that affects all the systems, including the 'god like' 3G... but that's another story).

I'm not enamoured by the move to 18 month contracts so will be buying a Sony Ericsson off ebay when I can be arsed.

There's alot of sense in that - you'll have seen my other posts about this. iPhone aside, SIM Only is the way to go I think*. As an excercise I did a price comparison the other day... N95 paid for out of 18 month contract, vs. SIM only and buy the phone elsewhere. The effective cost of the N95 was certainly cheaper on the 18 month deal (about £200), but... a lock in situation, and 18 months is a long time.

Similarly I did the maths on the buying a French (unlocked) iPhone, at an 'assumed' price. It's probably better for me to go with O2 lock in, but that's only because I'm already on O2, and I can get out of my current (mediocre value) contract on the basis that I'll take the iPhone. People on contracts with other providers, with no escape route, would probably better buying the unlocked one and carrying on with their current provider (edge issues aside), and selling their existing phone.

Out of interest, have you had a play with the iPod touch?

 

[editor]

There's alot of sense in that - you'll have seen my other posts about this. iPhone aside, SIM Only is the way to go I think*. As an excercise I did a price comparison the other day... N95 paid for out of 18 month contract, vs. SIM only and buy the phone elsewhere. The effective cost of the N95 was certainly cheaper on the 18 month deal (about £200), but... a lock in situation, and 18 months is a long time.

You can get the N95 free on tons of UK contracts, some only 12 months long or buy it unlocked for around £365.

http://www.bestcontractmobilephone.co.uk/Phone_Deal.asp?Ph=Nokia--N95

 

[paolo]

Yes exactly. So to work out how much a 'free' phone costs, you compare the overall contract cost with the equivalent sim only deal. On O2 the difference is between 200 and 400 pounds over 18 months, depending on 'size' of tariff. The mid range tariffs offer the best price for the 'free' phone. Low or high end tariffs are much poorer value.

 

[editor]

Orange do a free N95 at £30/month on a year's contract with the first four months free. So that's just £240. You can get even cheaper deals on 18 month contracts, so the iPhone looks massively pricy in comparison.

 

[Gromit]

Can't find the article - do you have a link? Cheers.

Er sorry it was an ICWales story not the beeb.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2007/11/06/iphone-will-not-work-across-whole-of-wales-91466-20066210/

 

[Gromit]

Orange do a free N95 at £30/month on a year's contract with the first four months free. So that's just £240. You can get even cheaper deals on 18 month contracts, so the iPhone looks massively pricy in comparison.

Thats tempting. I really fancy replacing my 1st gen Razr but i'm finding it hard to justify buying a new phone. My current one works fine and a £20 top up lasts me 2-3 months.

If I bought a new phone I'm caving into gadget lust aren't I?!

 

[jæd]

If I bought a new phone I'm caving into gadget lust aren't I?!

And what's wrong with that...?

 

[editor]

Thats tempting. I really fancy replacing my 1st gen Razr but i'm finding it hard to justify buying a new phone. My current one works fine and a £20 top up lasts me 2-3 months.

I'm still using my Treo which is getting on for 2 years old - which makes it the longest I've ever stuck with the same phone.

I've even been given two newer, higher spec'd phones and still stuck with the Palm.

 

[bouncer_the_dog]

Im going to get an iPod touch (at some point when i hae the cash)

I'm a bit dissapointed theres no Flash support for the safari on th iphone/touch

 

[paolo]

Flash will need to be implemented by adobe, but their hands are tied to am extent by the delay for the dev kit

 

[paolo]

back in the 80s browsing

WHAT!?! You mean there will be NO WEBSITES WHATSOVER ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD with an iPhone?

 

[Xanadu]

I adore the browser on the ipod touch. It really is intuitive. I'm tempted by the iphone for that reason, but if edge is as shit as I think it will be, I'll still have to pass.

 

[paolo]

Thats definitely the sketchy bit. Im going to do some benchmarks over the weekend to see how well/badly it performs.

 

[dogmatique]

I had to step past a small, motley crew of fanboys tonight on Regent Street, who'd been provided with Apple umbrellas and directors chairs whilst they waited all night for their expensive jesusphone.

Looked a bit stunt-ish to be honest. Will let you know what it's like on the way home tomorrow.

 

[editor]

I had to step past a small, motley crew of fanboys tonight on Regent Street, who'd been provided with Apple umbrellas and directors chairs whilst they waited all night for their expensive jesusphone.

Sad, sad, pathetic fuckers.

 

[paolo]

And they will have to wait all day too. It doesnt go on sale until 6pm!

 

[jæd]

Sad, sad, pathetic fuckers.

Isn't "Sad, sad, pathetic wankers" more accurate...? Otherwise you're suggesting they've had intimate relations with more than their MacBook...

(But hey, lets not belittle them. Who else would try out a 1.0 release from Apple on day # 1)

 

[jugularvein]

why the fuck does apple think they can spam me with news about the release of their iphone?! i guess they have my email cos i used itunes once upon a time... but i don't give a shit about their bloody phone.
i thought companies like apple and microsoft were trying to combat spam...

 

[Crispy]

At the bottom of the email is a line that reads:

If you prefer not to receive commercial email from Apple, or if you've changed your email address, please click here.

Click there. I did, and haven't had an email from them since.

 

[Sunray]

Guy from Apple on FiveLive this morning doing quite a nice defence of the iPhone's browsing capabilities. Said EDGE was enough for email and the odd map. With O2 you get all the Wifi access in the Cloud network, which obviously makes it the fastest phone of them all for browsing.

I would like to have a go at it, just to see if it grabs me. Will wait for a bit then head to the Carphone warehouse for a try.

 

[editor]

With O2 you get all the Wifi access in the Cloud network, which obviously makes it the fastest phone of them all for browsing.

Why's it faster than any otjher Wi-Fi enablerd phone?

I would like to have a go at it, just to see if it grabs me.

Not sure if I'd be prepared to spend £800+ quid and commit to a 18 month contract foe an admittedly stylish phone that can't even send out a SMS to more than one person at a time! Or take a video. Or send a MMS. Or cut'n'paste. etc etc

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I would like to have a go at it, just to see if it grabs me

I've had a go on one and all I could say was "meh". It's a snazzy interface on a quite amazingly average phone (and an average phone with some staggering omissions), nothing more.

But then I'm the sort of person that turns off anything fancy in pretty much every gadget/OS I use (when I use vista I make it look as much like xp/2K as possible for example, I can't stand all that aero glass bollocks). I'm not interested in how something looks at all really, I just want it to do a job.

 

[editor]

Made of pure, 100% fail:

 

[TopCat]

A triumph of marketing over substance.

 

[TopCat]

Made of pure, 100% fail:

Do you think they are hoping for a free phone like that PS3 promotion?

 

[Xanadu]

Why's it faster than any otjher Wi-Fi enablerd phone?
Not sure if I'd be prepared to spend £800+ quid and commit to a 18 month contract foe an admittedly stylish phone that can't even send out a SMS to more than one person at a time! Or take a video. Or send a MMS. Or cut'n'paste. etc etc

No multiple SMS???? Fucking hell it really is made of fail

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

No MMS either, so you can use the camera to take a pic, and then, errrr, not send it to anyone

It's shite.

 

[TopCat]

It's shit alright, so it will become a massive hit? Like the ipod and apple computers?

 

[Crispy]

*Starts typing heated reply*

*Gives up, clobbers topcat with pool ball in a sock instead*

 

[jæd]

No MMS either, so you can use the camera to take a pic, and then, errrr, not send it to anyone

It's shite.

You can always email it...