List of iPhone Disappointments

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2007, 5:21 pm

I heard on a podcast that the iPhone doesn't have a vibrate mode? Huh? Gotta have vibrate! Would suck to have to turn the phone off completely for meetings, movies, etc when you're expecting an important call.

Also heard than the internet browser doesnt have/support flash. That kinda sucks. It's not really a "fully functioning browser" if it doesn't have flash.

Other than that, someone elses list:

1. Bluetooth is ONLY good for connecting a headset. That's it.

2. There is no file browser on the device at all. Data must be organized (if at all) in the appropriate application.

3. The camera is a simple application that has ONE button: the shutter. Pictures come out okay on the device, but nothing too fancy on a monitor, especially if it was an attempt at a macro shot.

4. SIM card is damn near impossible to open, if at all. I didn't look into it extensively.

5. Web browser is slow, even over WLAN. Even the simple OneList web app that was created takes around 20 seconds to load over WLAN. You can not highlight, cut, copy, or paste and text from a website, and you can not save any images you find from a website either. The only nice thing about it is the tabbed browsing, which crashed on me when I went to Engadget and YouTube on two tabs. This is the only application that allows you to use the keyboard in landscape mode.

6. The keyboard sucks. It gets slightly better after the iPhone "learns" you, as the employees said, but even then, it's not a device you can use with one hand comfortably, much less without looking.

7. You can only send one picture at a time in an email.

8. No custom ringtones (yet, as we were being told) and the alert tones can not be changed whatsoever.

9. The default ringtones are incredibly lame.

10. The only form of customization outside of a lame default ringtone is the wallpaper, which you'll only see when you need to unlock the device or when you get a phone call.

11. "Picture pinching" or using two fingers to zoom on any content is certainly fun to play with, but not practical whatsoever. This operation depends solely on using the device with two hands.

12. No document editor or native viewer. You can not store documents on the device to be viewed, they can only be viewed as attachments when they're sent to your in an email.

13. Visual voicemail is laggy and reacts about the same way as pushing the fast forward and rewind buttons on traditional voicemail systems. The only advantage is for those that get that many voicemail messages a day that they need to sort them according to priority.

14. NO games. None.

15. No voice dialing.

16. No speed dialing (which can be made up by the "quick list", but getting to that quick list isn't as fast as holding a single key on a real keypad).

17. No video.

18. No MMS.

19. It's still <4GB for $500 and <8GB for $600

20. It only takes around 2 hours to explore every menu without any options for expandability except to scrounge around for new web apps that will load slowly and nowhere near as smoothly as the native apps.

-----

No vibrate, no voice dialing, slow net connection

This thing seems like it blows for what it's supposed to be used for.

Maybe that will rush Apple, instead of them taking years like they normally do to release something new, to release an normal video iPod based on this design and get rid of the phone and net features. That would be interesting if you could use divx/xvid and the battery lasted a long time.

Enjoy your 60/month 2 year ($1,200) contract with this! So, it's an $1,800.00 investment. Not so bad!

Typing on is seems a little odd. Could go faster on a Skyword!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/video- ... 273909.php

Fash · Post by **Fash** » June 30, 2007, 6:26 pm

hehe, it's tremendous what the hype machine can gloss over... I want a month to go by and see what people think about it.

no games and no vibrate... that's pretty disappointing.

I wonder if there will be any work done towards hacking and homebrew for it...

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » June 30, 2007, 7:12 pm

Sounds like a huge disappointment. I would be pretty pissed if I had left my service to go with cingular for this phone, then found all this shit out after the fact.

noel · Post by **noel** » June 30, 2007, 10:01 pm

Winnow wrote:17. No video.

Huh? Try again.

Winnow wrote:19. It's still <4GB for $500 and <8GB for $600

This is a suprise to whom?

Very clearly the person who wrote that is *not* part of the market segment Apple is aiming at.

The lack of vibration and the manner in which bluetooth is currently supported are legitimate complaints... vibration probably the worst because it's not something that can be handled in software. Some of the rest of the complaints are ridiculous. Lack of flash support? None of the Blackberries have it, and I could care less.

If you don't like iTunes, the iPod, or the way Apple does things in general (all things that are clear in that list), the iPhone isn't for you. If you don't like the cost, the iPhone isn't for you and you probably don't like the cost of Macs either.

I'm surprised about the slowness on 802.11 connections... I wouldn't have expected that.

I'm no Apple apologist, and don't plan to buy the 1st generation iPhone, but if you look at that list... how many of this guy's gripes can be patched in software, or can be added... lack of ringtones? No change to alert tones? No speed-dialing? Please. All that shit can be modded in SW EASILY... and we're talking about a product that came out YESTERDAY.

Really a lame list imho.

To be totally clear:
Hardware gripes: Legitimate
Things that can be changed in software: Not.

Totally different topic, but:
You'll never be viewing xvid or divx on a non-hacked Apple device. The whole point of the iPod/iTunes push by Apple is to allow us to BUY all of our favorite music and video in a standard format where A) they make money and B) the studios/record companies make money. Given that what they've done to date, especially with recently getting EMI to remove DRM, we should be thanking them. iPods are not, and will never be set up for you to play all the music and video you can steal.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2007, 11:09 pm

No vibrate on a cell phone is a deal killer for me. (if there was a deal to be made)

That's just stupid not having a vibrate feature on a phone. Apple haters will hate Apple even more when these things interrupt meetings and movies. My cell phone is on vibrate everywhere I am except when I'm home. Turning your phone off is not an option if expecting important/emergency calls. Cell phone rings of any kind are annoying. (except for one lady at work who uses "brown eyed girl" as her ring tone and is hot so I'll let her slide)

I don't think Apple knows how to handle the cell phone market and it's showing.

Take away the web browsing and cell phone part of iPhone and it's a compelling video player (although no xvid sucks...Apple doesn't seem to have a clue that, like music, people have alternate sourse. At least they allow mp3's (or are those converted when moved to iPods?) The point being, I don't want to sit around converting formats for my portable video player...even the Zens could improve in this area a bit and allow AC3 audio encoded xvid/divx files so they didn't need to be converted.

I still don't like the idea of actually touching the screen I'm also viewing. I'd be constantly trying to clean the surface which would probably accidentally activate buttons.

Anyway. AAPL stock is at 122. Advice: (don't actually do this) Short AAPL with a target sell price of 90 in two weeks for a 25% gain. Set stop loss at 127 (stop the short if AAPL announces a video iPod as the hype machine will crank the stock price right back up to to the 100 billion market cap it's at today)

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » June 30, 2007, 11:21 pm

The iPhone appears to have a vibrate setting.

noel · Post by **noel** » June 30, 2007, 11:33 pm

Winnow wrote:No vibrate on a cell phone is a deal killer for me. (if there was a deal to be made)

That's just stupid not having a vibrate feature on a phone. Apple haters will hate Apple even more when these things interrupt meetings and movies. My cell phone is on vibrate everywhere I am except when I'm home. Turning your phone off is not an option if expecting important/emergency calls. Cell phone rings of any kind are annoying. (except for one lady at work who uses "brown eyed girl" as her ring tone and is hot so I'll let her slide)

I don't think Apple knows how to handle the cell phone market and it's showing.

Take away the web browsing and cell phone part of iPhone and it's a compelling video player (although no xvid sucks...Apple doesn't seem to have a clue that, like music, people have alternate sourse. At least they allow mp3's (or are those converted when moved to iPods?) The point being, I don't want to sit around converting formats for my portable video player...even the Zens could improve in this area a bit and allow AC3 audio encoded xvid/divx files so they didn't need to be converted.

I still don't like the idea of actually touching the screen I'm also viewing. I'd be constantly trying to clean the surface which would probably accidentally activate buttons.

Anyway. AAPL stock is at 122. Advice: (don't actually do this) Short AAPL with a target sell price of 90 in two weeks for a 25% gain. Set stop loss at 127 (stop the short if AAPL announces a video iPod as the hype machine will crank the stock price right back up to to the 100 billion market cap it's at today)

When I get the 2nd or 3rd generation iPhone, I'll enjoy the hell out of the fact that you won't have one. You simply don't get it Winnow. You didn't get it with the iPod, and you don't get it with this. Judging by the lines at the two Apple stores I happened to be near yesterday, GOOD LUCK SHORTING THE STOCK.

Thanks Arch.

If it vibrates then it's just the data speeds that are disappointing.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 30, 2007, 11:52 pm

There's a vibrate mode but it's a tad light.

CNet Reviews

Nice to know there's vibrate. At least Apple hasn't completely lost their minds.

However, well known reviewer David Pogue says both the speakerphone and vibrate mode on iPhone are weak.

I don't know who Pogue is but he says it's weak!

I miss some calls when my phone is set to vibrate and it has a pretty strong vibration.

I hope that vibrate mode is easy to get to so people can turn it on and off easily! +/- volume level buttons on the side of my phone can switch to vibrate very easy even without having to look at what I'm doing.

noel · Post by **noel** » June 30, 2007, 11:59 pm

Then the visual voicemail feature (on the phone you're not getting) will be very useful for you.

From PC World (which is slightly more reputable than 'some guy's factually-inaccurate blog')

10 things Apple did right in the iPhone

1. The display, the display, the display. Everything looks good on it.
2. The menu design: It’s simple and clean, and the home screen icons look like so much eye candy.
3. Fingertip navigation, zooming and scrolling that's intuitive, effective and fast.
4. Video playback that’s so good you can tell when you’ve done a sub-par job of ripping your movies.
5. Visual voicemail lets you get to the calls you care about faster.
6. Great integrated applications, including Google Maps, YouTube, and a world clock that packs a timer, stopwatch and multiple alarms.
7. Cover Flow. It’s incredibly fun to choose your music by visually flipping through album art.
8. It’s tough: Our initial stress tests suggest that the iPhone is more durable than you might expect for such a sleek handset.
9. The first Apple music player with a built-in speaker—and it’s not half bad for a phone.
10. No disconcerting “do not disconnect” messages when syncing with a PC.

10 things they did wrong

1. We want our AOL Instant Messaging—and Yahoo and MSN IM clients, too. What about MMS support for sending picture mail?
2. No voice recording—and more importantly, no voice dialing support. How are you supposed to use an iPhone with a hands-free car kit?
3. It’s the most locked-down phone we’ve ever seen. Not only can you not swap out the AT&T SIM card for one from another network, you can’t even swap it out for another AT&T SIM card.
4. AT&T is building out its mobile broadband network, but iPhone users are stuck with older EDGE technology—or battery-consuming Wi-Fi.
5. You know those great headphones you already own? They won’t fit the iPhones headset jack, so your first iPhone accessory will be a bulky, ugly $10 adapter.
6. The software keyboard invites typos—but when you’re entering passwords there’s no way of telling whether you’ve got them right.
7. It’s great that the iPhone can reorient pages in Safari, CoverFlow, and the photo album, but why not extend that capability to other apps such as e-mail? Some messages could benefit from a widescreen display. And even when it does reorient, it doesn’t always follow through with all features: CoverFlow loses access to the volume slider, for example.
8. No support for custom ringtones, surprising in a music phone.
9. The camera’s rudimentary, with no audio/video or even zoom capability.
10. No to-do list support, a basic in most calendar applications.

The nice thing is that the bulk of the issues are all software which is pretty easy to change.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 1, 2007, 1:21 am

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 1:25 am

It's funny that the Nokia does all of that, but the buzz on the Nokia is pretty much zero.

Turns out that marketing is actually kind of important.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 1, 2007, 1:31 am

noel wrote:It's funny that the Nokia does all of that, but the buzz on the Nokia is pretty much zero.

Hence my whole "lemmings" argument on the original Zen vs iPod debate. The masses buy hype, not the best product.

iTunes is pretty good. I use it and even bought my second song the other day. I could find another music service easy enough if another application can master netcast (podcast) management well sometime soon.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » July 1, 2007, 1:54 am

I know nothing about either one.. But give me the better product any day of the week regardless of what the marketing monkies are saying or doing.

Trias · Post by **Trias** » July 1, 2007, 2:35 am

i have an iphone...it vibrates fine.

Trias · Post by **Trias** » July 1, 2007, 2:43 am

web browsing seems to be plenty fast...i have no problems loading pages in seconds...also the pinch zoom feature is actually damn awesome when it comes to web page viewing(it's not just for photo viewing)...and the pinch zoom works pretty cool with google maps too ahah.

there will be a ring tone download thing soon.

anyways; i'll give a better review with some of the negatives confirmed first hand in a few days once i've had some more time to use it.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » July 1, 2007, 2:55 am

noel wrote:It's funny that the Nokia does all of that, but the buzz on the Nokia is pretty much zero.

Turns out that marketing is actually kind of important.

It also does G3 ... which is rather important outside the US.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 3:17 am

Everything I've read says they couldn't fit meaningful 3G into the form factor they'd decided on without killing the battery.

So like a lot of people, I'll wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation iPod. I personally think the iPods kind of sucked until the current Nano came out (and I owned two of the prior gen models).

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 1, 2007, 4:35 am

Zaelath wrote:
noel wrote:It's funny that the Nokia does all of that, but the buzz on the Nokia is pretty much zero.

Turns out that marketing is actually kind of important.
It also does G3 ... which is rather important outside the US.

Isn't MMS support important outside the US as well which the iPhone doesn't have? Maybe that's just in Europe.

Noel,

I may even buy an iPhone a generation or four from now but only if it's the best thing out there and makes sense. Trias just likes to buy new gadgets. I can respect that. I do the same thing in different areas of interest.

The iPhone doesn't look to me like it's worth the 2 year commitment and $600. It introduces some cool stuff to the public that's never seen the various techs involved before because other companies aren't the hype monster than Apple is. One good thing Apple does is spur other companies to make good products. Competition is good for everyone.

Mark my words. For the next few weeks, Blue Horseshoe does not like AAPL. That's more based on technicals and how pump and dump works with these things though.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » July 1, 2007, 8:57 am

Frankly I think the iPhone is a nice device. What Apple has here isn't revolutionary however their engineers have found a great balance of features to put in this thing and attached it to an impressive UI.

I think the biggest deal-breaker for me on this thing is the lack of 3rd party apps. I wasn't overly happy with the media player built-in to my 8800 so I was able to get another one online (for free even) that allowed me to build custom playlists and had features I liked much better.

One big thing I do realise that I miss now on this blackberry that my Razr had was a built-in camera. Great for impromptu pictures since I never EVER carry a camera with me.

Kudos to Jobs and co for mounting another fantastic marketing campaign.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » July 1, 2007, 11:30 am

Will watch for the second or third generation iPhone. The features are "meh". It's mostly eye candy IMO.

I still haven't bought an iPod. I have an LG Chocolate I received as a gift (dig the Verizon family plan) and I realized I don't have an overpowering urge to listen to music except when I'm:

a. in my car (covered) or
b. at my PC (covered)

so my meager half-gig of MP3s is mostly just taking up space on my phone. I really don't need my phone (or want?) to surf the web or play video and the data plans are a lot more expensive than your traditional "I want to call people a few times a day and send the occasional text message" plans. That plus the LG has the whole "surface of the phone becomes interactive" for some controls thing and I really don't like it. I can't imagine having to slide my damn fingers all over the whole thing.

Apple usually puts out pretty good stuff that's pretty expensive and is quickly emulated with cheaper devices by competitors. I'm neither pro-Apple nor a naysayer, but I look forward to see where they go with this line. Maybe I'll own something by Apple again, but history tells me I'll get it their innovations from someone else cheaper.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 12:39 pm

Winnow wrote:The iPhone doesn't look to me like it's worth the 2 year commitment and $600. It introduces some cool stuff to the public that's never seen the various techs involved before because other companies aren't the hype monster than Apple is. One good thing Apple does is spur other companies to make good products. Competition is good for everyone.

See you and I are in total agreement on on the two year commitment for this device... It's not worth a 2 year commitment because of the lack of 3G and dubious support for third-party apps. For me, it doesn't offer anything revolutionary... it does offer what I believe to be the most meaningful integration of iPod (w/video), Camera, PDA, Phone as well as a potentially better interface than has been seen on a cell phone to date. The visual voicemail functionality is probably one of the more impressive things I've seen on a cell phone in some time.

I'm not arguing that this device is the end-all be-all. If it was, I'd have one in my hand. I'm just saying that this device isn't for you, and isn't for a lot of people, but it's generated more buzz in the cell phone industry than anything prior, it's potentially changed the manner in which you set up a service plan with a cell phone provider, and it's potentially changed the way you interface with a cellular phone in the future. I have no doubt that half of the gripes about the iPhone will be either patched in software (MMS) or integrated into the next generation hardware.

I just don't agree with any of your gripes on the format of the content. They're totally off base. Apple is not building products to make the pirating community or the home encoding community happy. They're (now) in the business of making money on the sales of music, videos and TV shows. There doesn't need to be even one more complaint about formats or lack of support for something because they're totally unreasonable. They're not even on Apple's radar, nor should they be. They have the largest set of online content available, they have a great (opinions vary) content delivery mechanism, and they have a user-base that's comfortable with it. I could give a rats ass what some other device supports. I like Apple's products because I no longer have to drive to a CD store, drive home, rip a CD, and then import it to my device. I simply choose the song I want, add it to a playlist, I'm done.

Given that Apple has now built up their importance to the music industry to the point where they can start pushing them to remove DRM, you should be loving them too because soon it won't matter what music player you own.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » July 1, 2007, 6:43 pm

noel wrote:
Winnow wrote:The iPhone doesn't look to me like it's worth the 2 year commitment and $600. It introduces some cool stuff to the public that's never seen the various techs involved before because other companies aren't the hype monster than Apple is. One good thing Apple does is spur other companies to make good products. Competition is good for everyone.
See you and I are in total agreement on on the two year commitment for this device... It's not worth a 2 year commitment because of the lack of 3G and dubious support for third-party apps. For me, it doesn't offer anything revolutionary... it does offer what I believe to be the most meaningful integration of iPod (w/video), Camera, PDA, Phone as well as a potentially better interface than has been seen on a cell phone to date. The visual voicemail functionality is probably one of the more impressive things I've seen on a cell phone in some time.

I'm not arguing that this device is the end-all be-all. If it was, I'd have one in my hand. I'm just saying that this device isn't for you, and isn't for a lot of people, but it's generated more buzz in the cell phone industry than anything prior, it's potentially changed the manner in which you set up a service plan with a cell phone provider, and it's potentially changed the way you interface with a cellular phone in the future. I have no doubt that half of the gripes about the iPhone will be either patched in software (MMS) or integrated into the next generation hardware.

I just don't agree with any of your gripes on the format of the content. They're totally off base. Apple is not building products to make the pirating community or the home encoding community happy. They're (now) in the business of making money on the sales of music, videos and TV shows. There doesn't need to be even one more complaint about formats or lack of support for something because they're totally unreasonable. They're not even on Apple's radar, nor should they be. They have the largest set of online content available, they have a great (opinions vary) content delivery mechanism, and they have a user-base that's comfortable with it. I could give a rats ass what some other device supports. I like Apple's products because I no longer have to drive to a CD store, drive home, rip a CD, and then import it to my device. I simply choose the song I want, add it to a playlist, I'm done.

Given that Apple has now built up their importance to the music industry to the point where they can start pushing them to remove DRM, you should be loving them too because soon it won't matter what music player you own.

I agree with what you say about the format issue from Apple's perspective, however that doesn't make it insignificant in the bigger picture (tm). Tons of people download music illegally, which will not be changing anytime soon, and I'm sure I'm far from the only person that isn't going to buy a device that won't play the music I didn't pay to download.

What it's going to come down to imo is whether the companies want to play into the pockets of the music industry, or this crowd of people. I see how companies like Apple and the media companies working together like this could seem profitable from one perspective, but on the other hand - the harder they try to get people to pay for stuff, the harder the people that don't want to are going to work. Personally I don't buy anything apple, and I almost never pay for music - so if I buy an mp3 player, it's going to have to be one that will play whatever the hell I put on it.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 7:06 pm

So you want to know if a huge, legitimate company is going to work together with other huge, legitimate companies, or if they're going to work together with criminals...

If you want to pirate music all day long, more power to you. Back when I couldn't afford it, I used to pirate software all day long. I just think it's laughable that you expect companies like Apple to support you in your efforts.

Bear in mind, this is the general 'you', not the you 'you' so please don't take it personally. Also bear in mind that it wasn't me that decided it's a criminal act. Whether you like it or not or agree with it or not doesn't change the fact that it's a criminal act.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » July 1, 2007, 9:13 pm

I play music on my Apple iPod that I did not pay to download. I don't see how it would be any different on the iPhone.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 1, 2007, 9:25 pm

Mac OS, Windows OS and Linux all allow use of codecs and other apps that support any format you want.

I want a portable media device to do the same. Creative is almost there, they just need to tweak the handling of AC3 audio. Apple will die when Creative and other companies get this fine tuned and one of the non iTunes music/video stores steps up to the plate. The sooner the better. The more open hardware/formats will eventually win.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » July 1, 2007, 10:08 pm

^

ROFL

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » July 1, 2007, 10:10 pm

Winnow wrote:Mac OS, Windows OS and Linux all allow use of codecs and other apps that support any format you want.

I want a portable media device to do the same. Creative is almost there, they just need to tweak the handling of AC3 audio. Apple will die when Creative and other companies get this fine tuned and one of the non iTunes music/video stores steps up to the plate. The sooner the better. The more open hardware/formats will eventually win.

There is little or no empirical evidence to say that this is anything more than wishful thinking.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 1, 2007, 10:54 pm

No support for 64 bit Windows either apparently. Apples answer? "Upgrade to 32 bit".

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » July 1, 2007, 10:57 pm

noel wrote:So you want to know if a huge, legitimate company is going to work together with other huge, legitimate companies, or if they're going to work together with criminals...

If you want to pirate music all day long, more power to you. Back when I couldn't afford it, I used to pirate software all day long. I just think it's laughable that you expect companies like Apple to support you in your efforts.

Bear in mind, this is the general 'you', not the you 'you' so please don't take it personally. Also bear in mind that it wasn't me that decided it's a criminal act. Whether you like it or not or agree with it or not doesn't change the fact that it's a criminal act.

I'm not arguing with your point noel, im just saying that it's a issue, whether or not people choose to ignore that for whatever reasons have every right to do so. All i'm saying is if creative gets things a little further (like winnow said) I think you will start to see a big rise in their sales - I would certainly buy one.

I'm also not saying that these companies should work with "teh haxorz" to make illegal shit work on their product, they just don't need to go out of their way to do so. The media companies can fight their own battle.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » July 1, 2007, 11:16 pm

This just reminds me I have to go rip all my fucking iTunes purchases off CDs so I can play them in Linux.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 11:33 pm

Aabidano wrote:No support for 64 bit Windows either apparently. Apples answer? "Upgrade to 32 bit".

Upgrade to OSX 10.4.10.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 1, 2007, 11:33 pm

Winnow wrote:Mac OS, Windows OS and Linux all allow use of codecs and other apps that support any format you want.

I want a portable media device to do the same. Creative is almost there, they just need to tweak the handling of AC3 audio. Apple will die when Creative and other companies get this fine tuned and one of the non iTunes music/video stores steps up to the plate. The sooner the better. The more open hardware/formats will eventually win.

Operating systems are a little different than a closed platform device...

The market for portable media players says you're wrong.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » July 1, 2007, 11:40 pm

Linux 64-bit deb package please

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 1, 2007, 11:41 pm

archeiron wrote:
Winnow wrote: The sooner the better. The more open hardware/formats will eventually win.
There is little or no empirical evidence to say that this is anything more than wishful thinking.

Think of it along the same lines as inbreeding. Too many people using iPods and iTunes will eventually create cross-eyed babies.

Closed societies never work out in the end. They fester!

The Romans! They conquered yet let other cultures into their empire. Apple will fail because they try to conquer without integrating others into their empire. Microsoft, on the other hand, is content to rule the world at the top levels while letting the little guys have fun under Microsoft's umbrella.

If you are an unfortunate Apple fanboi, give your future offspring a fighting chance by marrying someone that can play xvids on their portable player!

Trias · Post by **Trias** » July 2, 2007, 12:33 am

i'm just a tech and money spending retard fanboy...i have an archos 704 for my xvid stuff, and i love it.

loving the iphone so much for the video voice mail; its swank...i'm very adept with the keyboard now that i've sent 20 or so text messages as well...was a little wonky at first but i can work it in the two thumb typing style with speed and accuracy.

pretty much, the iphone has a mega easy to use user interface that is very sleek and it will sell units due to being accessible to both noobs and power users(once 3rd party apps are available).

Mak · Post by **Mak** » July 2, 2007, 3:43 am

Has anyone changed their carrier just to get this phone? It always seems as if AT&T gets terrible reviews every year for their quality of service. I couldn't justify potentially downgrading my cell service just to have the latest toy.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 2, 2007, 3:53 am

And so it begins...

Apple faces a rebellion over iTunes

Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple, is an emerging force in the mobile phone business, thanks to the snaking lines of gadget fans who queued up last week to buy the iPhone. But now he faces a headache in an industry Apple already dominates--digital music.

The Universal Music Group of Vivendi, the world's biggest music corporation, last week notified Apple that it will not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes, according to executives briefed on the issue who asked for anonymity because negotiations between the companies are confidential.

Instead, Universal said that it would market music to Apple at will, a move that could allow Universal to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides do not agree on pricing or other terms in the future, these executives said.

Come forth my Antiapplites! It's time to take down the false king!

Muahahahaha

Don't forget, Zune (That would be Microsoft) made a $1 per Zune sold, deal with Universal.

Record giant might desert iTunes

* From correspondents in London
* July 02, 2007

UNIVERSAL Music Group, the world's largest music company, has declined to sign a long-term deal with Apple's iTunes music store, leaving open the possibility for exclusive deals with other services, an industry source said yesterday.

Universal, which produces one in three albums sold in the US, will continue to sell music via iTunes on a month-to-month basis, rather than be locked in to a two-year agreement Apple had proposed, the source said.

The music company could now agree to offer significant portions of its repertoire exclusively to new partners, potentially weakening Apple's dominant hold on digital music retail.

The two sides had extended a previous two-year agreement by 12 months last summer, and that deal expired last month, the source said.

An Apple spokesperson was not immediately available.

Universal is owned by French media giant Vivendi.

Universal, which produces one in three albums sold in the United States, will continue to sell music via iTunes on a month-to-month basis, rather than be locked in to a two-year agreement Apple had proposed, the source said.

The music company could now agree to offer significant portions of its repertoire exclusively to new partners, potentially weakening Apple's dominant hold on digital music retail.

Considering that Microsoft is showing Universal the money, that exclusive content may be heading Zune's way.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » July 2, 2007, 7:37 am

Mak wrote:It always seems as if AT&T gets terrible reviews every year for their quality of service. I couldn't justify potentially downgrading my cell service just to have the latest toy.

I've had AT&t-Cingular-AT&T for 5-6 years now and have never had any trouble at all. Ratings generally aren't real useful, it all depends on your specific service area.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » July 2, 2007, 10:15 am

I am on AT&T (former Cingular) and the data connection is dog slow. So damn slow it is annoying the shit out of me and I am about to order a Sprint broadband card for the laptop (or just buy a new laptop with one built in.. just need to convince the boss). Voice service has been fine though and I have no complaints about that.

Now about the iPhone.. it is far from a technological revolution. Except for the eye candy factor it is more like a technological dinosaur. They are also going to have huge problems selling them in Europe due to being locked to one carrier and the whole battery/iTunes deal. Remember, there are several law suits going on against Apple right now in Europe. They are limiting their market big time this way.

Personally, I can't see anything about the iPhone even remotely worth the money.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » July 2, 2007, 10:42 am

Are you kidding? It's supercool! If you don't have an iPhone YOU are the one who is a dinosaur omg!

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » July 2, 2007, 11:14 am

Oh I never thought that other countries were even being considered in this discussion. I would be willing to bet it sells like shit outside of the U.S... Most of the really cool phones available in Japan are available in Europe too, so they have had better phones then the Iphone for several years now at this point.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 2, 2007, 11:41 am

Re: Universal.

Yeah, god forbid Apple only charge $10 for a CD.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » July 2, 2007, 1:41 pm

Like all Apple products, the first generation sucks balls and is aimed squarely at hipsters with too much money. The second gen iPhone just might change the world.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » July 2, 2007, 2:53 pm

Well given that 1 our of 3 CD's on the market is a Universal disk, I think Apple should be taking this seriously.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 2, 2007, 3:28 pm

No doubt, but it just speaks to the greed of the record companies.

I think we're all aware of the history of the cost of the CD. Now you're dealing with a product that has a lower audio quality, no distribution costs (comparatively), and nothing for an consumer to hold in their hands, and yet they still want to bend the consumer over.

Apple's trying to maintain a pricepoint and Universal wants more money. Apple can either give in or lower their cut to appease Universal. I'm of the opinion that the music companies should be kissing Apple's ass. Prior to iTunes the music companies didn't have a fucking clue about how to distribute music digitally (mostly because they didn't want to).

Fuck Universal.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 2, 2007, 4:33 pm

It's never good to have a monopoly. Until this eMusic store business evens out a bit more so it isn't dominated by Apple, it's a good idea to start breaking it up. Apple is stubborn, Steve Jobs won't learn his lesson until Microsoft has to bail them out again.

How can Apple help? Let all mp3/video portable players connect to the iTunes Store as well as iPods connect to other music stores and software.

They need to embrace their big brother Microsoft and come to an agreement on a standard format for selling music and videos that all players and stores can sell and use (with whatever DRM crap they come up with). We need a "Universal" standard and no more of this Apple greed.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 2, 2007, 5:22 pm

They use a standard format already. Not only that, they were the first to get a record company to release that standard format without DRM.

You also might want to look up the word 'monopoly'. There's no monopoly in digital music.

There's no benevolence in what Universal is doing.

It's sad that you can't even be objective about this because you're so pissed you can't use pirated shit on an iDeviceNameHere.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 2, 2007, 5:42 pm

Wow, great day for the stock market!

DJIA +126.81
NASDAQ +29.07
AAPL -0.78
MSFT +0.27
Apple's lucky the market had one of its best days of the year or it would have headed lower.

Red is bad! Red is bad!

Fameen · Post by **Fameen** » July 2, 2007, 6:31 pm

Down .78 cents. The proof of impending doom is overwhelming. Or not.

noel · Post by **noel** » July 2, 2007, 6:48 pm

Fameen wrote:Down .78 cents. The proof of impending doom is overwhelming. Or not.

Investment expert is just another of Winnow's many hats.