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iPhone Details from AT&T's Sales Training Workbook (Scans)

macrumors.com — We've gotten copies of the full iPhone Training manual provided to AT&T employees that gives us a few more details about Apple's iPhone. This sales guide presents iPhone features and benefits, tips, comparisons, qualifying questions, and objectio...

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  • Jeffrey903, on 10/11/2007, -5/+42Some of the more important pieces that were unclear (assuming that this document is accurate):
    - iPhone lets you carry on a phone conversation while you simultaneously browse the Internet or send an email.
    - There is a vibrate mode.
    - iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with instant messaging users
    - Does not support MMS messaging for photos or videos
    - iPhone will not support the TeleNav solutions currently offered by other AT&T devices
    - GPS is not part of the iPhone feature set.
    • jacefive, on 10/11/2007, -18/+12Agreed.

      I heard early on that there would be no IM, or ichat. But many phones do offer IM, so why not iPhone?

      NO MMS?? easy if you're sending to another iphone but what about my non iphone friends? Is this a ploy to sell more iphones and not be interactive to other phones?

      Telenav? Whatever. No GPS... That makes sense, unfortunately. Unless it has a GPS receiver in it we will never have GPS in this generation. Even if AT&T can tell us where we are, it would be no good if we had no signal...
    • yoursh, on 10/11/2007, -3/+52'- iPhone lets you carry on a phone conversation while you simultaneously browse the Internet or send an email'

      Later on it states that this means with wi-fi, not over cellular. Just wanted to point that out.
    • mobilehavoc, on 10/11/2007, -3/+18Talking while using data will only work with Wifi on the iPhone. AT&T/Cingular's 3G which uses HSPDA/UMTS does support simultaneous voice and data but the iPhone uses EDGE which does not. FYI...I had a Cingular 8125 from almost two years ago that had Wifi and you could talk and use Wifi at the same time...nothing groundbreaking here since Wifi and EDGE are two different radios.
    • Alegoo92, on 10/11/2007, -9/+37No instant messaging? Im not sure about that one.
    • fkr3, on 10/11/2007, -7/+26Not having GPS sucks and makes the mapping integration almost useless. It's probably AT&T's fault there's no instant messaging, if they can make you send a text message instead then it's money.
    • Jeffrey903, on 10/11/2007, -6/+22About the MMS - remember that there is e-mail support for pictures, so you can probably just e-mail your friends @vtext.com or whatever it is (I believe theres a service where you do phonenumber@service.com and it figures out which provider they are and forwards it, but I can't remember the name).

      Also, for IM - I wouldn't be surprised if Meebo developed an iPhone compatible website (which was customized to fit the iPhone screen even better) that would give complete IM capabilities.
    • TheFightForGood, on 10/11/2007, -10/+13lack of MMS is the number 1 reason i wont be buying an iphone. only other problems i have are lack of instant messaging, and the price.

      it would be nice to have the gps, but most other phones dont have it yet either. think I'll be getting the new razr when i upgrade it august.
    • double0jimb0, on 10/11/2007, -8/+3@Jeffrey

      Actually, no, you can not send an email with a picture attached to a cell phone, only the text will go through (try it yourself). Without MMS there is no way to send a pic or video message to a cell phone number from another cell phone. This is damn near a deal breaker for me. Camera phone pictures are only worth sending from phone to phone because taking and viewing quality are pretty low on each end. I think this is a huge non-feature Apple was hoping they could slip by us.
    • tofslie, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Oh, there are always ways to use IM if you have an internet connection. Meebo.com comes to mind.
    • Tmacman, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14Steve's not going to be happy about these leaks coming from AT&T. Where Apple is like a vault - damn few secrets get out - AT&T is a freaking sieve.
    • chad78, on 10/11/2007, -6/+7@Alegoo

      If it really has a full version of Safari, it can do instant messaging.

      http://www.meebo.com/

      [EDIT]
      Sorry Jeffrey, I didn't see your mention of them already. But I'll leave my comment just for the link.
    • charliecharlos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Anybody else notice that it won't use MediaNet for ringtones? Does that mean we can put whatever song we want as a ringtone? No MMS bugged me, but this more than makes up for it. SOLD!
    • t0ny, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3Why no gps? I know it has gps, every cell phone is required to have gps for E911 so why not let gmaps use it?
    • jim1977, on 10/11/2007, -13/+7heh, you can browse and talk on like most 3G phones, same as for the other features

      however, these sold me right into a 24 month contract:

      - Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger
      - Create and manage a list of telephone numbers you call most

      YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS. apple ftw
    • Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -9/+11@ jim1977
      "however, these sold me right into a 24 month contract:
      - Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger
      - Create and manage a list of telephone numbers you call most"

      Ehm... Just about every phone I've used over the last couple of years have been capable of that. I might be missing something here, so please enlighten me, but I fail to see why those two are such selling points to you. O_o
    • cleverboy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Meh. Until I get a chance to try this out, pretty much every complaint people are voicing is sounding like so much noise. I have a shortlist of checkboxes. I'm pretty certain that other phones irk the crap out of me. If iPhone does everything in the videos (and my small list of must-haves") I'll be 100% golden. I look forward to pulling my iPhone out at lunch in Panera's and making posts to my blog and whizing around from site to site. I have a bunch of tv shows from iTunes I wouldn't mind rotating through either. I'm SO tired of the "gotchas" on other phones, I'll take most of the "gotchas" on an iPhone with a fairly thick skin. --Cause they won't be "gotcha" the calculator will cost you $5 more and look like crap.
    • Bamborzled, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6@Tippis

      Have you even heard of the term 'sarcasm'?
    • Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Sorry... the iPhone hype broke my sarcasm compass long ago :(
    • khyberkitsune, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3@jim1977

      - Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger

      We do that already. Note the keypad or rotary dial on EVERY PHONE?

      - Create and manage a list of telephone numbers you call most

      Speed dial comes to mind, and my phone has up to 50 slots available for speed dialing.

      Nothing new with either of these.
    • seventoes, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1Check this out:
      http://images.macrumors.com/article/iphoneman/iphone22-1.jpg

      The compass icon has 2 norths and no south :?
    • crashingechelon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Well, I can lived with that. I've used MMS like maybe 5 times in the past 4 years. SMS I use almost on a daily basis and they could always add iChat in the future to the phone as an update so I could live without IMs. I can live without the GPS or TeleNav, cause I have a GPS for my car already.

      I'll just benefit from the iPhone by not having to carry a phone, laptop, mp3 player with me at all times. So having all 3 together in 1 is good. I know there are phones on the market already that do this, but having it run on multi-touch just seals it.
    • gordeaoux, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@seventoes

      No. Buy glasses.
    • macmcrae, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2bwahahahah. Hear that? It is the sound of Apple's share price dropping like a rock.
    • SonofMaug, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2@macmcrae,

      Really? Looks like AAPL is up .42 to $124.49 today, hmmm. Still looking for that drop...
    • superkendall, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This doesn't really tell us much we didn't already know (we knew t didn't have GPS). So why would the stock decline?
    • jim1977, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1>>Tippis

      >Ehm... Just about every phone I've used over the last couple of years have been capable of that. I might be missing >something here, so please enlighten me, but I fail to see why those two are such selling points to you. O_o


      uh, the point you're missing is the joke. some of us human beings have 'emotions,' perhaps you would like to study them and present the data to your robot overlords for processing so you may recognize 'jokes' and other follies of the human mind in the future
    • mentor972, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Has anyone noticed this???

      http://digg.com/apple/Apple_quietly_corrects_iPhone_slip_up_in_their_commercial
    • mentor972, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Youtube on the iPhone!!!
      Youtube on the iPhone!!!
      Youtube on the iPhone!!!

      http://digg.com/apple/Holy_Balls_Youtube_on_the_iPhone
  • merrickx, on 10/11/2007, -14/+5Your forgetting, the iPhone is very pretty.
  • danpat, on 10/11/2007, -2/+33No GPS is very disappointing. To have both maps and the cool multi touch interface, GPS navigation is the final piece to the puzzle, one that I would use plenty.
    • bpapa, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1If it's using Google maps you can simply set your "home location", hopefully, as you can when using the Google Maps website. Of course GPS will help if you are away from home though.
    • greenbeanz69, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3im rather dissapointed about lack of gps, mms, and IM chat on such an expensive phone. I think im going to wait for the 2nd version of this which will hopefully come with 3g as well.
    • CamperBob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It's frustrating, all right. I shouldn't *need* a GPS receiver in my cell phone. The cell network knows exactly where I am, because they know my exact ping time, so to speak, to multiple neighboring cell sites. Integration with services like Google Maps should just work automatically. (If nothing else, just center the map view on the cell site I'm currently associated with. That'd be much better than doing nothing.)
  • valttih, on 10/11/2007, -6/+4njaah. lets see when it come to Europe. It will have more features, I hope.
  • coldeve, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10I am surprised by two things: The iPhone does not support MMS messaging and the manual did not mention 'the pinch' nor the multi-touch!
  • mobilehavoc, on 10/11/2007, -16/+73If you take away the iPod features (Music, Video, Photos,etc) the phone part is pretty lame as I expected. I won't deny that this will be the best iPod they've ever made but definitely doesn't offer much in terms of phone functionality.

    - No voice dialing? WTF? For me personally that's a non-starter, I use Voicedialing a lot especially when driving.
    - No MMS - has become very popular as of late
    - No IM - almost required these days. I think AT&T wants you to use SMS instead so they can make an easy buck
    - No TeleNav support - doesn't require GPS so why wouldn't they at least offer this?
    - IMAP/POP3 - will eat your battery life like there's no tomorrow. Especially with POP3 your iPhone will connect every X minutes to the server and check for messages, this will suck up battery. IMAP maintains an open connection with the server since all email is left on the server - not good for battery life either. Reason Blackberries have such good battery life is they don't poll for messages since they are "pushed" email by Blackberry servers as they arrive, this is also why Windows Mobile's DirectPush eats battery too because they still poll.
    - How is built-in speakerphone, speeddialing, vibrate mode, pausing video/music when call comes in, recent called list, address book syncing make the iPhone a revolutionary mobile?!?! These features have been around for years. LAME.

    In the end, if they were to come out with an iPhone without the phone = widescreen multi-touch iPod, I'd line up for that but not for this abomination.
    • chrismag1979, on 10/11/2007, -18/+6Well said done! I'll give you a thumbs up for that comment of yours!

      Anyway, John C. Dvorak is right after all. iPhone is a Power Hog device! And, iPhone is going to be a flop.

    • chrisgeleven, on 10/11/2007, -14/+17Who cares about MMS? You send an e-mail to the @vtext.com or whatever with the photo in it.
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/11/2007, -12/+6Personally, I have never used any of those features on any phone I have owned other than to test out at the beginning and I own a Windows smartphone. So yeah, some people will miss these things but others will not. Personally, I'm waiting for the next version of the iPhone.

      "- No voice dialing? WTF? For me personally that's a non-starter, I use Voicedialing a lot especially when driving.
      - No MMS - has become very popular as of late
      - No IM - almost required these days. I think AT&T wants you to use SMS instead so they can make an easy buck
      - No TeleNav support - doesn't require GPS so why wouldn't they at least offer this?
      - IMAP/POP3 - will eat your battery life like there's no tomorrow. Especially with POP3 your iPhone will connect every X minutes to the server and check for messages, this will suck up battery. IMAP maintains an open connection with the server since all email is left on the server - not good for battery life either. Reason Blackberries have such good battery life is they don't poll for messages since they are "pushed" email by Blackberry servers as they arrive, this is also why Windows Mobile's DirectPush eats battery too because they still poll."
    • ahingert, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0test
    • ideapower, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8voice dialing is an absolute necessity. they're even making their own bluetooth headset... but they expect you to pick up the iPhone and dial a call? when driving, this is especially difficult on this device, as you can't really "feel your way around" the keypad like you can on other phones. i was somewhat considering getting one before, but this kills it for me.
    • htdub, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"- IMAP/POP3 - will eat your battery life like there's no tomorrow. Especially with POP3 your iPhone will connect every X minutes to the server and check for messages, this will suck up battery. IMAP maintains an open connection with the server since all email is left on the server - not good for battery life either. Reason Blackberries have such good battery life is they don't poll for messages since they are "pushed" email by Blackberry servers as they arrive, this is also why Windows Mobile's DirectPush eats battery too because they still poll."

      Don't think so , my e61 polls my IMAP mailbox account, it only keeps a active connection for the time it needs to update the phone, then drops the connection. My "Packet data connection dropped" popup shows up every 5min. ( Very annoying, thanks nokia)

      Blackberry's have good battery life? Since when? My 8700r had a so-so battery.

    • naio, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3The iPhone is owned by ANY Pocket PC with phone capabilities (PPCPEs). Which are much cheaper BTW. See the Eten M700 just to begin with. Or the brand new HTC Touch.

      Sorry... if you are eager to spent USD 600 in a iPod with lame phone capabilities, be happy. A fool and his money is quickly separated.
    • kcampos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Why would it have MMS? iPhone leaped this, this wasn't an oversight this is intentional. If I want to send a picture,audio,video msg I just send an email when I'm on my desktop, and now my desktop (OSX) is on the phone. Also these complaints about chat and all that are fine and dandy but Apple already has a proven method of updating software, it's just going to be a OSX update when it's ready, this ain't all firmware crap.
    • apetty, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3In the keynote he said that they are pushed, not polled.
    • bradleyland, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Let's see. I have a photo on my phone I want to send. I can either send it via MMS, which uses up my messaging quota, or I can send it via my unlimited data plan. I'll go unlimited data. Honestly, since I've had the unlimited data, I rarely use MMS. Pretty much anyone I know who is capable of opening and viewing an MMS attachment on their phone has a phone that is capable of email.
    • josh4510, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Talking on the phone and browsing the Internet at the SAME TIME!!!

      Well this should be fun to watch someone trying to master on the road!!!
    • MakinBacon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I don't know how mobilehavoc got so many diggs...

      ** No voice dialing? WTF? For me personally that's a non-starter, I use Voicedialing a lot especially when driving.**
      - well I've had voice-dial on my last three phones and have used it about three or four times in 9 years. So for many people it's not as much of a "non-starter" as it is for you.

      ** No IM - almost required these days. I think AT&T wants you to use SMS instead so they can make an easy buck **
      - there's no built in IM to AOL or MSN but the Safari browser is a full-fledged.

      ** No MMS - has become very popular as of late **
      - really? I'd rather send pictures/ringtones/files to people via email on the iPhone than via MMS. I think phone companies want you to use MMS so they can make an easy buck (sound familiar?)

      ** No TeleNav support - doesn't require GPS so why wouldn't they at least offer this? **
      - TeleNav support is simply a firmware solution. The iPhone has Bluetooth so the feature could easily be added if customer demand is there.

      ** IMAP/POP3 - will eat your battery life like there's no tomorrow. **
      - as someone already mentioned... Jobs said during his Keynote that it uses PUSH technology.


      Now I'm not saying that the iPhone is the greatest phone ever invented... but c'mon mobilehavoc... it isn't as bad as you make it out to be in EVERY SINGLE iPhone story on Digg.

    • takamalak, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2MMS is for republican closet ***** to send pictures of their genitals to young boys.
    • polymyxin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1bury me
    • kolywater, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1a huge feature set isn't what the iphone offers. i don't know why people continue to be "feature set" blind. more features != better. the iphone appears (from the videos/keynotes) to be easier to use, with a wonderfully polished interface. the interaction paradigm is what the iphone is bringing to the table.
    • lixao, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Mobilehavoc, I don't want to sound mean, but I don't appreciate misleading comments, I think the iPhone is a great product which will force other companies to innovate to keep up with it, meaning better phones from everyone, it will definetely not suit everyone, but it will definetely introduce people to the concept that more functional devices do not need to be difficult to use. And now for my comments on your message:

      [quote]If you take away the iPod features (Music, Video, Photos,etc) the phone part is pretty lame as I expected. I won't deny that this will be the best iPod they've ever made but definitely doesn't offer much in terms of phone functionality.[quote]

      If you take away that much you are obviously going to make it look pretty bad, I think you shouldn't forget that apple is trying to appeal to a much larger audience than people that normally get smartphones, and therefore their emphasis falls on features that are used by most people, and giving most people more options. Two things that no one is talking about:

      1. The iPhone allows you to check your answering machine messages in any order. If you just missed an important call, you don't have to wade through ALL your previous messages to listen to the message that you want.
      2. It allows for conferencing and it actually allows you to do it relatively easily.

      Although the second might not appeal to everyone, the first one, although not necessarily revolutionary, it does beg the question: Why didn't anyone do this before? Am I the only person that would like to listen to important messages first?

      [quote]- No voice dialing? WTF? For me personally that's a non-starter, I use Voicedialing a lot especially when driving.[quote]

      You are speaking out of context here, for most phones, dialing any number involves quite a few steps, with voice dialing, you press a button and you can then say the person's name in order to call them. Basically voice dialing makes a phone difficult dialling process a lot quicker, now if that process is really easy and accessible, it no longer becomes that important, if all you need to do is swipe your finger to unlock and then literally touch a big screen in order to dial one of your favourite numbers, it's no longer too much of an issue, I can't vouch for all phones, but my voice dialing requires me to press at least one button to activate it (if the phone is not locked, which then requires two touches), as long as your interface is easy enough to use, you can actually accomplish that task with as many touches without having to speak out the person's name.


      [quote]No MMS - has become very popular as of late[quote]

      MMS is just a gloried way for operators to get even more money from you, for something that doesn't cost them anything. Imagine paying to send emails... The fact that they are according to you becoming more popular, doesn't mean that the trend will continue, specially if email and unlimited data plans are provided. And by the way, at least in Europe, every manufacturer uses a different MMS system, and the video is not compatible between them.


      [quote]- No IM - almost required these days. I think AT&T wants you to use SMS instead so they can make an easy buck[quote]

      With a full browser using IM is just a question of browsing to the right website. And if demand is that high thanks to the synchronization capabilities of the phone, Apple could just include in the next update.


      [quote]- No TeleNav support - doesn't require GPS so why wouldn't they at least offer this?[quote]

      It will be a shame if the iPhone does not have any way to find it's current location, hopefully one of the unannounced features will cover for this.


      [quote]- IMAP/POP3 - will eat your battery life like there's no tomorrow. Especially with POP3 your iPhone will connect every X minutes to the server and check for messages, this will suck up battery. IMAP maintains an open connection with the server since all email is left on the server - not good for battery life either. Reason Blackberries have such good battery life is they don't poll for messages since they are "pushed" email by Blackberry servers as they arrive, this is also why Windows Mobile's DirectPush eats battery too because they still poll. [quote]

      You are obviously not very technical, IMAP does NOT require an permanent open connection to the server, as it can, just like POP3 download the messages to the phone and then disconnect, they do however both require periodical connections to the mail server in order to provide you with constant updates, on the other hand these connections are very short unless you are actually receiving any new email, as both protocols will only require a few kbytes to check your inbox.
      As for your claims that a Blackberry have such a good battery life, either you never owned a blackberry or you never owned another phone that was NOT a Blackberry. Battery life on a Blackberry is about 4hrs talk time and 16 days stand-by and on a Windows Mobile SPV M5000 it's 8hrs talk time and 8 days stand-by, what a fantastic difference, considering most people charge their phones at least once every two days, I much rather have phone with a longer talk time... And by the way you probably missed the "Push" bit in "DirectPush", yes it technically does poll, but it does so in a very special way, by actually increasing the time out for the response enormously meaning that the server can reply much much later, dramatically reducing battery usage and connection requirements, yes it does poll but in this case it's actually for patent circumvention.


      [quote]- How is built-in speakerphone, speeddialing, vibrate mode, pausing video/music when call comes in, recent called list, address book syncing make the iPhone a revolutionary mobile?!?! These features have been around for years. LAME.[quote]

      Yes they have been around for years, but to make the stupidity behind your argument more obvious, if I want to, I can do word processing and listen to music in my computer using only the terminal, but I CHOOSE to use the easy to use to graphical interface because I can do what I want to quickly and efficiently. And learning how to do it does not require 4 years at university...

      The argument that other phones can already do these things is not a valid argument. I have owned pretty much every iteration of Windows Mobile phones, and yes they can play music, browse the web and check email. But the music player is so bad, that I actually considered writting my own (not to mention that getting my bluetooth headphones to play music only works half of the time.

      A great product does not emerge from having EVERY possible feature built in, great products come from knowing WHICH features are essential and making them WORK properly. Did you ever wonder why iPods sell more than Creative or Archos? Did you ever wonder why the Wii is such a success and the PS3 was a flop?


      [quote]In the end, if they were to come out with an iPhone without the phone = widescreen multi-touch iPod, I'd line up for that but not for this abomination. [quote]
      If you think an iPhone with it's smooth design is an abomination, you probably deserve to be using a Blackberry with it's renowned "sexy" design...
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2@lixao

      Spot on! I agree with you 100%. I'm so tired of everyone bashing the device before it's released. What really bugs me are a few things you didn't touch on.

      1.) "It's only 4GB or 8GB!" Okay, give me a break. What other phone has onboard storage of that capacity? Would you rather have better battery life (more storage would mean using a HD, which consumes more power), or some more storage (presumably for a higher price, too)? From the sounds of it, most people would like better battery life. Many people get along just fine with iPod Nanos.

      2.) "You need a 2-year contract!" When do you not need to get a two year contract? Granted, phones are usually subsidized with a contract, but the iPhone without subsidization may allow for phone upgrades without adding onto your contract [that was initiated with the purchase of your iPhone].

      3.) "The battery life is disappointing." How is 5 hours of talk time disappointing? Blackberries get 4 to 4.5 hours, so why is the iPhone's battery supposedly bad? Carriers try to trick you by putting their talk time in minutes in the specifications, so you may see something like 180 minutes of talk time, which is really three hours.

      4.) "There's no hardware keyboard." 'Berries and Palms have tiny plastic keys, which I find extremely hard and tedious to type on. Let's face it, while we all try to sound like experts on the iPhone, none of us have actually used one. So we have no clue how typing is going to be. I'm sure Apple has made it as painless as possible - they can't afford for such a highly anticipated product to flop. Through their use of multi-tuch, I think the keyboard will be successful. And if you ask me, I'd rather have more screen real estate than a cheapy keyboard.

      5.) "No third party applications!" This isn't 100% true, and in fact, it is probably completely false. Apple has come out and said that they'll do their best to open it up to developers, but they don't want to compromise security, etc. And remember, [probably] any web-based application will function on the iPhone. It's almost certain it'll support Flash & Javascript, which are both utilized on almost every website, including Apple's - they're going to want their own website to function flawlessly.
  • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -21/+9(This is in response to mobilehavoc's post)

    "Personally, I have never used any of those features on any phone"

    As opposed to what, impersonally or not personally? It's going to be quite the task to analyze such a poorly reasoned and written argument, if it can be so called, but let's take it one step at a time.

    "I won't deny that this will be the best iPod they've ever made but definitely doesn't offer much in terms of phone functionality."

    That's not the point. What makes the phone revolutionary need not be that it has "the most badass" features, but rather that it combines conventional features in an intuitive interface. For Jobs, and the rest of Apple, many carriers and cell phone corporations fail to recognize the import of having ease of use when it comes to selling a device. Everyone knows about the devices you're talking about. Heck, I can name some devices that have everything but the kitchen sink. That's not the point. The point is, rather, who can combine these features in an intuitive way?

    Many, many people bemoaned the 1G iPod's lack of features, but they so easily missed the point. Features don't matter if they are cumbersome to use. If the number of features dictated what sold a product, or how good it is, we wouldn't be seeing the iPod monopolizing the music industry. Companies like iRiver and Creative would be dominating.

    You have a lot to learn about a product. Ostensibly, for you, all that matters is whether a device has a feature. For me, it's not just having a feature, but whether it has usefully and intuitively implemented in the device.

    I'm extremely pleased with the iPhone. For once, syncing my iCal and address book and mail on one device is easier than ever. I don't have to use the missing sync anymore (for my Palm or my PocketPC), and the integration is worth the money alone.

    Perhaps when you grow up, become a little more intelligent, and educate yourself on what dictates the market, you'll understand why Apple has been so successful. You can call me a fanboy (you can call me Susan, even!), but my point is not that Apple's products are spectacular or something sent down from God. My point is that the ease of this device is why it is revolutionary in comparison to other smart phones. That the iPhone is making it a point to emphasize ease-of-use should send a clear message to other smartphone manufacturers that just cramming a bunch of features in a device is not sufficient to win a market. Perhaps it will win the inferior digg user to whom I'm responding and who simply cannot write, but not the market.
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11"(This is in response to mobilehavoc's post)"

      Then why are you quoting and responding to my post?
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1Sorry, Daffyduck, I confused your posts since you quoted his.
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/11/2007, -12/+3digg down
    • wing05, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2"Many, many people bemoaned the 1G iPod's lack of features, but they so easily missed the point. Features don't matter if they are cumbersome to use. If the number of features dictated what sold a product, or how good it is, we wouldn't be seeing the iPod monopolizing the music industry. Companies like iRiver and Creative would be dominating."

      Yes, and MP3 players were not ubiquitous must have devices when the 1G iPod came out. Apple built the product and grew the market to pull in both the walkman/discman carrying crowd as well as everybody else who didn't have portable music.

      Cell phones, on the other hand, are everywhere and used by everyone from kids to seniors.

      Alot of cell phones have features to the yin yang. And alot of people use those features that Apple didn't include.

      "Perhaps when you grow up, become a little more intelligent, and educate yourself on what dictates the market, you'll understand why Apple has been so successful. You can call me a fanboy (you
      cacomparison to other smart phones. That the iPhone is making it a point to emphasize ease-of-use should send a clear message to other smartphone manufacturers that just cramming a bunch of features in a device is not sufficient to win a market."

      Whoa dude, hold back on the Apple flavoured kool-aid.

      What is the target market anyhow? I suspect that it isn't going to be business users who have Treos, Blacberrys and WinCE devices entrenched in their daily lives. It's a tad pricey for the general population. If they want to win mind share, they'd better price the damned thing along the same price as the Razr and any other simple phone meant for the general non smart phone using public.

      Otherwise, this might as well be a Zune with a phone built in..

    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1"Yes, and MP3 players were not ubiquitous must have devices when the 1G iPod came out."

      MP3 players were pervasive, at least where I lived, and the 1G iPod was pretty ordinary when it came to features. Who knew a scroll wheel would be the paradigm of MP3 interfaces more than five years down the line?

      "Whoa dude, hold back on the Apple flavoured kool-aid."

      1) First, I'm not a dude.
      2) "Whoa dude, hold back on the [I can't read] flavoured kool-aid." My post was not intended to promote Apple. It was intended to emphasize that a product with relatively few features can be revolutionary simply in the way it combines them. Perhaps if you had gone to school, you would have understood the distinction.
    • polymyxin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"If they want to win mind share, they'd better price the damned thing along the same price as the Razr and any other simple phone meant for the general non smart phone using public."

      Well, the RAZR was originally priced at $500, and that seems to have worked out fairly well for Motorola.
  • turnthepage, on 10/11/2007, -1/+35cindynjgirl79@aol.com is going to get alot of emails.
  • Anthet, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11No mms? Woha, they better fix this before they launch in in europe. Phones dating back several years have mms support, everyone and his grandmother uses it (atleast in sweden). Not to mention the fact that its not 3g, damnit, I want one so friggin bad but this is just to much :(
  • bumfilter, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9"Apple's new, remarkably compact Bluetooth headset"

    Any pictures of this around yet? I've probably missed this one.
  • HOOKSTER1231, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6honestly, does anyone see this as something special? if no one has seen the 'dash' replacement from htc you really need to check it out. i think for a phone it will be WAY more useful than this phone. this is more likened to a psp+phone service. im sure sony is kicking their own ass for this one. for a new "groundbreaking " device should we really over look this iphone's faults for any reason? so yea, check out the other phones that are coming out too, and i will get dug down for not being an apple fanboy but it is not only windows mobile phones that will be over shadowing this one at half the cost very soon
  • bloaty, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1no mms isnt a big deal because with the built in e-mail you can send it to something like 123456789@vzpix.com or similar to send them for FREE!
  • neuonyx, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13As much as I love and want the iPhone badly there are some pitfalls that will hopefully be rectified in the next version. This is not a troll post, this is ment to call attention to items people shoudl think if they need when making this purchase.

    These items are (unfortunately) important to me and are what is preventing me from being able to purchase the iPhone. I love it, I want it, but it doesnt currently fit my needs. I hope rev2 will incorporate some of these features:

    1: EDGE instead of UMTS (3G)
    1.5: Cannot simeltaneously use email and make phone call withOUT wifi. (3G phones [at least my 8525 does] allow this)
    2: Instanant messaging ( ICQ, aim, msn, yahoo, etc.) are not available on iphone at this time unlike other internet enabled phones.
    3: While I've read they will be opening up iPhone, at initial release: 3rd party apps are not available.
    3.5: For some sysadmins, win remote desktop or putty ssh clients may be required ( and exist for other phones ) -- These are not currently available -- Its doubtful such clients will come to be. (doubtful becuase of lack of keyboard makes ssh difficult (need special keys like esc, ~, that i dont see in touch screen keyboard, and its unlikely that M$ will help apply by coming out with winRD for iphone.
    4: Mobile office : I have not seen indication about ability to view/edit word, excel, powerpoint, etc docuemnts. Or iWork documents for that matter. For many business users, this is a requirement. I would guess it has a pdf viewer, however some people must be able to edit documents from their phone (as difficult as this is, it does exist on other platforms).
    5: Current lack of VoIP apps.

    These are some of my concerns. Perhaps there are work arounds or something in the works that will solve these problems in the near future. If anyone knows of a work around or plans for these to be implemented, please let me know so i can reset my countdown clock for when i can purchase one. :)

  • alexkehr, on 10/11/2007, -8/+9No IM! I'm no longer interested in purchasing the iPhone. I was looking forward to being able to easily IM my friend. I guess I'll be waiting for the Samsung F700.
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -19/+8The iPhone is not looking to attract infantile AIM users. You will not be missed from the customer base.
    • countersoldat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I agree. I don't understand the people saying, "ohh, you are immature because you want to use aim on the phone.." etc, etc. AIM is one of the most popular methods of communication among students, and before you say students could not afford an iPhone, I suggest you go to a top-20 university and look around. I was hoping to be able to use IM programs while at a hotspot, etc, and the fact that you cannot seems ludicrous, especially when "inferior" phones are able to.
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0"I agree. I don't understand the people saying, "ohh, you are immature because you want to use aim on the phone.." etc, etc. AIM is one of the most popular methods of communication among students, and before you say students could not afford an iPhone, I suggest you go to a top-20 university and look around. I was hoping to be able to use IM programs while at a hotspot, etc, and the fact that you cannot seems ludicrous, especially when "inferior" phones are able to."

      I do go to a top 20 university (make that top 10, or even top 5).

      And before you say "students can afford the iPhone," let's make it clear that it's usually not the student, but rather their parents who can afford it. The poster to whom I initially responded sounds like he needs to convince mommy and daddy for a new iPhone. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, even for you.
    • cleverboy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I'll be "instantly IMing my friends" from my iPhone. Ask me how at the end of the month. You probably won't have to though. It'll be all over the latest news although it may easily get buried.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@sarahdug

      Your arguments and attacks show it is you who are childish. My business makes extensive use of IM. My friends make extensive use of IM. Hell, even my 80 year old Grandma uses IM. There's nothing childish about instant messages, it's just another tool for communication.
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0"There's nothing childish about instant messages, it's just another tool for communication."

      I never said that it's childish. It's a good thing your business doesn't require good reading skills, because you most definitely don't have any.
    • cthellis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0You do know that you can AIM through their website, right?
    • EtherGnat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@sarahdug

      You left little doubt that you feel instant messaging is infantile, based on your reply to axekkehr. Seeing as how childish is a synonym for infantile (feel free to use a thesaurus if you're having trouble keeping up) I fail to see how my comprehension skills are lacking.
  • spamcrusher, on 10/11/2007, -11/+5LOL @ the fanboys over at macrumors.com. Basically, we just saw a list of a bunch of features the iPhone can not do that my $100 phone does. On top of that, nobody has really seen anything new or cutting edge. They are still drooling over this piece of crap.

    "Hey, maybe an IM application is the top secret application they have been promising". That would be funny for Apple to come out and release a top secret application that does something phones have been doing for five years now.
    • kris33, on 10/11/2007, -5/+16It is not the features that is new and cool with the iPhone, it is how they work.

      And Apple are gonna relese a SDK BTW, so IM will be out at some point.
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -5/+13Thank you, Kris, you're getting it.

      What half the diggers here don't understand is that a device is not simply an amalgamation of features. How they are organized and put to use matters significantly for many people
    • kheldorin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I think we understood that but these are basic features. We'd rather have it implemented in some weird way than none at all. Besides how many different ways can you implement MMS. It's MMS.
    • sarahdug, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0It is not the case that MMS is not in the iPhone at all. At least two diggers here cited one way to use MMS on the iPhone.
    • bpapa, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3"have it implemented in some weird way"

      Yeah, you see, Apple doesn't do that sort of thing. Hence why people are excited for this device.
    • mrBitch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0" LOL @ the fanboys over at macrumors.com. Basically, we just saw a list of a bunch of features the iPhone can not do that my $100 phone does. On top of that, nobody has really seen anything new or cutting edge. They are still drooling over this piece of crap. "
      blah blah - iphone won't do this ... won't do that - blah blah ...
      ... i think you missed the whole point of what the iphone WILL do :
      1. the iphone WILL run on an OS that doesn't crash, freeze, or reboot every few hours.

      ... THAT ( for me ) is the ONLY thing that I will GLADLY switch over to the iphone ( from my current windows POS " smart " phone ).
  • slapthemonkey, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I would certainly go through the details only after seeing that tje users are satisfied.
  • fIag546, on 10/11/2007, -19/+1I heard iPhone runs OS X. That's more than enough reason for not buying it! Why didn't they base it on Windows Mobile instead? That is the most stable mobile OS ever!!!!!!
    • mrmacky, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5Any facts and figures to back up that "best mobile OS ever!!!" claim? If not, gtfo.

      I'm sad that it will be lacking in so many features at launch... hopefully with the SDK some 3rd party developers will make some apps to gain this functionality later.

      Since it is internet-enabled, maybe Meebo will answer our call for IM!
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Fake Flag.
  • evanlive, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Who cares the iphone is going to have just as many problems as any other hot new phone. I went through 3 Motorola razrs before I got one that was decent. And finding one will be a huge pain. Blah
  • VulnoX, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1It is an amazing looking phone and the widescreen looks great, but it seems to be less feature rich than most smartphones.

    I have a Moto Q, I made $75 getting it, and except for the widescreen part and only have 2GB of memory instead of 8 or 4 (I could have 4 if I wanted to buy the MiniSD, but I don't need it), it does not offer a single thing that my phone does not already have.

    I mean, I guess if you have an iPod (I do) and a decent phone (check), this seems kind of useless. For the price at least, if it was about $150 with new contract or whatever, and ummm, wasn't with Cingluar/AT&T, then sweet. But I don't need to drain my phone battery while listening to music or watching videos, battery life on these "Smartphone" style phones is at a premium as is!

    Having said that, I wonder what the average battery life is going to be, they seem to be throwing a lot at whatever Li-Ion is in there, and I know the phone isn't huge so the battery can't be too large. Some of you may not think battery is important, but just start browsing a bit and using some of those features, it sucks not making it through the day on a charge.
  • dodgeboy99, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3Before everyone runs out to buy the latest and greatest you might want to take a second look at Windows smartphone's. I grant you that they all have some problems, but no product is perfect. My Motorola Q can play music, it can even play streaming radio and do it over a bluetooth headset. But most importantly I can add numerous 3 party apps to compensate for its shortcomings. The iPhone like all of Apple's products seems very proprietary. Don't get me wrong I would love to combine my phone and my ipod into one device. It seems to me the easiest way to combine the devices would be for Apple to open up itunes to all devices. I know that probably will never happen but if it did I doubt the iPhone would be the hottest device out there. I will be writing more about this on my blog at pleasantpics.com
  • silvalynin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5"Keep in mind that there might be additional iPhone features that are announced at iPhone's launch as well as additional information about the features in this guide. (scan)"

    Let's wait for WWDC...
    • ashdigg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1yup, this is disappointing

      i really hope for im & gps
      i have been praying that gps be the mystery feature not yet announced. That will help me justify the cost in my mind

      also, no comments about ring tones ? can i use any song i have on as ring tone ?
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It won't have GPS. GPS was not tested by the FCC in the device.
  • kheldorin, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7I have a feeling the 1st-gen iPhone users will get screwed over when the 2nd-gen iPhone comes out with features that should have been in the first one.
    • VulnoX, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8What makes you think that? I mean really, what product made by Apple has multiple generations, each one adding features the previous did not have?

      Apple?

      Noooo...
  • Books, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1I hope we can see this at my work soon too. Rogers in Canada.
  • DarkMirage, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2At this point I have to say that I don't think this will be worth the money.
  • digitallysick, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Guess i will wait until someone hacks it and fills it with decent apps. Then i will get an iphone, once it can run skype, and have IM, no mms? thats garbage. The iphone sounds worse each time something comes out about it. Its to expensive , and missing alot of nice features.

    It seems that every "smart phone" that comes out, has key features missing on purpose. Like the blackberry pearl, cant do videos or stream videos. Why have a cam for pics if you cant do videos?
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Because streamed video isn't popular among subscribers as a whole. From my experience, video quality has been poor, you need to pay ridiculous subscription fees, and your battery is drained like a sieve.

      Local content works for more users if the right framework for purchase, download, and transfer is in place. This allows for cheaper video which you own (unlike streamed content), higher quality, better battery life, and an overall better experience - and this is why the iPhone will be successful without streaming video.
  • schavira, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2They better bring AIM to this. I'm not paying anybody ridiculous amounts of money to send 2-3 sentence messages.
    • VulnoX, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2But you will pay ridiculous amounts of money to use a free client based messaging system on a phone?

      I really need to start inventing stuff, because I guess all I need is something that looks amazing, has AIM built in, can make calls, and browse the web, and regardless of battery life, reliability, signal strength, or anything else, people will buy it.

      I need to get some blueprints together.
  • slapded, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1at&t rules
  • darkphoenix939, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1i think this whole thing is something apple is doing to flag who is leaking information?
  • ImNotDrewCurtis, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2If only it weren't AT&T......the suckiest suck phone company in suckville. What a bunch of douche-nozzles. I hope they burn in hell.
    • VulnoX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Normally I hate it when people say they hate something with no reasoning, but after my experience with AT&T/Cingular, I can get behind this statement 100%.
  • TinFoil209, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2No voice dialing on the iPhone? Sounds like an iCrash waiting to happen. Also with the google maps do you have to constantly give it your city/zip code your in? If you commute that sounds pathetic. Use the cell towers with assisted GPS to get at least a clue where you are. Depending what side of the bay bridge you are on means a lot to find a repair shop for your new iCrash by iPhone. ;)
  • FaytlND, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1For those saying that lack of MMS "isn't a big deal", you are forgetting something. Yes, people with iPhones will still be able to send the messages to others using the #@carrier.com paradigm (I won't go into the fact that this is backwards anyway). However, the real issue is that people with iPhones cannot RECEIVE MMS messages. This means that someone who has another regular type of phone and wants to send a pic to a friend who has an iPhone, they will have to remember to send it to the iPhone users email address, and not directly to the cell phone. Maybe your closest friends could remember to do the (cumbersome) step every time, but otherwise, iPhone users can be assured of not receiving many MMS messages from from people who forget.
    • VulnoX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You are correct, but for now at least, until the software update, my Sprint version of the Moto Q does not do MMS, and it has not been a problem. I never used MMS before I got this phone, and now when I want to send pics I just use the e-mail client and can send to an MMS phone or whatever. See it isn't really a problem with a phone like the Q or the iPhone I am betting because you can store e-mail addy's in the phone and include them in outgoing messages.

      My Q actually defaults to the e-mail addresses I have on file when sending a picture, which is a very much appreciated feature.
    • FaytlND, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0@VulnoX:
      Right, but that was not my point. No doubt you can still send the MMS messages to whoever you want. But what did people do who wanted to send you MMS messages? They would have to know to send them to your email address. That can be done, but it seems a bit roundabout to ask all of you acquaintances to remember to send it to your email when they are using MMS.

      I do think this will probably be added at some point, but not including it put of the gate begins to confirm what some people have been saying: That Apple is rushing the iPhone out the door unfinished to meet the June date. If you are planning on MMS for the future, why wouldn't you just included it from the beginning?
    • dichter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@faytlnd
      I don't think Apple will add MMS back. Of course that's just my opinion. If Apple do add some type of social / communication app to iPhone, iChat will probably be the next item on the list.
  • straylightrise, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1why wouldn't ichat be in this???? it would force the consumer to get a data/text package. (IMs are text based)

    not even considering the iphone

    I'll stick with my blackjack
  • Stachzilla, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You know it took the iPod nearly 5 generations before I finally took the plunge, and before it really became the status quo for portable music, and I personally think this first attempt isn't bad. However, I'll wait until atleast the 2nd gen to get one of these. Which is not easy because this phone is all kinds of sexy looking.

    Hopefully by 2nd gen they'll fix a lot of the inevitable problems that will naturally occur, and seem to be annoying people already.
  • craziestmule, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1i worked for apple, and whenever a new product was released our materials didn't look like that at all. i guess apple could send completely different materials to at&t stores than their retail stores, or maybe change up the format, but i don't see why they would. i'm pretty set these are fake.
    • Landyjg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0These documents are made by AT&T to instruct their sales people on how to sell apples product.
  • ChunkerMunker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm no phone expert, nor do I claim to be one. But have most of you taken the following into consideration:

    A) That some of the features that "supposedly" aren't included, are because:

    1. They'll be replaced by a newer technology
    2. Will be part of the features that have yet to be revealed

    B) THIS ISN'T REALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Did you guys just look at the quick recap, or did any of you actually bother looking at the "scans?"

    Cuz they look fake as hell......C'mon people, think for a second.

    The person that supposedly leaked this, has her email in huge letters ALL OVER THE "SCANS"

    If that's not a red flag, I dunno what is.
  • deadbaby, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This is shocking news to me. I can't believe they would leave out IM support. For people my age, IM is our main communication medium. I can't imagine buying any phone that didn't support IM or at least included the ability to load third party applications. I guess I'll be sticking with my BlackBerry instead. Hopefully Nextel picks up the new 8xxx series soon. I'm really concerned how badly Apple dropped the ball here.
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1No IM probably has to do with AT&T. Apple's probably looking out for you on this one - they don't want them to charge you a texting rate for every IM.
      Just remember, the iPhone has full-featured internet, so you can use one of those AIM-service websites.

      3rd party development will most likely be available; Apple did state their working on opening it up to developers.
  • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1my TyTN is quad band 3G UNLOCKED for ~$450 SHIPPED NO CONTRACT with tons of accessories and aftermarket support.

    BTW SMARTPHONES != POCKET PC phones (Windows mobile classic = PDA ONLY, Windows mobile standard = Smartphone, windows mobile professional = PPC Phone)
    Smartphone’s are running crippled windows like the Motorola Q, Samsung Blackjack, HTC cavalier, etc cannot do even 1/4 of what a real ppc phone can do

    Pocket pc phones are full blown pocket pc’s with phone functionality (they do not pretend to be a phone)
    Smart phones are pretend phones that pretend to be PDAs (no touch screen, they have very limited pda functionality but MUCH more so than a regular phone, IE Razr, Motorola phone tools suck ***** BTW)
    iPhone pretends to be both a phone and PDA and fails miserably at it, the iphone is NOT running full OSX, there is just no possible way, is it NOT running safari, i doubt you can even watch flash videos from the iphone
    regular phones are only for making calls, they do not perform PDA functions well at all, have horrible sync capability with PIM software such as outlook,

    Is everyone stuck under the north American rock? do you people have no clue about the outside world? actually you people dont have a clue about what’s IN north America (not saying all just say the apple fan boys who are clueless)

    Cingular 8525 is the same as the HTC Hermes which is available in the US LOCALLY, in Canada i just ordered online and got to me in 27 hrs, my HTC Prophet which i sold got to me in 17hrs from Hong Kong.

    it look what i can do with mine

    Read QR code? (This is hella popular in Japan)
    Google maps? Yep got that
    a2dp? Yep
    Infrared to control TVs and DVD players, etc yep, (does the iphone have IR?)
    Wifi B/g? Yep
    BT 2.0? Yep
    3G? Yep
    2MP camera with LED FLASH/Flashlight? Yep (the Kaiser is 2.8MP which is the successor to the TyTN, the TyTN is out of date since it’s been out for almost 2 years)
    Front facing video call camera? Yep (I don’t see one on the iPhone, HTF are you supposed to do video voicemail?)
    Camera to OCR business cards to outlook? Yep (world card mobile)
    Choice of BROWSER, PEI, Minimozilla, Opera, Net front? Yep (I use opera because it kicks ass)
    Expandable memory? Yep
    removable battery? Yep
    Expandable battery? yep (you can do a double sized battery for like 10hrs of talk, as well as cold swap with ANOTHER double sized battery for ridiculous amounts of talk, or web surfing, or whatever you need)
    Absurd amounts of 3rd party software available? Yep
    GAMES? Yep (I like snails with Bluetooth and wife support)
    No ridiculous contract or start up price? Yep
    Slide out backlit keyboard? yep (mine is blue backlit, but other TyTN versions are colors like red, white, etc. tactiless KB's SUCK ASS, I used to use one for my HTC Prophet, it was horrid to type on since you have to rely 90% on your eyes and 10% on your ears, the KB I had was spb full screen keyboard, it made typewriter sounds every time I hit a key and it DID make it a little easier to type since you know you actually hit the key, but don’t know which until you look)
    skype/VOIP? yep
    ICQ/MSN/Yahoo/Etc or all of them in 1 program? Yep
    MMS? yep
    skinable to anything i choose? Yep (wisbar advanced desktop can be used to make it look like anything)
    TCPMP? yep i want to be able to play xvid, or flac, ogg, AAC no fracking itunes drmed garbage (also TCPMP can do internet radio, video, stream anything really, supports EMBEDED album art which alot of players cant do, A2DP and AVRCP Support. can your iphone do all that?)
    weather through my CHOICE in program? yep (i use SPB weather)
    my CHOICE of photo viewer? Yep (resco photo viewer)
    alterations of the OS to my choosing? Yep (registry editor, etc)
    voice command, digit dial, voice browsing, etc? Yep
    regular non propriatary USB? Yep, you have no idea how convinient it is to use just any old Mini USB A cable, these cables come with cameras, mp3 players, phones (motorola), etc
    turn my phone into USB Mass Storage? yep
    swap songs or play songs on any computer, or phone, or car stereo? yep
    changeable faceplate? yep
    video conferencing? yep
    3d graphing calculator? yep (slaughters any TI calc via spacetime)
    mappable buttons ? yep
    wireless scanner? yep (herecast scanner can see hidden networks as well)
    bluejack/snipe capable? yep (theres software out there for fun)
    bit torrent client? yep (i HIGHLY doubt the iphone is capable of BT)
    WOL capability? yep (Wakeitup is free, i can use it to turn on any computer in my house thru wifi)
    voice recorder? yep, record to any format i want,
    unit conversion? yep
    periodic table? yep
    push email and sync with outlook? yep
    sync with my WORK environment? yep
    choice of mapping software to go with GPS, yep i have pocket streets iguidance, tomtom, gps tuner,
    star chart? yep (pocketstars)
    stop watch? yep, Pocket Stopwatch by pocket one
    ring tones without DRM? i have midi, wma, mp3, wav ring tones, i can freely transfer them to whatever i want, i can also make my own or crop midi files and throw them on, same goes for any format of audio
    play music videos or any type of video for ring tone? yep i saw somewhere that you can play a video for an incomming call
    VPN? yep, built in with certificate support
    terminal services? RDP to windows machines? yep
    Word Power point, excel? yep all built in
    play guitar chords? yep, i dont play guitar but i have it
    universal translator? yep i can ask a question and the pda will convert that sentence into a language of my choice (as long as i have the lang pak) this is thru Etaco UT
    dictionary of my choice? yep lextionary, works good
    looks? yep everyone asks me what kind of phone I have.

    paying $600 + LOCKED IN CONTRACT + DATA FEES for a phone that cant really do ***** ... only apple fan boys I guess

    Oh well have fun with your loss
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1And why don't you have to pay data fees with your phone? Is there a trade secret we don't know about?
      [If you're referencing the use of wifi, oh, the iPhone has it. The iPhone can do what most people want to do, and do it well - unlike phones that try to do it all and do it not-so-well. Not everyone needs the periodic table and bittorrent on their phone.]
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0I CHOOSE not to pay data fees, i use wifi since almost everywhere i go has wifi, but with the iphone it seems like its manditory, as in, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE, you do what apple and ATT tell you to do, which is bend over
  • richardiscool, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1What the *****? My 2 year old smart phone can do more than this. And no MMS?!
    • phpfreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It's rather in which the way things are done, not the functions themselves, that make the phone remarkable.
  • Falldog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I loved reading "Revolutionary Mobile Phone" followed by "Dial any telephone number with the touch of a finger"
  • jwdav, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Feature lists are almost an inverse function of usability.

    What Apple is *really* good at, is cutting through the crap and making a product both useful and pleasant to use.

    Features need to follow function - what do features matter if you can't or don't use them because the only concern during the product design phase was nailing the "feature checklist" in the marketing sheet, not actually *using* the features.

    The laundry list of (questionable?) features contained in unremarkable products in this post is amazing - reminds me of the "Microsoft designs the iPod packaging" video.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Things like IM and MMS are questionable features? Apple couldn't make those features easy to use? *****.
    • jwdav, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1it's not that any feature by itself is questionable, it's how the features fit together and how usable they are that makes a product great, not how many (half-baked) features there are.

  • mrBitch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@spamcrusher
    " LOL @ the fanboys over at macrumors.com. Basically, we just saw a list of a bunch of features the iPhone can not do that my $100 phone does. On top of that, nobody has really seen anything new or cutting edge. They are still drooling over this piece of crap. "
    blah blah - iphone won't do this ... won't do that - blah blah ...
    ... i think you missed the whole point of what the iphone WILL do :
    1. the iphone WILL run on an OS that doesn't crash, freeze, or reboot every few hours.

    ... THAT ( for me ) is the ONLY thing that I will GLADLY switch over to the iphone ( from my current windows POS " smart " phone ).

    @jwdav
    " Feature lists are almost an inverse function of usability. What Apple is *really* good at, is cutting through the crap and making a product both useful and pleasant to use. "

    I read some time ago that a group of design experts had this to say about why the ipod was so revolutionary and so widely adopted :
    " it's not about features - it's not about what was put IN ... it's about what was LEFT OUT "
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