I don't want an iPhone?

[thebitterguy]

So, yeah, Rogers announced they'll finally be bringing the iPhone to Canadia (huzzah!)

So, when Cynra picked me up from work that night and we were driving home, she asked me if I wanted to get one.

I actually had to think about it for a minute, but I realized, much to our mutual shock, that I didn't.

I mean, I'd been jonesing for one of them for a year now, but I realize that I don't need one. I have a several years old Nokia 3595 that is invulnerable to normal harm (but prone to aging). I've dropped it a million times, and the casing is showing it, but the only degenration that it shows is that it no longer vibrates when I have the ringer off, and the '7' key is not 100% responsive since I discovered text messaging.

I'm not the only one. One of the attendees at uniquecrash's Cheese party had the same model. It had been washed at least twice.

Issues of resiliancy aside, I don't really need all the features. I'm tempted to get an iPod Touch (which has many of the same features), but the iPhone just doesn't attract me more than the probable costs repel me.

I don't really need wireless web connectivity when I'm out and about, or email, or eight gigs of media storage. These things, while nice, I can live without.

It is a neat gadget, but it's darn expensive, and I'm willing to bet the Rogers plan will live up to its name.

Which, once again, surprises me, because if you'd asked me when it was just a hypothetical if I would get one, I'm pretty sure you'd have gotten an enthusiastic yes.

Comments

[whisper-jeff.livejournal.com]

I doubt I'll be getting one in the immediate future because (in no particular order):

1) I just got a cell phone.
2) The iPhone is pure sexay, but it's also pure expensive (not overpriced - but expensive).
3) I have an iPod Touch. Which I love.

The cost plus the fact that I already have two devices that accomplish the functionality of the iPhone means I'll probably wait. A fourth reason, which is purely theory until Rogers/Apple announces more details, is that I expect Rogers' plans for the iPhone to be VERY expensive. We'll see, but I expect the cheapest plan to be about $70 a month. Possibly more.

But I do want one.

Very much.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

I had a coworker that got one (unlocked, and on Rogers I think). He said that it was a great PDA, but a horrible, horrible phone.

[proemial.livejournal.com]

I lurve my iPod Touch. It is the fantastique.

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

I've only had the chance to use an iPhone a few times while in the states, and my experiences are:

* Call quality is fine and even though the iPhone is really wide, I'm able to hold it comfortably, listen and talk without feeling awkward.

* The map functionality where it can detect where you are in the world and then show you A to B roadmaps is very handy, especially when traveling. This feature, to me, was an unexpected "oh yeah, that's cool!"

* The web access is fast enough for some quick browsing to look for a local place to eat, find the address of someplace you've forgotten, etc.

I haven't had chance to muck around with the mail client, which would be one of my major concerns.

And of course, I'm not down with the closed-ness of the device.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

As you've probably guessed, I've seen them in action for a while now, but had no real need to play with one myself. They look very nice: Apple has pretty peerless industrial design (occasionally marred by glaring oddities). But for functionality, and what I use a portable device for, it wouldn't cut the mustard because of its lack of a tactile keyboard. I've had several sessions attempting to use the iPhone's virtual keyboard, and it's fine for simple gestures and brief input (like phone numbers), but for email, blog, or wiki posts, I shudder to think...

I think you're probably right not to desire one, but to crave an iPod Touch instead. It's probably got most of the functionality I might want, without the annoyance of insanely expensive cellular data plans... 8)

But that functionality also probably depends on how much time one spends within range of a WiFi access point as well.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I can be much the same way with really expensive things. If they're a hypothetical then sure I want one but when it comes down to shelling out the money for something that's fun but that I don't really need then I have a difficult time with it.

My $0.0199999999

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

The iPod Touch is a fun little toy, and I'm still playing with it and learning what it can do. Having said that, I'm not sure I'd want to add in the cellphone functionality. I'm not even entirely sure why, except that the phone seems like it should be a different item. There are times when I just want to take my phone, not my music (as it would be a distraction), and there are times when I want to be playing my music but not be bothered by my phone.

Re: My $0.0199999999

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

If you want to totally disable all the phone/communications features, the iPhone has "Airplane mode" which does exactly that -- turns off all the comms but still lets you use all the other features.

Re: My $0.0199999999

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Does the iPhone have a "WiFi connections only mode" that turns off the cellular radio but leaves on the 802.11 radio?

(Also, does the iPhone/iPod Touch do "native" rendering of PDF -- i.e. using the same Display PDF rendering that OSX's Preview application has?)

Re: My $0.0199999999

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that you can [mis]configure the iPhone so it will never connect to the Edge network for data transfer, but I'm not sure if you can simply turn of all the cel functions and keep 802.11 active.

Not sure about rendering PDFs; I suspect it uses the same engine, but I don't think there's a standalone reader yet. There are some hacklike things to make reading PDFs better on the iPhone though, easily googleable.

[flan-tastic.livejournal.com]

*GASP*

I LOVE my iphone.
If you're going to get an ipod touch anyway,
just get the iphone! Then you won't have to carry around two devices!

The iphone does not have to connect to EDGE. you can turn that on and off with the click of a finger. Or, just leave the information (APN, username/pswd) blank.
Living in Toronto, there is more than enough free wifi to be found around the city...
I love having everything in my pocket. The maps function would definitely be better served if I used EDGE though - usually it's hard to find wifi if you're driving around, or on the streetcar somewhere - that's when I would need to look something up. However, if you look something up before you go, it will still show that screen if you're not connected, you just will have blank space if you try to scroll any direction.

not having a tactile keyboard might be a problem if you're used to one,
but you get used to the iphone keyboard quickly.
Also, using the iphone keyboard to type things once or twice to test it does not give a good idea of what it is like to use it.
The iphone has an amazing auto-spell, so once you learn to trust it - you can go ahead and type really fast. Then, even if you hit a letter next to the letter that you were aiming for, most of the time you will end up with the right word anyway. Its just a matter of learning to trust it, and not stopping everytime you hit the wrong key, because you will be doing that a lot... usually I type out my whole message, and then go back and change the one or two mistakes.

there's tons of third party apps out there that makes this thing AWESOME. In june, when they officially release the SDK and the updated firmware, there's going to be even more. The accelerometer is actually really advanced, and you can do a lot of cool stuff with it.

omg, I'm a nerd.

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

I too am uninterested in an iPhone.

I don't really need wireless web connectivity when I'm out and about, or email, or eight gigs of media storage. These things, while nice, I can live without.

Opera Mini is free, and rad in terms of mini-web-browsing. I pay Fido $5 per month so I can have 500kb of data, that I mostly use to read LJ and Fark.com (mostly Fark).