“I was swamped with questions about Apple’s hot new iPhone, so this is a special all-iPhone edition of Mossberg’s Mailbox,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal.
Questions covered:
• Can you physically remove the included AT&T SIM card from the iPhone and replace it with another AT&T card or one from another wireless carrier?
• Since the iPhone battery is sealed in and can’t be easily replaced by the user, what happens when it dies? Will you have to buy a new iPhone?
• Can I use the iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection in my car? Can I use Bluetooth to transfer files or other information between the iPhone and a computer?
• If the iPhone’s Web browser is so good, why can’t it play video on Web sites I visit? At launch, the iPhone version of the Safari browser is missing some plug-ins needed for playing common types of Web videos. The most important of these is the plug-in for Adobe’s Flash technology. Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s iPhone for Web Developers documentation states, “You’ll want to avoid using Flash and Java for iPhone content. You’ll also want to avoid encouraging users to download the latest Flash on their iPhone, because neither Flash nor downloads are supported by Safari on iPhone.”
• You have been critical in the past of some smart phones that don’t allow you to delete emails with a single click. Can the iPhone do this?
• Can you buy an iPhone and just use it to play music and videos like an iPod, and to surf the Web or get email over Wi-Fi, without signing up for an AT&T service contract?
• You and many others have criticized AT&T’s EDGE data network, which the iPhone uses, as slow. You have noted that AT&T has a much faster data network. Can the iPhone be upgraded to use that faster network?
• How good is the iPhone’s To-Do list or Task function?
Full article here.
If Apple have said this, they’ve only said to to Walt Mossberg. Still the guy is on first name terms is Steve Jobs, so I guess he probably has some inside track here.
This is really important to the feature set, not sure why it was left out in the first place but its good to know that they have ability to provide major upgrades through software updates.
I would like to see shockwave included and more importantly full java and javascript support.
Mossberg wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. It’s obvious from his reviews over the years that he has an inside track at Apple. He and David Pogue are tighter with Jobs than anyone else in the media.
I think that Apple is leveraging the iPhone success to undermine Flash. Neither Apple or Google want that company to become too powerful.
@Joe
Extremely Unlikely: Shockwave isn’t even a universal binary.
Though I couldn’t see it being overly useful anyway; flash, on the other hand…
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As for to do list and all that……..
Software upgrade! Its all in the SOFATWARE UPGRADE capability already built into it.
Patience……Human Children do not walk 5 minutes after they are born!, the earliest they can do that is after One year……(Someone correct me, you could earn yourself a life times supply of Camel’s Milk)
Sofatware indeed! Something that fat people wear?…..I meant Software!
The average child achieves independent walking ability between nine and fifteen months old.
You can keep your “milk.”
@camel milk, consider yourself corrected, many children walk before one year, both of mine did.
I have a hard time believing Flash will make its way to the iPhone. This is a perfect opportunity for Apple to put Flash in the same toilet Windows Media is now in. In both cases, Quicktime is a winner.
circumcision at birth hurt so bad, I couldn’t walk for a year.
Why did Walt bother to write down all those other questions if he didn’t bother to answer them?
MDN Magic Word = married, as in married to AT&T’s crappy network.
Oh yeah:
They weren’t supposed to clip your toes off. You got a bad deal.
Unfortunately, Flash is too widespread to be ignored. Let’s just hope Microsoft’s Sparkle withers on the vine.
@J
Flash will never go away. It does everything, including wash the counter sink… lol.
Flash may not go away, but if a million people purchased the phone without flash support it doesn’t sound like Apple has any reason to hurry.
I hate flash.
Mossberg is simply wrong about the iPhone as a PDA (if you will). One can activate and cancel from AT&T (prepaid appears to be recommended) and have a PDA, or get you iPhone PDA this way: http://nanocr.eu/2007/07/03/iphone-without-att/
i really dont understand the lack of a to do list. Its already in ical now. So along with the notes that dont sync, those are the reasons i still have to lug my palm PDA around.
I would imagine that the largest problem with getting Flash in the iPhone is the iPhone UI. They way that clicks and drags work on and iPhone is not like a normal mouse. Many Flash animations depend on click press-hold and drag which the iPhone’s UI currently does not do. There are going to have to be major changes if Flash is to make it into the iPhone.
@ Red.
The current thought about notes is that it will sync when 10.5 comes out. 10.5 has a similar system wide version of notes built in.
The Newton had a great To Do list function. Please, Apple, bring this to the iPhone.
“Please, Apple, bring this to the iPhone.”
There are four empty spaces on the bottom row of buttons.
Some wild guesses:
Games, Organizer (to-do), eBay and TV (Joost?)
Flash is an okay tool… if used sparingly.
In this case, IF is a big word. The problem is that some web designers like to show off and use it for everything. Pop-up, pop-down, flip flop clipitty plop! I don’t care how much bandwidth you’ve got, that’s when Flash moves beyond an enhancement becomes a curse. Sites like that are awful and best avoided.
If Apple & Google managed to kick Flash down a few notches and put it in it’s place, the web would be all the better.
With Leopard on the horizon, who’s to say that ‘spaces’ won’t make it to the iPhone? You’ll have a lot more than 4 empty spaces on the bottom row of buttons.