Apple’s iPhone “is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese. The glass gets smudgy—a sleeve wipes it clean—but it doesn’t scratch easily. I’ve walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there’s not a mark on it,” Ddavid Pogue reports for The New York Times.
“But the bigger achievement is the software. It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can’t get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone’s 16 functions,” Pogue reports.
“E-mail is fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents,” Pogue reports.
“The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler. This isn’t some stripped-down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all… Apple says one battery charge is enough for 8 hours of calls, 7 hours of video or 24 hours of audio. My results weren’t quite as impressive: I got 5 hours of video and 23 hours of audio, probably because I didn’t turn off the phone, Wi-Fi and other features, as Apple did in its tests. In practice, you’ll probably wind up recharging about every other day,” Pgue reports.
“Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first [but] once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably,” Pogue reports. “Maybe all the iPhone hype isn’t hype at all. As the ball player Dizzy Dean once said, ‘It ain’t bragging if you done it.’”
David Pogue reviews Apple iPhone for The New York Times:
Much more in the full review here.
THANKS POGUE!!!
Cool, now let the stock begin its ride back up. I can’t believe we were under $120 today!
I love this guy! Goes to show when reviewers just look for the most usable features the right answer rises to the top. It shows when reviewers have a strong bias towards their MS paychecks. Go Apple!
Will be a very interesting weekend ahead for us all.
With anything new, you usually make an assumption about it as it is different, and at first you might not admire it too much, but when you understand and get used to it you lean towards the other side of loving it. I think this will be the case for the virtual keyboard, probably takes time to adjust and get used.
Two titans have reviewed positively! excited!
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The Wow starts Friday. Screw you, Turtle Boy and Fester.
“The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo, two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.”
Is Edge really t h a t bad?!
Better stick to Wifi hot spots if it’s gonna be usable for the net…
Hmmm…. the buttlick that the New York Post ran complained that the screen isn’t the size of a laptop, and that you shouldn’t buy this iPhone because v2 will be better…. who to listen to? Hmmm…..
@Ty do you have a link
Buy AAPL !!!
With the iPhone due to grace the stores, we could see a sell off as people take profits from the recent stock increase.
Of course when Apple announced that they sold out of 400K+ phones on the first day, the stock could go back up!
Behold, The Bringer of light…
He’s a tool.
MDN, I like how you guys make it seem like Pogue said absolutely nothing negative about the iPhone, by using rather selective quoting. He did have some problems with it, and it’s irresponsible journalism to make it seem like he didn’t.
@ Decrypt3–
Since when is MDN “journalism”? Please note “Mac” in its name. This is an enthusiast site.
Much like MSNBC.
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This is a work around but is does work. You can e-mail a pic to a phone that takes MMS you just have to do a small work around. Have the phone send you and MMS (multimedia message) to your e-mail addy. The you will get something like 5555551212@mmms.cingularme.com or the like. Add it to your contacts and you send e-mailed photos to a phone all you like. I figured this out to let my wife send me a pic she took on her RAZR to my email ( i use mail.app) I was then able to send a pic I pulled off the web back to her. Helped us located something we were looking for when shopping for furniture.
This should work easier, but that’s what updates are for.
I wonder how many stock options goatburger and pogue boy were given for their glowing reviews.
Look at the massive stock activity for Apple. It looks like the big hedge funds are forcing Apple down about 5 points. Probably trying to manipulate the stock as usual for their own benefit or some other company’s benefit. It won’t matter in the long run… the stock will rocket upwards … and Apple will be bigger and even more important than Microsoft. We wait patiently.
Mossberg’s and Pogue’s reviews ought to give pause to those who are easily irritated. I’m almost ready to consider the EDGE limitation a deal breaker, and having to shift screens to use periods and commas seems unusually stupid. I have wi-fi in my office and in my home, but getting onto other wi-fi networks is a pain when they are secured (as is always recommended). That is going to take a lot of pleasure out of using the iPhone out in the wild. I may need to wait for v2. I’ll bet a lot of people that read these reviews will wait to see how quickly Apple and AT&T rectify these shortcomings in an otherwise revolutionary product.
Well the reviews weren’t that positive. I’d say they were excellent reviews, and pointed out the weaknesses along with the strengths.
@Spark,
Don’t forget it’s software. If user testing reveals a better way to layout the keyboard, Apple just need to distribute a software update. Wirelessly. To the iPhone. Problem solved. Winer.
Alright here are the negatives:
ATT´s slow network
No SIM Card
Headphone port not compatible
Typing puntuaction signs is akward
Non removable battery (but does last 1 day)
No IM
No Voice dialing
No video
No zooming (with the camera)
Now the question is: How many of these negative will be solved with software updates?
@coolfactor
Did you just call me a “Winer”? Did you mean “Whiner”? Or did you mean that the software solution is a “Winner”?
@Xavier
Good list. ATT’s network is the biggest problem IMO. The headphone port is a surprise, and is obviously beyond a software fix. Very odd design decision. No voice dialing is also a drawback for drivers (big fines for non-hands-free cell phones while driving are going into effect in Sept here in Calif). Keyboard anomalies should be software fixable. All the other stuff are non-issues IMO.
Generally good list; here’s my take.
ATT´s slow network: EDGE can actually be a faster than it currently is with further investment. 3G will require new hardware. But if there’s an explosion of wifi hotspots, this will be fixed except for when you are truly mobile (in a car/bus).
No SIM Card: There is a SIM card.
Headphone port not compatible: Needs a simple extender to take care of the deep recess.
Typing puntuaction signs is akward: Software
Non removable battery (but does last 1 day): Battery pack that plugs into the 30-pin port.
No IM: Software
No Voice dialing: Software
No video: Likely needs hardware.
No zooming (with the camera): Hardware for optical zoom; software can handle digital zoom.
Add
No GPS: needs hardware
So video, zooming, and GPS really need hardware. If wifi doesn’t grow, then 3G needs hardware. The other stuff can be handled by software or accessories.
I’m simply blown away by Pogue’s demo — stunning! I’m all the way in with AAPL — the bulk of my net worth.
ATT´s slow network – I’ll see how much of an issue this is. I have WiFi for free almost everywhere I linger, except on the Washington State Ferries. I supposedly have EDGE now on my Cingular Moto phone, but I never use it because I hate that bloody phone. I’ll spend the whole ride surfing if I can. This is the weakest bit for me.
No SIM Card – Have but don’t need. I don’t care.
Headphone port not compatible – I don’t know that for sure. Narrow-enough phones might fit, but I still mostly use stock earbuds on my Nano so I’ll probably continue to do so.
Typing puntuaction signs is akward – So says the Uncle Walt, and it’s certainly not ideal, however easy it might be. But this could easily be fixed in software. My question is – is it easier than SMS on the keypad, and I don’t doubt the answer is yes.
Non removable battery (but does last 1 day) – Have not changed as battery in a mobile since 1997
No IM – And That Blows. Again, could be (better be) changed in software.
No Voice dialing – I’ve never done this but… Do we know this?
No video – Would only be useful if we had iChat AV.
(which we’d better)
No zooming (with the camera) – No zooming on any phone. A digital zoom is not a zoom, it’s a crop. I’m not sure how good of a camera I need the iPhone to be when I have so many… CAMERS around.
All good points, and a couple that stick on my craw.
But, all things considered, I’m still trying to figure out how 500 bucks is so expensive.
This seems like a screamin’ deal, to me.
In a few more day’s we’ll find out.
-c
MW: ‘light’ (at the end)
I don’t think Apple will ever add IM to their iPhone. It would undercut the $20 a month AT&T can charge for additional test messages as a substitute for IM.
test messages = text messages
Damn, the southern belle in Pogue’s video is fine!! He should have been making moves on her instead of playing around with the iPhone. After all, when all is said and done, what’s the point of technology if it doesn’t help you get laid?
The NY Times headline doesn’t say the iPhone lives up to the hype. It says the iPhone “mostly” matches the hype.
Selective quotes are fine. But that’s a misquote.
“CAMERAS”
{wtf, what’s a ‘camer’, you crazy broad?}
-c
MW: ‘couldn’t’ (type to save her life)
@ Robert
Agreed. Just depends on how long AT&T offers specialized services and just says data is data.
(it’s coming)
-c
remember last Christmas, when iTunes crawled to a snails pace, due to everyone going on line with their new iPods..
I wonder how it will be this weekend
FYI – Pogue’s videos are available as a podcast in iTunes. When it’s available, it’s downloaded automatically. No waiting for slow web sites or poor quality video via YouTube.
I like the funny ending… and the part where his boss calls and asks for Walt Mossberg.
“”Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first [but] once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably,”
You can’t drive and type on it like you can with one of those little physical keyboard things…at least that’s what I heard from some jackass that posted here a few weeks ago.
I liked the music juxtaposed with the description of the Cingular/The New AT&T data network – “slow and horrible.”
Here is the fatal flaw of the iPhone: it can’t squirt over Wi-Fi. Zune can. Zune wins, eps after I superglue a QWERTY keyboard to it.
Guys,
When people say “there’s no SIM card” it’s not what they mean. They mean “There’s no SD card” (for memory expansion).
Just thought I’d mention this…
I just want something that lets me surf in hotel rooms when I travel without having to pay through the nose for the Hotel WiFi.
> it can’t squirt over Wi-Fi. Zune can.
You’re right. The iPhone actually does something useful over Wi-Fi (like access the Internet). And it works whether there’s another iPhone nearby or not. Imagine that…
Thank you dave It is so nice to see some one giving both sides of a product so that people can make up the own mind. I can not believe how many people came up with reviews with out seeing the iphone and Microsoft Balmer making fun of the iphone I wounder who is laughing now.
I am going to guess and say that the 3G phones are probably ready for production. I’ll bet it is AT&T that is holding up the release. Besides, look at the fees generated to upgrade 6 months or less after you buy the phone. As for the bilking of the customer, look at the Apple TV. They could have put in 160 GB drives at the beginning. What do they do? Put in a 40 GB for the first three months, and then announce for another 100 dollars you can get the 160 GB drive model.
With the iPhone, you just know people will be frustrated waiting for web pages to load. The early adopters will run out of storage capacity rapidly. You know people will be frustrated, and will upgrade, so for the early adopters, they will be forking over 1200 bucks in the first year to have the first generation iPhone, followed by the better, speedier phone. The iPhone is nice, but AT&T and EDGE will shove us over the EDGE.
Hey, thanks for sharing all that, now we know that Apple rules over blackberry!
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