• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

iPhone: coolest gadget of the year?

iPod doesn't have a monopoly on the market. They dominate the market due to iTunes, good product design, and marketing (which all make the product the 'must have' product for young consumers).

The same way that Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the OS market.
 
The same way the Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the OS market.

Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the OS market, but they do dominate it (for different reasons than Apple's dominance of the mp3 space).
 
Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the OS market, but they do dominate it (for different reasons than Apple's dominance of the mp3 space).

Actually their dominance is very similar... Nothing against them though.
 
At the same time, Microsoft is slowly gaining acceptance for its Windows Mobile OS.

After 6 years, their Internet browser market share is up to .06%. Probably accelerating due to more smart phones and fast mobile networks. (iPhone browser is .07% btw).
 
I had one from HTC for a couple of months before I broke the screen. I agree HTC is one of the dominant makers in that space. They release a lot of new devices lately. I think it's my last Mobile OS device. I'm going BB.

8125.jpg
 
Any predictions for what a new iPhone will be like? We'll find out today.
 
Forget the iPhone, I'm waiting for the Android platform. :D

Regardless of what phone, all the new technology is useless until the U.S carriers expand their 3G networks. Here is a demo of the Android platform.
 
Any predictions for what a new iPhone will be like? We'll find out today.

I think we can safely describe ourselves as "blown away". They really seem to have delivered here, no?
 
I'm happy that they have an app called iCall which will let me switch between wifi VOIP and cell calls seamlessly. Reception at my home sucks.

New phone has three things I really wanted: 1. Faster, 2. GPS, 3. Better audio (voice I assume).
 
The new iPhone 3G S comes out on June 19. Faster, better audio but no GPS yet. It has some kind of a internal compass.

The previous version of the iPhone did not have cut, copy, paste, MMS and video recording features and the lack of these basic features in a 3G phone were regarded as a major slip by Apple. This has been addressed in the new version iPhone 3G S.

iPhone 3G S runs on the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard and provides high-quality 3D graphics, “making mobile gaming and other graphic intense applications better than ever”. The new iPhone 3G S also supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA for faster networking speeds.

The 3 megapixel autofocus camera can adjust focus, exposure, colour and contrast. A new ‘tap to focus’ feature enables the user to select an object or area of interest by touching the display and the camera automatically adjusts the focus and exposure. T he phone also allows editing of videos. Photos and videos can be sent by email or MMS and can also be posted to Apple’s MobileMe or YouTube with one tap.

The voice control feature in the 3G S allows the user to dial by saying the name or number. It also enables playing of music by artist, album or playlist and to pause the music, play the next track and turn on shuffle. The iPhone can be told to “Play mor e songs like this” or can be told to say the song being played.

Apple says the iPhone 3.0 software also includes a ‘Find My iPhone’ feature that works together with MobileMe to locate a lost iPhone on a map, send a message that will appear on the screen or play a sound to help the user to find it even if the phone i s set to silent. If the user cannot find your iPhone, he can erase all data and content with the Remote Wipe feature.
 
no Verizon, no iPhone for me... Palm Pre next year!!!
 
That's not a real GPS. Basically, it reports your location based on location of transmitting station which your phone is connected to. It's fine in New York City, because we have antennas here almost on every building. But even in Atlantic City this so called "GPS" produces awkward results.
 
Are you sure about the no GPS? I have the current generation of 3G iPhone and I have GPS. Nowadays, GPS is pretty much standard on all phones.
Woody has the first iPhone version and since then they probably all come equipped with GPS (like you said, very much standard)

no Verizon, no iPhone for me... Palm Pre next year!!!
Can't you just mod it to use on other network. It will void your warranty but may worth it. I don't know about you but I have modded the last 4 of my cellphones, PDA to use my carrier.
The AT&T-Apple deal is exclusive so it won't end anytime soon. The old $99 iphone can be used for other networks, I heard.
 
That's not a real GPS. Basically, it reports your location based on location of transmitting station which your phone is connected to. It's fine in New York City, because we have antennas here almost on every building. But even in Atlantic City this so called "GPS" produces awkward results.

You're absolutely right, it's not a true GPS; it's more of a triangulation.

I've actually used it very good results. Just a few weeks ago, I drove from Florida - Boston using the GPS in the iPhone with very good results. I had a Magellan GPS along with me, just in case, but I never once needed it.
 
Can't you just mod it to use on other network. It will void your warranty but may worth it. I don't know about you but I have modded the last 4 of my cellphones, PDA to use my carrier.
The AT&T-Apple deal is exclusive so it won't end anytime soon. The old $99 iphone can be used for other networks, I heard.

CDMA nad GSM don't play nice
 
Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T
By JENNA WORTHAM

Slim and sleek as it is, the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones.

It’s a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.

“They don’t even realize how much data they’re using,” said Gene Munster, a senior securities analyst with Piper Jaffray.

The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers.

Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say.

Taylor Sbicca, a 27-year-old systems administrator in San Francisco, checks his iPhone 10 to 15 times a day. But he is not making calls. He checks the scores of last night’s baseball game and updates his Twitter stream. He checks the local weather report to see if he needs a coat before heading out to dinner — then he picks a restaurant on Yelp and maps the quickest way to get there.

Or at least, he tries to.

“It’s so slow, it feels like I’m on a dial-up modem,” he said. Shazam, an application that identifies songs being played on the radio or TV, takes so long to load that the tune may be over by the time the app is ready to hear it. On numerous occasions, Mr. Sbicca says, he missed invitations to meet friends because his text messages had been delayed.

And picking up a cell signal in his apartment? “You hit the dial button and the phone just sits there, saying it’s connecting for 30 seconds,” he said.

More than 20 million other smartphone users are on the AT&T network, but other phones do not drain the network the way the nine million iPhones users do. Indeed, that is why the howls of protest are more numerous in the dense urban areas with higher concentrations of iPhone owners.

“It’s almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities,” Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. “When too many users get in the area, the call drops.” The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T’s network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.

Owners of the iPhone 3GS, the newest model, “have probably increased their usage by about 100 percent,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst. “It’s faster so they are using it more on a daily basis.”

Mr. Sharma compares the problem to water flowing through a pipe. “It can only funnel so much at a given time,” he said. “It comes down to peak capacity loads, or spikes in data usage. That’s why you see these problems at conferences or in large cities with high concentration of iPhone users.”

When thousands of iPhone owners descended on Austin, Tex., in March during South by Southwest, an annual technology and music conference, attendees were unable to send text messages, check their e-mail or make calls until AT&T installed temporary cell sites to amplify the service.

AT&T’s right to be the exclusive carrier for iPhone in the United States has been a golden ticket for the wireless company. The average iPhone owner pays AT&T $2,000 during his two-year contract — roughly twice the amount of the average mobile phone customer.

But at the same time the iPhone has become an Achilles’ heel for the company.

“It’s been a challenging year for us,” said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.”

AT&T says that the majority of the nearly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will be diverted into upgrades and expansions to meet the surging demands on the 3G network. The company intends to erect an additional 2,100 cell towers to fill out patchy coverage, upgrade existing cell sites by adding fiber optic connectivity to deliver data faster and add other technology to provide stronger cell signals.

As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers. Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.

The company has also delayed bandwidth-heavy features like multimedia messaging, or text messages containing pictures, audio or video. It is also postponing “tethering,” which allows the iPhone to share its Internet connection with a computer, a standard feature on many rival smartphones. AT&T says it has no intention of capping how much data iPhone owners use.

The upgrades are expected to be completed by next year and the company has said it is already seeing improvements.

But AT&T faces another cost — to its reputation. AT&T’s deal with Apple is said to expire as early as next year, at which point other carriers in the United States would be able to sell the popular Apple phones. Indeed, a recent survey by Pricegrabber.com found that 34 percent of respondents pinpointed AT&T as the primary reason for not buying an iPhone.

“It’s a P.R. nightmare,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

AT&T might be in the spotlight now, analysts say, but other carriers will face similar problems as they sell more smartphones, laptop cards and eventually tablets that encourage high data usage.

Globally, mobile data traffic is expected to double every year through 2013, according to Cisco Systems, which makes network gear. “Whether an iPhone, a Storm or a Gphone, the world is changing.” Mr. Munster said. “We’re just starting to scratch the surface of these issues that AT&T is facing.”

In preparation for the next wave of smartphones and data demands, all the carriers are rushing to introduce the next-generation of wireless networks, called 4G.

Analysts expect that in a year or so, AT&T’s network will have improved significantly — but it may not be soon enough for some iPhone owners paying for the higher-priced data plans, like Mr. Sbicca, who says he plans to switch carriers as soon as the iPhone becomes available on other networks.

“What good is having all those applications if you don’t have the speed to run them?” he said. “It’s not exactly rocket science here. It’s pretty standard stuff to be able to make a phone call.”

iPhones Overload AT&T's Network, Angering Customers - NYTimes.com
 
Brit Blog Names iPhone 'World's Worst'

brit-Blog-names-iPhone-worlds-worst.htm: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

In June, Apple's Smartphone was the editors' choice at CNET UK. How times have changed.

"The iPhone may be the greatest handheld surfing device ever to rock the mobile Web, and a fabulous media player to boot," writes CNET UK's Flora Graham in a mock award citation posted Tuesday. "It may be the highest-rated mobile phone on CNET UK, rocking the pockets of half of our crack editorial team. It's certainly the touchscreen face that launched a thousand apps. But as an actual call-making phone, it's rubbish, and we aim to prove it."

What follows is a litany of complaints no iPhone owner hasn't heard or expressed before. But to read them in a publication that four months earlier named Apple's device the "world's best touchscreen phone" is unexpected. And in Ms. Graham's voice, sort of fun.

To quote a few of her sharper lines:

* Say What?

Call quality on the iPhone is pathetic, and it's mostly because of the tiny speaker. It has to be aligned with your ear canal with the accuracy of a laser-guided ninja doing cataract surgery, or else the volume cuts down to nothing as the sound waves bounce uselessly around your ear shells.

* Dropped Calls and Data Gaps

If, like Will Smith in Enemy of the State, you're trying to avoid the eagle eye of Big Brother, the iPhone. could be for you. It drops calls, fails to connect and doesn't even ring sometimes not for everyone, but more often than any other phone we're currently using.


* You Can't Answer If it Doesn't Ring

Perhaps the worst of the iPhone's problems is its ability to sit there stealthily and ignore incoming calls. With no ring or vibrate to clue you in, your friends and family are redirected to voicemail or just treated to silence. If you're in a two-iPhone family, it can be a case of the deaf leading the mute.

* The iPhone Might Burn Your Face Off

According to our ultra-sciencey test, it is extremely unlikely that the iPhone will burn your face off Nevertheless, pressing a large, flat surface to your cheek is always going to be sweaty Thus the current trend for people to walk down the street with their phones on hands-free, yelling into the mike at the bottom while they hold the rest of the phone away from their faces.

* iPhone Battery Life

A couple of hours of Google Maps over 3G and you'll be lost in the woods without even the possibility of phoning for help. Compare that to the good old days when your phone would last a week without charging, and you'll wonder why you ever bothered to switch.

* The iPhone Sucks So What?

If the iPhone is inaudible, unconnected, on fire and out of battery, why is the thing so popular? The fact is, although the iPhone is the worst phone in the world, it's the best handheld computer there is.

At least until CNET UK's editors name a new one.
 
Back
Top