931 replies to this topic

[Eddie L]

Carolyn, I thought that the nine-digit pre-approved credit check number was supposed to be on the receipt. (It is on my receipt from the AT&T store - I thought the Apple Store receipts were supposed to have that too).

Most of the internet horror stories seem to be from people who already have Cingular / AT&T phones and want to move their accounts to the new iPhone.

[Rebecca]

Whatever it's worth, we received the following message a couple of weeks ago from our IT guys:

"Based upon existing incompatibilities between the Apple iPhone and Microsoft Exchange, we cannot support the integration of the iPhone into our corporate email system. Since the iPhone is primarily a personal use device, there are no plans to support the iPhone in the future."

So there.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Carolyn, I thought that the nine-digit pre-approved credit check number was supposed to be on the receipt. (It is on my receipt from the AT&T store - I thought the Apple Store receipts were supposed to have that too).

Most of the internet horror stories seem to be from people who already have Cingular / AT&T phones and want to move their accounts to the new iPhone.

The AT&T people thought the number was on the Apple receipt as well -- but they couldn't even tell me how long a digit-number I was to look for! There are only two numbers on the receipt that have no indication what they are; supposedly one is a transaction number which is only 6 digits. The other unknown number is 11 digits.

Another glitch: Apparently AT&T couldn't transfer my old number because it is a Napa exchange working within San Francisco. I am having to have to get a new number on a pre-paid plan. I'll go and fight with them later about credit checks and bundling our accounts. At least the little gem is now lit up and ready for me to start programming...

[Eddie L]

Rebecca, does your employer have a web interface set up for accessing Exchange? OWA (Outlook Web Access) works just fine with Safari. I would hope that the iPhone version of Safari would support it. There have been rumors that Apple was going to license some sort of Exchange synching software (ActiveSync?) from Microsoft to make the iPhone work directly with Exchange. Don't know if there's any truth to it...

[rancho_gordo]

I'm betting the Cingular/ATT merger is still kind of rocky.
I had Cingular but they kept getting bought and every merger/buy meant a new bill and some unexpected screw up. It's probably true of all of them but my worst times were with Cingular. But I'd been with them since they were Pacific Bell Wireless.
I'm now with Verizon and they seem at least 6 months to a year behind the technology. And their RAZR interface is insane.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm officially in love.



Photo taken, uploaded, and linked through this thread with iPhone... a mere four hours after getting it home (more time spent dealing with AT&T than playing).

Can you see the glee in my eyes?

[balex]

Can you see the envy in mine?

[Chambolle]

What's the big news there? That they're making a profit?

Actually, that latest iSuppli report does not really have much news at all.

Right after the iPhone was announced in January, iSuppli had estimated the iPhone hardware costs to be $264 and change.

http://stanfordresou.......;m=1&y=2007

Now, they are saying $265 and change. Big whoop. No new news in this report, at least to the investment community who follows this stuff closely. The stock may be moving and the financial analysts may be chattering their explanations, but don't believe everything that you read:

http://biz.yahoo.com...mover.html?.v=1

From a cellular handset industry perspective, here is my take on the iPhone story and its significance:

http://mouthfulsfood...p...st&p=813885

[flyfish]

Can you see the glee in my eyes?

I can see your house from here!

[Carolyn Tillie]

So, here are some early "issues" which one hopes will be dealt with in future iterations:

~ There is a YouTube button but only those files which have been specifically converted for iPhone consumption. From research: "To achieve higher video quality and longer battery life on mobile devices, YouTube has begun encoding their videos in the advanced H.264 format, and iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the H.264-encoded videos. Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until their full catalog of videos is available in the H.264 format this fall."

~ Flash is not available.

~ There are no accents available.

~ There are complaints that the calculator is too basic; no higher math functions but also no Clear Entry button -- the Clear button literally clears everything.

~ There is no copy-and-paste functionality.


Some of the really cool functions I admire already:

~ If you are looking at a contact, you can immediately connect to Google Maps and it gives directions.

~ While inputting new contacts, there is the functionality to add their photograph.

~ While surfing the 'net, you can "zoom in" on images almost exponentially. There is an RTG graph that we monitor and it is fabulous to see it quite big.

~ When you turn the iPhone on its side, the image goes from vertical to horizontal. Very cool.

~ I only added one e-mail to the phone but when it synced with my computer, it automatically added all the rest of my accounts.

~ Like Firefox, the Safari browser remembers multiple open pages (something regular Safari does not do for Macs). When I turned it on this morning, my MF page was still open as well as multiple other pages I had been searching through.

~ For the first time in our business model, we can actually share contacts and calendars; since the BF is on a PC and I am on a Mac, our Blackberrys were not compatible since our core information was kept on different systems. No longer an issue.


Over all, I am still very pleased. The detractors are not detracting enough but I can understand they can be annoying.

[lovelynugget]

Carolyn, I have 2 questions, if you don't mind answering them:

1) How does the movie functionality work? Do you have to download the movie before watching, and if so, does it have to be in the IPod standard? Can you watch a file-shared movie? Or can you stream anything?

2) What is the security like on the thing? Should you lose it (or it's stolen), will all your files and personal information be easily accessible?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Carolyn, I have 2 questions, if you don't mind answering them:

1) How does the movie functionality work? Do you have to download the movie before watching, and if so, does it have to be in the IPod standard? Can you watch a file-shared movie? Or can you stream anything?

2) What is the security like on the thing? Should you lose it (or it's stolen), will all your files and personal information be easily accessible?

1. The movie functionality is the same as the iPod with those standards. I tried to import an .avi file and it would not take it. It did take my bootleg .mpg file of Ratatouille. Nothing can be streamed if it is programmed in Flash so it appears that downloadable-only files for the time being (except those YouTube files which have already been converted).

2. There is a four-digit security code that you can input. How easy it is to hack is a different question, but you have the option of turning it on or not; when I turn my phone on, every time I have to input the code.

[lovelynugget]

Thanks, Carolyn.

My concern with (2) would be that potentially it would be on all the time, for the phone, and likely if lost or stolen, the thing would be on. Then potentially everything (your info) is accessible to whomever finds/stole it, true?

[Eddie L]

...

~ Flash is not available.

~ There are no accents available.

~ There are complaints that the calculator is too basic; no higher math functions but also no Clear Entry button -- the Clear button literally clears everything.

~ There is no copy-and-paste functionality.

The lack of Flash has been a major complaint for many - I'm sure it's not omitted for technical reasons, since there are other content plug-ins for the iPhone Safari. The speculation is that AT&T wanted to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed on their EDGE network. Since YouTube and other video streaming works, it seems doubtful that it would make much of a difference.

I take it that by "accents" you mean é å ü etc. I hadn't noticed that there's no Option (Alt) key on the virtual keyboard. That and the lack of copy-paste seem like serious oversights to me. I hope they have fixes in the works. The big advantage of the keys being in software is that they can provide downloadable updates like they do for the iPod.

My order status changed from "in process" to "shipped".

[Eddie L]

Thanks, Carolyn.

My concern with (2) would be that potentially it would be on all the time, for the phone, and likely if lost or stolen, the thing would be on. Then potentially everything (your info) is accessible to whomever finds/stole it, true?

You can leave the phone locked and it will still accept incoming calls without the code. You have to unlock it to use ant of the apps or make an outgoing call (or that's how I understand it). The iPhone User Guide is online (pdf document).