iPhone 4G?

[Blackride]

It's OS is too much loved and many prefer open-OS development compared to the restrictions enforced by Apple.  Which is perfectly acceptable to me, it's your product, your choice. 

King

You got that right. Apple has way too many restrictions on their stuff. Drives me nuts!

[Bryancd]

It's OS is too much loved and many prefer open-OS development compared to the restrictions enforced by Apple.  Which is perfectly acceptable to me, it's your product, your choice. 

King

You got that right. Apple has way too many restrictions on their stuff. Drives me nuts!

Of course, because you are a tech guy! I could care less, their restrictions mean nothing to me. I don't write code, don't understand software protocols, I just wan it to work and be easy.

[Feathers]

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting any dispute on the facts. I can squeeze reception out of my phone as well as the next man. I think I was more suggesting a level of cynicism on Apples part having designed and released the thing like this. It was more a suggestion that Apple had pretty much done this deliberately so try were doing morbid more than seeing the risks of their design maturing one by one. As such, it's neither good nor bad. Simply a fact.

Admittedly, I come at from an engineering background so none of these issues has really surprised me. From the perspective of the normal man-in-the-street perhaps things are a little starker on their contrast.

Certainly not upset :)

[Rico]

Bryan -

You said I am biased.  I am not biased in any way for or against the iPhone.  I just have been presenting articles and information that has been documented in labs and from actual iPhone users.  From that data I have said that it seems to me that some of these "design choices" may not have been the best.  Does that make it a bad product, not at all.  Nothing is perfect, you always have to weigh the benefits of anything vs. the cons.  Lets say you are a really klutzy person or live in an area with poor AT&T coverage.  Maybe an iPhone wouldn't work best for you.  Again, it really doesn't matter a lot to me.  But as someone who stays up on tech, listens to a lot of tech podcasts, reads a lot of magazine and tech websites, I like to pass on what I have read & learned.  Obviously it's up to everyone to make up their own mind on what phone to buy and use.

[Bryancd]

You mistunderstand my use of the word biased. It's not a negative connotation, it reflects the fact that you are a technically Savoy person and as such have a much feeper understanding of how technology works and what kind of technology can be used to achieve similar results. You can build a computer, to me that's alchemy! That deep knowledge biases you towards a very different kind of approach to how you evaluate technology that is far different from say mine. You are assuming being biased is a bad thing, it's not, unless it's against people for example. I don't think you dislike Apple or the iPhone, not at all and as you say, who cares. You are biased against technology you see that is lacking. I can't get there as I don't understand a lot of it, so that's my bias/perspective.

[X]

I think that some people might think that others think that Apple is crap when they point out the flaws of the device. That's not the case, but for all the blind praise of Apple, it helps to have someone there to point out the problems.

I personally can't see buying something without "checking under the hood first". You might think it's a tech bias, but it's not. I can build a computer, but I can't build a car engine from scratch. Can't build a tv either, but I refuse to not have some clue of what my products can do, what their limitations are, and if the company is giving me the best deal. I can't support treating anything like a magic box where we don't need to know anything about how it works and just accept that it works.

Take routers for instance. In most cases, the first generations of Lynksys routers are superior products to later generations. Sure the model numbers are the same, but that little change in version numbers and drops in price are usually going hand in hand with less memory and slower chips.

Had I taken the magic box approach, I would not have learned this.

I don't hate Apple, but I do have a problem with how they do some things. I also have a problem with Kindle as well, but for different reasons.

Sure we could hold hand and sing the praises of all the companies we like out there, but is that really a good exchange of information for those interested in the product?

[Bryancd]

Agreed Chris. How about just once you guys post a link to a positive article? ;)

[X]

Agreed Chris. How about just once you guys post a link to a positive article? ;)

Because we have you for that! A debate, any good debate needs two sides presenting the case.

[billybob476]

I like to think I'm more in the middle of this range (though I might be wrong). I HATE how Apple is dropping the ball on supporting older versions of the phone. My iPhone 3G is virtually unusable at this point. That angers me to no end. With that in mind, I still love my iPhone. Fran has an iPhone 4, she loves it too. I have friends who have various Android handsets and they love them. A friend of mine is buying into Windows Phone 7 when the handsets become available.

On the other hand, as it is with Microsoft and Windows security flaws, Apple gets put under a microscope because they are on top. Would this screen cracking issue be a big deal if it was a Motorola or Nokia phone? I mean, if you drop a phone on the floor and the screen (or the back) cracks, is that really a huge surprise? If you slide a case on the phone with a jagged piece of something in the case and it scratches the phone, again is this surprising?

If I stab my phone with a knife or throw it against a wall and it breaks, does that mean the company made a bad phone?

Sometimes we have to check ourselves that we are judging the hardware based on it's merits, not on our opinion of the company that makes it. Not saying that anyone is in this thread, just making a point :)

[Rico]

Joe,
On the glass issue, the thing I had read and passed on was mainly about using glass on the back of the device where it really is not needed.  Of course, any phone can break if dropped, etc.  For the front screen you don't have much of a choice but to use glass.  But the back is a different story.  Where is that transparent aluminum?!?!  ;)

[billybob476]

Oh I know, it's been all over the "blogosphere", sure it's more fragile then it needs to be. I don't deny that. 

[Rico]

I read a report recently that Apple is one of the most news covered tech companies around.  Everyone it seems writes about them.  It's partly their own doing that these things get looked at so closely, with their big event announcements, press, Steve Jobs, etc.  What's that phrase, there is no such thing as bad publicity?  Although, I'm not sure I agree with that completely.

[Bryancd]

Apple announced their 4th quarter earning the other day and they have continued to make large gains in the enterprise space. The iPad is being adopted by Proctor and Gamble, General Electric, Hyatt Hotels, and NBC Universal. iPhone also continues to make inroads into enetrprise.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227900335&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All#

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Crazy, yet not unexpected.  I'm curious as to what those companies were using before they switched to the iPhone.

King

[billybob476]

I'd assume almost exclusively blackberries.