iPhone release date maybe delayed

[barcajunior]

nsiders from apple said that apple iPhone release date maybe delay to the end of June or early July.

Refer to this article taking about software Q/A and OS issues about iPhone

While people like AT&T?s COO and Apple themselves continue to maintain that the iPhone is still on track for June, everyone is still skeptical that something else is probably brewing behind closed doors. After all, Apple told us that Leopard was on track for Spring just a couple weeks before they announced that it was being pushed ?till October, and some sources have told Ars that they were made aware of the October date by Apple long before the rest of the world knew.That information is confirmed once again by a close source this morning, and he has some not-so-great news about that pesky iPhone delay rumor. He Who Shall Not Be Named? has told us, ?Apple knew two months ago that Leopard was going to be delayed since all of the key engineers are now in Taipei.?

Somebody from Foxconn/Hon Hai that ?it does not look feasible that Apple will be able to ship units out in May to make the iPhone shipping date in the US (June),expect units to trickle by end of June or early July."It is doubtful they will have enough units on hand to meet the demand.?

Insiders said The issue with the iPhone is not the battery, but the software Q/A and OS-related issues.

[Bgnn32]

Oh no! I have to wait longer to waste my money on a low feature high priced (yet cool looking) smart phone. This phone is going to bomb big time.

[SacrificialSoldier]

Oh no! I have to wait longer to waste my money on a low feature high priced (yet cool looking) smart phone. This phone is going to bomb big time.

Ha! Well said!

[Hurmoth]

Oh no! I have to wait longer to waste my money on a low feature high priced (yet cool looking) smart phone. This phone is going to bomb big time.

Low feature? :blink: Do you know what you're talking about? I won't argue overpriced, but we should expect that from Apple by now. But it is most certainly not low featured.

[XerXis]

Low feature? :blink: Do you know what you're talking about? I won't argue overpriced, but we should expect that from Apple by now. But it is most certainly not low featured.

yes it is, for the simple reason that it is NOT an open platform, unlike windows mobile or symbian where you can add as many software features as you like

[Bgnn32]

yes it is, for the simple reason that it is NOT an open platform, unlike windows mobile or symbian where you can add as many software features as you like

Yea real high features:

Touch screen - oh yay, this is the most inovative thing on the phone and it isn't that great, it will be a finger print magnet

For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen - what smart phone dosen't? and many others also have real keyboards built in as well so you can type without losing some of the screen space.

It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words - yea so does every other smart phone

Additionally, an optional landscape mode for text entry with the virtual keyboard has been mentioned by Apple executives as a possibility for iPhone, but Apple has not yet come to a final decision as to its inclusion in the shipping version of iPhone. - Well most other smart phones do this as well

The iPhone varies from common desktop interfaces by using a direct manipulation model of scrolling. Where a typical desktop GUI achieves scrolling by using a scroll-arrow to push a view-window down and thus the content itself up (or the reverse, clicking up to move content down), the iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a simple and natural touch-drag-lift motion, much as one would slide a playing card across a table. - This may be a neat feature depending on how it actually works, but not something to make it worth the price.

Additionally, the speed desired for scrolling is computed based on the speed and acceleration with which the drag motion is performed. - Most already do this

Scrolling through a long list works as if the list is pasted on the surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display. After the finger is lifted from the display the "wheel continues spinning" for a short moment before coasting down. In this way, the iPhone seems to simulate the physics of a real object, which, it is thought, should give a very natural feel to the whole process. - Just a reinvent of the scroll bar, nothing great here.

The UI also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides. - Eye candy most of which can be found for todays smart phones.

The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image. This scaling is done uniformly and proportionally based on the image in question so there is no distortion of the image itself, as would be the case if the image were actually stretched or squeezed. - This feature is neat, but again the touch screen is going to be impossible to keep clean, so not really practical

Other inputs

The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near your face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and an accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly, albeit in only one 90 degree direction. - This is all available on current stuff.

A single frontal hardware button brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu. - All smart phones have hardware buttons on them, and most have more than one allowing more functionality with out having to go to the screen.

The iPhone has three hardware switches on its sides: sleep/wake, volume up/down, ringer on/off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen. - Wow I had this on my very first cell phone (Motorola StarTac)

Phone

The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. - Nothing new here.

The iPhone will include a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with Cingular which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages onscreen, without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to in a non-chronological order, by choosing messages from a list. Cingular completely reworked their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. - This is neat, but nothing major.

E-mail messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. - Not all that different from current smart phones

Camera

The iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera with video and software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The software will interact with iPhoto on the Mac. - Most phones now have cameras and many of the upper end phones are 2+ megapixel

iPod

The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen. - Most smartphones can play music, granted the interface is not the "ipod interface"

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. A two-fingered tap is used to switch between wide-screen and full-screen aspect ratios. - Most smartphones play video

Internet

The iPhone has built-in WiFi, with which it will be able to access the Internet (through a wireless network) via the Safari browser. So do most other smart phones

The iPhone will also be able to connect to the Internet through Cingular's EDGE network but will not be able to utilize Cingular's 3G/HSDPA network at launch. - Well this sucks big time, all smart phones get data via their carriers network, but the iphone is not capable of keeping up with new technology, also it is on the nations SLOWEST data network.

The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most other phones. - This is a exaggeration, yes most phones can only display simplified pages, but most smart phones (which is what the iphone is competing against) can display all web pages without a problem, full text and graphics, and if you don't like pocket ie you can get Opera for a Windows mobile phone. What options does the Iphone have if you do not like the built in browser?

The iPhone also has Bluetooth built in and works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth 2.0 technology and for file transfer. - As does pretty much every current phone on the market.

An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps ? in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone. During the launch of the product, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby coffee shops and then placing a call to one with a single tap. - This is cool, but there is 3rd party software that can bring similar functions to Windows Mobile phones.

E-mail

The iPhone also features an HTML e-mail program, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. - so do most smart phones.

Yahoo! will be providing a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange. - Will this IMAP service be made available only to the iphone? besides all you need for a Windows phone is a POP3 account and your golden.

The e-mail program Outlook for Windows cannot be synchronized with the iPhone for the time being. - Big problem for Windows users.

There is no enterprise email connectivity other than IMAP and POP3. - Another big problem for corporate users.

OS X

Apple has confirmed an optimized, full version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) will run on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained. - Wow the phone is going to have an O/S

It is expected to take up considerably less than 500 mb. - I am unsure how much Windows Mobile takes up, but it is not much either.

It will be capable of supporting as-yet undetermined bundled and future 1st and 3rd-party applications, which are currently limited to a "controlled environment". Capable of supporting 3rd party apps, but noone will be able to make them legally without paying apple to do so, then the users will have to buy these apps from apple. Way to squash inovation.

Apple intends to offer a smooth method for updating the iPhone's operating system, in a similar fashion to the way that Mac OS X and iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones. Yes it is true many smartphones cannot update the O/S without a ROM Update which can be encumbering, so I will give apple kudos on this.

Widgets, similar to the ones available in Mac OS X v10.4's Dashboard, are included on the iPhone. - Smart phones have this.

The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. More eye candy, but nothing special.

Other

The iPhone features a built-in battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. - Big Problem, Batteries get weak and need replacing, and you just spent $500+ on a device you will have to throw out in a year because the battery is junk.

The battery is capable of providing five hours of video, web browsing, or talk time. The battery life for music playing is 16 hours. It is unknown how long the batteries will last in sleep mode. Comparable to most other new phones.

There will be new headphones which are similar to those of current iPods, but which incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing the microphone. Nothing to see here, move on.

Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone will be sold separately. Again nothing to see here.

The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback. Most smartphones have this feature as well.

So there you have it, very few features that don't already exist en masse. Also lets not forget the seemingly unending supply of 3rd party software for the Windows phones that make them capable of nearly anything that their hardware will allow. The iPhone will not have that.

Face it the iphone has less features and less potential with a higher price than other phones currently available.

Apple is marketing this phone squarely at the people who do not know any better.

Oh and for the record I am not an Apple hater, I do own an iPod and love it, although my purchase decision wasn't based on the fact that it is the best mp3 player (which it isn't) but because of the accessories available for it.

[Toxicfume Veteran]

Bgm32: You must receive an award for the biggest bias in opinion, ever. Not hat I love the iPhone, I mean i think it's a nice device, but I wouldn't buy it for the slight lack of functionalities...but man, what you wrote there is just so biased it's stupid.

[Bgnn32]

Bgm32: You must receive an award for the biggest bias in opinion, ever. Not hat I love the iPhone, I mean i think it's a nice device, but I wouldn't buy it for the slight lack of functionalities...but man, what you wrote there is just so biased it's stupid.

What did I post that is not correct?

[Swiftie]

Bgm32: You must receive an award for the biggest bias in opinion, ever. Not hat I love the iPhone, I mean i think it's a nice device, but I wouldn't buy it for the slight lack of functionalities...but man, what you wrote there is just so biased it's stupid.

It's a case of agree to disagree I'm afraid. In this case I'm with BGM32.

But at the same time, it's a case of Apple are just getting into this GSM market.

So maybe an iPhone v2 or whatever will have the better features. Whenever that is ever released.

But lets get this first iPhone realesed 1st and go from there. Nothing is ever perfect...

Bar the Nokia N95 ofcourse.. :shifty:

Edited April 28, 2007 by Swiftie

[Beastage]

What did I post that is not correct?

don't know... toxicfume usually replies better than that

[Bhav]

Bgm32: You must receive an award for the biggest bias in opinion, ever. Not hat I love the iPhone, I mean i think it's a nice device, but I wouldn't buy it for the slight lack of functionalities...but man, what you wrote there is just so biased it's stupid.

What's bias about it? He's right.

[jahamus]

So what I'm hearing is that there are phones out there that are at least equal in features to the iPhone? Can anyone give me a few phone models that I can check out that can do everything or more than what the can iPhone do? My cell contract is up and I'm looking for a new phone.

This is genuine request. I like the look of the iPhone but it would be cool if I didn't have to wait until June (or longer) and have to pay $500.

Thanks everyone!

[mycoolkim]

If iPhone delays so will leopard right? NOOOOOOO

[+Warwagon MVC]

What did I post that is not correct?

No clue, but it was an enjoyable read

[Banne]

Yea real high features:

Touch screen - oh yay, this is the most inovative thing on the phone and it isn't that great, it will be a finger print magnet

For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen - what smart phone dosen't? and many others also have real keyboards built in as well so you can type without losing some of the screen space.

It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words - yea so does every other smart phone

Additionally, an optional landscape mode for text entry with the virtual keyboard has been mentioned by Apple executives as a possibility for iPhone, but Apple has not yet come to a final decision as to its inclusion in the shipping version of iPhone. - Well most other smart phones do this as well

The iPhone varies from common desktop interfaces by using a direct manipulation model of scrolling. Where a typical desktop GUI achieves scrolling by using a scroll-arrow to push a view-window down and thus the content itself up (or the reverse, clicking up to move content down), the iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a simple and natural touch-drag-lift motion, much as one would slide a playing card across a table. - This may be a neat feature depending on how it actually works, but not something to make it worth the price.

Additionally, the speed desired for scrolling is computed based on the speed and acceleration with which the drag motion is performed. - Most already do this

Scrolling through a long list works as if the list is pasted on the surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display. After the finger is lifted from the display the "wheel continues spinning" for a short moment before coasting down. In this way, the iPhone seems to simulate the physics of a real object, which, it is thought, should give a very natural feel to the whole process. - Just a reinvent of the scroll bar, nothing great here.

The UI also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides. - Eye candy most of which can be found for todays smart phones.

The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image. This scaling is done uniformly and proportionally based on the image in question so there is no distortion of the image itself, as would be the case if the image were actually stretched or squeezed. - This feature is neat, but again the touch screen is going to be impossible to keep clean, so not really practical

Other inputs

The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near your face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and an accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly, albeit in only one 90 degree direction. - This is all available on current stuff.

A single frontal hardware button brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu. - All smart phones have hardware buttons on them, and most have more than one allowing more functionality with out having to go to the screen.

The iPhone has three hardware switches on its sides: sleep/wake, volume up/down, ringer on/off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen. - Wow I had this on my very first cell phone (Motorola StarTac)

Phone

The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. - Nothing new here.

The iPhone will include a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with Cingular which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages onscreen, without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to in a non-chronological order, by choosing messages from a list. Cingular completely reworked their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. - This is neat, but nothing major.

E-mail messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. - Not all that different from current smart phones

Camera

The iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera with video and software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The software will interact with iPhoto on the Mac. - Most phones now have cameras and many of the upper end phones are 2+ megapixel

iPod

The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen. - Most smartphones can play music, granted the interface is not the "ipod interface"

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. A two-fingered tap is used to switch between wide-screen and full-screen aspect ratios. - Most smartphones play video

Internet

The iPhone has built-in WiFi, with which it will be able to access the Internet (through a wireless network) via the Safari browser. So do most other smart phones

The iPhone will also be able to connect to the Internet through Cingular's EDGE network but will not be able to utilize Cingular's 3G/HSDPA network at launch. - Well this sucks big time, all smart phones get data via their carriers network, but the iphone is not capable of keeping up with new technology, also it is on the nations SLOWEST data network.

The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most other phones. - This is a exaggeration, yes most phones can only display simplified pages, but most smart phones (which is what the iphone is competing against) can display all web pages without a problem, full text and graphics, and if you don't like pocket ie you can get Opera for a Windows mobile phone. What options does the Iphone have if you do not like the built in browser?

The iPhone also has Bluetooth built in and works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth 2.0 technology and for file transfer. - As does pretty much every current phone on the market.

An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps ? in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone. During the launch of the product, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby coffee shops and then placing a call to one with a single tap. - This is cool, but there is 3rd party software that can bring similar functions to Windows Mobile phones.

E-mail

The iPhone also features an HTML e-mail program, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. - so do most smart phones.

Yahoo! will be providing a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange. - Will this IMAP service be made available only to the iphone? besides all you need for a Windows phone is a POP3 account and your golden.

The e-mail program Outlook for Windows cannot be synchronized with the iPhone for the time being. - Big problem for Windows users.

There is no enterprise email connectivity other than IMAP and POP3. - Another big problem for corporate users.

OS X

Apple has confirmed an optimized, full version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) will run on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained. - Wow the phone is going to have an O/S

It is expected to take up considerably less than 500 mb. - I am unsure how much Windows Mobile takes up, but it is not much either.

It will be capable of supporting as-yet undetermined bundled and future 1st and 3rd-party applications, which are currently limited to a "controlled environment". Capable of supporting 3rd party apps, but noone will be able to make them legally without paying apple to do so, then the users will have to buy these apps from apple. Way to squash inovation.

Apple intends to offer a smooth method for updating the iPhone's operating system, in a similar fashion to the way that Mac OS X and iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones. Yes it is true many smartphones cannot update the O/S without a ROM Update which can be encumbering, so I will give apple kudos on this.

Widgets, similar to the ones available in Mac OS X v10.4's Dashboard, are included on the iPhone. - Smart phones have this.

The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. More eye candy, but nothing special.

Other

The iPhone features a built-in battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. - Big Problem, Batteries get weak and need replacing, and you just spent $500+ on a device you will have to throw out in a year because the battery is junk.

The battery is capable of providing five hours of video, web browsing, or talk time. The battery life for music playing is 16 hours. It is unknown how long the batteries will last in sleep mode. Comparable to most other new phones.

There will be new headphones which are similar to those of current iPods, but which incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing the microphone. Nothing to see here, move on.

Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone will be sold separately. Again nothing to see here.

The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback. Most smartphones have this feature as well.

So there you have it, very few features that don't already exist en masse. Also lets not forget the seemingly unending supply of 3rd party software for the Windows phones that make them capable of nearly anything that their hardware will allow. The iPhone will not have that.

Face it the iphone has less features and less potential with a higher price than other phones currently available.

Apple is marketing this phone squarely at the people who do not know any better.

Oh and for the record I am not an Apple hater, I do own an iPod and love it, although my purchase decision wasn't based on the fact that it is the best mp3 player (which it isn't) but because of the accessories available for it.

dead on QFT

[Blaine]

Bgm32: You must receive an award for the biggest bias in opinion, ever. Not hat I love the iPhone, I mean i think it's a nice device, but I wouldn't buy it for the slight lack of functionalities...but man, what you wrote there is just so biased it's stupid.

Very true

[Shawn W]

True