Letters to the Editor
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Face oils? No problem.
When the screen on my black 5th gen 80GB iPod Video gets smudgy, I flick the lock switch so I don't inadvertently pause or reset it, give it a quick fog of breath, a quick wipe on my shirt and it's good as new. And completely unscratched, I might add. I've had it for months and there's still not a single scratch on the face, which I can't say for the previous generations of iPods I've had.
Oh, and why is John Dvorak still allowed to have a column? Probably for the same reason FOX "News" allows Bill O'Reilly on the air.
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what already sucks
Here's what will suck about the iPhone: another object to incite unapologetic, aggressive materialism. It's not just that people are worshiping their gadgets and the empty culture around them; it's that they're so pre-emptively unashamed of it. If you suggest, even a little bit, that people should care less about what they consume, you're attacked as a contrarian or as self-righteous.
I mean, seriously, man, don't you feel even a little guilty for being in love with money and the things it buys?
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No Keyboard is Good??
Ever since the iPhone was first demonstrated, I have wondered how many people that IM on a phone actually look at the screen while they are typing. On a screen with no tactile keys, they'll HAVE to look. Also, the iPod feature is great, but not if you want a great iPod. AT&T is the only carrier. I actually have AT&T, and my phone barely works in my house!!
All this for a low, low $600.00.
Not for me.....
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who says all this?
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a mouse. There is no evidence that people want to use these things." (John Dvorak)
and i care what he says why?
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What will suck... will be about three days later.
The iPhone will be wonderful, sexy, cool, WAY cool, l33t and delicious -- for the first three days.
Then you'll wake up on the fourth day and quickly come to realize that its just another phone and you still have to make the house and two car payments, worry about getting the kids to day care and whether the shingles that blew off the house roof the night before really need to be repaired right now, or can wait a bit. Oh yeah, and now you've got another big monthly bill for crummy Cingular, er... AT&T phone service. And the Internet access will be SUPER expensive.
It's a cool toy, maybe THE cool toy for a while, but it will still end up being just another expensive attempt to distract ourselves from the daily grind.
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iPhone's Batter Life Will Suck
When I first saw the attractive TV ads for the iPhone, the first thing that hit me was "Battery Life!"
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a big beautiful 17" wide screen...but I always have to lug around the power cord and transformer if I expect to use it for more than about 40 minutes, and an available electrical outlet can sometimes be hard to find while I'm out and about.
The iPhone's big screen will probably eat a lot of juice, and the phone's weight might get a bit annoying, I expect. The hefty price will also make it an object of envy highly susceptible to theft; something else to worry about.
So, hefty weight and cost, short battery life, plus the expected fragility of at least the big screen... I'd be one of those to wait and see before investing my money in one.
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The Real iPhone Market
The real iPhone market will be in titanium cases to protect a phone that in real life I would smash, crack, scratch or scuff at least twice a week. I also predict that if the iPhone is a hit, (and sadly it will be) there will be a huge up tick in the sales of screen cleaner.
And no, you will not be able to see the screen in sunlight. What kind of people make calls in sunlight anyway? PC users?
The real question is will you be able make a call will riding a unicycle?
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The Multitasking
I don't anticipate being overwhelmed by the interface (although I have no intention of switching to Cingular to try it), but counting the number of people I know who are overwhelmed by their iPods, iTunes, and who haven't watched a movie on their computer... well, I really think Apple's going to end up with a small share of the phone market, and a sizeable share of the PDA market, and that'll be sad. Apple is good at getting software and hardware to play together in a reliable and usable fashion, but I wish they'd gone for the iPhone Nano (it answers your calls, plays a disk or two, interfaces with PCs and Macs for uploads and downloads) first, and gone for the miniature Mac version later.