Inselaffen

Source one from France when they come out there. have heard that French law prevents the locking of mobiles to a particular network!

shiva

as i said its very pretty and the interface is nice. As for web browsing....rubbish I've been using my Sony ericsson p900 to browse the web for 4 yrs now, not wap the actual web!
Apple are the masters of spin and asfor steve job's line that its 5yrs ahead of anything.....ballderdash!
The iphone is far less capable than people are led to beleive and can do about 10% of what any decent windows mobile 6 phone/pocket pc can do, and thats coming from me and i hate windows and microsoft!

I just got this and it rocks, http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_tytn_II.htm
simply the best mini pc/phone i've ever used, its truely awesome. Every function the iphone has plus the ones apple left out like GPS and a proper keyboard, I can also download and install literally thousands more applications if I wish. I can also remote desktop with it and expand the memory to any size i want...try do that with an iphone.
If I want an Ipod interface i can just dowload one that is absolutely identical (so much so that apple are trying to sue people who design and use it). It also has the so called touchflo screen so i can scroll in exactly the same was as on an iphone

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=386

The iphone is a nice device but it is very very far from being the complete converged device apple claim it to be.

Eeyore

Looks too thick and clunky for me

Apple very deliberately omitted a physical keyboard because to make them big enough to be halfway useable, they have to be fold-out things that add significantly to the thickness and clunkiness of the device. That's one of the reasons why the iPhone appeals to me; I don't want to have to fold out a keyboard - that's old tech.

You're kind of comparing apples with oranges (sic), though, aren't you? That's not the market the iPhone is aimed at. It's not marketed as a sort of pocket Mac, it's a combined phone and iPod with some cool extra toys.

So it's got full multi-touch so you can do all the pinching and two-finger-tapping and all that stuff?

But do they actually claim that? I haven't seen examples of that sort of hyperbole; can you point me at a quote?

rushey

Be careful buying phones off ebay, unless you can pay cash on collection ( not an option for you !) I would leave it, tones of scammers out there selling the must have fashion accessory of the moment.

My PA's bro has an I-phone I will find out where he got it from and how he got it working in the uk, will report back .........

R.

shiva

Gareth,
Cant be arsed to lookout all the quotes but here is steve jobs telling me that i havent had the internet on my phone for 4 yrs. guess i was imagining it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW3B__whoVY

Eeyore

That's a bit different from claiming that the iPhone is a "complete converged device", though, isn't it? A lot of people do seem to think that the iPhone is being marketed as a pocket Mac with phone functionality, but it's not at all - if it was, it would have "Mac" in its name somewhere! Apple are smart enough to realise that the market for a sexy phone with iPod and web browsing is much larger than the market for a proper pocket PC kind of device, which is why they've gone the way they have.

I've just looked up the specs of your phone, and by the looks of things it only detects sweeping motions for scrolling, it doesn't allow pinching and two-finger-tapping - they're two of the coolest aspects of the iPhone interface

shiva

As i said that was one quote, i really cant be bothered to google every other piece of nonsense i've read about the iphone just to appease you. its out there and theres tons of spun drivel to be laughed at.

your right i dont yet have the pinching ability, but as the device is only a few weeks past release i imagine i will be able to patch it in in another few weeks. I do however have double finger tapping now so gofigure.

given, they are two devices for different markets, what gets me though is the amount of nonsense floating about regarding the iphone and most of it originates in apple.
To pick the one i've already quoted,apples claim to be the first device with real internet is utter tosh.
I have no problem with apple saying "look we have a really sexy looking phone with some cool features" i do though have a problem with their rubbishing of every other device out there that actually does what an iphone does but did it better several years ago.
Its the same as the ipod, they are very sexy little gadgets but there are and were mp3 players out there years before that were better than an ipod, apple however has one of the best marketing departments in the business so they now dominate that market. mostly through spin over functionality

shakh your bootie

Thanks for the advice, guys. It sounds like it's too risky to get her an i-phone that may or may not work in the UK....

I'll get her the phone she asked for instead - that, and a course of diving lessons should be enough for a 12th birthday!

lionheart

How about a nice cuddly bunny wabbit?

Eeyore

Calm down Chris I'm just yanking your chain a bit, but I do think you're choosing to see something in the iPhone marketing that isn't there - I haven't seen any representations from Apple that it's a "complete converged device".

If the touchflo hardware supports it, of course.

If I were you, I'd just ignore it... not worth getting *that* worked up about

It's the people who understand the market best who are always most successful. Apple knows that the mass market just wants an easy-to-use MP3 player that also looks good. Sure, other manufacturers have brought out devices that do more for a similar price, but it's only the propellorheads who care about that, the mass market doesn't want all that extra functionality - if it did, the iPod wouldn't be the dominant portable audio player any more.

What the iPod does, it does very well. If the product didn't deliver, then all the spin in the world couldn't help it.

maranelloman

Been looking into this a lot recenetly as I was looking to get one. ot available in the UK at the moment. Launch date rumoured to be 15th Dec on O2, but the guy in the apple shop on saturday said it sounds a bit late.

They are available on ebay, but some sellers seem dodgy. Be careful! If you do get one then I have a hack to unlock to all networks. If you need it I will send you links.

Cham128

to be honest when it's released in the UK to buy it without a contract is likely to be a lot... I remember when the first RAZR came out... £50 on a contract or to buy it without one was about £600...

maranelloman

Yup always happens!

Desert Dweller

We've had them here in Hong Kong on the grey market for a few weeks now and the crack has been easy, though i haven't got one so don't know.
Everyone I know thinks it is the cats twat and it does what it claims it will- nothing more.
Apple bashing is important to some people, let them do it, makes no odds.

Cham128

I'm with you on that... everyone bashes the ipod for being an inferior product... it's a better design and so simple to use, and not to mention the reason for it being so popular in the first place is because iTunes could rip a CD in seconds and then send it to the ipod... I had a sony mp3 player before that and it took about 30minutes to transfer one CD.