Apple has lost the plot. Discuss

[ian]

• Be able to function as a wireless mouse for my laptop and PC. I use mine at the moment like this but as a touch pad. Does that count?
  

Is that on an iPhone Sam? And if so how?[/list]

I use Remote Mouse on my iPhone to control my media centre (and Mobile Mouse on my iPad). They work fine as wireless mouse and keyboard.

Radio? Is that still going?

Of course, there is a wider variety of not-Apple phones and hence more choice. Other than older models, there's effectively only one model of the iPhone. Apple pick their market and they're not trying to appeal to everyone.

Interestingly, from Feline's list, it's pretty clear that any smartphone is effectively almost there, there's minimal hardware required on the phones themselves. It's other stuff that has to be enabled to make everything tomorrowsworldy.

There's always a focus on MORE GIGABYTES but in practice fewer and fewer people care about that (it's got that way with computers in general, I'd have to think to remember what's under the hood of this computer), but the real success of the iPhone is software. Not just iOS, but a rich app environment, and stitching it all together. I may curse iTunes, but after a weekend of wrestling a Samsung, another media player, and Windows 7, well, let's just say my store of robust NC-17 language has empty shelves.

There's also a danger of change for change sake. A key ingredient in the recipe for success is making sure you only change something when it matters. Of course, hitting that point depends on either luck or inspiration, or both. You get the gripes about the iPod and iPhone and blah blah Apple didn't invent it, blah their are better ones, blah blah innovation. But the real success was that theydid something and that they did it at the right time. In between, the incremental rules.

[Wombat]

I was shocked to realise that my colleague's iPhone didn't have a radio.  Frankly, thats pathetic.  Obviously my Android one has, as did its rather basic precedessor, and the one before that...  I can do at least half of what Feline asks, with no additional hardware, and Android phones with NFC and OLED screens aren't hard to find.   I don't actually see how Android can be harder to work than iOS, its just different, I would find iOS as hard to grasp as an iOS user supposedly finds Android.   Mine has functional voice recognition too, maybe not as "fancy" as Siri, but the phone does not have to be 3g connected to use it. (not much point, mind you, as there's nothing much to find without a connection).

As for 4G, wouldn't it be an idea to finish the 3G network before we go on to 4G? Or do the networks consider it IS finished?  It certainly isn't!

I get round the lack of radio by using the Tunein app.
 

Does this work when you can't get a 3G signal?  Those outside major cities often don't grasp that 3G is NOT universal.

[pcolbeck]

In most of our village you can't get a mobile signal at all never mind 3G ....

[Valiant]

My current Samsung has FM radio.

It barely works in London and always cuts out Radio apps over 3/2g work fine though.


As for the remote app I use, i think it's called Rowmote or something.

[rogerzilla]

My low-level-employee-punishment-phone, a Nokia C1, has an FM radio.  It works well with my Panasonic headphones, but not at all with the crappy Nokia ones.

I want a smartphone with active flip, like my (original) Motorola V3.  How hard can it be?  At least it fits your head properly because it's big enough when unflipped and it has a bend in the middle.

[Jaded]

Flip phones? 

[Jaded]

i'm with Kim. The best phone evah was the Nokia 6310i.

The next best is whatever version of the iPhone I have.

Flip phones are so Miami Vice. I can just picture rogerz standing tanned at the end of his cul-de-sac, crocodile slip-on shoes, chest hairs flowing out of his suggestively unbuttoned shirt, shouting into his phone "with olives!" as he orders from Dominos.

[AndyK]

i'm with Kim. The best phone evah was the Nokia 6310i.

The next best is whatever version of the iPhone I have.

Flip phones are so Miami Vice. I can just picture rogerz standing tanned at the end of his cul-de-sac, crocodile slip-on shoes, chest hairs flowing out of his suggestively unbuttoned shirt, shouting into his phone "with olives!" as he orders from Dominos.

No, flip phones are totally X-Files.

[Jaded]

The truth is in here.

I believe Jack Bauer used one too, so perhaps rogerz is out there just now screaming

"WHERE IS THE BOMB!!"

(no question mark, given it was such a serious question)

[simonp]

My first phone was a Motorola v3688. It was very neat, and small. But times change, and flip phones are too limited. My iPhone is used far more for non-phone stuff than being a phone, and I’d much rather have a large touch screen than a small display and a keypad. When someone invents foldable seamless touch screens, I’ll consider a flip phone again.

[Valiant]

I've still got my Nokia 8310. That was an awesome phone.

[Palinurus]

Flip phones? 

Good because like those ones on Star Trek

[Jakob]

Gnnnrrar. My provider is currently only allowing pre-orders on the 16GB version and I want the 32GB.

[AndyK]

Gnnnrrar. My provider is currently only allowing pre-orders on the 16GB version and I want the 32GB.

Why don't you just buy the phone direct from Apple? Then you can put whatever sim you want in it.

[rogerzilla]

Gnnnrrar. My provider is currently only allowing pre-orders on the 16GB version and I want the 32GB.

Why don't you just buy the phone direct from Apple? Then you can put whatever sim you want in it.

Because it costs more than an entire month's Sainsbury's bill for a hungry family?

[AndyK]

Gnnnrrar. My provider is currently only allowing pre-orders on the 16GB version and I want the 32GB.

Why don't you just buy the phone direct from Apple? Then you can put whatever sim you want in it.

Because it costs more than an entire month's Sainsbury's bill for a hungry family?

Buying it with a two year contract costs more.

[Feanor]

But that is not the issue for someone who can't afford to purchase it outright.
Of course there is a cost for the credit of paying it off monthly.
But that cost may be manageable, whereas the single cost of an outright purchase may not.

There are loads of people who could not afford to purchse it outright from an Apple store, but who could afford to purchase it at a monthly rate.

Presumably, you knew that when you made your post?

[AndyK]

But that is not the issue for someone who can't afford to purchase it outright.
Of course there is a cost for the credit of paying it off monthly.
But that cost may be manageable, whereas the single cost of an outright purchase may not.

There are loads of people who could not afford to purchse it outright from an Apple store, but who could afford to purchase it at a monthly rate.

Presumably, you knew that when you made your post?

Apple do finance deals over 12, 24, 26, and 48 months.

[Feanor]

Oh, OK.

If you do that and then buy a SIM-only contract from a provider, does it work out much cheaper?

[Bledlow]

my mobile gets used for phone calls.

You're weird, you are.
 

Oh dear. I must be weird, too.

[AndyK]

Oh, OK.

If you do that and then buy a SIM-only contract from a provider, does it work out much cheaper?

Depends on the provider. I'm with giffgaff which costs me £10 a month for 250 UK minutes. unlimited UK texts, unlimited internet, Free to giffgaff calls. I figure that's cheaper than the £30-or-more-per-month-for-two-years deals.

[Rhys W]

No, flip phones are totally X-Files.

Flip phones were always popular in the USA. Fine, but they insist on carrying them in a little leather holster on their belts. 

[rogerzilla]

All a flip phone adds is a cover with a microphone in the end.  I don't see why you couldn't build that into a smartphone; it would protect the screen from scratches and avoid the need to lock and unlock the screen, as well as making voice calls easier because the unfolded phone actually reaches between your ear and your mouth.

If Apple did it first, everyone would acclaim it as a move of Jobstian-level genius and call for Tim Cook's beatification.

The worst sort of phone ever designed was something like the Nokia 8210; so small as to be virtually unusable.

[geraldc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFhjDX-DUew

The flip was Motorola, I think they have it trademarked.

Now motorola is google, it could get interesting.

iOS 6 doesn't interest me. I don't really trust Apple maps yet, as I've never used it, and 3d fly bys of buildings does seem to be gimmicky even to me.

I switched over from PC to Apple with Panther, the multi language support is, and always has been streets ahead of Windows (we needed to type Chinese). The thing that really sold macs to me was the screens rotating as a 3d cube when you changed users, I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

The app I use most is iPhoto, and all my photos could easily be exported out.  The biggest hassle would be working out how to convert my external hdds into a format that a PC could read, I think I'd have to copy the data off, reformat the drives and then copy the data back. It's far easier to go from PC to Apple than vice versa.

[Valiant]

Ericsson were doing flips before Motorola I think. You can get 3rd party programs that read the mac partitions.