Ian

iTrader: (10)

my upgrade is due soon, and i keep thinking about the iphone.

i have the lg viewty at the mo, and its ok.

the main reasion i am thinking about the iphone, is so i can get online when/where ever i am. how good is it for surfing the web?

any new beter versions of the iphone coming out soon?


any other info welcome

Markus

Safari for iPhone is meant to be pretty good. I've only had limited use of it myself as I don't have an iPhone.

There are rumors that there will be an iPhone update announced in June at the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) so it would be worthwhile waiting until at least then to see if anything is mentioned. The updated version of the OS for the iPhone should be released at that time too, so it also makes sense that a new version of the phone would be announced at the same time.

HankScorpio

I like the look of the LG one that's on the TV at the mo.

I've used an iphone but didn't get on with it, there are loads of phones with decent online options so not the restriction it once was.

JackClark

Get an iPhone you won't regret it. Waiting as suggested by Marcus may well be wise... but it's quite a long time.

HankScorpio

If I got an iPhone, I'd regret it. If my wife got an iphone she'd regret it, my old boss bought an iphone and regretted it. I also know several people very happy with it.

Just because it suits some, it's not for everyone and it does have flaws and is missing features people may want.

Sweeping fanboy statements don't help the OP in his decision making.

Iain Young

The two things that have stopped me from getting one are the poor battery life and the less than average camera. If you can live with those, then it is quite a nice gadget.

Dedrater

HTC Touch HD

Don't get sucked in by the Apple marketing spin.

boxst

Quite a lot of phones allow you to get online whenever you wish. The iPhone is a great package: It does video, music and online very well and it has good applications.

As the all-seeing-and-all-knowing Markus says at this moment I would wait until June to see what Apple has to say as it will probably release some new models making the old ones cheaper.

Steve

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Googles phone is meant to be one the best for online surfing. Obviously other factors come into it if you're looking for more than that.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

As Markus said wait until June if you can for the new version which is rumored to have a better camera and better battery life. I moved from an LG Viewty to the iphone and wished I had done it sooner

fitzscoob

I have to say that the camera isnt the best, but then again - its not really a massive feature for me in a phone. The battery life as far as I'm aware is great. Never had an issue with it running out on me.

If you spend all day playing with the apps, yeah the battery life will drop. If you use it as a phone all day or an ipod then you should get a full day out of it no problems.

Iain Young

A couple of chaps at work have them, and frequently have to charge the things twice a day if they use them a lot. To me, that isn't great battery life. In comparison, my old N95 can run 2 or 3 days with pretty heavy use (including apps).

Coffin Dodger

Way more powerful than the iPhone, has high speed data, Windows Mobile so infinitely customisable, seamless Outlook integration.....

Make the iPhone look like a kiddies toy

GC8WRX

LG are the worst company i know for product support.

I used to have a viewty, and something as simple as putting a new theme on the phone needed EFS media builder to hack the firmware!

Speaking of firmware, I used to frequent a viewty forum, and LG uk told this forum that they have no plans to update the firmware on the viewty or any of its future products because the quality control at LG ensures there are no bugs when a new item is shipped. We pointed out numerous bugs and glitches, and the fact that the camera software didnt really use the power of the Zoran C5 chip that processes the camera images (camera would output compressed images that looked awful when on my computer) but LG didnt want to know, despite a petition with 5, 000 signatures on it being sent to LG head office.

Said firmware update was eventually done by 3 lads in the community.

LG themselves say their mobile phone devision throws out new phones so fast it would be impossible to keep updating them all (which if you see the amount of far east only mobiles they throw out, can be believed).

Basically they dont do firmware updates or even bug fixes, you buy an LG and you are on your own, unless the community can help, but thats dwindling by the day as more and more people get pi55ed at LG for making another new phone rather than supporting the ones that have just come out!

On the plus side, unlike my new iphone, connect an LG to a usb port and it will show in windows as a drive, so you can drag and drop all day long, and ignore the horrible pc software they give out, and they dont give a **** about drm, so you can do what you like with files on the phone (unlike the iphone)

ChefDude

all my phones followed the same pattern with battery life - at purchase, 3/4 days , after a year 1 day standby, a few texts and maybe 1 call.

my iphone is following the same battery pattern as all the nokias i've had.

the new iphone will, allegedly, only have a 3.2mp camera anyway, so waiting for the new one for its spanky new camera isn't a factor you should prioritize.

i love my iphone - every thing i use works well - phone, sms, apps.

this is way way biased, but even so, the iphone has lots to offer

GC8WRX

I take your point but the iphone is due 3.0 soon and that will address most issues, like copy and paste and mms. If you hack your iphone bluetooth A2DP is available, and ive just discovered a free way to put mp3 as ringtones, so most issues are addressed.

I beleive Cydia will be able to let windows see the iphone as a drive soon, so i tunes can be ignored and you can drag and drop like any other phone

Apple stupidly crippled the iphone cos they wanted everyone to use i tunes and pay for their content, but the community doesnt want to do that, and is making hacking progress by the day and winning the fight!

my conclusion is: while the iphone is a v sexy piece of kit, unless you dont mind paying through the nose for everything, it will need hacking (which is easy to do), but it IS worth having one, some of the apps are very useful, and when i go on holiday i will have internet, a phone and an ipod in my pocket, and it will play ace games worthy of a ps2 in some cases!

Oh, and although they have been out for a while now, mine still seems to get loads of attention from people while im out and about, espescially fit girls in the pubs and clubs who want to play with it, if i was single it would be a good ice breaker!

I say get one, but not on contract (Iphone contracts are still overtly expensive), mine is pay and go, and ive spent 2.50 on calls in over a week ( i get free texts, 3g, edge and wifi). I reckon ill put 20 quid a month in the iphone (my old viewty contract was 40 a month, and i used about a 3rd of the allowance, and i was stuck with it for 18 months), i paid 340 for my iphone and i can get rid when i want, if was so inclined i could jailbreak it and sell it for 400 on ebay (which i might do when the new one comes out).

Markus

I don't see the iPhone as being crippled because you have to use iTunes to copy your music onto the iPhone. You don't have to purchase your music from iTMS you can rip a CD, import mp3/mp4 files and then sync them over to the iPhone. Ok, so you have to use iTunes to put stuff on there and the windows version is shocking, to say the least.

I think OS3 will also sort out the A2DP thing as well, I recall it doing something about the Bluetooth side of things.

Tiggs

i've had palm, windows mobile, etc and now me and wifey and iphones - would NEVER go back! We also have a mobile me account so i get all my email (from ALL my email accounts) pushed to me real time along with real time updates to my outlook calander and contacts (which syncs with with work data base so...in simple terms....if i stick a new client in my work system they are on my phone in seconds...along with any meetings i may have with them)

Only down side is apple stuff wont go through corp firewalls so no good if thats your situation.

My kid just got a nokia touch screen for her 13th birthday - made me realise in seconds how easy to use and simple (and better) the iphone is!

Battery is grim if you use it a lot but i have a charger in the car, by the bed and a USB...in fact, it's hooked up now - so i've never come close to running out.

It's also jail broke so i have cut and paste, video, better camera, etc, etc

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Would love to see the comparisons you speak of in terms of processing power ?

High speed data, you mean the same high speed everyone has ?

Windows Mobile...

Outlook- same as on the iphone, you get all your mail from your outlook client

You must have frequented the same bloody forum as me, trying to get the viewty to do anything with a PC was a ballache and forget about mac integration,That was a joke

The way you rubbed your thumb over the camera lens because the stupid jog wheel was positioned right around the lens was pure genius

Ant

The iPhone has been top In the smartphones since it's release back in 2007.

Not many phones acheive that

jowl

I love my iPhone.

It is THE best for browsing the web. I love the Appe Store - you can get many very handy Apps, a lot of them free.

The camera is pretty crap though. And battery life isn't great - but considering what features are available and how much I use it, its ok.

I would definatley wait just a bit longer. I expect the next iPhone will address the camera side of it. I hope they will squeeze some more battery life in too.

Although the other (minor) 'flaws' are software related and most seem to be covered under OS 3

Iain Young

That's what I'm waiting for. My N95 contract ran out a while ago. Just waiting to see what Apple come up with

evil_scoobs

I was the same, I went from an LG Viewty (for sale if anyone wants) to an iphone.
I hung off getting an iphone cause I wasnt sure and wasnt sure if the next one was just round the corner but so glad I changed.

I think my iphone is great and does everything and more that I want. I dont notice a big difference between the 5mp camera on the Viewty and the iphone cam.

JackClark

Get an iPhone, you won't regret it.

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

Another vote for the iPhone, then jailbreak it and add the video recorder and other stuff. It really is simple to jailbreak and to restore it back to standard.

spectrum48k

Remember Google is to the mobile phone what Microsoft is to your computer. Mobile phone manufacturers licence Google's Android operating system to use on their phones. In other words its not "Google's phone"

In fact, keep an eye on Google's Android, as it's starting to appear on netbooks (mini laptops). I'm sure Microsoft are more than interested in that.

I'm not saying Android phones are better than the iPhone incidentally. I adore the design of the iPhone in the main. It's just I'm not a big fan of mobile phones. I resent the fact anyone can contact me anytime just about anywhere!

Dedrater

2MP vs 5MP camera
VGA vs WVGA display
3.5in vs 3.8in screen with 480 X 800 pixel!
Copy and past (no jail breaking here)
Expandable Memory
Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional is of course unlimitedly more powerful

to name just a few..

Dedrater

Put it this way, the iPhone doesn’t have enough processing power to render several pages at the same time, whereas the HTC can do 17 in one go.

spectrum48k

Wouldn't have thought it would have much problem doing that. It's hardware performance sits somewhere between an Xbox and PS2. Could be a RAM issue as it only has 128MB, doesn't it ? And I believe some of that gets allocated to it's PowerVR integrated graphics (same gfx as the Palm)