iPhone 4s

[Mike 56]

Here is my spin on smart phones i an 54yr old and not a tech guy. I will say that i know my way around a PC a lot better than a lot of my friends. Before i bought my iPhone4 i had a Blackberry that my daughter gave me i did not like it at all i could not figure out how to use it i could just basically make phone calls with it. One day i was playing around with my daughters iPhone i had no problem using it  the phone taught me how to use it while i was using it. The next day i went to the Apple store and bought  a iPhone4. The people at the Apple store were great they helped me set up the phone and i was off and running. I was so happy with the Apple store i bought my wife a iPad last year for Christmas.  I have never used a Android phone so i can not comment on them.
Mike

[turnsouth]

Given his ability to see what was coming and tailor his product to meet the need, while simultaneously directing the need to form around his product, I have no doubt that he had put together a five or ten year plan for Apple when he retired.  After all, it's not like his retirement and subsequent death was unforeseen.  One didn't need his level of clairvoyance to see that his days have been numbered for a while, and I doubt the man who was famous for having a plan wouldn't have had a plan for this.

Def

Listened to a radio program a few days ago where they were at Apple, and they were reporting on the "Job's Business Training" there.

Basically what they did before his death was enter everything they could about him in a computer (life, style, tastes, future vision, business sense, etc...) and then generated a curriculum to train the senior managers at Apple, base around him.

[ryan1835]

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life."
Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Adress, 2005

He knew it was coming well in advance.

I cannot recall a "good touch screen" before the iphone though. Im pretty sure thats a first from apple, especially with multi touch.

Correct me if im wrong.

[Medic82]

Yea but they lacked the ability to fully visualize and finalize a grand idea.  Don't get me wrong, I am a PC user through and through, and I love Android, but Apple made it cool to have a phone that received emails.  Blackberry made an incredible business tool, but holding my Work Blackberry(2010 Curve) in one hand and my Iphone 4 in the other hand, it was hard to see why Blackberry/RIM is still in business.

I was se
nding and receiving emails on my Palm Pilots while Apple was still trying to sell brightly colored desktops.  Of course in those days it was only when I synced my Palm with my PC because wifi wasn't around in those days.

The sad fact is that RIM and Blackberry are pretty well single highhandedly responsible for the smartphone phenomenon but didn't think it through well enough.  Palm had the app market but MS dominated just about everything else with WinCE- if you have a GPS in your car, it's probably running on a WinCE platform, just to give you an idea of how widespread that OS was.  If the idiots at RIM had any foresight whatsoever they could have easily developed their "App Store" long before anyone else had even considered getting into the market and "Blackberry" would be synonymous with phones the way Kleenex is with tissues, Xerox is with copiers and Leatherman is to multitools.  Unfortunately they didn't look beyond the fact that they were on top and the only game in in town to offer these kinds of features, and someone else picked up the ball that RIM didn't even know they dropped.

The iPhone didn't revolutionize the industry though, they merely took Smartphones from the hands of tech goobers (like me) and made them "cool" just as Apple had done with other products.  It's not so much innovation as it's altering or removing a stigma.

That's not to say it didn't have a significant effect- there's no denying that.  I just feel that they slapped a coat of paint on an existing product and made it more appealing to the masses as opposed to really developing something new.

Def

Just look at the desktop that you find on every Mac, Win or Linux OS. It was all invented by Xerox that was run by grumpy old men that didn't have the vision that Jobs did.

[turnsouth]

Just look at the desktop that you find on every Mac, Win or Linux OS. It was all invented by Xerox that was run by grumpy old men that didn't have the vision that Jobs did.

Oh sure, next you'll tell us that two middle-aged balding men wrote the 60's musical Hair...

EDIT: Should have added this  (because it was written by two middle aged men)

[Medic82]

Just look at the desktop that you find on every Mac, Win or Linux OS. It was all invented by Xerox that was run by grumpy old men that didn't have the vision that Jobs did.

Oh sure, next you'll tell us that two middle-aged balding men wrote the 60's musical Hair...

Well, perhaps it's more right to say that Jobs perfected it but it was Xerox that really was the first to use a graphical interface

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_interface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star

[Neil]

I still find it amusing that people think of the iphone as a phone.... OK maybe the name swings it

Simple Nokia's like the old 1100 still make a better telephone than the slabs we hold to our heads these days.

What we now have are Star Trek like pocket computers that just happen to have communication features added.

We're living in the friggin' future!


My personal take on the situation is that Apple pointed the industry in the right direction after it got lost.  Smartphones were of course already about before the iphone landed but they were a swine to use.  Many powerful features all wrapped up in an interface developed by induhviduals whose idea of device consolidation would have resulted in the [noembed]knife wrench[/noembed] should they have worked in the MT industry

[captain spaulding]

Many powerful features all wrapped up in an interface developed by induhviduals whose idea of device consolidation would have resulted in the [noembed]knife wrench[/noembed] should they have worked in the MT industry

Scrubs is awesome. Love that show.   

[Medic82]

What we now have are Star Trek like pocket computers that just happen to have communication features added.

But how many tricorders or other pocket computers have you seen been used as a form to communicate other than the hand held communicators in the original series or the communicator badge in The Next Generation and forward, yes it is also a universal translator but that's it. Can't take pictures with it, doesn't have a calendar in it and you can't watch porn with it

[captain spaulding]

This has nothing to do with phones, but I just noticed every time I see Medic's Avatar I want to drop down and do 20 push ups and I feel like a worthless maggot. 

[Medic82]

This has nothing to do with phones, but I just noticed every time I see Medic's Avatar I want to drop down and do 20 push ups and I feel like a worthless maggot. 

What's stopping you? I can skype  you and shout repeatedly that you indeed are a maggot if that helps

[captain spaulding]

This has nothing to do with phones, but I just noticed every time I see Medic's Avatar I want to drop down and do 20 push ups and I feel like a worthless maggot. 

What's stopping you? I can skype  you and shout repeatedly that you indeed are a maggot if that helps

I've done 60 push ups since I opened this thread and I still feel like a worthless maggot. 

[Medic82]

This has nothing to do with phones, but I just noticed every time I see Medic's Avatar I want to drop down and do 20 push ups and I feel like a worthless maggot. 

What's stopping you? I can skype  you and shout repeatedly that you indeed are a maggot if that helps

I've done 60 push ups since I opened this thread and I still feel like a worthless maggot. 

The maggot is strong in this one

[turnsouth]

What we now have are Star Trek like pocket computers that just happen to have communication features added.

But how many tricorders or other pocket computers have you seen been used as a form to communicate other than the hand held communicators in the original series or the communicator badge in The Next Generation and forward, yes it is also a universal translator but that's it. Can't take pictures with it, doesn't have a calendar in it and you can't watch porn with it

This makes an excellent point. Analysts say that communication will eventually take precedence over, and then it will drift away from entertainment and personal information managers.

Eventually leading to most likely an earring type of phone, that other than communicating, will only have a voice command contact manager.

Picard to Enterprise...

[captain spaulding]

This has nothing to do with phones, but I just noticed every time I see Medic's Avatar I want to drop down and do 20 push ups and I feel like a worthless maggot. 

What's stopping you? I can skype  you and shout repeatedly that you indeed are a maggot if that helps

I've done 60 push ups since I opened this thread and I still feel like a worthless maggot. 

The maggot is strong in this one

HAHAHA nice.    Alright lets get back on track here. Phones, Phones, Phones. 

[Medic82]

What we now have are Star Trek like pocket computers that just happen to have communication features added.

But how many tricorders or other pocket computers have you seen been used as a form to communicate other than the hand held communicators in the original series or the communicator badge in The Next Generation and forward, yes it is also a universal translator but that's it. Can't take pictures with it, doesn't have a calendar in it and you can't watch porn with it

This makes an excellent point. Analysts say that communication will eventually take precedence over, and then it will drift away from entertainment and personal information managers.

Eventually leading to most likely an earring type of phone, that other than communicating, will only have a voice command contact manager.

Picard to Enterprise...

But will we then be using a personal organizer like the ones that was being used 10 years ago? I can perhaps se that the iPhone will turn into iOrganizer and the iPhone will be an earring phone that can synchronize with the organizer if you want to. The new iPhone does have SIRI which lets you interact verbally so we are heading that direction.

But is it in that direction Apple is now heading with having iPad's with no phoning capability so you have to use an iPhone?

Kirk to Enterprise....

[turnsouth]

But is it in that direction Apple is now heading with having iPad's with no phoning capability so you have to use an iPhone?

Kirk to Enterprise....

It seems that they are planning for it. What with all the capability in the iPod Touch as well. They will still be the PDA "goto" company when phones leave our hands...

Picard to Riker...

[Medic82]

Just look at the desktop that you find on every Mac, Win or Linux OS. It was all invented by Xerox that was run by grumpy old men that didn't have the vision that Jobs did.

Oh sure, next you'll tell us that two middle-aged balding men wrote the 60's musical Hair...

EDIT: Should have added this  (because it was written by two middle aged men)

Well I'm not that big of a musical fan as you obviously are

[Beerplumber]

Yea but they lacked the ability to fully visualize and finalize a grand idea.  Don't get me wrong, I am a PC user through and through, and I love Android, but Apple made it cool to have a phone that received emails.  Blackberry made an incredible business tool, but holding my Work Blackberry(2010 Curve) in one hand and my Iphone 4 in the other hand, it was hard to see why Blackberry/RIM is still in business.

lol I am holding the same setup in my hands right now and couldn't agree more. I don't believe I have a biased opinion and do not want to start a "my phone is better" battle but wow do I ever not enjoy using the blackberry at all. I knew my iPhone 4 inside and out within a week and love using it, had the blackberry for just as long and still struggle using it.  I'm not getting a 4s but not because I don't want one that's for sure. 90% of my posts here are sent from my iPhone. Loving the iOS 5 so far as well. They seem to have fixed every little qualm I had with it and beyond.

[Millhouse]

Just picked one up.

[jzmtl]

Could easily apply to iphone. 

[Neil]

And there in lies another issue with smartphones. People have stopped talking.  I don't mean strangers at a bus stop (I only found that level of social interaction when I lived up in Liverpool), I mean people who actually know each other.   Giving someone a lift to find they just stare into a little screen the entire journey rather than talk to you is pretty unnerving    Actually its just plain rude    Maybe I'm now officially old 

[ryan1835]

And there in lies another issue with smartphones. People have stopped talking.  I don't mean strangers at a bus stop (I only found that level of social interaction when I lived up in Liverpool), I mean people who actually know each other.   Giving someone a lift to find they just stare into a little screen the entire journey rather than talk to you is pretty unnerving    Actually its just plain rude    Maybe I'm now officially old 

better get that hone of yours fixed then 

[jzmtl]

And there in lies another issue with smartphones. People have stopped talking.  I don't mean strangers at a bus stop (I only found that level of social interaction when I lived up in Liverpool), I mean people who actually know each other.   Giving someone a lift to find they just stare into a little screen the entire journey rather than talk to you is pretty unnerving    Actually its just plain rude    Maybe I'm now officially old 

I think that's more due to change in society norm than smartphones, you see people without one twiddling their thumbs rather than talk with each other. I wouldn't mind chatting with stranger to pass time even though I have a smartphone in my pocket, but wouldn't initiate one for fear of looking like a weirdo.

[turnsouth]

I am reminded of my grandmother decrying the common use of telephones.
Saying how no one writes letters any more, and no one goes to see someone to ask them something like they used to.

[Reinier]

I am reminded of my grandmother decrying the common use of telephones.
Saying how no one writes letters any more, and no one goes to see someone to ask them something like they used to.

Yeah, my granmother texted me the same story! Or did I read it on her Twitter?

[turnsouth]

I am reminded of my grandmother decrying the common use of telephones.
Saying how no one writes letters any more, and no one goes to see someone to ask them something like they used to.

Yeah, my granmother texted me the same story! Or did I read it on her Twitter?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I find it kind of amusing nowadays how many deaf people have phones.  It wasn't long ago that a hearing impaired person buying a phone was a cruel joke!

Def

[Benner]

Happy with my 4 for now.  Don't think the added features of the 4s are worth the upgrade.