Category: Cell Phone Talk
So, I preordered it online today and It should ship by the 24th. If anyone's curious or interested, I'll throw together a review/comparison of the 4 to the 3gs and shair my thoughts and such when I see the device and have some time to really put it threw its paces.
I wish that AT&t would have kept unlimited data but, we can't get what we want all the time.
Not the iPhone, but I'm considering getting the new iTouch when it comes out.
Wonder how many of these devices, like the iPd, will be confiscated in some countries because they interfere with a secure radio signal?
That one with the iPad and Israel had to be the first in major mobile / smart devices.
To be hfair, I believe the next gen (OS 4 / iOS) fixes this by rebanding.
I may find myself getting a Macbook, but what I find humorous is the level of fanboy forgiveness afforded Apple by folks who would never tolerate this from a Nokia / Symbian or a Windows Smartphone / Microsoft Kin Phone.
I'm hoping to get it in December when I'm eligible for my upgrade. What do you mean that att didn't keep their unlimited data plan?? What are the prices like now??
You can get 2 GB of data per month for $25, I believe, or 200 MB for $15. If you currently have the so-called unlimited data plan (actually 5 GB), then you're grandfathered in. You'll have to drop your current plan if you want tethering though.
To tyger: if you're up for renewal any time in 2010, you can upgrade now to the 4g for the contract price of $199 .0 or 299 respectively. I'm still up in the air as to whether or not I'll do it, just because of my dislike for At&t, but let's face it, from many aspects for access it's one of the best offering out there. Now before everyone flames that last comment let me say up front, I've used at one time or another every single accessible mobile phone OS available since 2002, starting with a nokia 9290 communicator my last device being a Moto Droid, and I have considerable experience in every mobile operating systems as well as screen reading package offered including talks, MS and pocket hal. When it's all said and done, once voice over is activated, the device is snappy, responsive, and pretty intuitive right from the get go.
I'll probably take a flame here too, but I'm gonna say I wouldn't switch away from AT&T because of a 2GB limit let alone 4GB.
If it's a phone / PDA like the iPhone the only way you're gonna get close to that limit is if you're streaming all the time.
Didn't know about the snappiness of Voiceover, but my pithy comments on Apple and mobile devices have far predated Voiceover's existence, and the blinkosphere didn't even know about it then.
I frankly wouldn't worry about 2GB, let alone 4GB. I realize iPhone users are more toy/entertainment users and not enterprise like Blackberry users.
I think AT&T ought to take that into consideration when offering your plans and perhaps give a higher data package but still. Unless you're watching streaming video content all the time you will have no worries. Your average streaming radio doesn't expense the kind of bandwidth that video does. Hence while a 2GB limit is perhaps a boundary, it's a bit like putting a goldfish in a swimming pool for most data users.
Robo, you're spot on. On my VZW netbook, I have a 5g limit, and even what I thought was heavy usage, basically, i'm on the road daily and I often stream the baseball games while driving be it live, or archived and yet I still barely hit 2gb monthly. Not to mention listening to iTunes radio, or sending receiving email, and downloading PDF attachments for my clients prior to meeting with them. I thought about grabbing a BB, but my extreme distrust of HW, as well as the way with which the whole screen reader for the BB was roled out really turned me off to that. Moreover, the recent podcast posted on Blindcooltech did nothing to rekendle the thoughts of purchasing one either.
Thanks for the info about being able to upgrade for $200. Even if I'm not eligible until December, they'll let me upgrade? I'm going to try and hold out as long as I can, since I just got my phone at the end of last June. Once my battery starts getting really bad, I'll buy the 4 g. So I should be fine with the 2g data plan? That's how much a month?
At the WWDDC SJ anounced that anyone who was able to upgrade any time in 2010 would be able to get the contract price. Also, the 4.0 software comes out next monday which will upgrade your 3gs to many of the 4g features for now.
I am hoping to get it, depending on whether or not I am eligible for an upgrade through Rogers.
BigDogDaddy:
Your computer takes up more bandwidth than your iPhone does anyway. Also downloading a PDF or documents does take some data, but the data usage required for streaming is significantly more. That's why in corporate environments they have policies that at least on paper prevent users from streaming. It used to be we enforced that pretty tightly, but here again, the blinkosphere gets to win again, because we all are more likely to stream audio-only content which is considerably smaller in packet size and buffering ratios than is video.
Now my next comment is a general one and not blinks / access only issue:
I think it's very irresponsible for Apple and Google, and any other smart device / OS manufacturer to include the full web browser without a Mobile/WAP option. Not that difficult to provide a control by which you set your browser to on-the-go or mobile mode.
Fanboys be damned, users ought to be able to control their data usage. By switching to mobile mode, a user could use less data, and the data is more mobile-friendly, meaning the mobile lifestyle (you're in a restaurant and just wanta see the sports scores) is better supported.
Sure we blinks would love that, but I've heard copious amounts of bitching about it from the sighted population: The mobile browser supports the mobile lifesty, period. And if you switch to mobile mode, you're managing your data. I realize some manufacturers, Apple in particular, tend to like to limit choices / introduce users to concepts with the "We know you'll like it," concept, but as long as users are paying for data and controlling it, it's imperative they can control it effectively.
And as I said, the mobile web supports the mobile lifestyle. The bitching I get isn't from penny pinchers necessarily.
As I said, many of my complaints about Apple over the years predate its existence in the blinkosphere. And that's not even to say I wouldn't get an apple device. My preference would be the Macbook Pro, talk about screaming fast hardware plus a rugged case!
But this foolishness they're pulling with mobile devices they pulled in the 1990s with System 7 when they claimed Mac users "just don't need to access networks," apparently forgetting Mac users worked too and we gearheads had to deploy their stuff for them ... onto networks.
Anyway I'll quit now I swear I'm not manstruating ... lol
Also thinking of getting one myself, As of late nokia seems to want to compete in the low end of the Smart phone market and hasn't really put out any phones that compete with Androids and iPhones in snappy ness and responsiveness. Personally i prefer the open ness of Android but accessibility isn't quite there yet and There are a few apps on the iPhone i wouldn't mine having access to. But man Am i going to miss my truely unlimited non smart phone data plan that i got used to abusing the hell out of for the last year or so now. Thats right no 5GB cap, i was free to download whatever i wanted when stuck away from home with no internet connection other than 3G. So anyone seen any resellers other than walMart selling iPhones for less than the $199 and $299 prices?
My friend Marissa just gother IPhone last week, although granted I think it's a 3GS model. I'm not sure if I'd still get a 3GS or go with 4G since I've heard it hasn't been completely tested and worked out yet. Of course we're talking about at least December before I'm even able to get one so that may not even be a relevant point. About all I know for sure is that I'm more or less decided on getting an IPhone since I'm no longer willing to pay extra, even the discounted price that AT&T offers, for a separate screen reader that won't even let me fully access all the programs that come standard on the phone. Apparently from what I've noticed with the IPod Touch, Voiceover works very well with every Ap included by default and, from what I've heard, with a fair number of third-party aps as well, not that I necessarily see myself using a whole lot of them. And some people might wonder why I would get an IPhone now that I've got an IPod Touch, but I realized that since I always take my cell phone with me wherever I go and really don't always take the IPod with me, I could still take my music with me everywhere since I could Sync the IPhone with ITunes and have my library on both devices. Now refresh my memory, didn't someone have text versions or PDF versions of the user guides for these things?
I am glad I got my phone when I did, I am not getting the new 4G one but I have the unlimited data and will get to keep it.
To brian if you are due for upgrade pricing in december you can get the iPhone 4 when it comes out for upgrade prices of $199 or $ 299 depending on whether you want the 16GB or 32GB model. To nickie if you already have the old unlimited data plan you can keep it when upgrading to a new iPhone unless you want tethering then you will be forced to switch.
What exactly is tethering??
teathering allowes you to connect other devices wirelessly to your celular connection and use the data from your cell network.
Hang on, who said mobile speak wasn't fully compatible with phones or whatever? I have a touch pro2 and so far, it works fine.
Yeah, what James said. And as far as the iPhone 4 goes, I'm going to go ahead and get one in a couple of weeks. It'll be difficult to get one when they come out on Thursday due to so many preorders, which by the way had to be stopped on the first day that Apple was allowing preorders. So yeah, I'm going to wait until the week after; I'll have more money by that time anyway. lol
Oh OK, I went back and read. What programs aren't accessible with mobile speak?
If the Iphone ever comes to Verizon, and that's a big IF right now, I might get it. I like the Ipod touch. It's easy to learn, it's so...common sense. I don't know how to explain it. I'm still having trouble with typing, but to be fair, I haven't really played with typing that much.:)
If you want manuals, I'm guessing LionCourt.com has them. They often do.
The iPhone is pretty much the same thing as teh iPod touch, only of course it has a phone built into it. So once you learn the iPod touch, you'll e fine with the iPhone. It looks like the iPhone won't be coming to Verizon for a while.
That's fine w/me right now.:) I just renewed my contract back in January. I'll wait.
hmmm, I plugged my iphone 3gs into my computer, hoping for the update, and it's saying my phone is up to date. I'm kind of excited for the new features
I just saw on the apple site that the iOS 4 update is now available via the very latest version of iTunes.
Anyone with an iPhone or touch care to try and let us know. Looks like bluetooth braille and keyboard support are both there in the update.
i've just upgraded, and can't beleive they wanted to give me aphone with my simcard, all i wanted was sim only, but to get waht i wanted for a decent price, i had to get a phone too, and the phone is shit shit shit, so am using my old sim free one. hmm, bloody orange. ah well.
their is an access friendly manual on apple's sight. its html and you can browse it like that on any device with an internet browser, I don't have a link right now but can find it if needed.
I'll be getting one in August. My mom will be getting my 3gs and I'll get the 4. Why August? Well, I can't do it in July since I'll be at GEB, and I want to save up a bit more before I do it anyway, so I'm going to use my SSI check for August to pay for it.
Wow, must cost some money to get an iPhone. How much does a 4g go for anyways?
16 gb = 199
and 32 gb = 299
on contract priceing
I just upgraded my ipod touch 32 gig to iphone os 4, and am currently reinstalling all my apps and music since the upgrade completely clobbered my touch.
Well of course it's going to clobber your iPod because it's a major upgrade. lol And as for the iPhone 4, I'm getting mine next Friday. Can't wait!
You can now upgrade your iPhone or iPod touch OS to OS4 skip getting a new phone if you want. Naturally you don't get the camera which is highly useful to us blinks in getting remote assistance for things, but you get the OS. It's Apple's equivalent to an OTA install (that's over the air, to you), which means it will not wipe your data. I said Apple's equivalent because it's only available through iTunes - the latest version. And prepare to piddle for a bit while it updates.
So you all can give OS 4 a go if you want with your current iPod / iPhone.
People are saying that the bluetooth keyboard support works i have even read that it works with the iPad bloothooth keyboard dock. And in that case it was a 3GS updated to iOS4, so imagine it would work just fine with the iPhone4
Well I'll probably get a 32-gig, same as my IPod Touch. Luckily my ITunes library is as up to date as it's going to get, so even if the update wipes my Touch it'll be easy enough to resync it and get everything back. And I will probably end up getting a Bluetooth keyboard since i'm not a big fan of entering text on the touch pad for texting. Of course with as much practice as I'm likely to have had by the time December rolls around it's entirely possible that I'll have changed my mind about that.
illumination I would expect it to give me a warning if it were going to delete all the music off my ipod, it didn't give me such a warning. If major update means delete all your music then this needs to be pointed out. For some reason my podcasts stuck around though.
I did an upgrade on a friends iPhone 3gs yesterday and it syncronized and it retained all 13 gb of data once complete.
from waht i understand of people who have updated OS on an iPhone it backs up your stuff wipes the phone installs the new OS then resyncs with iTunes.
hope Iphone comes to t-mobile soon because I really want one now that keyboards are supported.
I didn't lose anything when I updated, I had it back up before I updated, then it just resynced once the update was installed.
The new touch typing is way better then the origional system.
I can't exactly get the hang of the touch typing.
I only used it for an hour, but I love the new system of typing much better.
As much as I don't want to I think I'm going to jump ship to at&t and get one.
How exactly does touch typing work??
What I like to do is use a one or two-finger flicking motion over the screen until I find the letter I want, then I do a double tap to enter the letter in the field. It's slow but at least I'm able to enter only the letters I want.
Touch typing is this.
You place your finger on the keyboard portion of the phone, and drag it around until you land on the letter you want. Lift your finger up, and bam! the letter gets entered. Really nice for people who know the keyboard but don't want to use split tap.
Is there a setting where you can do the touch typing? For some reason, my iPod is not letting me do that.
Well, never mind, I found the setting. Just didn't explore good enough. lol
I updated my iPhone to iOS 4 and love it. I didn't have my stuff deleted while it was upgrading, but like most people, it recynced it right after it was done, so I got all my music and apps back.
I'm still getting used to the touch typing too.
One of the things I like about iOS4 is that more apps are now working with voice over that didn't work too well before.
Got home a few hours ago with my new iPhone 4 and i'm not looking forward to the next couple of days getting used to a touch screen. Hell i heep reaching to the pottom of the screen for the directional scroll wheel that I'm used to on my n86, not to mention how to do the most basic of things on this phone ah well but once i get used to it all should be well.
Hopefully gonna get one next week some time. Will repost when it becomes in to my posession.
I updated my IPod to the new OS about a week or so ago. It seems a bit...well I don't know, more streamlined? Well anyway as for people saying their library wasn't deleted, it's entirely possible that it actually was, but since it resyncs with ITunes as part of the update process you wouldn't even notice it, unless of course you deleted some things from your library before running the update, in which case they would of course then be deleted from the IPod. What I liked was the fact that it resynced mine with ITunes and the IPod even remembered my place in the audiobook I was listening to at the time.
Last year, with Verizon, I tried to get my own plan, and they did a credit check, and asked for a $400 deposit. Hopefully this won't happen when I get my iPhone with AT&T. lol
depending on your credit they may ask, but verizon is known for being the strictest with there security deposits. Sprint & T-mobile are probably the two more leanient.
Can you get the iPhone 3, and get a free update for I O S4?
Ah yes, the security deposit. I remember the very first time I tried to get my own cell phone, about nine or ten years ago this was, I forget who we tried to go with, but they wanted an 800 dollar deposit since at the time I had no credit history to speak of. And although I did have the money at the time there was no way in hell I was going to pay that much just for a security deposit, least of all for a cell phone that cost less than 200 bucks.
I had to pay a security deposit for my own at&t line. It's worth paying If you want your own personal line and independent account, and is a required step to take If you have no credit history. Of course, you get your security deposit back after a specified length of time, usually one year, as long as your account is active and in good standing.
Brice
I heard that for the beginners, AT&T requires that you pay a $500 deposit. Which of course is more than the actual iPhone costs. But for some reason, one of my friends got her Verizon phone last year, and she only had to pay a $125 deposit and had never had her own phone plan before. So I'm wodering, do the family plans affect everyone's credit, or just the person who's running that plan?
Tear Drop with an iPhone 3GS you can update it for free to iOS (the operating system in iPhone 4) for free, it can take some time while it downloads and syncs but yes you can do it through iTunes.
I believe family plans are based on the primary account holders credit and information. One of the main reasons I went ahead and paid my deposit was because I got tired of being asked for the primary account holders social security number every single time I wanted to do anything with my phone such as ask for support or check usage minutes. If you don't know the primary account holders ssn or other information they won't even talk to you.
My problem was I don't use itunes to manage music on my ipod, I use foobar 2000. It's unexceptible that a operating system upgrade will wipe out all your music with out warning you that if you don't have sinking set up with itunes you will lose all your music. God bless apple and there assumptions that everyone should either use exactly what they say or get screwed.
yes, AT&T does want a $500 deposit up front, but as I think has been said, you get that back after a year if you pay your bill on time.
Did i read that right foobar will sync with an iPhone as well.? off to investigate this more. Oh and its not apples assumption that you are only using iTunes, iTunes is the only sancioned way of syncing apple i devices, anything else that works is a hack and not supported by apple, so you can't really knocke them for not accomadating you when u use a hack. Thats like wondering why your jailbroken phone doesn't work after doing a regular os update from apple instead of waiting for the jailbroken update to come out.
I have been keeping away from Apple products for a while for the pure reason that as soon as I take the leap and buy something like an IPhone, a new one will come out pretty soon that'll be a lot better. But to be honest, I'm starting to forget this argument and am now seriously considering getting either an IPhone 4 or an IPod Touch.
Since the BrailleNote Apex currently has some issues with WiFi when not connected to the AC adapter, I'd probably be using it quite a lot for internet access and using the apps such as Mail, Weather, FaceBook, Twitter (providing I can get my twitter account unsuspended), Skype, etc. Yep, so I could use wireless and it'd all be cool, but there's one problem: I'm going to a blind school in September and while they do have an open access WiFi network, the open network is only available in certain places and the signal is not great from somewhere like the accomidation building; so, for best results, i'd probably need to use the 3G network. Unfortunately, the touch does not support 3G, so my only option would then be an IPhone. Yep, well an IPhone is basically the same as the touch, except with the phone.
But then, there is yet another problem. I got an Owasys 22C phone a couple of years ago, which was my first phone. I am not on a contract, I am on Pay As You Go from T-Mobile (where you get a card and go to a shop and top up your credit manually instead of paying monthly). The reason i'm on PAYG is because I don't use my phone that much (for example, i've only turned it on twice this year and have only gotten one SMS message this year as well). So, I wouldn't use the phone part of it that much, but i'd be using the apps and the internet stuff a lot, which brings me onto my next point. I'd need a data plan and probably an unlimited one if possible. Trouble is, you need to be on a contract to get a decent plan, but I don't wanna go on contract because I won't be using the phone part of it that much.
All this, plus the added problem of persuading my parents to get one; that should be pretty difficult seeing as they'll give the excuse that I don't use my phone that much. So yeah, while I want one, somehow I doubt i'll be getting one anytime soon''' ah well, that's life!
Hope that made at least some sense,
Robert
I plan on using that security deposit money to upgrade next summer. Its a good way to hide a little extra from SSI.
I've been looking on the O2 site (O2 is the main UK carrier of the IPhone). It seems that they have also done away with unlimited data plans. The highest they seem to offer is 2GB. If I was going to use mail, FB, twitter, skype, live messenger (if such an app exists), etc quite a lot, would it be advisable to go with a 2GB plan? Would that even be enough? I also need a good mobile broadband deal, but i'll leave that for another topic?
Well I don't think I'll get an IPhone 4. I'll get a 3GS and just upgrade the OS, unless of course Apple corrects the problem the new phone has with the antenna being too easy to cover up with a finger when you hold the phone. But I do plan on getting an IPhone when my time comes to get a new phone. I'm no longer willing to deal with a separate, 3rd party screen reader.
speaking as someone who has an iPhone 4 and i believe stryker will back me up on this one. That antenna thing really is only an issue if you live in an alrady AT&T fringe area yeah covering it with your finger will show the bars go down to 0 but you wont actually drop calls unless you are in an already questionable area reception wise. Besides i think some of the hardware upgrades in the IPhone 4 hardware is worth it especially considering the atenna thing is a non issue if you put the phone in a case (and their are plenty of inexpensive ones out there) like a better camera which will only work better with things like say text and par code scanners, better gps receiver which will work better or more acurately when giving u directions and etc. but if those aren't things you plan on using then get the 3GS. Oh and what are you waiting for go get one now .. haven't u heard if you are due for an upgrade this year u can get the iPhone 4 now for the regular upgrade prices. And to robert the guy in the uk the iPhone is available on all 5 carriers over there now so shop around.
Yeh, in all honesty, the "death grip" only effects by a surtain ammount (which is being debated by people of all sorts) people only seem to notice this as a problem when they are in bad spots for the AT&T network. I've actually tried to get the death grip to drop a call or cut data transmition but couldn't on my phone. I agree for some people its a problem and apple should seriously think of subsidizing bumpers but, seriously, people are only bitching quite so much because its apple putting out a verry high profile product. Many phones have had similar issues that have been over looked because the product wasn't as much in the spotlight. If the issue turns out to effect you, just grab a cace, if you have either the upgrade status or the cash, their isn't much of a reason to go for the 3gs over the 4, particularly as a blind user, voice over runs even quicker on the 4 and, all the other things Steve listed are true. I have some really nice barcode/OCR/identy by cover of object apps that probably won't work well at all on the 3gs.
Oh and i forgot tomention ..the iPhone4 has faster data speeds for surfing the net or downloading/uploading whether it be podcast apps videos mail attachments etc etc
I'll be getting my iPhone on Friday, so I'm glad you guys were discussing the intenna issue. I knew it wasn't all that bad. There's already a lawsuit being filed against Apple, but I seriosly doubt that Apple's going to lose that lawsuit. And yes, that stupid intenna issue is part of that lawsuit, as well as Apple being accused of secretly signing a 5 year exclusivity contract with AT&T. To tell you the truth, it really doesn't make much sense to me.
Well when I can I'll be getting a Touch I think, for some Coast Guard stuff to dedicate as a device for that. Not an iPhone since the family's on T-Mobile and we like thir customer service and the like. Funny kids on here saying they would have to persuade the parents, us parents on here have to come up with the money after providing for all dependents first.
Well a case is definitely something I would want to get for my IPhone, and not just to protect it and prevent mishaps with the antenna. Hopefully I can find one that I could clip to my belt. My one concern, and maybe I'm wrong about that, is that the case might interfere with the touch screen, but I suppose the front of the case would have to be open to allow access to it.
What was secret about it? It was common noledge that AT&T had a five year deal when the phone was announced. Add to that, their network is the only phone that could support it out of the gate...
I got my 32-GB Black phone, and it should be at my house so I'll grab it when I get back from GEB on the 30th. I don't think I need to worry about the death grip issue, since when I was at the ATNT store, I took out my phone and showed the guy how I hold my phone and he said I wouldn't have to worry about it since I don't hold the phone where the bottom corne sits. I hold mine with my thumb by the volume keys, and my other fingers on the other side, so no where near the bottom. I'll definitely get a case though, I've heard the bumpers are really well designed. I'm going to wait a bit to get my own plan, but when I do, I'm hoping to go full out unlimited. Its a bit expensive, but I think I can manage.
The 32-gig is the one I hope to get as well, matches my IPod. That way if I don't take the IPod with me somewhere I can still have all my tunes.
I'll be getting a 32 gb phone as well. I don't usually hold the phones at the bottom anyway, so the intenna stuff should not be an issue. And yeah, Apple's getting sued by a bunch of assholes who like to whine and complain about every little thing there is to complain about. Kinda reminds me o Sarah Plin who won't ever shut her mouth until someone shuts it for her.
Sarah Palin, rather.
I couldn't agree more. And you can never get a straight answer out of her. That's why I could never vote for her. I remember one interview in particular where she said something about loving to read the major newspapers, journals and magazines and things, and the interviewer asked her to name one she liked particularly. "Uh...all of 'em?" "Well just name one." "Well...uh...all of 'em." Not the exact conversation but it gets my point across. As for Apple, I don't generally hold the phone near the bottom either so it might not even be a problem. But I still would probably get a case for it, particularly if, as I said, I can find one that clips to my belt.
Only thing about apple I don't understand is why if they know its a mistake on there part why not give the cases out for free? It would only caust them an extra dollar to give out the cases when they make the customer 30 dollars for it? Just saying
well apple is holding a press conference tommorrow friday the 16ht of july about the iPhone 4 so we'll see how they address all this. There is also a 4.0.1 update out now thats supposed to help with some of this as well. No way in hell i would get a bumper case unless it was free or like $5 at the most .. its a piece of rubber taht covers only the sides save your self some money and use one of those bracelets that are all the rage now it will do the trick. As for the person who plans on going unlimited. I will say try the $59 plan with 900 minutes and unlimited calling to 5 numbers of your choosing via the Alist i find with that plan i end up with a ton of roll over minutes anyways and thus not worth it to go up to th eunlimited plan for an extra $10 .