Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Privacy Concerns
Update: It looks like Apple has thoughtfully included a way to disable SMS notifications on the iPhone, it's tucked away in the Passcode Lock settings page (Settings > General > Passcode Lock). First supply a passcode, then under the Passcode Lock settings you can disable SMS notifications thus solving part of the embarrassing problem illustrated below. For sake of continued hilarity, we'll leave the hypothetical below as it should serve as a reminder to keep SMS notifications in mind when you start customizing your new iPhone.
The original unedited page remains as follows:
Do not, under any circumstances, allow someone to use your iPhone without your careful supervision. Let me paint a picture:
You're using your iPhone, your boss walks by and asks to see it. While playing with it, you get a text message from one of your friends who just wants to make you laugh at work. Here's how the iPhone would display the aforementioned message:
Hello embarassing! There's no way to prevent this from happening to you, other than to get new friends (Update: It turns out that you can disable this from happening, the setting is under the Passcode Lock menu)
Note that it pops up on screen, giving you a preview of the message, regardless of what application you're in. Even if the phone is locked, the message will sit there on the screen until you choose to ignore it or view it.
Now if you're the only person using the phone, then there's no problem; in fact, the iPhone handles interrupting you with phone calls and text messages quite gracefully. But you can't predict what sort of message you'll get and when, and there's no way to turn off iPhone's SMS preview notifications so be very careful before you hand your iPhone over to your mother.
Then there's the other big issue to worry about when letting someone use your iPhone: if setup properly, it has all of your emails, and pictures, stored on it. Think about that one carefully before ever letting the iPhone out of the safety of your hands.
Obviously these issues only crop up when you willingly let someone far too curious use your iPhone; preventing unwanted use of your iPhone is easy to ensure, simply provide a passcode to lock the phone and you'll be greeted with the following screen anytime you try unlocking it:
Entering in your passcode is super easy thanks to the large touch screen and 10 digit keypad. The iPhone will auto-lock itself after a user selectable time period.
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rcc - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
If there is no GPS hardware built into a device, 3rd party software won't help. You have to have the hardware receiver built in.
Locutus465 - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Fortunetly by law every new phone activated as of 2005 must have built in GPS for E-911.. Just one small baby step from there repurposes that GPS for coolness... My i720 allows this.strikeback03 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Doesn't the law simply require the carrier to be able to determine the location of the phone, but not specify how? Allowing the carriers to determine by distance to cell towers instead of GPS?Locutus465 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
I beleive GPS is required... At least this is what I was told by a Verizon rep that refused to activate an older phone I had.Cygni - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
GPS is not required by law, yet. Location support IS required, but is already present on nearly every phone made in the last 3 years.plinden - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Leo Laporte in one of his podcasts this weekend mentioned that he heard there is an SDK for the iPhone that's ready for OS X but not Windows, but Apple (ie Jobs) wants to release both versions at the same time, hence the delay.
That's just a rumor, but it's almost certain there'll be an SDK at some point, although it's extremely likely, if not certain, that developers will have to go through Apple to get their apps published to the iPhone (ie via iTunes).
Give it six months, like I'm doing. I'll likely get the 16GB version with 3G when it's available.
Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
There will need to be good 3rd party support for me to even consider it. There'll also need to be a good (and inexpensive) all in one chat client. And Mahjoong, that's totally a requirement.sviola - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
You should check the Nokia N95, it has the built-in GPS, altough it runs Symbian OS.Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Well yes, my phone has built in GPS hardware as well (as do all phone inc. iPhone). It's just missing the app + maps (unless you're sayind the nokia comes with software + maps which would be the bomb). So I would just need that part of the equation. As a matter of fact the Samsung i720 also allows you to use the phone as a plain old GPS device, so really if I wanted to I could potentially blue tooth it to a laptop for instance and go that route.Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Oh yeah, on the i720 to set an MP3 as your ring tone you just need to browse to it in flie explorer, tap and hold ("right click" in Windows Mobile) and select "Set as ringtone" :)Automatically copies to \Windows\Rings and sets the song as your ringtone :D