Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
So Addictive
The first application listed on the iPhone's home screen is Apple's SMS text messaging app, and if you're not already a heavy texter, this application will change that.
With a very iChat-like interface (iChat being OS X's IM client for the Windows users in the audience), the iPhone's messaging client does SMS right. Text messages are grouped according to contact and are stored in conversation format; you can always clear your history if it gets too cumbersome otherwise you've got a walking log of everything you've ever texted to anyone organized by contact.
It seems like an oddly simple thing to get excited about, but honestly it's done so much better than the competition. On the Samsung Blackjack for example, each text message is handled as a separate message, much like email. If you and I are having a conversation, each message you send me, appears as a separate message in the inbox. The messages are not grouped together, they are simply organized in chronological order.
SMS on the Blackjack
While this makes sense for email, SMS is supposed to be used for shorter chats and thus it makes sense to group according to chat or contact.
SMS on the iPhone, versus...
SMS on the Blackjack
The Blackberry comes a bit closer, while it doesn't group by contact or conversation, it keeps a partial record of all of your messages within a conversation in each message. It's like keeping a copy of your chat history in each new message that's received.
The iPhone's SMS application makes it almost too easy to send text messages; you stop thinking of each message you send as costing you money and look at it more like an IM conversation. While an IM conversation is free, sending that last message that just had the phrase "k bye" just ate into your SMS budget. AT&T still charges per message and although the iPhone data plan gives you 200 free, it's easy to burn through them.
Is this last message worth $0.10?
AT&T was particularly sneaky in its SMS upgrade pricing, because in order to get any more text messages you have to upgrade to 1500 messages for an extra $10/month, there's no in-between. Of course for an extra $20/month you can send unlimited text messages, keeping in mind that is doubling the cost of your dataplan on the iPhone.
We hate to speculate that the reason the iPhone has no built in IM client is to encourage SMS use, as IMs would be covered by your unlimited data plan. While the iPhone's SMS application is great and absolutely necessary, we would like to see it augmented by AIM/GTalk support at the bare minimum.
As is already widely known by now, the iPhone only supports SMS and not MMS. If you're addicted to picture messaging, your only option on the iPhone is to email pictures to your friends. Now if all of your friends have iPhones then this works out perfectly.
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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