11 more reasons NOT to buy an iPhone (and that you haven't thought of)
Summary: I know that some of you are undecided about whether you will order an iPhone. In this post, I will state 11 reasons why you shouldn't buy one.
I know that some of you are undecided about whether you will order an iPhone. In this post, I will state 11 reasons why you shouldn't buy one.
You may already have identified the high price, ($499-$599) as a good reason against doing so. Or, you may be on another carrier's plan and don't want to pay the um, substantial penalty for early withdrawal just to sign a two-year with iPhone's exclusive carrier AT&T Mobility.
But after riffing through New York Times' tech reviewer David Pogue's terrific Often Asked iPhone Questions piece this morning, I've identified 11 more reasons you shouldn't buy an iPhone.
Ready for a dose of tech-flavored conscience?
- While iPhone will work with any SIM card from exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T Wireless No other carrier's SIM phone will work with iPhone.
- If you are wearing gloves, the iPhone's virtual keypad won't work. That's a concern for wintertime phone calls in cold areas.
- No memos.
- No voice dialing.
- No voice recording.
- No games.
- No capacity for video output to a tv (as iPod has).
- No capacity for over-the-air calendar appointments.
- No capacity for over-the-air software updates.
- No IM. Gotta use text messaging.
- No flash or zoom in the camera.
Can you think of more reasons not to buy an iPhone? Comment and let us know!
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Talkback
Reason #12: NSAT&T
Reaching on that one.
am I worried that the NSA is monitoring? No! Do you know why? BECAUSE I AM NOT
A TERRORIST! So, if they want to monitor my comings and goings I DON'T CARE! I'm
not doing anything wrong. I don't cheat, lie (except about my secretary's obsession
with ugly hats), steal, deal drugs, sell bombs, or do anything that could be seen as a
threat.
Silly response to a tech debate.
Protection Is for Those that Do Good!
government abuses. If the government never abuses people, then
why write it? Look at the Bill of Rights. They protect us from a
government that can be prone to abusing its own people.
That is not a silly response, given that it is people who are law-
abiding that are protected by the law, and that "Supreme Law" the
constitution. Free speech is not to protect illegal speech, but
legal. Why? Because the government can be a deadly foe when you
allege its guilt (especially if you are right aka doing good). We
think we can trust the government because we are doing right.
But that is not always the case, even in America.
Moreover, we cannot even agree what right is oftentimes:
Abortion, Punishment for Child Pornography, Use of Affirmative
Action, Capital Punishment, etc. Trust them if you like. I am for
limitations to government wiretapping at every corner. Warrants
are warranted by their very name. C'mon! We need to be protected
from this government.
If you disappear in the night
For anyone with that lame "I'm not doing anything wrong' argument
Why is ZDNet so against iPhone
ZDNet: Against iPhone. Obviously.
Get a life! "It doesn't have removable batteries, it doesn't have this and that..." How about having the iPhone washing your dishes and doing the laundry?! I'm sorry, but you people are nuts! Look at how many great and wonderful features it has. Focus on the fact the this is the first of it's kind ever do be manufactured! I can't stand those complainers. Oh, and you want it to be $19.99. What else would you like to have. You're right, it should really come along with a vacation. Grow up people!
ZDNet IS very anti-iPhone
posts I have seen.
Also remember the difference between the first iPod and what you can hold now.
Whatever shortcomings are really serious and relevant will undoubtably be
addressed by Apple, and nitpickers will always nitpick. These are only the first
firmware and first software versions, there will be a lot more coming down the
road. Apple does not stop developing popular products.
The iPhone is not for eveyone, but will make a lot of people happy, and fill many
needs.
I think most of the ZDNet bloggers are cranking out sensational headlines on the
iPhone just to get some hits and attention, and "stir up the pot". I wish ZDNet had
more real journalists on its staff, and fewer trollers.
Why??
Why is ZDNet so against iPhone
No Bluetooth keyboard or DUN profiles
Also, no tethering to your laptop like you can do with free Bluetooth-enabled phones.
Sorry Apple, the UI looks slick, but the phone is about 4 years behind the times. I think I'll buy one to try and then return it in 14 days just so I get some personal experience with it.
Can iPhone even use standard Bluetooth earpices?
I noticed elsewhere that a bluetoooth headset (earpiece, actually) was being introduced for use with the iPhone. If I'm reading between the lines correctly here, does that mean that all those other Bluetooth devices already on the market are not going to work with the iPhone?
And, what could Apple possibly be hoping to achieve by not making Bluetooth connectivity to the iPhone more standard for add-ons like a keyboard?
You've got to be kidding!?!?
No voice recording.
Isn't this 2007? WTF!?
Well, it's not as if I were planning to buy one, but these two seem like rather serious omissions, especially the lack of voice dialing (this as more states and municipalities are looking at long-overdue laws to require hands-free when driving. As Carlos Mencia would say, ?De De-De?.
I seem to be in a slim minority here, but for me, perhaps the biggest issue remains to be seen if the multi-touch screen interface will have highly precise functionality to allow for handwritten data input via stylus (The lack of one being provide suggests it will lack such capability).
While the multi-touch has a futuristic look (in the as demo, anyway), I?m not the sort of person who?s going to spend hours resizing photos with scissor-like finger strokes (if I look at pictures, I?m fine with the ?primitive? method of tapping size function buttons with a stylus (I?m sooo backwards). Nor am I likely to spend significant time trying to use a browser on a 3.5 inch screen. While the iPhone/Safari interface is more elegant than the iexplorer in windows mobile, if I have any serious browsing to do, I?ll go to my desktop or pull out my laptop. And, just how well can web apps work with only a tiny finger keyboard for input (how does one get mouse-like functionality as one can with a stylus on another touch screen device?).
And, what of that highly (over-)touted on-screen keyboard? In portrait mode only, no less. It?s tiny. For a guy with large hands, it?s hard enough to use a button mini tactile QWERTRY key board, so I can only guess it would be extremely difficult for me to use those tiny, non-tactile keys without lots of errors (It?s hard enough for me using SPB?s fullscreen keyboard on my 3.5 PPC screen).
Having had great success using Dragons naturally speaking with PC?s (although I?m finding the built-in speech recognition in Vista Premium is not working near so well for me), I?d really like to see handheld mobile devices to start moving towards voice text input and command capabilities. Unfortunately, with the iPhone not even having voice dialing/recording capabilities, it seems very unlikely that it will be able to ever do voice inputs.
Which, is the real problem that I see with the iPhone. Again, I?m not going to be buying one, but I do realize that it will be successful product, which (given it?s current lackings) will end up steering the product offerings from other vendors in a bad (as I see it) direction. Apple first sold Mac?s on the mystic of doing everything that you?d ever need to do with a few mouse clicks. Now, their selling the iPhone on the mystic of doing everything you?d ever need to do with a few touches and finger gestures. You make look really cool and really in-control achieving amazing outcomes with mere touches of the finger (as in the demos), but what the mystic?s fail to take into account is that in order to simplify work down to such simple actions, not only would every possible function need to be covered in a icon or button, but also that data needs to be in place before ones work can be made simple. You can only resize or edit a picture if it already exists, same with documents spreadsheets, and even websites. Real computer work will still require people typing away at keyboards to get things done. Simple(ton) interfaces like that of the iPhone simply allow marginal users to look good pretending to accomplish something.
Voice dialing???
Which brings me to the next point. Voice Dialing can only work well with users who speak English WITHOUT an accent. For the rest of us, it's unreliable at best, and completely useless at worst.
My final point is, majority of today's phones actually have voice dialing feature. NOBODY (well, almost nobody) uses theses (see above). And I am one of the few that do.
Apple has done the same they did with the iPod. Looked at the features people use and don't use. (FM radio, audio recording on iPod; same, plus voice dialing, zooming on iPhone). As for video output, I'm not so sure it won't be available through the dock connection. It just as well may be a firmware update away.
On the question of updates, if you charge your phone every so often (and you won't be using it if you don't), then you get an update the same way as well. Off-the-air updates are completely unnecessary. I cannot imagine a person were that would be a dealbreaker.
To wrap this up, the '11 reasons' list seems a lot more like sour grapes than a realistic, objective list of shortcomings. To each his own, but coming this Monday, I would not be surprised to see Apple report on one million iPhones sold during the weekend.
Voice dialing is only sound pattern matching
Predrag,
Voice dialing only requires that you be able to say a name the same way you did as when you set up the dialing contact. It doesn't require you to use English - it does even require that you use a language. You could just use clicks and whistles if that?s what you wanted to do. It?s not word recognition, it?s sound pattern matching. You merely have to be able to reproduce that sound you associated with a phone number close enough for you phone to match it. And, there does seem to be considerable tolerance where this is concerned. It might depend on how many different sound patterns you have associated with contacts in your phone, but, from what I?ve found, close-enough is usually all it takes.
Now, I?ll agree with you that voice commands and speach recognition are highly language dependent. But, there are options other than English for these as well.
I realize that some people can easily ?feel? their way around on their keypad for the correct numbers (some people can even text without seeing), but I?m seen way too many idiots looking at their phone trying to dial while driving. They are not just a nuisance, they are a danger. Laws requiring hands free operations for driving are long over-due. And, for me, a hands-free earpiece isn?t enough, I?d like to see voice dialing not only for myself, but for the safety of others as well.
Thus, that the iPhone, that supposed marvel of function and sophistication, fails to include such a simple feature is, in my opinion, entirely irresponsible for a major company such as Apple.
No buttons
Feel it click! because...?
Somehow, though, I have a feeling that millions of people who will eventually buy this device in the coming weeks won't mind the lack of the tactile feedback.
Thanks for doing my thinking for me
A few valid points but...
No zoom on camera, and no flash. Camera's in phones are for taking pictures of the accident you caused while taking on your phone, or taking crappy picture of your colleagues when bored in a meeting. No one thinks they get Nikkon quality from a wireless phone.
No video hookup to your TV? Even if it could, why would you want to? To see those mediocre pictures you took above? :D
TripleII
P.S. If the market deems any/all of them critical, it will come, but give Apple credit for, as the reviews stated, it doesn't do everything but what it does do, it does very well. If it does 6 things great, is that not an improvement over 43 things terribly?
Crap I don't need...
odd one you see using it looks like a dork and are probably just trying to bring
attention to themselves in public. You folks complaining about lack of features are
probably used to the bloat of most everything MS does. You rarely need half the junk
features anyway. More is not more! (KISS)
Can't you guys see that this author is just trying to stir up Sh*t?