iPhone - anyone interested?

[PhotonWrangler]

Open source Linux-based anti-Iphone anyone?

 

[frisco]

This post is from a iPhone. I bought one to test. In stock at a AT&T store here in San Fran. Very impresive so far! I was gonna wait for Gen2, but a friend of mine has one and said he liked it allot, so I just went for it!
I really need to test out the phone part, that will be the deciding factor if I buy two more or not.

Frisco

 

[LuxLuthor]

Heads up....likely will be a patch out soon.

 

[GJW]

I wouldn't count on the soon part.

A spokeswoman for Apple, Lynn Fox, said, "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users."
"We're looking into the report submitted by I.S.E. and always welcome feedback on how to improve our security," she said.

Sounds like your typical polite brush-off, to me.

 

[James S]

you do understand that you have to be connected via wifi to a malicious access point for even the theory of this to work. Assuming that it's even real, which nobody has verified beyond the original claim of the problem which has not been elaborated on or demonstrated to anyone, it requires that you use a hacked access point and visit their hacked website from it.

So make sure you're really using the access points you think you are, you can check in the settings, and you might not want to log into just any open access point you find. But this is actually good internet hygiene any day as your traffic can be sniffed and your passwords from non-ssl websites and your non-ssl email and such can be recorded over a malicious one anyway.

And then keep an eye out and see if this turns out to be real, and if it does how long it takes Apple to patch it.

 

[LuxLuthor]

Given that ISE made it public, news was widely covered, and ISE is going to release the sourcecode of the hack on August 2nd. (if not sooner to Apple directly)....yeah, I'm confident that Apple will patch it even if it is a rare scenario as James points out. I considered that ISE was doing this as a public service, rather than a malicous Black Hat stunt.

 

[ringzero]

And then keep an eye out and see if this turns out to be real, and if it does how long it takes Apple to patch it.

IPhone Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over, Security Firm Says:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/t...gin&ref=business&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

 

[Phredd]

"Apple takes security very seriously... We're looking into the report submitted by I.S.E. and always welcome feedback on how to improve our security."

Sounds like your typical polite brush-off, to me.

I don't know what else she could say. Certainly, Apple hasn't had time yet to verify the problem. I'm confident that Apple will look into it. It's in their best interests to plug these holes.

So make sure you're really using the access points you think you are...

The problem is that it may appear to be a trusted access point. Someone could set up a malicious access point near Starbucks or Panera and fool the iPhone into thinking it's connected to one you've already approved.

I suppose everyone's heard that AT&T announced that they only activated 146,000 iPhones on June 29-30. It's difficult to reconcile those numbers with analysts predictions of up to 750,000 for the weekend. I doubt there were that many iPhones sold on eBay to make up the difference. It will be very interesting to hear Apple's numbers tomorrow evening.

Phredd

 

[LuxLuthor]

I suppose everyone's heard that AT&T announced that they only activated 146,000 iPhones on June 29-30. It's difficult to reconcile those numbers with analysts predictions of up to 750,000 for the weekend. I doubt there were that many iPhones sold on eBay to make up the difference. It will be very interesting to hear Apple's numbers tomorrow evening.

Phredd

I looked at the number of AT&T/Apple stores, and immediately found that "analyst prediction of 750,000 in 2 days" to be absolutely ludicrous, and likely the work of some stock manipulators seeking to cash in on shorting after panic selling.

In reality, they sold more than AT&T's premature activation prediction would portend. So, for all those long term stock owner crybabies who sold their Apple stock between the AT&T and Apple's sales announcement looked quite the fool, and fell right into the manipulators trap. Apple's week was even more remarkable when taken in the context of a decidedly negative week for stocks in general.

Does Apple need to improve their activation process, and have they already taken steps to resolve that? Yes....a number of steps including iTunes/web activation and bringing in a new company to address the AT&T shortcomings. Does Apple have a history of offering new models, improved/enhanced features on their new product liness?....yep....and I have no doubt that they will resolve the 3G, add more memory, improve AT&T access speeds....and follow the steps of their dominating iPod dynasty. I say all that--only owning an iPod Nano...so I'm hardly a Mac-oholic.

 

[frisco]

I've had my iPhone for two weeks now have come to several conclusions.

- All around very useful and impressive.

- Most useful for Business/Corprate people.

- A must have for most Mac business users.

- Is it perfect...... no

- Will Gen2 be better..... of course.

- Is $500-$600 to much? Your call..... mine has already paid for itself.

The new iPhone is a work in progress that is a solid piece of work that is VERY useable now!

Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and all the others have been making cell phones for the last 20 years and Apple comes out with there first phone that blows everybody away in there first attempt.

Is the iPhone for everybody....... No

I'm not jumping up and down saying.... buy one..... just trying to give a real life opinion to balance out the nay sayers that have ever used one.

frisco

 

[johnny13oi]

This was a known issue because the chip to make that and other features was not available for this Gen 1 model. They have already started working on Gen 2 which resolves all those issues and adds a lot of additional features. This is way beyond anything you could have done 5 years ago....and like the iPod, it will gain traction with support and new developments. Nothing else on the horizon has these kinds of integrated features.

I am not trying to attack you or anything but there are plenty of phones with the same amount or greater in features than the Iphone. Check out GsmArena.com . Sure they may not be currently offered with any carriers here in the US but there are much better ones to be had. My year or two old Tmobile MDA has basically all the features that the Iphone does and runs on Windows Mobile 5 with an extremely large collection of software out there for it. I know its very basic but I run a GPS software off of my phone to guide me to places and this is extremely helpful for me without internet as well. Because there are many areas where there isn't even edge to connect to and a GPS software relying on an internet connection would be terrible in this case, I believe one of Google's GPS solutions is this. I don't know if the Iphone has this or not. And check out the Meizu M8 coming out. Basically an Iphone ripoff but with better specs and smaller.

 

[f22shift]

- Most useful for Business/Corprate people.
frisco

really? the business ppl i know were complainig that it doesn't work with their corporate email hence they cannot get one.

i think those ppl are still stuck with treos and blackberries..

 

[James S]

Mostly the business people's problem is that they are stuck with the protocols that their IT departments have agreed to allow. The iPhone supports IMAP and POP and some push mail from yahoo and gmail that I dont fully understand, but not the proprietary protocols from microsoft's exchange client. However, the exchange server requires clicking only a single checkbox in it's configuration to allow IMAP connections as well so it's really a no brainer. What they are fighting is not a shortcoming in the iPhone, but fear that MS's implementation of IMAP might open them up to other issues. So their real mistake was choosing a proprietary solution that doesn't adequately support the rest of the world for their email system, not their choice in phones

But thats just me

I've worked for corporate IT departments. It's ludicrously hard to get these things addressed cause they just don't want to change or update things that are mostly working. What they are waiting for is for an exec who outranks the IT department head to get interested in using his iPhone and ask for it to be turned on. Then it will happen instantly because it just works. But the wont do any favors for the average working guy.

I have to agree with just about everything that Frisco had to say. Phone is terrific mostly. There are some rough edges as befit a 1.0 phone, but it still blows away what I was trying to work with in the past on a blackberry and a palm treo.

 

[boosterboy]

I was impressed by the multi-touch interface, visual voicemail, and the web browser.

Youtube OVER wifi was cool.

EDGE is kinda umm old?

Battery life was decent.

Lack of replaceable battery is just stupid because getting stranded and having no way to charge your phone or spilling water on your phone IS NOT FUN. I mean my friend dropped her Razor in water a few times but managed to pull out the battery and saved it.

Probably going to wait until 2nd or 3rd generation.

It's common sense to wait for revisions.

 

[LuxLuthor]

I am not trying to attack you or anything but there are plenty of phones with the same amount or greater in features than the Iphone. Check out GsmArena.com . Sure they may not be currently offered with any carriers here in the US but there are much better ones to be had. My year or two old Tmobile MDA has basically all the features that the Iphone does and runs on Windows Mobile 5 with an extremely large collection of software out there for it. I know its very basic but I run a GPS software off of my phone to guide me to places and this is extremely helpful for me without internet as well. Because there are many areas where there isn't even edge to connect to and a GPS software relying on an internet connection would be terrible in this case, I believe one of Google's GPS solutions is this. I don't know if the Iphone has this or not. And check out the Meizu M8 coming out. Basically an Iphone ripoff but with better specs and smaller.

Johnny, I admit I have not looked at the most cutting edge phones coming out, but this CNET review of the T-Mobile MDA did not look that impressive, and not on the IPhone scale in terms of features.

Indeed the Meizu M8 looks like a better IPhone, but from what I just read on Engadget.com it seems to be short on substance, runs a serious risk of Apple lawsuit, and has a $1,000 price. It bears watching, but I'm still not seeing any phones from the big players that have been making phones for decades that has this combination of IPhone features...and I fully expect their next version to be dramatically improved, including 3G, more memory, more apps, etc.

My main point is that there are some truly excellent cell phone companies that have been making them for decades...and this VERY FIRST Apple cellphone entry is more impressive than any I have seen so far, including looking at those displayed at gsmarena.com.

I'm talking about their powerful and durable iTouch surface technology. All other touch screens I have seen and used don't hold up, and/or look this great, and don't have the powerful finger navigation movement that Apple achieved.

Every other phone company would kill for the kind of sales numbers that Apple has just achieved....and I regard this first version as Steve Jobs sort of opening his front door saying "hello," compared to what will be added and developed.

At this point, IMHO, Apple delivered on most of the hype, now let's see how their next steps go...and what competition brings. A lot of IPod owners gives a powerful brand loyalty. I agree about the stupid battery issue.

 

[johnny13oi]

Johnny, I admit I have not looked at the most cutting edge phones coming out, but this CNET review of the T-Mobile MDA did not look that impressive, and not on the IPhone scale in terms of features.

Indeed the Meizu M8 looks like a better IPhone, but from what I just read on Engadget.com it seems to be short on substance, runs a serious risk of Apple lawsuit, and has a $1,000 price. It bears watching, but I'm still not seeing any phones from the big players that have been making phones for decades that has this combination of IPhone features...and I fully expect their next version to be dramatically improved, including 3G, more memory, more apps, etc.

My main point is that there are some truly excellent cell phone companies that have been making them for decades...and this VERY FIRST Apple cellphone entry is more impressive than any I have seen so far, including looking at those displayed at gsmarena.com.

I'm talking about their powerful and durable iTouch surface technology. All other touch screens I have seen and used don't hold up, and/or look this great, and don't have the powerful finger navigation movement that Apple achieved.

Every other phone company would kill for the kind of sales numbers that Apple has just achieved....and I regard this first version as Steve Jobs sort of opening his front door saying "hello," compared to what will be added and developed.

At this point, IMHO, Apple delivered on most of the hype, now let's see how their next steps go...and what competition brings. A lot of IPod owners gives a powerful brand loyalty. I agree about the stupid battery issue.

The MDA does not look as good as the Iphone but I assure it that it is filled with features, I cannot really think of anything but the multi-touch that the MDA does not have. I just really prefer a keyboard built in because typing a lot on a touchscreen can become a pain. And if I last remember the M8 was supposed to be around $200 for the 4GB version. http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/meizu-m8-vs-apple-iphone/
Not sure if they changed the prices by now. And one thing that I cannot deny is that those Iphones definitely sold extremely well and is a very very impressive first true attempt at a creating a phone. I still consider it to be overhyped however as there are other phones which are great contenders that are usually overlooked. All I hear is "Is that an Iphone, oh nvm"

 

[James S]

just because features are listed doesn't mean they work

In any case, apple released the first security update last night for the iPhone. Installed on mine and everything seems to be still working. THis patches a whole list of those things that people were discovering about it. So I guess we can expect Apple to be more or less decent in their response time to such issues.

 

[LuxLuthor]

Here was an interesting shootout done at Information Week comparing the iPhone to Palm Treo, Blackberry Curve, & HTC Wing.

(Story linked from Slashdot)

 

[James S]

Whats funny to me are the reactions to the review in the comments. People sure get up in arms over Apple products. If they were comparing any other 2 devices people would just say things like "well... I like the little bit bigger screen" or "well... I like windows on this one cause I had that on my last phone and dont want to learn anything about palm" or even "i think the butons on this one feel more high quality to me" but they would give reasonable reasons why they would choose the one over the other. But for an apple product they feel the need to suggest that the entire thing is crap, that it's totally hobbled by one or the other features or other emotional drivel that has nothing to do with if they could use it or not. So you dont like it, thats OK, it's not necessary to have to prove it's a useless piece of drivel fobbed off on people that are too stupid to know the difference in order to justify your decision not to get one

 

[LuxLuthor]

LOL! Yeah, I noticed those comments too. I was trying to imagine the scenario of Apple being a subsidiary of Halliburton.