Linked List: June 26, 2007

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

I’m getting dozens of emails about this sentence from Walt Mossberg’s aforelinked iPhone review:

It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft’s Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server.

I’m 99 percent sure he means IMAP, not something proprietary to Exchange.

Steven Levy on the iPhone ★

Newsweek’s Steven Levy:

Of the 8 gigs on my iPhone, I now have 669 songs, one three-hour movie, three half-hour television episodes, 361 photos, and a bit of “other,” meaning e-mail and contacts. It’s almost full.

Given that the plans start at $60/month, I can’t see many people picking the 4 GB model just to save $100. Levy has the same gripes as Pogue and Mossberg: EDGE is slow and it takes days to get used to the keyboard. Everyone seems to love iPhone Safari, though.

Levy also scored a few remarks from Steve Jobs:

During our iPhone conversation, however, Jobs professed that he wasn’t concerned about inflated hopes, and certainly not whether he would meet his own projections of 10 million sold in 2008: “I think we’re going to blow away the expectations.”

Walt Mossberg’s iPhone Review ★

Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret:

The iPhone’s most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt — who did most of the testing for this review — was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years.

Regarding the battery:

And, for Web browsing and other Internet functions, including sending and receiving emails, viewing Google maps and YouTube videos, we got over nine hours, well above Apple’s claim of up to six hours.

Their biggest complaint is that it’s stuck on AT&T.

Pogue’s Example Photos From iPhone Camera ★

Good for a camera phone, but the lens is way too slow for use in low light or with moving subjects.

Pogue: ‘The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype’ ★

David Pogue publishes the first review:

But the bigger achievement is the software. It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can’t get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone’s 16 functions.

Battery-life-wise, Pogue got 5 hours of video playback, 23 hours of audio — with Wi-Fi turned on. Apple’s battery life claims are for real.

No surprises in the drawbacks: EDGE is slow and typing on the touchscreen is slow.

iPhone to Support Exchange ActiveSync? ★

Mary Jo Foley claims a scoop:

Here’s what I’m hearing: Apple will announce this week — possibly as soon as June 27 — that it has licensed the Exchange ActiveSync licensing protocol. Via the licensing arrangement, Apple iPhone users will be able to connect to Exchange Server and make use of its wireless messaging and synchronization capabilities.

That means push email from Exchange to iPhone. I’ll believe it when I see the announcement, but my gut feeling is that she’s right. I can’t wait to see what excuses the “no iPhones on my network” IT guys come up with after this.

Glenn Fleishman Warns Against Buying iPhone in New York Post ★

When did Glenn Fleishman’s column start running in The New York Post? Update: Fleishman has the backstory on his weblog.

You can bet that iPhone 2.0, probably available within the next year, will be faster and have more storage — probably for the same price.

This is, of course, true: the original iPhone will probably be the worst iPhone Apple ever makes. However, there is no end to this logic. By the time iPhone 2.0 is available, you can wait another year for iPhone 3.0.

To me, the most tempting reason to wait isn’t the next-gen iPhone, but to see if the next-gen iPod is like an iPhone without the phone (and, thus, contract).

Regarding Dropped iPods ★

Remember Edward Snyder’s claim in The New York Times that dropping an iPod (and thus, he thinks, an iPhone) from hip height would break it? (Thanks to Tenolian Bell for reminding me about this.)

iPhone Family Plans ★

The specifics aren’t mentioned in the press release, but the iPhone family plans are listed on Apple’s iPhone rates page. Shared minutes:

$80: 700 minutes
$100: 1400 minutes
$120: 2100 minutes
$160: 3000 minutes
$210: 4000 minutes
$310: 6000 minutes

Update: The footnote under the family rates says “Includes one line. Additional iPhone lines are $29.99 each.” Assuming that means you need to add $30/iPhone/month, a family plan for two iPhone is barely cheaper than two individual plans, and includes fewer total minutes and SMS messages.

(Slightly odd: the individual plans are priced like $59.99, but the family plans are evened out like $80.00.)

Why There’s an iPhone Craze ★

Michael Mulvey:

The iPhone is the floating car we imagined we’d be driving in the future.

iPhone Activation and Sync Video ★

Activation goes entirely through the iTunes Store, as expected. This means you can just dash out of the store with a sealed box on Friday without waiting for a store employee to activate the phone and walk you through the contract — and, of course, that Apple will be able to sell them online.

iPhone Service Plans Announced ★

Three plans, differentiated only by voice minutes. All come with unlimited data:

$60: 450 minutes, 5000 night and weekend minutes
$80: 900 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends
$100: 1350 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends

Only 200 SMS message, but you can upgrade to 1500 for $10.

Beastie Boys’ Flickr Account ★

Cool. (Via Scott Beale.)

David S. Platt, Microsoft ‘Software Legend’ ★

This is great. David S. Platt is the Harvard comp sci professor quoted yesterday by Reuters reporter Franklin Paul predicting doom for the iPhone. Paul identifies Platt only as a Harvard professor and as the author of a book titled Why Software Sucks…And What You Can Do About It. Ends up most of Platt’s books are about programming for Microsoft’s .Net, he teaches a .Net course at Harvard (they teach .Net at Harvard?), and has been “selected by Microsoft as one of their Software Legends”.

I’m not arguing that a Microsoft background precludes you from criticizing Apple products (or vice versa). But it is the sort of information that ought to be disclosed by the reporter.

(Thanks to Elliott Hughes.)

We’ll Show You Hyperdrive ★

MacJournals quotes the AP accusing Apple of “pull[ing] out all the stops to propel iPhone hysteria into the stratosphere,” then goes on to count 16 separate iPhone-related articles from the AP in the last 14 days alone — 17 if you count the “hype machine” story itself.