It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re a casual consumer, hardcore tech freak or even my personal God Maddox - everyone has an opinion on the iPhone. And after sorting through all 3,431 complaints/praises you’ll find that very few people have any beef with the Visual Voicemail feature. So it’s nice to know you can get the same damn thing using CallWave’s latest widget on your Mac. Sweet. Here’s a nice email that slipped through my spam filter earlier today:
We are the developers of the CallWave Text Messaging widget you use today. Now we’ve got another amazing widget we think you’ll want to try - the Visual Voicemail widget. We call it that because it lets you see and hear your mobile phone voicemail messages on your Mac - like the feature on the new iPhone. Best of all, it works with your existing mobile phone! And it’s free. No wonder we’re featured in the Top 50 on Apple’s Widget Gallery.
I own a Moto RAZR with Verizon and have already deliberately missed about three phone calls just to see how well this thing works. Once you get everything initially set it’s just a matter of punching in a string of confirmation numbers and then you’re all done. My only complaint so far is that CallWave changes your default voice greeting to some weird robotic crap, which prompted my second message to sound something like “What the hell is this? Call me back bye … freak.”
Old people that don’t know anything about technology or campout lines for new releases should just stay home and watch Jag. Seriously. Imagine for a second that you are out of touch with modern technology or trends, and you get all your news from television and newspapers only. Now imagine that you saw the somewhat substantial profits made from XBOX 360s, PS3s, Wiis, Tickle Me Elmo Xs, and other hard-to-find items on eBay and thought “Oh my dear, that is easy money. I could retire right now!”.
As Keyser “The Lex” Spacey would so eloquently say: WRONG!!!!!!
First off, in retrospect, there were plenty of iPhones to be bought and not enough buyers. As a matter of fact, all the people who thought that they were smart, clever, or great business-minded folks because they were gonna purchase an iPhone just to sell for profit on eBay should just be sent to Gitmo. The second most obvious thing that this lady didn’t know is that the common stipulation among new releases is the customer limit on items bought, meaning that she could really only buy one or two iPhones anyways. She should have stayed at home and got another cat or something.
Watch her reefer madness in this well edited feature below:
So 5 days in with my iPhone and I can say I have a real good grasp on reality now. The hype factor has worn off so it’s all about real world usage. In part un of my review I found the iPhone to be the most gorgeous phone with the most gorgeous mobile phone screen I had ever seen. Sure there were some quirks hiding in the user interface but what about the meat and potatoes of the phone - the apps.? Hit the jump and read part deux of my uber iPhone review. (more…)
Yes I am one of the hundreds of thousands that picked up an iPhone this past weekend. I convinced myself not to get a 1st-gen product but by 7 PM Friday, I couldn’t hold out any longer thus my bank account became $600 poorer, $649.49 to be exact. So what do I think about the uber, Jesus, end-all iPhone? I can summarize in one statement; it’s all that and a bag of chips, but you feel kinda gypped because the bag is only half full. Hit the jump for the full review. (more…)
By now, I’ve gotten sick of seeing all the commercials for the iPhone, along with the rabid fanboyism for the product. Yet, for some reason, even though I never liked the N64 kid meme, this video strikes me as funny. I guess it’s the fact that this is how so many people are acting about the product, even though there are going to be some serious flaws with it (like streaking).
So, the people over at GeekSugar threw this together, having this to say:
Okay, so I don’t have an iPhone yet, but the promise of getting one later this week and the fact that people are already starting to line up at Apple stores got me thinking about the pure, unadulterated joy I felt as a kid when I got a new toy, gadget or tutu. Can iPhone-obsessed adults ever top the infamous kid who got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas?
At this point, I think the absolute insanity over this product that’s been shown is a clear indication that it’s a decided “yes.” Now, who wants to go with me to egg people waiting on line for an iPhone?
Here is a quick list of cool features of the iPhone that are confirmed to not be in the first version:
• Songs as Ringtones
• Games
• Any flash support
• Instant Messaging
• Picture messages (MMS)
• Video recording
• Voice recognition or voice dialing
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)
Along with this list:
Stuff we already knew it didn’t have
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• GPS
• A real keyboard
• Removable battery
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)
This iPhone thingy is looking better and better everyday. Thats what I would say if I was lying.
It seems there really was a 12 mystery app on the iPhone’s home screen. Turns out, it’s YouTube. There’s a little video demo of it up on Apple’s website. All in all, it looks slick and will retain most of the main site’s features like ratings and bookmarking videos. Of course this means there’s a flash player somewhere right? Wrong.
If you recall, when it was announced Apple TV would be getting YouTube, also mentioned was all YouTube videos would be reincoded into the H.264 codec. This not only makes for higher quality videos at smaller files, it also means that source file can be streamed into an external app that supports the H.264 codec. In this case, it would be some variant of Quicktime built into the iPhone I’m sure.
Of course it’s free and it’s nice to know it’ll be ready for the iPhone’s launch on June 29th.
They may be right too. We all know Apple (Steve) likes to control every aspect and the iPhone is no exception. It seems EU carriers in negotiation with Apple to carry the iPhone are frustrated. Many are bemoaning how Apple is incredibly arrogant with their list of unreasonable demands.
“Operators consistently told us, not for attribution, of course, that they had spoken to Apple and found the company ‘unbelievably arrogant’, making demands that ’simply cannot be justified no matter how hot the product is’,” Avi Greengart, a principal analyst at Current Analysis, wrote in an advisory last Monday.
This comes as no shock since Europe’s mobile landscape is far more developed than the U.S. Their infrastructure is already highly developed. Adjusting it just to sell the Jesus phone is more than they’re willing to do. They already have a problem with iTunes being a closed DRM’d system and it also competes with their own mobile music downloads services.
Analysts monitoring the situation say Apple may be forced to sell the iPhone thru their retail stores only unlocked.
If you were planning to get an iPhone, like a lot of tech people are (I would like to get one, but the price is not very nice), now there is one more hoop to jump through. As if $499 out of your pocket wasn’t enough, Apple now wants you to join their huge digital distribution service, therefore ensuring that one of their products will beget another, as the iPod, video iPod, AppleTV, and upcoming iLife all have wonderful relationships with iTunes.
All this means is that before you can use your iPhone, you must activate it, which is true for most if not all cell-phones. The only difference is that Apple wants you to have an iTunes account. Okay, so this is no big deal, but it is a strange request nonetheless.
To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don’t have an account, you should set one up now to save time later. To set up an account, launch iTunes, select the iTunes Store, and click the Sign In button in the upper right corner of iTunes. Sign in and you’re ready to go.
While I cannot say for certain whether or not I will be buying an iPhone, this may or may not deter me (vague, huh?). Basically, it would be nice if I could just walk into a store, buy the iPhone for the handsome price of half a grand, activate it with a calling plan, then walk out of the store and call my friend and make fun of them for not having an iPhone. If I have to set up an iTunes account, that is just one more thing between me and my smug sense of self-worth and keeping up with the Jones attitude.
Last week rumors trickled in about one of my favorite phone OEMs HTC prepping an iPhone challenger. It seems all the hoopla was true. Today HTC unveiled a new phone called the HTC Touch. So lets get to the good stuff.
The HTC Touch is a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone. Its name derives from its 2.8″ touchscreen and what’s most interesting is the entire WinMo 6 interface has been custom designed to work with fingers but a stylus is still there for you old schoolers. It’s devoid of any buttons except a 4-way navigation pad, some soft keys and a couple of rocker switches on the side. Spec-wise it’s pretty matched up to the iPhone; 2 megapixel camera, WiFi and EDGE support. The main differences are the inclusion of microSD memory in lieu of built-in flash memory and the smattering of WinMo software enhancements like Office Mobile.
Pricing is unconfirmed but you can expect this challenger sometime in the second half of 2007. Hit the jump to see it in action. (more…)
