It seems that time of the year again when Apple has announced its new hyped products and updates. Well, this year it was all about the new iPhone, specifically iPhone 4. Well, as an iPhone owner, I would like to make a few comments on the announcement.
First, I have to say that the blunder during the announcement made it almost all worth it. Steve Jobs was going to compare the old iPhone’s web browsing capabilities against the new iPhone 4. Well, the old iPhone came up great, showing The New York Times’s site. The new iPhone 4? Well, not so good. Didn’t show anything at all. Jobs blamed it on the network, but honestly, the old iPhone worked on the same network at the EXACT SAME TIME, so obviously the new iPhone had to be the culprit. No amount of talking around it is really going to get you out of it when BOTH WERE ON THE SCREEN AT THE SAME TIME RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Anyway, with that said, I’m sure they’ll fix it, and with that behind me, I still think it’s pretty cool.
The new iPhone has video HD capabilities for filming. Looks and sounds great. The demonstration during the presentation received a lot of oohs and ahs from the audience.
Now, here’s what is bugging me about the new phone.
1. Video conferencing only works between separate iPhones. Not a great thing.
2. Video conferencing only works over wifi. Not great when most people are making phone calls over the 3G/4G network.
3. Upgrading. Jobs announced that AT&T will let you upgrade (with a new two year contract) if your contract expires before December. So, does everyone else that owns an iPhone have to wait until forever until they can use the MUCH GREATER iPhone? There was no announcement of the base price, but they really should be thinking of their current subscriber base, not just a hope of future customers.
4. No announcement of a carrier other than AT&T. Okay, we’re really tired of AT&T. You’d think Apple would realize that by now. Even during the demonstration, one audience member yelled out a solution for the New York Times problem Jobs was having on stage: “Switch to Verizon!” or something similar to that.
Anyway, that’s about all I have to say. Interesting announcements, but after the hype, it was still mostly just hype. Not as wonderful as everyone is making it try to sound. I’m almost exhausted with CNN’s continuous coverage of any time someone from Apple sneezes. Enough with it already.