“I was swamped with questions about Apple’s hot new iPhone, so this is a special all-iPhone edition of Mossberg’s Mailbox,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal.
Questions covered:
• Can you physically remove the included AT&T SIM card from the iPhone and replace it with another AT&T card or one from another wireless carrier?
• Since the iPhone battery is sealed in and can’t be easily replaced by the user, what happens when it dies? Will you have to buy a new iPhone?
• Can I use the iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection in my car? Can I use Bluetooth to transfer files or other information between the iPhone and a computer?
• If the iPhone’s Web browser is so good, why can’t it play video on Web sites I visit? At launch, the iPhone version of the Safari browser is missing some plug-ins needed for playing common types of Web videos. The most important of these is the plug-in for Adobe’s Flash technology. Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s iPhone for Web Developers documentation states, “You’ll want to avoid using Flash and Java for iPhone content. You’ll also want to avoid encouraging users to download the latest Flash on their iPhone, because neither Flash nor downloads are supported by Safari on iPhone.”
• You have been critical in the past of some smart phones that don’t allow you to delete emails with a single click. Can the iPhone do this?
• Can you buy an iPhone and just use it to play music and videos like an iPod, and to surf the Web or get email over Wi-Fi, without signing up for an AT&T service contract?
• You and many others have criticized AT&T’s EDGE data network, which the iPhone uses, as slow. You have noted that AT&T has a much faster data network. Can the iPhone be upgraded to use that faster network?
• How good is the iPhone’s To-Do list or Task function?
Full article here.
Does Flash work on any other smart phone browser?
This time Apple is correct — no flash.
eg: http://www.keywestford.com — advises that you need the latest version.
Even with the absolute latest version downloaded and installed — it still won’t work.
That is the ‘power’ of flash.
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“You’ll have a lot more than 4 empty spaces on the bottom row of buttons.”
Or more simply, just another page of buttons. The last space could hold a button that takes you to the next page of buttons. And so on.
Sort of like asking for three more wishes on your third wish.
A couple of other points that Apple needs to address:
1. No search function. This is especially important for calendar and contact data.
2. No ability to copy and paste.
Two fundamental functions that were overlooked.
@No Squirt For You,
I would imagine that if the number of icons grows beyond the allotted screen space, buttons would slip underneath the Dashboard-like grill (with a lovely gradient fade-to-black shadow) that houses the 4 primary functions (Phone, Email, Safari, iPod) and would scroll much like other lists on the iPhone.
That’s just my guess.
Geez. Why does everyone suddenly complain about EDGE? Did nobody use the EDGE network before the iPhone?
justified: that’s possible – but it seems more convenient to have them in your face. I imagined a next page button using a right arrow in the bottom right corner just like the arrow in the “Buy now” Apple Store banner.
@ FDT
As I have been using my iPhone I have been wondering HOW you would copy and paste. When you hold and move your finger on text (like I would think copy and paste should work) a magnifying glass for text placement shows up.
I’m kind of on the fence about adding Flash.
I’m aware it’s “Widespread” but .. frankly MANY cases it’s use is unwarranted, it creates ugly and obnoxious banner adds, it creates poor user interfaces, it creates bloated web pages.
I’m not sure I miss it all that much.
Aren’t there new open standard web standards that are going to be able to do much of what Flash does?
Look at what Apple does with their website. There’s animation on there and interactive elements and they do not use Flash at all, it’s all open standards.
Getting rid of Flash would be good for the web because it would push everything over to open standards which I am all in favor of.
MDN “fear” as in Microsoft and Adobe “fear” Apple’s coming dominance.
Red, you’re right. Pressing and holding your finger over a word is how you set the text insertion point. It’s a novel way to do it, but as you note, you cannot highlight and then copy or cut and then paste.
Hopefully the search feature and some minimal editing commands will be added in a forthcoming update. I also hope users will let Apple know about this so it becomes a priority for them.
Did anybody note this comment by Mossberg:
One twist: because a phone is a necessity, Apple is offering loaner iPhones for $29 while your phone’s battery is being replaced, or for the period of any other repair on the iPhone. You will have to switch the AT&T SIM card from your own phone to the loaner, and then back again.
Why charge for a loaner?