“It’s been the better part of a year since the debut of Apple’s iPhone—enough time for most of the early hype to die down, for the most egregious bugs to get fixed, and for users to learn to deal with the foibles of a new mobile platform—or learn that said foibles are too much to take,” Wendy Sheehan Donnell and Joel Santo Domingo report for PC Magazine.
“Here at PC Magazine, we’ve got iPhone users on both sides. Some are thrilled with the device, others want their $500 back. In the left corner, representing the iPhone fans, is Joel ‘Don’t Call Me a Fanboy’ Santo Domingo, PC Mag’s lead desktop PC analyst. In the right corner, representing those with buyer’s remorse, is Wendy ‘Apple KoolAid Made Me Sick’ Sheehan Donnell, senior editor of our Consumer Electronics team,” PC Mag’s intrepid tri-named and now also nicknamed reporters write.
Full article, in which Wendy complains about AT&T phone service quality, AT&T EDGE speed, iPhone’s speaker and mic quality, the virtual keyboard, and the rest of the usual list of competitors’ talking points while Joel gallantly defends iPhone’s honor, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MidWest Mac” for the heads up.]
As we’ve grown fond of saying, AT&T could cut the speed of EDGE in half today and you’d still have to pry our iPhones out of our cold dead hands.
So I think that Wendy should get her hearing checked. Seriously. There are times when I just turn up the volume and can hear quite well, even with 30 mile per hour winds.
I would like to know what everyone that doesn’t like AT&T;would prefer, because I don’t think its any worse than Verizon (actually has better coverage where I frequently travel).
This cell phone stuff may just be a lot of media sell, but it certainly can be aggravating when you expect service and don’t get it. Which happens with them all, or at the least the two that I have used. With the phone, AT&T;works o.k. EDGE speed varies, and in Big Sky, the little “E” doesn’t show up on the phone at all, so no edge even, and the phone only worked if I stood in the correct window and faced the right direction.
Like the word, Foibles?
Look up “ad hominem”. It’s usually used with the word “attack” and in that usage usually understood to be entirely under the belt, cowardly and inappropriate.
I must say that I’m drifting away from caring about MDN comments any more. This place feels like a Junior High cafeteria to me. I guess at 34 I’m feeling a thirst for a bit more maturity. Nothing about ya’ll. Maybe you are in Junior High or maybe this is just a place for you to blow off steam. That’s cool. I’m just saying, I think I’m going to take my ball and go elsewhere. I’m tired.
Maybe I’ll see you in a few.
MW: Freedom :p
Its not that ATT is bad, just expensive. I want an iphone, but to much money to leave my sprint sero plan that is 1250 minutes, unlimited data and unlimited texting for only $50 a month…
My daughter’s iPhone on Edge is faster than my Moto Q9h on 3G.
C1, I’ve got a jawbone and like it very much. Works in the convertable well. Sometimes it loses the signal, but not often.
It certainly was an upgrade from my two previous bluetooth headsets.
correction — convertible
The speakerphone is lousy which makes no sense since the speakeriPod is great. That is to say, why can’t phone calls be as loud via the speaker as the music is?
Also, will we ever be able to print boarding passes from within this wonderful device?
Knowledge = Power.
Here’s some Power for y’all.
Edge = really really really really really really really slow.
3G = really really really really really really really slow BUT it is a little faster than Edge UNLESS the processor of the phone is slow, in which case – HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! – it is SLOWER.
Power is funny, isn’t it?
He he he…
Just not as bad a minus point as the little tiny chiclet keys on other smartphones.
Let’s face it, small devices are small. They have small keys–of one kind or another. Deal with it.
I personally don’t mind AT&T;, and in my opinion all the carriers feed the same BS to people (coverage aside), but just feed it in different ways.
Most people who dislike one carrier for reasons besides coverage are pissed because they had a high bill once or twice, which was not the carriers fault.
I’m just glad Apple didn’t do the MVNO deal. It would have made Apple a “carrier” in the minds of the average user… Which would in turn make some people grow to hate Apple due to their own mistakes (or lack of coverage from whoever Apple would have been buying minutes from).
If you don’t have 129,600 satellites and a cell tower on every block, along with free / unlimited usage – then you will be hated as a carrier by someone.
And once you are hated for one thing you did, you are pretty much hated in general…
love my iPhone, will buy another and another and another….
a new tentacle has formed on the all encompassing beast that is the future apple.
the silky soft sound of an invisible noose forming around most of the consumer electronic/computing sphere.
Downloadable media – pwned (a record industry in tatters)
Portable media players – pwned (sorry former king sony)
Computing platforms – pwned (m$ on the decline, take dell witcha)
Mobile computing and comms – pwned (smart wha? good luck catching up)
HDTV movie delivery – pwned (blueray won a hollow victory, disc is dead)
Pro Media production – (say goodbye to avid now, don’t wait)
may the wandering and wilting eye of apple not find you wanting dear friend, or get added to the list (listening adobe?)
I do not know why people whine so much. Its like they have nothing better to do. Or maybe they have no other skills.
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I live 25 miles from NY City and we don’t have good 3G coverage …. a friends 3G phone doesn’t work any faster than EDGE … however, our town has WIFI in all the locations I need …. hence the iPhone is perfect ..
your miles, as they say, may vary ….
Majikthize?
Is that you Lindsay Bayerstein? I really enjoy your blog… and your photography, nice work!
If you’ve read the complete article, Wendy Sheehan is quite a Mac person, and has actually turned her Husband to the Mac side. So her gripes about the iPhone aren’t as some kind of an Apple hater. Furthermore, her comments about Edge speed, mobile phone quality, and the lack of iChat have been discussed on this site ad nauseam.
I love my TiBook dearly, but the speakers on it suck too, and I don’t mind saying it. I keep my ear buds plugged in for the best quality sound. I’m hoping that version two of the iPhone will learn from version one and make the appropriate improvements.
I agree with MDN about who great the iPhone is, but it’s harder to really feel so flippant about EDGE while trying to read THIS site on the iPhone.
When is the iPhone-optimized MDN coming? I’m going to lose my mind!