iPhone - page 483

All of us have enjoyed a good laugh at Sprint’s hastily thrown-together competitive response to the impending iPhone launch. What you might not realize is that such devastating tactics as pushing inferior media phones like the two-sided Samsung Upstage with “unlimited storage” on an unsuspecting public represent just the tip of the iceberg.

We at Cult of Mac, through a research technique we can only describe as “a couple of beers with friends” and “making stuff up” have gotten our hands on a list of talking points Sprint will break out in the next few months, as their struggle with Apple escalates. Please enjoy this Top 5 list of top-secret (some would say fictional) anti-iPhone tactics.

5. Phoning it in
Picture this: A  curious but fairly clueless non-techy interested in the iPhone wanders into a Sprint store, and asks about the mystical device. The Sprint team springs into action! After all, Sprint’s strategy of trying to make any phone technically capable of playing music sound like the same thing as a multi-touch driven multiplayer like the iPhone.

Customer: Can I have an Apple Phone (sic), please?
Sprint Rep: Oh, so you’re interested in being able to place a call, eh? The iPhone is an impressive device, but do you really want to spend all that money? What you might not know is that Sprint offers lots of phones that are capable of making phone calls. Apple would have you believe that you need a $500 device to make a phone call. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Customer: I’m going home.
Sprint Rep: You just do that, little man.

(Read on for the rest of the top 4)

Image from Kottke

The iPod’s scroll wheel is doomed. Multitouch is such a compelling user experience, it must supplant the scroll wheel. Writes Newsweek’s Steven Levy in one of the first reviews of the iPhone:

Also, the new way of navigating–swiping down your song list or fast-browsing by skimming your finger on a vertically arranged alphabet on the right of the screen–is a superior interface.

I can’t see Apple selling another large-capacity iPod with the old scroll wheel interface. Everyone is going to want multitouch, and maybe soon Apple will have the economies of scale to put it on a sub-$400 device. I doubt the nano will go multitouch, but it’s the beginning of the end for the wheel.

One of the biggest knocks on the iPhone (other than its slow mobile data rate and lack of unlimited storage, ala the INCREDIBLE LG Fusic) is that it doesn’t currently support live updating e-mail from corporate networks, the killer app that makes the BlackBerry the CrackBerry people know and snort. The iPhone can sync with Outlook and get push e-mail from Yahoo, it just can’t blend the two.

Well, maybe not for long. According to Mary Jo Foley, Apple might announce tomorrow that it has licensed Microsoft’s Exchange Active Sync software, the only missing piece preventing the iPhone from tapping into Exchange servers wirelessly actively to pull down messages automatically. It’s a very simple system, as seen above. No, I didn’t invent that flow chart. What it seems to mean, though, is that the last barrier to adoption of the iPhone among executives is about to vanish.

Hear that? It’s the sound of Palm and BlackBerry getting sick again.

Technorati Tags: iphone, microsoft, e-mail

Sprint made quite a buzz online today when a list of anti-iPhone talking points it provided to its sales associates got leaked to the web. It’s a mostly futile attempt to make Sprint’s suddenly long-in-the-tooth phones seem sprightly and futuristic. For example, in response to a customer interested in using the iPhone as an iPod, Sprint crafted these gems:

“¢ “We have many handsets that are MP3 players.”¢ “
“¢ “You want to have music with your phone? Let me show you the new Upstage or the Fusic II.”

Whoa, eat it, Apple! Sprint has a phone that’s twice as good as the LG Fusic! I mean, look at the original: It’s almost unimprovable.

Or check this out: Even though most other SmartPhones only come with 64 to 128 MB of storage, compared with the iPhone’s 4 to 8 GB, the former are clearly superior, because they have the ability to accept external memory cards. Check it,G!

• “Did you know that many of our phones offer external storage? Unlike the iPhone, which is only available in 4G or 8G, our phones offer unlimited storage.”

Wow, who knew that the ability to accept storage media was the same as unlimited storage! Under that definition, the original Apple II had unlimited storage – it could record data to as many cassette tapes as you could possibly provide. It’s like Sprint is living in the future!

Via MacDailyNews 

Technorati Tags: iphone, sprint

One of the infamous iPhone waiters at Apple’s 5th Ave. store has gone home to New Jersey for some shut eye, he writes on his blog.

In addition, Vicarious Music, the blog that first spotted the pair, reports that the line has now grown to five, but both chairs at the front of the line are empty.

Suspicious. Will the others hold their spots for the next three days?

An enterprising New Yorker has a small office for rent right above an AT&T store on 34th Street. The lease is very short. It expires on Friday, the day the iPhone goes on sale. It’s being offered as the perfect place to camp out for an iPhone.

The ad reads:

“small office space available. short term rental next week. directly above att 34th street store in manhattan. if you are camping out for the Iphone this is the place to hang out. limited number of spots available. bathroom and coffee. spots wont last! directly above main door to att. one flight up!”

Craigslist ad.

Apple always does things its own way, so it’s little surprise that the iPhone presence in AT&T stores will look radically different from the other fixtures in the store. Crunchgear managed to snap off the above shot from a Seattle AT&T of a new iPhone kiosk, which loops through the amazing device’s UI. The site claims the shelf has a variety of docking and charging options for visitors.

Technorati Tags: ad, iphone

As you might expect for a major product launching on Friday, the iPhone has arrived stateside. According to AppleInsider, the much anticipated devices touched down over the weekend in a variety of locations. A bit more surprising is that Apple apparently had armed guards on hand to ensure a smooth arrival.

Awaiting the freight at each location on Sunday were armed personnel, who were reportedly hired by Apple through its courier’s ground handling agent and then cleared by the Transportation Security Administration. Armed guards are extremely unusual for freight coming out of the Asian sector, those familiar with the matter explained, and are typically reserved for shipments containing riches such as gold and diamonds.

Once on the ground, the iPhone shipments were to be broken down under the watch of the armed personnel, who would then observe the loading of the freight onto ground vehicles and become party to its transportation outbound.

You hear that? The iPhone is made of gold and diamonds! Will the magical features never cease?

Via Apple 2.0

In case you haven’t heard, this weekend marked the iPhone’s coming out party. Though the iPhone actually goes on sale this Friday, Apple employees decided to take the iPhone out into the world one week early. How do I know? Two personal acquaintances ran into Apple folks breaking out their 3-in-1 revolutionary devices in San Francisco on Saturday.

One works in a retail store and saw the iPhone-bearer pull out the device when he couldn’t remember the name of a book he was looking for. He was very careful not to show the screen. It was a discrete way to show off.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the doofus in the skull t-shirt above. A friend of mine caught him at a party. Check his texts about it:

I’m at this party with a bunch of [company name deleted] people, and this dude from apple is conspicuously busting out his iphone.

After I requested the photo you see above, here’s the note of his reply:

Someone told me not to do it bc he could get in trouble… Well maybe he shouldn’t be flashing it around at a party! I refuse to jock even though it’s a research op.

That’s how brazen Apple folks were with their iPhones these days.

It seems there’s more people looking for iPhone waiters on Craigslist than waiters available to wait.
In New York especially, waiters are in high demand. One particularly desperate guy wants his waiter to start camping out on Wed night — 60 hours before the iPhone goes on sale. (“I need an iPhone. Like, really need an iPhone.”)

But here’s the really galling part. He wants waiters with experience! “Interested applicants should have experience waiting in line,” the ad says.

The full desperate text:

Updated: Get Paid To Wait In Line… For An iPhone (Midtown)
“Ok, so here’s the deal. I need an iPhone. Like, really need an iPhone. It’s so bad, I’ve taken to carrying around my paper cut-out just to get used to the size. ANYWAY, I’m looking for 1 or 2 industrious folks to setup camp outside the 5th Avenue Apple Store 6:00am, Wednesday the 27th until 6:00pm on Friday the 29th. That’s 60 hours of chilling and doing nothing… and getting paid. Or maybe getting your very own iPhone if we can buy more than 1! Interested applicants should have experience waiting in line. You are responsible for any supplies, food, etc. that you may need during your stay. If you want to be considered for this rather bizarre, very odd, and slightly fun assignment, please get in touch right away…”

Meanwhile, in L.A, waiters must be reliable and focused; in San Francisco, creeps and criminals need not apply; and in NYC, security in apparently not an issue.

More ads after the jump…

Pic by ShadowzBlog

There are waiters advertising on Craigslist these days — iPhone waiters, that is.

Several people are advertising on Craigslist their willingness to line up for others for an iPhone later this week — for a fee, of course. The going rate is about $250 a day — 6AM to 6PM, when the device goes on sale.

Some have suggested this service will be performed by desperate homeless people, but a quick survey of the ads suggests that unemployed clowns make up the ranks of iPhone waiters.

“3 clowns, unemployed and hungry, willing to wait in line for three separate individuals, 250 a pop, guaranteeing you get yourselves that tasty little iPhone,” says a San Francisco ad: iPhone Professional Waiters – $250 (downtown / civic / van ness)

The same clowns, or perhaps stunt doubles, are willing to wait in line in New York:

“2 clowns, unemployed and hungry, willing to wait in line for two separate individuals, 250 a pop, guaranteeing you get yourselves that tasty little iPhone on June 29th! email me asap, I will spend all day and night that day and bring it to you!” — Need an iPhone? I’ll WAIT ON LINE FOR YOU for TWO ppl! – $250 (Upper West Side)

Here’s a few more:
New York
WHO NEEDS AN APPLE IPHONE
Student willing to stand in line overnight for iPhone release. Will either buy and deliver or hold spot in line .
Danville, Calif.
YOU WANT AN IPHONE I WANT TO STAND IN LINE
Los Angeles
Professional line waiters near Pasadena! Guaranteed to get an iPhone on the 29th. Multiple waiters available upon request. For more info email me.
and another:
Will Stand In Line For a IPhone for peole who can’t

iPhone Wallpaper

Originally uploaded by zeronine.

There’s a slick iPhone ad shot in New York City at iPhoneNewYorkCity.com. It’s clearly made by pros — there was a casting call in April — but there’s no info on the ad’s site except the creators’ names: Alec Sutherland, Anthony Hechanova, Todd DosSantos and Shane Annas.

Reminds me of George Master’s unofficial iPod ad.

Just in case anyone still had doubts about Apple’s commitment to AT&T as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone, wonder no longer: USA Today reported that Apple will be married to AT&T for FIVE YEARS. FIVE YEARS! To put that in perspective, that’s the same amount of time between the introduction of the original iPod and the release of the clip-on model of the Shuffle.

And while this announcement is thoroughly irritating to me (I use T-Mobile…grumble, grumble), it might prove strategic for Apple. Click through to read why.