Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
It Crashes?
Yes the iPhone crashes, and for the comparison that I hate to make, it crashes less than my Windows Mobile 5 based Blackjack.
The iPhone has only crashed a couple of times for me, and each time it did the same thing. I'd be browsing the web and all of the sudden the application I was using would quit and take me back to the home screen as if I hit the home button. There are no errors, no ugly messages, nothing; it's literally as if you accidentally hit that home button.
The first time it happened to me I thought I actually hit the home button; later realizing that the home button would require a deliberate press with a reasonable amount of force to activate, I came to the next conclusion: yay I just crashed the iPhone.
Both times Safari crashed on me, I had just opened a popup window and I was rotating the iPhone at the same time. I did that same exact deadly combination multiple times and it only crashed twice, and only then did I know that the iPhone was truly running the same Safari that I had on my Mac. There are many times when Safari under OS X will just keep crashing for me over and over again, only to be totally fine after it gets the crashing out of its system. I will have made no hardware or software changes, Safari will just crash two or three times in a row and then be fine for the next month. I don't get it, but now I can take that behavior with me in my pocket. Apple, how did you know the key to my heart?
All kidding aside, the device is robust; it handled my small library of 1045 pictures without a problem, and Apple has already proved that it knows how to manage multiple GB of music and videos quite well. The device is stable and the only two crashes I've had in my extended usage of the the device were handled gracefully. The only indication I had that the device had crashed was a message from iTunes the next time I tried to sync, asking me if I wanted to send anonymous crash log data to Apple.
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rcc - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
If there is no GPS hardware built into a device, 3rd party software won't help. You have to have the hardware receiver built in.
Locutus465 - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Fortunetly by law every new phone activated as of 2005 must have built in GPS for E-911.. Just one small baby step from there repurposes that GPS for coolness... My i720 allows this.strikeback03 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Doesn't the law simply require the carrier to be able to determine the location of the phone, but not specify how? Allowing the carriers to determine by distance to cell towers instead of GPS?Locutus465 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
I beleive GPS is required... At least this is what I was told by a Verizon rep that refused to activate an older phone I had.Cygni - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
GPS is not required by law, yet. Location support IS required, but is already present on nearly every phone made in the last 3 years.plinden - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Leo Laporte in one of his podcasts this weekend mentioned that he heard there is an SDK for the iPhone that's ready for OS X but not Windows, but Apple (ie Jobs) wants to release both versions at the same time, hence the delay.
That's just a rumor, but it's almost certain there'll be an SDK at some point, although it's extremely likely, if not certain, that developers will have to go through Apple to get their apps published to the iPhone (ie via iTunes).
Give it six months, like I'm doing. I'll likely get the 16GB version with 3G when it's available.
Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
There will need to be good 3rd party support for me to even consider it. There'll also need to be a good (and inexpensive) all in one chat client. And Mahjoong, that's totally a requirement.sviola - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
You should check the Nokia N95, it has the built-in GPS, altough it runs Symbian OS.Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Well yes, my phone has built in GPS hardware as well (as do all phone inc. iPhone). It's just missing the app + maps (unless you're sayind the nokia comes with software + maps which would be the bomb). So I would just need that part of the equation. As a matter of fact the Samsung i720 also allows you to use the phone as a plain old GPS device, so really if I wanted to I could potentially blue tooth it to a laptop for instance and go that route.Locutus465 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Oh yeah, on the i720 to set an MP3 as your ring tone you just need to browse to it in flie explorer, tap and hold ("right click" in Windows Mobile) and select "Set as ringtone" :)Automatically copies to \Windows\Rings and sets the song as your ringtone :D