mos6507's Blog

I saw something on TV last night about used cell phones. I forget the exact number (it was in the thousands per day), but there's a business that does nothing but recycle old cell phones. They test them, wipe their memory, repackage and sell them again to people who need cheap but usable cell phones. Those that don't work are sent off to another business that grinds them up, separates the materials out, and recycles what it can. Hopefully, when people dispose of their cell phones, they're donating them to these organizations, and not just tossing them out.

 

They said on average the typical cell phone user replaces their phone every 18 months. (Having never owned one, I can't attest to that - but based on other people I know, that seems about right.) If Apple is basing the iPhone's expected life span on that figure, then I could see why they wouldn't make it upgradeable.

 

Of course, it would be better for the consumer if it were, but it would also probably make the phone bulkier to accommodate the necessary access, and that's pretty much an anathema to Apple.

I have an aging cell phone and I was waiting for Apple to announce a phone before buying a new one. You can bet your ass that I'll be getting one of these if it lives up to the hype. Just sucks that they aren't making it available for purchase until June. And I bet with all the pent up demand at that time, it'll be pretty difficult to get.

 

..Al

I watched some video on the Apple website. Very impressive, especially the parts where you scan through the album covers. And the two finger interface also seems pretty cool (fortunately I don't have greasy skin ).

 

But without memory slot, UMTS (google maps will take minutes without it) and expecially by being bound to Apple I am not interested.

Incidentally, Apple may have gotten the touchscreen interface from here.

 

I'm interested to see what they end up doing with it beyond the iPhone.

 

It appears to have been running on OS X even back then (note the Dock at the top of the screen):

 

I just read that the iPhone will NOT support 3rd party applications. This is a deal-breaker for me. The whole idea of a computer is for it be programmable. It is a criminal offense to pack this much computing power, run the BSD kernel, and close it off to developers. I hope there is a serious backlash and Jobs changes his mind. I think I'll end up getting an ultraportable convertible tablet with a 3G card.

I just read that the iPhone will NOT support 3rd party applications. This is a deal-breaker for me. The whole idea of a computer is for it be programmable. It is a criminal offense to pack this much computing power, run the BSD kernel, and close it off to developers. I hope there is a serious backlash and Jobs changes his mind. I think I'll end up getting an ultraportable convertible tablet with a 3G card.

I wouldn't worry about that. Someone will find an exploit. Someone always does.

 

Also, I'd bet that it uses an Xscale, given the Apple/Intel connection and the fact that the PXA27x series is powerful enough for the features described.

I just read that the iPhone will NOT support 3rd party applications. This is a deal-breaker for me. The whole idea of a computer is for it be programmable. It is a criminal offense to pack this much computing power, run the BSD kernel, and close it off to developers. I hope there is a serious backlash and Jobs changes his mind. I think I'll end up getting an ultraportable convertible tablet with a 3G card.

I wouldn't worry about that. Someone will find an exploit. Someone always does.

 

Also, I'd bet that it uses an Xscale, given the Apple/Intel connection and the fact that the PXA27x series is powerful enough for the features described.

 

Intel already claimed they didn't supply the chips. Samsung did. It is probably an ARM variant, though. If so, it's an amazing demonstration of what they can do with the right software. And it's got to have some kind of graphics accelerator. Dedicated gfx chips have been slow to catch on with the embedded scene other than all-out game systems. Even the GP2X gets by with brute-forcing a dumb framebuffer.

I wouldn't worry about that. Someone will find an exploit. Someone always does.

Sure, but still there will be far less applications developed then.