iPhones

chowhound

chowhound

New member
They are talking to me... drawing me in... buy me, buy me...
So really, how do those of you with iphones really like them? I like phones with features because it seems that the ones I most often use, alarms, calendars, memos, camera, although my current phone camera sucks... seem to work so much better and be more intuitive, but even though I have a crackberry, I just haven't had the need to use the data plan. Not when I work at home and always have access to a "real" computer. And I don't travel. Still, having a phone with a compass on it would rock :clap: (yeah, stupid, I know).
I noticed on At&T's website that you are required to have a data plan with the iphone. Maybe that's the only way the map thing they advertise would work, along with other features being tied into the data plan? Sort of like how five years ago you needed a data plan with a BB to ensure your voicemail worked correctly.

I haven't gone and played with one yet, but I'm looking for some real input that might mention a feature that I don't know about that would add to the appeal for me and push me into the store. Cuz once I enter that store...
Also, can you set up multiple daily alarms? Does it have a good vibrate notification? The one on my Pearl sucks. A loud ringtone/alarm? Does it warrant the price, or are they just cool phones?
 
I just got one 2 months ago. I had a crackberry with data, and moved to an iPhone with data.

Many things won't work on an iPhone without data - you can't download any apps, the email won't work, internet, GPS, etc.

Yes you can have multiple alarms in one day. You can even have 2 alarms for the same event. I often set a reminder earlier to get ready, and a final warning when it's time to leave. You set the alarms by event, not by day, so there's no limit.

Price wasn't bad. With all the deals right now, it was only $99 with a 2-year plan.

I love that my iPod is in the phone. And unlike a regular iPod, you can use it with or without ear buds. Sound isn't great without, but it does work. I put a Motorola thingy in my car so it plays through the fm radio. That's pretty awesome.

The only down sides I've found are the battery life, and I'm not crazy about the email notification. The Blackberry would notify me everytime I got an email. The iPhone receives the emails, but doesn't let me know. I have to keep checking. (Maybe I just don't have it set up right).

I found the iPhone more intuitive. The instructions are nearly nonexistent, but you don't really need them.

All in all, I think I like the iPhone better. And I was able to sell my 2 year old Blackberry on Craigslist for $100, which paid for the iPhone!
 
Thanks for the review, SS.
Do you have the "s" model? The battery life is supposed to be improved on the new model. And I've only seen them for 199 for the 16 gig.
 
I only got an 8 gig, thus $99. I don't know about the 'S'. I was told it was the new one (at the end of July)
 
There was just an article on Iphones recently. A lot of people are becoming turned off because of the AT&T network. There is talk that Verizon is negotiating to get int iPhones.

How is AT&T service where you are? That would be the key for me. I also have a BlackBerry. I bought the storm and am not completely happy with it. i am waiting for the Storm 2. I am a touch screen baby and was ery happy with my Palm Treo. Unfortunately, I lost it.

Feature wise the IPhone is good.
 
Sounds like the older model then, SS. The s model (s being for the faster speed) only comes in 16 or 32 g. Your model was supposed to be a big jump from the first ones, the s model not so much except for the battery life improvement.

I currently have at&t, Andy. It's a boycot thing with me and Verizon (lol). Their service is about the same here. Neither one offer broadband internet in my area.
I hadn't heard about Verizon possibly picking up iphones. I know I read that at&t was supposed to have their 3g service up to snuff by next summer.
 
I've had an iPhone for about 2 yrs. I had the 1st generation and loved it. I was shopping for an ipod, and decided to get an ipod that had the phone included. The original data plan was 20 per month.
The bottom plug in that I used for the iphone to hook to my stereo quit working so I got the newest iphone in July. It is the 3GS. Living in this rural area speeds are not noticeably faster than the original iPhone. Battery life seems about the same also. If I don't use it much I can get by on one charge a week. If I use it a good bit then I have to charge it every other day.
Accessories like extra chargers for home and car use are available on ebay for less than 10 bucks. So I have chargers at home, work, on the boat, in the car etc. Makes it very handy.
Now that I have 16gb of storage I use the app store more. Lots of free apps to download. The Accu weather and weather channel apps are free. They will show you a radar view and 15 day forecast. The radar view is very handy when boating and trying to avoid the rain.
Lots of cool games available and they are free. My favorites change often but whenever I'm waiting on my wife I always have something to entertain myself with.
Internet browsing is slow for me (rurual area) unless I can hook into a wifi connection.
I love the phone ipod combo, which is the original reason I bought it. But the touch screen, ease of use, so many cool features and new options / apps daily have got me hooked on the iPhone.

One last thing. AT&T now adds 5 dollars per month for 200 texts. 200 texts were included in the orginal 20 dollar data plan. Now the data plan is 30, plus 5 for texting so the data plan ends up being 35 per month. However there is a way around this. There is an app called text plus (it's FREE) that bypasses At&T's SMS and uses the internet, so you are not charged for texts. And there is an app which you can send images and view images where normally and iphone does not handle / show texted images for some weird reason.
Even with these shortcomings I still like it, and I'm glad to see these work arounds. :D
 
Thanks Doc.
That is weird... I would have certainly thought you wouldn't need a workaround to view pics in text messages.
And I was wondering about the apps you are always hearing about. It's good to hear some of them are free. I just assumed you would have to pay for every one.
 
I went to the At&T store yesterday. I made need some group intervention here :neutral:

This is a pretty nice phone. It's a little bigger than my BB, both in W and H, but it's thinner and has rounded edges, so it actually fits in my pocket better. Lots of "apps", way more than I would use, but some really cool features. I am loving that GPS feature. Sometimes when I hit the country roads I lose track of whether or not I am still in my home state, or if I have crossed into the Empire state. That could be a problem on my bike because I typically don't wear a helmet. I've toyed with the idea of getting a GPS unit, no need to with the iphone. And there's no worry about accidentally pressing buttons, like on my pearl. Even with the keys locked. Of course the lack of keys could also be a minor problem... I use my cell phone as an alarm clock. It's nice to reach and press the trackball to turn the alarm off, but in looking at several apps for the iphone, I think I could find an alarm clock that would work for me and have a lot of other features. BTW, apps are pretty cheap, some being free and a lot being a buck or two.

But, AT&T just doesn't want to sell this phone to me. Not with me being a current customer. They refuse to give me the full discount like they did with the last iphone upgrade to current customers. And I even called Apple about trying to work around this. My reasoning was; 1- they are locking me in for two more years. 2- The iphone would require an upgrade in my service plan. At&t now requires a data plan on all their smart phones and my current BB snuck in before they implemented this policy. And 3- Who stops at just the initial purchase? You know you will be selling me accessories and I'll be buying some of these apps. And I had these thoughts even before reading today that at&t is making a big mistake not keeping their current customers happy if they want to upgrade, because it seems there is a lot to be unhappy about.

Like Andy mentioned, but Apple said wasn't going to happen when I spoke with them, the iphone could be hitting other providers as early as next year, when their current contract with at&t runs out.

So bottom line, I want one, I'll be getting one, just not any time soon. Way too many variables and I'm not very happy with at&t's attitude right now.

YMMV
 
That sucks. I've heard that AT&T is overwhelmed in some areas with to many iphones. That might be why some other carriers might be selling the iphone in the future. If you have more than a year left on your agreement it's like they figure they got ya. :bonk:
I'm sure it would cost you to opt out of the 2 yr agreement you are currently in.
Another option might be to buy the phone on ebay. I've heard the older models go for 100 bucks on there. Tmobile can service the iphone if At&t won't. still that would mean canceling your contract with at&t.
No easy way out that I can think of. Sorry.
 
Add me to the iPhone lovers list... Important for me... I can actually read my email. I've had once since they came out... Don't have the latest version as my contract wasn't up yet.
 
The funny thing is, Doc, I have less than a year...
This was the same argument I just had with Direct TV... how they are more interested in getting new customers than keeping existing ones happy. And that turned out pretty good for me with DTV ;^)
I guess time will tell what happens. I sure hope Apple doesn't exclusively renew with at&t.
 
chowhound said:
The funny thing is, Doc, I have less than a year...
This was the same argument I just had with Direct TV... how they are more interested in getting new customers than keeping existing ones happy. And that turned out pretty good for me with DTV ;^)
I guess time will tell what happens. I sure hope Apple doesn't exclusively renew with at&t.
Click to expand...

Can you reduce the amount of service you get from them without breaking contract? That means less money to them.

Also, make note of every outage and every disconnect, and then call customer service and request credit for off time. For example, Mediacom charges me 50 for internet, but if it goes down for 2-3 hours or more, I call and ask for a pro-rated credit for those 2-3 hours of non-service. No sense in paying for what you don't get. I don't care if it's only 1-2 dollars in credit per month....I call for it....yeah, they have pissed me off! But I get my credits!

Keep being a thorn in their sides and asking for credits during lack of service, and they'll eventually see things your way.
 
I love my iPhone. The cooking related apps I use are BigOven and Grocery IQ. Believe it or not I have 78 total apps on board. The blue tooth function gets used every day for the phone and once a week or so for the iPod app. The Google app with voice search works so well I could cry and then there's the PGA app for golfer idiots like yours truly. Hound, you said you bike - try Map My Ride - way cool GPS tool. Edit: Bike - I forgot, you're a biker

For fifteen bucks or so you can get a battery extender that hooks onto the bottom and about quadruples the useful time. Hey, I could go on and on.

Caveats: My first one crapped out and was replaced under warrantee. The second one started giving me some trouble in the FL humidity when the home button or whatever it's called started working intermittently. The Apple store refused to replace it citing "water damage". What!!!!! You'd think I dunked it in the sink to hear the idiot service rep. When I came up to Wisconsin in May it magically fixed itself. I'll be getting a S when my contract runs out March 10th. AT&T is expensive and they don't do much for active customers. All the best deals go to newbies and that just isn't right.

None the less, I can't live without it. Like I said, I'm in love.
 
I had the original iphone and my 2 year contract was not up until Dec 28th 09. Like I said my iphone plug in for stereo hookup did not work. They let me upgrade early to the new 3GS this past July. I only paid 199 for teh 16gb version.
If you could pick up an iphone for a decent price on ebay AT&T would still service your phone, then they'd have to allow you to upgrade early (I think). Paying full price for the iPhone is what is stopping you from upgrading now, correct?
Like the others, I love my iPhone. I'm totally hooked.
I'll have to check out those GPS apps. Are they free?
College Football is one cool free app. You can track your favorite team(s).
 
They are giving me a partial discount, 299 as opposed to 199 if I were either a new customer or waited until April. I've been over a bunch of threads in Howards Forum and it seems there is no way around this. At&t knows that you can't go anywhere else for the phone. I briefy looked on ebay and could not find a new s model at a better price.

I appreciate the input guys.
 
Yep, they are doing it because they can. They know it will cost you more than 100 bucks to go any other route & end up with an iPhone.
My suggestion: bite the bullet, pay the extra hundred and get the iphone. You'll get past this much quicker and you'll have a cool new phone that you will grow to love. 2yrs from now you'll be able to switch from at&t to another carrier that can handle the iphone (hopefully).

I had to pay 399 for my first iphone .... and I was very happy with it.
 
I am joining this conversation late but I love my iPhone .
...one suggestion if you are going to buy one, spend the extra 35 or so for the protection plan which includes complete replacement of the phone or battery for one year.. I am on phone #2

I don't pay for Internet on mine because there are so many wi-go spots available these days
 
Thanks Jeff.
Huge fiasco with at&t last month when they pulled the old bait and switch on me. Now I'm not sure I'll ever get one unless Verizon picks them up... if at&t can't get Apple to renew their contract next year. I've resigned myself to waiting and seeing what happens. I do want one, but have a very bad taste in my mouth over at&t now.
 
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