Invention Of the Year: The iPhone

[RocketPunch]

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/ ... 91,00.html

This topic probably borders on senseless rant, but maybe some people here can relate. Does anyone else just NOT CARE about the iPhone? I feel like if I waited in line for hours and bought one, my initial emotion would be "Now I can call people, go on the Internet, listen to music, view photos, look up the weather, and watch YouTube! ...Oh, wait." Yeah, they're innovative and trendy, and I guess watching YouTube videos in class lectures would spare me the 50 or so minutes I'd have to wait before getting access to a computer, but it doesn't seem like anything that would Change My Life (tm) upon purchase.

I feel the same way about the Wii. I can drive a go-kart and control a sword with my own two hands now. Has my gaming experience been REVOLUTIONIZED? No. :(

This isn't so much a rant about the article naming the iPhone "gadget of the year," but about society's infatuation with pointless "innovations" in general. Does anyone else agree, or am I officially handing in my Generation Y card?

[Delphine]

You !!DON'T CARE!! about it so much that you made a bitch post about it on a completely unrelated forum.

Huh.

[Malchik]

Meh. I see kids with these i(what ever) things and block it out. I have no use for a phone/mp3/black berries thing. I would like an iPod but refuse to pay a couple hundred smackers for a device with only 130 or so gigs.

[Shadow Hog]

I hate iPods entirely, honestly, but that's mostly to do with their reliance on QuickTime - which, given how much I hate QuickTime, is pretty much a deal-killer right there.

Although frankly, MP3 players at all never strike me as all that interesting. Hell, I barely use my Zune, honestly.

[RocketPunch]

You !!DON'T CARE!! about it so much that you made a bitch post about it on a completely unrelated forum.

Huh.

I was wondering if anyone else shared my apathy. Not just about the iPhone, but about supposedly revolutionary gadgets that haven't really changed their mediums as much as industry hype would lead you to believe. Wii included, if we're going for on-topicness.

I don't mind iPods so much. Before mp3 players, you could only listen to, what, like 15-20 songs at a time? Going from CDs to being able to carry thousands of songs in your pocket was a huge jump for music fans. In my experience at least, it changed the way I listen to music. I don't see the iPhone as anything more than a status symbol though. I guess it's convenient, but then, that doesn't equate to innovative, does it? Am I missing something here? I can see why it'd be considered the GREATEST CELL PHONE EVARRR, but not why people love it so much.

[Ritz]

Although frankly, MP3 players at all never strike me as all that interesting. Hell, I barely use my Zune, honestly.

Yeah, being able to listen to your music On the Go™ sounds like a great idea on paper, but after borrowing my dad's MP3 player that he got from some obscure family member as a birthday present despite being as electronics illiterate as any human being possibly could be, I've found that it really isn't all it's cracked up to be!

I mean, they're obviously only worthwhile while you're outside, and the only time I ever go outside is when I'm jogging. I tried doing that with an MP3 player once, and it totally ruined the experience for me- I like to take in all of my surroundings when I'm outside, but music just detaches me from everything. Likewise, I apparently can't focus on or enjoy music at all so long as I'm partaking in physical activity, or am simply using my brain for anything other than menial computer busywork. Now I only ever use the player when I have to go and lay down for an hour because my nephew's forced me off the computer and I don't feel like jogging.

In other words, music is for the shallow among us who are incapable of stimulating their minds through any productive means.

[Oompa Star]

One of my classmates has an iPhone and he told me he didn't like it. He said something aboout it being frustratingly unintuitive. Oddly enough, he has another phone on a different billing plan which he favors over his iPhone.

[Yami CJMErl]

I'd care about the iPhone a little bit more if it wasn't so goddamn prohibitively expensive.

[Segaholic2]

I hate iPods entirely, honestly, but that's mostly to do with their reliance on QuickTime - which, given how much I hate QuickTime, is pretty much a deal-killer right there.

The iPod has absolutely no reliance on QuickTime. You don't know what you're talking about.

I'm getting an iPhone at some point in the next month or so.

[Shadow Hog]

No, it has reliance on iTunes, which requires QuickTime. I suppose you could use a different program to interface, but, honestly, that'd just graduate iPods from "hate" to "apathy", so.

[Bo]

Samsung's Instinct is a cheaper alternative with better available data plans...

I haven't experienced a need for a super phone before, but I would consider my MP3 player to be my favorite gadget ever. I can't stand being a pedestrian without it. Recently, though, I was playing with a demo of the Instinct and idly started reading an article from a site I like. Then yesterday when I was waiting in a very long line at the DMV, I realized how much I was missing by having a phone without Internets.

[Isuka]

I can see why it'd be considered the GREATEST CELL PHONE EVARRR

I can see you are talking about the Nokia E90 Communicator there, right?

[RocketPunch]

I can see why it'd be considered the GREATEST CELL PHONE EVARRR

I can see you are talking about the Nokia E90 Communicator there, right?

Ugh, they're all the same to me. I'm just not much of a cell phone guy. I call and text and try not to drop it into drinks, and everything after that is pretty much an unneeded complication.

Yes, I'd probably be a lot better off if I had been born 30 years earlier.

[DackAttac]

I don't buy into the synonym-for-the-Second-Coming hype machine, but it's hard to deny that for a phone, it's a pretty damned good bargain for those who want it. (My current phone cost $200 when I bought it, too, and it's a piece of shit.) I mean, I can understand you're sick of hearing about it if you're apathetic towards the thing, but really, is there a better gadget released this year? It's just a Time Magazine article. I'm sure they've featured many other gizmos less worthy of the title, but they weren't omnipotent enough to bug you.

I tolerated the iPod thing because, at heart, it was an issue of a lack of a better term. "MP3 Player"? Too lengthy. Awkward. Soulless. People talk about the iPod revolutionizing the music industry, I could take it to mean the MP3. Like when someone asks you for a Kleenex, they mean tissue and don't really care about the brand.

[Crazy Penguin]

Like when someone asks you for a Kleenex, they mean tissue and don't really care about the brand.

I've only heard Americans do that. It's completely unacceptable.

[Delphine]

God, aren't you people on the internet? Don't you like shiny tech? There's something wrong with you.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I got my phone for free with my Sprint account. I use it to call and text people. Sometimes I use it to take really low quality pictures. I don't think I'd really want internet access on my phone. I waste enough time on it, with access to it only from computers. The MP3 function would be nice, but I don't think that really warrants buying an iPhone.

I think it's more of a status thing. That seems to be the function I've seen it used most for.

[DackAttac]

See, I've been considering getting one because life with a PDA was pretty good to me. Unfortunately, Palm made it, and Palm is a bunch of evil fuckwads whose appliances break for no reason and then split into two companies that blame the malfunction on the other half and refuse to honor the warranty. With the iPhone, I wouldn't even have the lack of Mac compatibility (my school forced me to become Mac reliant.)

The only thing holding me back is the legions of shitheads who are using it for status, as Jay said. I'd be almost ashamed to pull it out because I'd look like the kind of guy who needs to be seen flashing the latest in-gadget in order to feel good about himself. For the love of God, Apple couldn't even make it look like a phone.

[RocketPunch]

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

According to Simon Jeffery, "the iPhone is about as powerful as the company’s defunct gaming console, the Dreamcast." Maybe it's time for a change of heart on my part. If this is true, it'll be quite an interesting development in the future. Would that give the iPhone status as a true games console equivalent platform? Or am I misunderstanding him?

[DackAttac]

You're not misunderstanding him, just buying into a load of crap. PDA, MP3 Player, phone, GPS device, Internet.... But not a gaming platform. I just don't see it.

[One Classy Bloke]

Super Monkey Ball looks surprisingly good on the thing, despite apparently being caned in the reviews.

[Locit]

According to Simon Jeffery, "the iPhone is about as powerful as the company’s defunct gaming console, the Dreamcast."

Yeah, no, this is some grade-A bullshit.

[RocketPunch]

Curses, you've fooled me again, iPhone.

[gr4yJ4Y]

The only thing holding me back is the legions of shitheads who are using it for status, as Jay said. I'd be almost ashamed to pull it out because I'd look like the kind of guy who needs to be seen flashing the latest in-gadget in order to feel good about himself.

I have seen 1 person actually use it as a phone without showing it off. I don't think he's too common though.

A friend of mine went off to University of Michigan for orientation a few years ago. When he came back he said he had to get an iPod if he wanted to fit in. So he did that and got it with a gold plating with his name on it. I don't know how many times he used it, but he showed it to everyone he knew...