Apple iPhone!

I use my PDA as an MP3 player quite a bit, so my dirty little fingers are all over that screen. No real problems with fingerprints, but then my skin has always been kinda dry. Tapping isn't so much a problem, but if there's any part of that interface that requires dragging...well...that's not good.

I want it.

But if its on cingular, fuck it.

More shit to break. That's all.

A phone, mp3 player, and internet connection?

My free contract phone does that now. It just doesn't have an "i" in front of its name.

So you guys who don't like Cingular, who do you go with? I wound up with Cingular when they acquired AT&T Wireless. I don't HATE them, but the coverage isn't as good as the old AT&T coverage. I've heard good things about Tmobile...

Verizon here.

Verizon is the shit. Considering my entire family, 90% of my friends, and my girlfriend all use verizon, I pretty much couldn't change to another phone service unless I was insane.

Anyway, Apple IS being sued by Cisco now.

Verizon here, too.
I've got a plan I like, and service that hasn't failed me yet.

And locally, the customer service is great.

I had Verizon, liked it, but ended up going with Sprint because they had cooler phones and more competitive rates.

Cingular is a nightmare, my girlfriend has them and we get a ton of dropped calls and poor quality over the line.

I had Verizon before it got shut off last May. Great customer service, and since my mom's finace's being a dick about putting me under his plan (it's Cingular), I may just end up getting a pre-paid phone through Verizon again.

I think Apple has stepped in it. If Apple truly believed that other companies were also using the name they wouldn't have been in negotiations with Cisco.

Apple doesn't have the right to the letter "I" nor do they have the sole right to call something I(insert name here).

Cisco and the company they bought out were using the name iPhone before Apple ever thought of calling a Mac the iMac.

Apple has a pretty weak case.

Here is Cisco's response:

Apple is pwn3d.

You're not alone and the companies that make the mobile phones are just now understanding that there is a large market for simple phones...
Heck i have a phone that can't even use wap...
A Nokia 2600...
I can phone with it, use sms and that's it...
It does have a color-screen and uses polyphone ringtones, but i don't really care for that...
I needed a new phone, wanted a Nokia and it was the cheapest(sim-lock-free) one at the time...

Until now I, too, didn't really like those multiphones. I like specialized devices. But then, this new generation looks good IMHO. My contract runs for another year and I don't intend to buy a new phone until it's out so I'll reevaluate then. Somehow there's no need for three devices any more, and at least the PDA and phone are a logical combination. I had plenty of stand alone PDAs I never used - could change with a combo. And an iPod in there for good measure? Why not - it's probably enough for everyday use. The video function for me is the same as on my iPod: mainly to show off

Of course the problems start when this thing breaks.

Anyway, what do I want from a mobile phone? Making calls. Sending SMS. It must look good, and I want a reliable alarm clock. Address book of course but there ain't any without. Oh, and it must have a LOUD ringtone and vibracall because I'm quite hearing impaired in environmental noise. BT is nice for a headset but I rarely use mine.

I can do without the camera - the pics are crap and it's physically impossible to make 'em better with such tiny optics, no matter how many megapixels they pimp in there. I can do without a radio. Tiny cell phone buttons make the best organizer hard to handle (the V3's are big tho and thus I actually use it for the first time ever). I have never seen any use for WAP and such but WLAN with the iPhone might be fun.

Guess I'll give it a shot. Just like with the iPod there are better products on the market but Apple somehow manages to make people want their stuff really badly. Personally I'm thinking that my next computer just might be a Mac with that AppleTV thingy so I can finally watch pirated movies on my silver screen without burning them on DVD first

Not really, since Apple hasn't sold any products under that name Cisco can't sue them for damages.

Does anybody really think that Apple didn't know that

There's either a deal (as I read on a blog and said here) or they'll simply pay up. The i is worth a lot more to them than whatever Cisco will get. Cisco's move was completely clear. I won't judge if it was cool as good relations to Apple might be worth more but it's clear why they introduced their iPhone: to drive up the price. They'll be renamed fast because honestly, nobody cares.

Gonna take stacking WAY more gadgets into a fucking cell phone 'fore I ever touch one.

I'm talking candy bar replicator, see-through-women's-clothing-scanner with beam-right-into-my-pupils-display, and make-me-strong-enough-to-kill-a-lumberjack-with-one-punch-forcefield.

See, this is yet again where Apple is retarded, arrogant, and will ultimately lose in the long run. It sounds like they had a real potential for a win-win situation. Apple does personal devices and Cisco does networking--chocolate and peanut butter, baby. Yeah, there's some overlap. Cisco has some wireless networking devices for consumers, but I doubt they'd try to get into the cell phone market. So an arrangement between Cisco and Apple would've been good for both firms. But Jobs' arrogance is going to fuck him instead. I hope Cisco makes them call the phone something else.

Yes they can.

First they can get a injunction to stop them from using the name. Then they can recover damages because Apple has already violated their trademark. You do not have to sell something in order to be sued for damages. Of course the damages go up if you do sell stuff with someone elses trademark on it.

Cisco can also recover court costs.

Cisco cares. If Cisco was serious about its offer then nothing Apple will offer will work.

No judge can force Cisco to sell for any price. The lawsuit will only be about stopping Apple from using the name and any damages over it.

So do I. If I was Cisco I'd refuse to ever sell them the name. In fact I'd go so far as to sell it to Microsoft so they could market a cellphone. Royalty of $1 per phone sold.

EDIT: Deleted due to not paying as much attention as I thought I was.

I know. Really working with Cisco, Apple only stood to gain ground here. Cisco is an excellent company with a great track record. Apple could have probably ended up making an awesome Apple/Cisco product and it would have instantly been a hit. Now, they'll have to hope it'll catch on.

Ah, the first contender. A huge brick. Next.

The interesting thing I found out, was that they chose Cingular because they agreed to any changes Apple wanted to make.

You see, Sprint and Verizon, the companies control what their phones ultimately do. Things like menus and what not are all decided by the providers. Motorola could've made the iPhone, they just lacked the will or the power to force it through.

Jobs didn't. He went to Cingular and said "we're not gonna tell you what we're doing until the very end, and you have to accede to all our requests". In return, they got several years of exclusivity with the phone.

Or you know you could just get a videocard for the pc that supports tv out, works fine.

If you have a hdtv or projector chances are it accepts vga inputs as well for hd media.

and my thesis that women are the most superficial creatures on the planet gets another boost!

why does apple inspire such image-over-functionality attitudes? most companies who operate like apple - the environment? whats that? what shares? oh, those share... uh... probably fell down the back of the sofa? - would get slaughtered, but apple gets a pass every time.

they could release a line of jewskin ipods, powered by incinerated muslim powder and made by enslaved 5 year old under the watch of kiddie-fiddling priests and fed curried anthrax, and people would praise them.

OMG! You've been looking at the Apple Marketing Strategy files again, haven't you?

The point is simply that the Onyx is about double the size of the iPhone - and just look at the usability. Dragging and dropping...yea baby If that's what the competition comes up with Apple has just cornered another market.

The point for me is that I simple don't use a lot of functions modern phones have. For example, I have no laptop so I'm not using UMTS. Don't need WAP or a camera. But I do want it to look cool and fit snugly into a pocket too without making me look like my long lost twin is growing out of me. That's not superficial, that's simply a tradeoff. If I had any use for a full QWERTZ keyboard or something I'd very likely trade that for size and get a Nokia Communicator. But I have other priorities. To each their own

Apple operations, btw, will be shining examples in future text book about marketing. That's how you do it.

And the jewskin iPod will probably not be on sale here

You're missing one part of the puzzle. The iPhone was always going to be a GSM based handset. That eliminates Verizon and Sprint-Nextel off the bat. Now between T-Mobile and Cingular, which would you chose to go exclusive with?