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Rory Cellan-Jones

The iPhone - Great at Home, Lousy Abroad

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 13 Jan 08, 16:18 GMT

鈥樷滵o you know why this industry keeps failing to understand what consumers want?鈥, a mobile phone company executive asked me recently. 鈥滲ecause none of us in the business pays our own phone bills.鈥 The same could be said for many of the journalists who review the latest handsets 鈥 so I tried an experiment. I bought Apple鈥檚 iPhone, for a hefty 拢269, and spent the last four weeks playing with it 鈥 and paying for it 鈥 at home, and abroad.

Here are my thoughts:

Rory Cellan-Jones and iPhoneFirst, the upside. As a mobile internet device it is simply the best I鈥檝e ever tried, especially when connected to a wi-fi network. This morning I googled chart hits from the 70s, watched a few on YouTube, then downloaded tracks from iTunes as I lay in bed compiling a CD for a forthcoming party. And it was all very fast.

Special sites designed for iPhone make it easy to use, such as Facebook, Twitter or 鈥 my personal favourite 鈥 access to 大象传媒 podcasts on the move.

Away from wi-fi, it can be a bit of a struggle 鈥 the EDGE network is rather patchy even in London 鈥 but checking news feeds is still a lot easier than on 3g phones I鈥檝e used.

While my 拢35 per month tariff only offers 200 minutes of calls, it does allow me unlimited data, and I chewed my way through a hefty 72 MB in just three weeks. But then I headed to the United States 鈥 and my problems started.

I had already read horror stories about the price of using an iPhone abroad 鈥 the editor of Wired took his to China and got a bill for $2,100 for checking his email. So I turned off data roaming 鈥 and immediately found that what I was left with was a not very smart phone.

Without the internet, you can just call and text - and these are the phone鈥檚 weakest areas. Just answering calls 鈥 you have to slide a finger across the screen 鈥 is a challenge, and I鈥檝e not yet mastered one-thumb texting on the touchscreen. The camera is okay 鈥 for 2 megapixels 鈥 but make sure your subject is well lit and not moving. And I'm beginning to find video capture essential on a phone.

Things might have been better if there had been more 鈥 and cheaper 鈥 wi-fi in Las Vegas. The only time I managed to get online was while listening to a speech in the Las Vegas Hilton theatre, and I was soon surfing and sending pictures home.

I did turn on data roaming once 鈥 to use Google Maps to find a shop in the search for a present for my wife. I then worked out that the 300k of data involved in one search had cost me 拢2. Still, when you鈥檙e spending 拢10 on a tee-shirt, what鈥檚 another 拢2?

Back home, I found that just six days of calls had cost me 拢80, on top of my 拢35 monthly payment. On a couple of occasions I had tried using a Voip service offering cheap calls 鈥 but of course that involves going online and racking up extra data charges.

So what do I want to hear about iPhone from Steve Jobs in his Macworld keynote on Tuesday? Yes, I鈥檇 like a better camera, video capture, 3g, and one button to press to answer calls. But most of all I鈥檇 like a cheaper way of using my iPhone abroad. Given the way this global industry works to punish consumers who stray outside their own borders, I鈥檇 imagine that鈥檚 highly unlikely/

UPDATE:
Clearly, my appetite for web browsing on the iPhone is shared by others. According to the iPhone is already one of the most popular devices on which to browse the web while mobile.

Rory Cellan-Jones

(Very) Amateur Video

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 13 Jan 08, 14:25 GMT

We're thinking of doing a bit of home-made video on this blog - and this is my first try. It's a look behind the scenes at the 大象传媒 operation at CES in Las Vegas last week, all shot on a mobile phone and edited using a free package on my laptop.

And I think the wobbly vision and dodgy sound edits provide incontrovertible evidence that a professional shoot/edit (like Steve Adrain, seen in the video) is still indispensable.

But it gives a bit of a flavour of what it's like to cover the world's biggest consumer electronics trade show.

Let me know what you think.

Darren Waters

Apple of all eyes?

  • Darren Waters
  • 13 Jan 08, 09:33 GMT

Another year, another Macworld, and all eyes will be on the Moscone Center, in San Francisco, for Steve Jobs' keynote speech on Tuesday.

And the question everyone is wondering is: what surprises does Jobs have in store?

As always the rumour mill is in overdrive, so let's look at some of the more potent:

A 3G iPhone

The iPhone's lack of 3G has been the most obvious problem in need of remedy. But I would be very surprised to see a hardware upgrade for the iPhone, especially as the software development kit for the phone has yet to be released officially.
A boost to the flash storage of the iPhone is not out of the question - but I'm guessing it will all be about the software and not the hardware of the phone. Expect demonstrations of some very cool new applications.


An ultra-lightweight Macbook Pro

There have been lots of reports of Apple releasing a high-end Macbook Pro with flash storage and no optical drive. If true, this could pitch Apple into the sub-notebook category, possibly a 12-inch machine with a solid state hard drive.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this. Apple's skill has always been in knowing when to enter a market and while other firms have been doing the real innovation in this area - see the Asus Eee PC at the cheap end or Sony's Vaio TZ series at the expensive end - this could be the moment for the firm to take the plunge.

There have also been reports of the Macbook Pro range getting Wimax on board. Intel is certainly pushing Wimax very hard so it would not be a huge surprise but my instincts tell me it's still a little premature.

New iPods

It's almost certainly too early for a new iPod but a boost to the flash storage in the iPod Touch would certainly be welcomed.

Apple TV movie rentals

There has been a lot of talk about iTunes getting movie rentals and with Apple's TV system languishing as a forgotten product this could be the boost it needs.

You only have to walk into an Apple store to see how the product has been relegated. Typically, there is a single Apple TV device tucked away in the corner, with nobody using it.

It would also make sense for the device to be opened up to third-party developers. The Apple TV is really a computer and if Apple themselves can't spare the time to develop new applications for it, then they should let the community do it.

There is a real movement towards uniting the TV with the web - see - and the Apple TV could be that device to bridge the gap.

With Microsoft and Sony constantly improving the Xbox 360 and PS3 through software updates, the Apple TV is becoming neither media centre device nor internet-enabled hub. It needs some attention - and quickly.

So these are my thoughts. I'd welcome yours.

Here too are the thoughts of , and the always readable John Siracusa of .


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