I understand arguing the merits of Flash support. But a removable battery? Really?
Why are some getting so defensive about the suggestion?
Do you think the iPhone is the perfect smart phone, and nothing on it can be improved? I ask that seriously, that question goes to you HotHotHot and Fanin80 as well.
Throw price away and I think the iPhone 4 is the best phone on the market, I think several others come close, and maybe even reach if it taking price into consideration... but that doesn't mean it's perfect, and that doesn't mean users of the iPhone can't make suggestions on how to make it better.
The way certain users here get so defensive over Apple products is just ######ed. Plain ol' ######ation.
I have two Apple products, I love them both, but that doesn't mean I fawn over them, or don't accept there are things that can't be improved upon.
A huge improvement that both the next gen of iPhone needs are better cameras. Good for Apple to finally include them after 3 previous versions but the front facing camera needs a lot of work. Pretty darn crappy quality.
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Do you think the iPhone is the perfect smart phone, and nothing on it can be improved? I ask that seriously, that question goes to you HotHotHot and Fanin80 as well.
I didn't say it was the perfect phone, nor did I get defensive about anything. In fact, I don't think I even said anything about it other than mentioning that you don't have to pull the battery to foce a hard boot like you do with a BB. If you did, then not being able to would be an obvious concern.
For me, the whole removable battery thing has always been a non-issue. If a battery dies, it costs me just as much to get Apple to replace it as it would if I were to buy a battery myself and put it in. Actually, since the non-replaceable batteries are covered under Apple's warranty, it would even cost me a lot less than replacing it myself.
As for carrying multiple batteries around, that might have been a valid point 6 years ago, but the batteris of today last so much longer, and there are so many ways of easily recharging them on the move, that it just strikes me as another moot point. I plug my phone in at night, and it lasts me all day long.
It's just a phone after all. It's not like we're talking about something people spend 18 hours a day working on.
I have a Dell laptop that I take to school, and it has a battery that barely lasts an hour and a half. Do I take the battery out and switch it? No, I plug it in. Would I care if the battery was sealed inside the laptop and I wasn't able to take it out? No, because I never take it out anyway. Why would I spend $90 on a second battery that's only going to give me another 90 minutes? No thanks, I'll just plug it in.
Come on, even the biggest Apple fanboy has to admit that a removable battery isn't something that detracts from a phone and is in fact, a beneficial feature for many people.
Just because Apple doesn't allow their customers to do this doesn't mean that you have to rag on people who wish for such things and continue defending Apple to the death.
You know what's covered under Apple's iPhone warranty?
Non-removable batteries.
You know what isn't covered under most other company's phone warranties?
Removable batteries.
Why does not caring about removable batteries make anyone a fanboy? In fact, I think your demand for the freedom to pay $90 to replace your own battery is pretty questionable.
Why does not caring about removable batteries make anyone a fanboy? In fact, I think your demand for the freedom to pay $90 to replace your own battery is pretty questionable.
You're the only one in this thread who has used the term fanboy.
On my Blackberry I have an app that allows you to customize the color and blink duration and frequency for specific actions. Mail to a specific email address can blink one color, another a different color; text, BBM's and application notifications also different colors. Further, any address book contact can also be assigned a color/sequence. One look at the phone and you know what type of message you have, and/or from who. I rarely have the ringer on my phone for any alerts, I just have to look and see the color blinking to determine if its a message that may be urgent, or just some junk mail coming into my junk mail account.
Something easily done on an Iphone...to this point I am sure its a big faux pas in Apple design land to have a blinking light on the bezel to take away the cache of the industrial design that it took months to engineer and devise by the team assembled from across the world.
I have no doubt its coming at some point in some iteration, and Apple will try and pass it off as some breakthrough.
Why does not caring about removable batteries make anyone a fanboy? In fact, I think your demand for the freedom to pay $90 to replace your own battery is pretty questionable.
A genuine iPhone 4 battery does not cost $90. That's the price Apple charges you. you can buy a genuine one for $15. An after-market one for $10. It only costs Apple about $5 to manufacture a battery. The willingness to pay Apple whatever they put on their pricetag (and this applies to every other manufacturer as well, I am not choosing favorites) is something I find questionable.
The point many people are putting across is about consumer friendliness and freedom of choice here. An iPhone does eat power quite quickly if you use it at maxmium brightness and use the WiFi often during the day. Why not allow the consumer to just have a backup power supply that is portable? I know some people who carry 2 phones because of this.
And yes, if a consumer does want to pay $90 because he uses his iPhone for business and is out travelling all the time away from a power source and wants a convenient way to instantly refresh the power of his device, why not let him? You don't have to make rationalizations for it. It is just what it is and may be important to some people if not yourself.
I can understand where Apple is coming from. They want to maintain their control over the servicing of phones and prevent consumers from using aftermarket batteries (which is inevitable given Apple's pricing). They may see this as a quality control issue to maintain the quality of their brand. This makes sense to me but likewise, there is no need to go to their defense either. Ultimately I am a consumer who wants control over that choice. Not the other way around. This is just for me.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 04-20-2011 at 10:20 PM.
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iPhone batteries are covered under warranty, so you're right that they don't cost $90.
I'm not getting suckered into an argument about a non-issue like replaceable batteries. I have lots of non-Apple devices with both replaceable and non-replaceable batteries. I really couldn't care less either way.
If you're a battery guy, then you might not want to get an iPhone. It really ain't no thang G.
A genuine iPhone 4 battery does not cost $90. That's the price Apple charges you. you can buy a genuine one for $15. An after-market one for $10. It only costs Apple about $5 to manufacture a battery. The willingness to pay Apple whatever they put on their pricetag (and this applies to every other manufacturer as well, I am not choosing favorites) is something I find questionable.
The point many people are putting across is about consumer friendliness and freedom of choice here. An iPhone does eat power quite quickly if you use it at maxmium brightness and use the WiFi often during the day. Why not allow the consumer to just have a backup power supply that is portable? I know some people who carry 2 phones because of this.
And yes, if a consumer does want to pay $90 because he uses his iPhone for business and is out travelling all the time away from a power source and wants a convenient way to instantly refresh the power of his device, why not let him? You don't have to make rationalizations for it. It is just what it is and may be important to some people if not yourself.
I can understand where Apple is coming from. They want to maintain their control over the servicing of phones and prevent consumers from using aftermarket batteries (which is inevitable given Apple's pricing). They may see this as a quality control issue to maintain the quality of their brand. This makes sense to me but likewise, there is no need to go to their defense either. Ultimately I am a consumer who wants control over that choice. Not the other way around. This is just for me.
When I originally asked TSVT the question about what the iPhone4 was missing, the replaceable battery never crossed my mind. It's a valid question I'm sure for some but it really hasn't been an issue for us. For those of you with multiple batteries, how do you charge your spare? I used to have an old Motorola phone with an extra battery and I either had to buy a separate charging dock or I had to charge my spare battery in my phone and then replace with the other. I would then either forget to carry the extra battery around or I would misplace it. For me, it actually became a bit of a nuisance.
This is why the iPhone works for me. The battery is under warranty and even Applecare covers it. There were the odd times where I would run out of power, so I just got one of those cases that also acts as a spare battery. It's not 2 inches longer but rather it only makes the phone about a half inch longer and less than 3 ounces heavier, plus it's a case to boot. I never forget to bring it since it's always on the phone and my battery life has doubled which is the equivalent of carry an extra battery.
I can see both points of views though so I can totally understand why some would rather have the option of carry an extra battery while others aren't that concerned about it.
For us (especially my wife) when we got our phone, one of the most critical things we required was native international language support. At the time, I think only Apple had this for the language we required. Sure some phones ha apps for different languages but there were issues when texting or sending emails in a foreign language. I'm sure this has probably been resolved by now but at the time that was the kicker for us.
I just replaced the battery on an iPhone 4 for a friend, this is not an issue. It literally took 15 minutes start to finish, and I was being super careful along the way. All the tools are available at Princess Auto surplus. And she ordered the battery online for $15.
Check out the fabulously geeky, yet rackalicious MJ replace the battery for you.
It is way easier than the hell I went through with my 3Gs.
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On my Blackberry I have an app that allows you to customize the color and blink duration and frequency for specific actions. Mail to a specific email address can blink one color, another a different color; text, BBM's and application notifications also different colors. Further, any address book contact can also be assigned a color/sequence. One look at the phone and you know what type of message you have, and/or from who. I rarely have the ringer on my phone for any alerts, I just have to look and see the color blinking to determine if its a message that may be urgent, or just some junk mail coming into my junk mail account.
Something easily done on an Iphone...to this point I am sure its a big faux pas in Apple design land to have a blinking light on the bezel to take away the cache of the industrial design that it took months to engineer and devise by the team assembled from across the world.
I have no doubt its coming at some point in some iteration, and Apple will try and pass it off as some breakthrough.
Well, Apple needs to get on screen notifications right before this. They are terrible.
I would like some sort of hardware based notification but I think that a single flashing LED like Blackberry has is a terrible implementation. I haven't noticed Androids on any phone ive used.
I would like a throbbing LED strip either in the top left running along the bezel or maybe a circular strip around the headphone jack that would gently throb different colours based on what type of notifications I had. It should also shut off when the phone is unlocked.
I don't want to always be staring at a blinking light near the on screen content I am using which says I have unread mail or texts because, I always do.
My favorite part about my iphone is that there is no blinking light. When I had a blackberry I slaved to that light because it bothered me watching it blink. With the iphone I am much more productive because if I miss a text or email it doesn't bother me that a little light is telling me I missed it.
I think apple needs to get notifications in the lock screen. Hit your home button turns the phone on and you can see how many emails and texts and calls youve missed. I know you can do this with jailbreaking it so it would be really nice if apple just did it them selves.
My favorite part about my iphone is that there is no blinking light. When I had a blackberry I slaved to that light because it bothered me watching it blink. With the iphone I am much more productive because if I miss a text or email it doesn't bother me that a little light is telling me I missed it.
I think apple needs to get notifications in the lock screen. Hit your home button turns the phone on and you can see how many emails and texts and calls youve missed. I know you can do this with jailbreaking it so it would be really nice if apple just did it them selves.
Yeah, you can see your last txt message on the lock screen but there isn't a notification of all the things unread.
Just a quick update from Joshua Topolsky (formerly from Engadget) but now from www.thisismynext.com on what the iPhone 5 might look like. It's completely different from the iPhone 4 which I think is a good thing.
I think 6 might look something like that but I doubt they'll be changing the design that much for 5. They, and their, partners have invested too much in peripherals/accessories to abandon the current design so quickly.
Like others have said, it will be a 3G to 3GS style change this time around. Improved processor, camera and maybe capacity. There will probably be a big iOS update to make the 4 and 5 much better that won't be available to the 3GS. Thus forcing them to upgrade if they want new features.
Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but I'd like to see a magnetic induction battery. It would be sweet to just chuck your phone on the nightstand/coffee table/etc and have it automatically charge.
I bet this new aforementioned iPhone 5 from the Engadget employee is more like the latest iPod. He's been wrong endlessly before. I don't have an iPhone, but I really like the design of the 4. I'm holding out for the 5, and would be terribly upset if it ended up with the above design. I'd much rather have the look of the 4 if that's the case.
