Iphone Zombies!

It’s bad enough when the Blackberry/Treo slow-as-crap walkers block up the pavement fiddling with their dull email devices and walking far too slowly. But this morning I was delayed by my first Apple Iphone Zombie who was walking *even slower* than most on-the-go texthead fuckwits. Probably because the Iphone has no real bleeding keyboard he was tilting it all around and squinting in the sun trying to type something. And maybe because its internet connection is so unbelievably slow, he just got stuck in the middle of the road, helplessly fumbling with his new toy… all the while blocking both cars and people from progressing. Grrrr.

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7 Responses

  1. Dez says:

    Iphone = Iphoney. Its just a shiney toy with no functionality, no 3g, no voice recognition, no video ( although there’s youtube playback…???)

  2. mike says:

    I concur. Best part of it – it doesn’t even work well on Web 2.0 – the virtual keyboard is not triggered by this Java-less, Flash-less “smart phone” and so people are unable to type in their twitterings or edit stuff. The interface is nice though. It has a nice screen, I saw a mention today of a Toshiba G500 with the highest resolution screen available – 3 inches/8 cm but 800×420 resolution. And it may be haptic, which the iphone is not, where when you press the screen you can indent it a little and get a click and pushback.

  3. Dez says:

    you really have to wonder what market they are going after. It seems like its not aimed at one particular demographic but rather go for quantity and mass market than honed in refined market.

    personally : http://www.piratepalooza.com/rphone/

  4. mike says:

    Sorry, that’s the Toshiba G900 – this is a sweet looking device. Bit pricey though.
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/12/toshibas-g900-and-e01-with-windows-mobile-6/

    Re the iphone. No Flash. No Java. Apple keeps saying it’s great as a web browser, but it hardly supports most modern web sites. I’m still unclear on how exactly you manage to load and store many programs on this? Your only option is to tediously bookmark online apps? No Google Gears? I think it’s true that the on-device storage is blocked from easy user access? It seems more and more like a Helio (ie, a constrained purpose device instead of a computer) but with less social features activated and with a rather single-minded focus on video playback as a primary function. Going by this Gearlog entry, that the virtual kb fails to trigger with lots of Web 2-ish apps. That sucks. And no expansion slot?

    It does have a nice screen (except for the distressing and presumably cost-cutting lack of haptic feedback like, say this Samsung). However, reading about the Toshiba G900, which manages to pack in 800×480 into a 3″ screen for what I figure is the highest pixel density short of e-ink devices, clinches it. It retails unlocked for $700, and has biometrics, 3G, expansion slots, dual vids, etc. To me, that’s a “computer”.

  5. Dez says:

    Have you seen the Nokia N95?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N95
    This is the money shot. Apple could have cornered the market in terms of applications and what this phone can do but for whatever dumb reason they didnt do this. Am really surprised that things like gps and voice recognition ( and some decent security features , at least biometric ) havent been added into this but I reckon where they will draw this out is in the value added apps and accessories. It’ll be like the ipod accessory muppetry all over again.
    I’m sure there’ll be hackers out there just waiting to port linux on this.

    But if you are after a decent phone with all the bits check
    http://openmoko.org/

  6. mike says:

    Yes, a friend had the N95 – it’s not available subsidiez from any US carrier but people with cash to burn can import unlocked ones and pop in a SIM. Of course, most of the sheeple with cash to burn have bought iphones and are now congratulating themselves on “hacking” it to do *amazing* things like, you know, play back non-Apple approved ringtones and or accept non-ATT SIMs. The most important thing to take away from this is that a huge proportion of people love being treated like shit and find pleasure in winning small, pointless victories from them. Even when offered the easy way out – like unlocked fully functional phones or gadgets that will do everything they want – many of them prefer to “hack” shiny little toys. It’s a masochism thing, a commodity fetishism.

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