iPhone Woes

[Bob.Kerns]

Originally Posted by Bill Seright

My spouse and I have AT&T Tilts, also 3G, and feel much the same way. We actually tried and tested the iPhone and returned them to go with the Tilt.

Bill Seright

I'm glad you guys are having a good experience. I had the predecessor to the Tilt -- and I literally was counting down the days until I could replace it with an iPhone.

I'd really like to know what the difference is. It could be self-inflicted through add-on apps -- but I've got a gadzillion add-on apps on my new iPhone, and sometimes they crash, but they never take the phone with them.

The phone just works. My biggest complaint with the previous HTC phone was that it would fail to inform me of calls. Sometimes it would ring just once and go to voicemail. Sometimes not ring at all, and inform me days later of the missed call. Likewise, voicemail. And the ATT voicemail itself was one of the most painful to use I've encountered, and with all the other issues, I'd get tons of junk voicemails to wade through.

So replacing that horror show with Visual Voicemail was a clear winner. But you know what? I have yet to get a single voicemail!. Because I've been able to answer all but one call, and she didn't leave a voicemail!

I hadn't realized the problems with receiving calls were that bad, or that a new phone would make that much of a difference. I've spoken to someone who'd been trying to reach me directly for a long time... he got me first time.

So when my daughter called me this afternoon, and I was on the other side of the office, not only did I have time to dash across the office (on my Segway, of course!), I actually got there in time -- I just hadn't internalized the right way to answer it when it's locked, so I missed by one second. I was hoping she'd leave voicemail, but....

So maybe I didn't need better voicemail, just a better phone!

But anyway -- the iPhone has something which really has me intrigued -- it has accelerometers. And apps can make use of them. There's an app called Dynolicious which I'm looking forward to trying out on a Segway.

It doesn't have any way to directly measure tilt, though. You'd need either rotation sensors, or at least four spacially-separated accelerometers. For less dynamic applications, it can detect tilt by comparison with gravity.

But I don't think it's quite enough to make a simulated Segway app!

It does make a pretty good clinometer, however.

It also has GPS built in, which is pretty common these days, including on the tilt. Between GPS and accelerometers, you should be able to get very precise track and performance data on your Segway journeys!

There's getting to be a long list of things I could gripe about -- including copy-and-paste -- but it has the basics right -- it's a phone that's solidly a phone, AND an iPod that's solidly an iPod, etc. Even better, it's also a really good mobile hand-held computing platform.

I wish I could replace Safari with Chrome for robustness, but it does a pretty good job of working well on the small screen, in both portrait and landscape modes.

Anyway, Segways, phones, GPS and accelerometers... what should we do with THAT combo? Ideas?

[bvelke]

Anyway, Segways, phones, GPS and accelerometers... what should we do with THAT combo? Ideas?

I've thought that it would be cool to have an app where you can transmit your location to other seggers as you ride around -- and you can see where other seggers are in real time.

Segway riders is just one such social group that might use the service. There could be groups for DeLorean owners, Harley riders, geocachers, singles on the prowl, or whatever.

There is a service called www.mymovingmap.com that will let you track one person at a time like that. I guess the server load and throughput for keeping the iPhone map up-to-date (especially if it had dozens or thousands of points) is the technical bottleneck at the moment but I predict that a whole industry will pop up around this kind of application. All I want is my royalty.

-Bob

[jrwilcox]

There is also a service called Loopt which runs on some of the high end cell phones. I use it on my iPhone.

Loopt

Jim

[wwhopper]

but little sister, uncles aunts and everyone for that matter.

Not sure I want people know where I am (or worse yet my cell phone) at all times of the day and night!

[segsurfer]

Originally Posted by wwhopper

but little sister, uncles aunts and everyone for that matter.

Not sure I want people know where I am (or worse yet my cell phone) at all times of the day and night!

I prefer to be ninja like and stealthy, which is why I avoid location aware services all together
-segsurfer

[wwhopper]

Originally Posted by segsurfer

I prefer to be ninja like and stealthy, which is why I avoid location aware services all together
-segsurfer

It sounds like the perfect app for parents of teenagers, (especailly a teenage son who rides a Segway, and has Miller girls in his corner!) NO QUESTION, that app would be installed on his phone and coded so he could not turn it off.

Then the parents could call him and embarass him!

[Gihgehls]

Originally Posted by wwhopper

It sounds like the perfect app for parents of teenagers, (especailly a teenage son who rides a Segway, and has Miller girls in his corner!) NO QUESTION, that app would be installed on his phone and coded so he could not turn it off.

Then the parents could call him and embarass him!

iPhone apps cannot currently run in the background.

[SegNerd]

My iPhone has been great for me, although I realize it hasn't been the same for everyone.

So are you sure you are running the latest firmware (version 2.2 at this writing)? Have you had a chance to talk to a Genius at all?

What exactly is happening with your e-mail? Do you get any error messages, or do you just never see any new mail? Do you have multiple e-mail accounts, and if so, do they all have the same problem? Are you sure your iPhone has a working data connection while this is going on? (As in, does Safari Mobile work, and do you see an "E," a WiFi icon, or a GPRS dot at the top of your screen?)

[segsurfer]

Originally Posted by wwhopper

It sounds like the perfect app for parents of teenagers, (especailly a teenage son who rides a Segway, and has Miller girls in his corner!) NO QUESTION, that app would be installed on his phone and coded so he could not turn it off.

Then the parents could call him and embarass him!

Except when said teenage son can outwit said parents phone hacks by using various assorted counter measures, the likes of which he will never reveal.
-segsurfer

[sfrantz]

My iphone works great. It is so much better than my previous smart phones (most recently a Treo 700p).

I've never had a problem with email or phone calls, but I don't do that many calls. Mostly I do the web.

I don't like Apple's extreme control over the platform, but that does ensure everything works.

Steve

(just thought I'd chip in)