iPhone: Safari ad, unofficial hands-on, anti-interference patent

[AppleInsider]

Apple has already aired another commercial as part of its iPhone advertising blitz. Also, one waiter claims to have had some early unofficial experience with the device. And a US patent may show the way towards trouble-free calls.

4th iPhone spot airs on TV

On the heels of its first three ads, Apple has begun circulating a new ad on TV networks.

The 30-second ad, first noticed on CNBC, follows in step with the previous ads but shifts its attention to Safari's ability to display websites as their creators intended -- the "real" Internet, the ad says.

The ad is not yet available at Apple.com but can be seen via a YouTube capture at the end of this report.

Restaurant server gains iPhone practice?

Meanwhile, one employee of a high-class Manhattan restaurant may have been one of the first outside of a small circle of owners to try the iPhone for himself.

Posting in Ars Technica's Mac forum, "Felix K" says a customer dining at Balthazar lent his rare cellphone to the waiter for a few minutes of direct contact. The experience was "amazing," he says, proving the interface to be quick and stable. The screen was allegedly free of streaks and the mystery client easily typed out text when the phone was returned.

Even the packaging, which had accompanied the phone's owner to the New York City eatery, is reportedly an "elegant" black cube, giving the employee an almost uniformly positive impression of the device despite the inability to test calling, EDGE Internet access, or e-mail.

"It feels like an Apple product. Consider it another Mac," Felix adds. "That made me pretty eager to get it. "

Patent guards against dropped iPhone calls

Apple has also been granted a recent US patent for a device that could eliminate potential signal drop-outs and other interference that could interrupt phone calls and other essential wireless traffic.

Described as an "accessory detector," the module would be embedded in a "wireless mobile device" such as a cellphone and tie into both black and white lists on the parent device to warn the user when nearby devices might interrupt the normal wireless signal. Borderline acceptable peripherals could force the handheld to adjust its antennas or its frequency tuning, the patent explains.

It's unclear at this time whether the patent, filed in late December of last year, might apply to the first-genertion iPhone or might be considered for a future model.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[SurfRat]

Haha! I love how AAPL scrolls by right as the guy starts talking. (Up 56 cents at the time, by the way)

[Mr. H]

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

Oh, and Balthazar is fantastic. I highly recommend it.

[wilco]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

I share your disgust! Apple is worse than Hitler!

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by wilco

I share your disgust! Apple is worse than Hitler!

Ah wilco, you just keep the constructive posts coming, don't you?

For a leading technology company such as Apple to describe the world-wide-web as "the internet" is very poor. Where is Apple's "attention to detail"?

[gmaff]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

Oh, and Balthazar is fantastic. I highly recommend it.

Personally, I'm glad Apple used "the internet" the ad is meant to apeal to a wide audience and more people understand what "the internet" refers to as opposed to "the world wide web." Plus it just kinda sounds better.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by gmaff

Personally, I'm glad Apple used "the internet" the ad is meant to apeal to a wide audience and more people understand what "the internet" refers to as opposed to "the world wide web." Plus it just kinda sounds better.

Here's a pretty direct analogy: calling the world-wide-web "the internet" is like calling newspapers "roads".

I dislike the idea of dumbing-down to the lowest common denominator. Besides, I'm really not sure that people wouldn't understand if the ad said "web" instead of "internet".

And you are wrong that more people understand what "the internet" refers to. When you say "internet", what most people are actually thinking of is the world-wide-web, and when you say "world-wide-web" or "web", everyone thinks of the web.

[GregoriusM]

I agree. The WWW is not what people around me call it, although I'm surprised that the term iSH is not something that Apple is trying to bring to the table with the advent of the iPhone for the iPhone Super Highway.... ermmmm.... information Super Highway.

And, HEY Y'ALL, I've been reading this site for a few months now, and since most of you have an opinion which sometimes is similar to mine and sometimes is just way out to lunch, I thought I'd join you for lunch! I hope you don't mind!





Edit: Mr. H snuck in there. I disagree with your comment, Mr. H. To bring up another analogy, if we were to "not" dumb down our terminology then what you probably "typed" your comment on shouldn't be referred to as a computer, for in reality, it is so much more. Yes, in its rawest form, it has computational ability, but the sum of its parts is far more than simply a "computer", and yet, that is what we call it, and a "personal" one at that.

As long as the person understands the capabilities and how the "internet" or "web" or "world wide web" can be used productively, does it really matter what it's called?

And that's my buck fifty in my first post on Apple Insider! (Your valuation of my comments might differ...)

[stangmatt66]

Man, I wish Apple's mac commercials were this direct and descriptive. I've had enough with the PC vs. Mac commercials. I need some substance.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by GregoriusM

As long as the person understands the capabilities and how the "internet" or "web" or "world wide web" can be used productively, does it really matter what it's called?

Do you think it matters that roads and newspapers have different names? Do you think it's important that people understand the difference between a road and a newspaper?

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by stangmatt66

Man, I wish Apple's mac commercials were this direct and descriptive. I've had enough with the PC vs. Mac commercials. I need some substance.

Hear! Hear! Apart from this internet/web mix-up, the iPhone ads are exactly what Apple's non-existant OS X adverts should be like.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by stangmatt66

Man, I wish Apple's mac commercials were this direct and descriptive. I've had enough with the PC vs. Mac commercials. I need some substance.

That's part of the problem/difference with a computer. Depends on what you want to do with it, whereas with a phone... well, heck even babies know what phones do.

[kresh]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

Oh, and Balthazar is fantastic. I highly recommend it.

Wahoo does this mean that an iPhone BitTorrent client, a Usenet client, and of course an iPhone Apache micro-server are all on the way

edit: and it will not be complete unless mIRC is ported over to the iPhone!

all sarcasm aside, with Apple saying "Internet" instead of "World Wide Web", I hope this means that there will be many, many internet apps for the iPhone.

[EagerDragon]

Sorry but the ad is really fine. You get "Internet" access from an "Internet Service Provider", people are used to that. As most of them use it (The Internet) for emails and browsing the web, There is no problem from the terminology of the commercial.

All this nit picking.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by kresh

with Apple saying "Internet" instead of "World Wide Web", I hope this means that there will be many, many internet apps for the iPhone.

With the entire ad focussing on Safari, it is clear they should have said web not internet. And you raise a very good point; that Apple could actually be got for false advertising on this. They claim it's the internet. Will the iPhone do Voip? doubtful. Will the iPhone allow access to the iTunes store? Steve's already said no. etc. etc.

[Wojciechowski]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

Yeah, because no-one refers to the world wide web as the internet.

It's too bad apple spends millions on marketing and advertising firms that do public polling and test screenings on the target audiences to find the best way to word their advertisements to get the message out clearly to the most amount of people, when they could just call you up and have you tell them how to best word their ads.

Who calls it the world wide web anymore anyways? That term sounds like it's straight from 1994 and brings back memories of the netscape world animation when a page loads from Netscape Navigator. They might as well call it eWorld.

BTW... I was at taco bell today and a guy in front of me had an iPhone. I don't know who he was, but he let me play with it for a few minutes. It was awesome. It was so smooth and elegant and worked very well... Can I now have a mention on a front page article on AI that adds nothing to what we already know? BTW... I promise this really did happen.

[bsenka]

The popular usage is definitely to use the term "internet" to specifically refer to the world wide web. People don't even use the term browser for the most part, they just call it "the internet". If you try to correct them, and explain that world wide web, email, FTP, and all kinds of other network things they use are all part of the internet, they look at you like you are the second coming of Cliff Clavin. Once something gets into the common vernacular, it's pretty much irrelevant what the "proper" term is.

[kresh]

Originally Posted by EagerDragon

Sorry but the ad is really fine. You get "Internet" access from an "Internet Service Provider", people are used to that. As most of them use it (The Internet) for emails and browsing the web, There is no problem from the terminology of the commercial.

All this nit picking.

If my home ISP considered the internet to be web browsing/email and prohibited me from anything else, yet marketed it as the internet I would sue them.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by Wojciechowski

Yeah, because no-one refers to the world wide web as the internet.

The fact that most people are ignorant is no excuse for Apple to join in.

Again, calling the web "the internet" is exactly like calling a newspaper a road. The world wide web is delivered to you over the internet, and a newspaper is delivered to you/your-local-shop by road. Lots of things other than newspapers can be delivered to you by road, and lots of things other than the web can be delivered to you via the internet. For Apple to advertise the iPhone as having "not a watered-down version of the internet" implies that it can take full advantage of the internet. In fact, the iPhone cannot. This is false advertising.

[Wojciechowski]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

The fact that most people are ignorant is no excuse for Apple to join in.

Again, calling the web "the internet" is exactly like calling a newspaper a road. The world wide web is delivered to you over the internet, and a newspaper is delivered to you/your-local-shop by road. Lots of things other than newspapers can be delivered to you by road, and lots of things other than the web can be delivered to you via the internet.

No offense, but that analogy is retarded.

[steviet02]

Originally Posted by Wojciechowski

No offense, but that analogy is retarded.

While I wouldn't have worded it that way, I also think the analogy is incorrect. You can't get to the WWW without the internet, but I can drive on the road without a newspaper, or read a newspaper without the road.

Steve

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by Wojciechowski

No offense, but that analogy is retarded.

If you think that analogy is "retarded" you obviously don't understand the difference between the web and the internet. The web is an information source, delivered via a network. A newspaper is an information source delivered over a network.

[daijones]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

The fact that most people are ignorant is no excuse for Apple to join in.

Again, calling the web "the internet" is exactly like calling a newspaper a road. The world wide web is delivered to you over the internet, and a newspaper is delivered to you/your-local-shop by road. Lots of things other than newspapers can be delivered to you by road, and lots of things other than the web can be delivered to you via the internet. For Apple to advertise the iPhone as having "not a watered-down version of the internet" implies that it can take full advantage of the internet. In fact, the iPhone cannot. This is false advertising.

Car would be a better analogy than newspaper I guess: roads are a means of allowing easy movement to a range of vehicles, cars are one of several different kinds of vehicle that might use roads. You're right in that "the web" is one of many protocols available on the internet, but alas it's a distinction that's lost on the general public.

[ryukyu]

Good grief !!
Well first of all, most of the eople that frequent this website are not exactly representative of your average computer user.
Sometimes there's too much nit-pickiness and arguing about petty semantics here.
Secondly, who cares what they call it as long as they get the idea across?
The newspaper/road thing is a ridiculous analogy.

[daijones]

Does anyone actually believe this guy used the phone?

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by steviet02

I can drive on the road without a newspaper

Just like you can access the internet without a web browser, and the web doesn't have to exist at all for you to have internet access.

Originally Posted by steviet02

or read a newspaper without the road.

You can't read a newspaper if you don't have a newspaper, and you need roads (or some other transport network) to get a newspaper from the printers to you.

[GregoriusM]

Nomenclature. Vernacular. It's whatever you want to call it. It's whatever is in vogue. It's whatever comes into common usage.

It we want to nit pick, it is not in fact the "world wide" web. It is perhaps the "world that has access to the internet with a device that can use it for browsing, email, ftp, voip, etc. wide" web, but it is is certainly not the "world wide" web. The person or persons who coined that phrase in the first place took some serious artistic license when he/she did it.

Now, I do understand where you are coming from, Mr. H.

You would love an advertisement that has aired many a time on a Canadian broadcast network that referred a newspaper in a different way where the newspaper was no longer the "road" or the medium but was the media itself, and the media contained thereon was.... now I forget what he referred to it as... but it was elevating it to a "higher form".

If I see it again, I'll be sure to message you, because it took some real thought to see where the people who made the advertisement was coming from. Actually, it was the government who made the ad. It was more of a thought provoking deal... there was no product involved. Dang, I wish I remembered it clearly.

That being said, I know where you're coming from, but I do agree that Apple most likely deliberately is calling it the internet to have it more understandable to those who are in the majority who call it just that... the internet.

Have you not had numerous calls that ask you about your "internet" usage? How many hours a week, etc? They aren't asking about email, ftp, etc. They are asking about your browsing. Even those companies use the word internet to mean the world wide web.

So, Apple actually has it right here in using what is commonly referred to as the internet in their commercials, even though we know that if we were to analyze it, as we are, they are not strictly using the proper wording.

Be well!

Greg

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by daijones

Car would be a better analogy than newspaper I guess: roads are a means of allowing easy movement to a range of vehicles, cars are one of several different kinds of vehicle that might use roads. You're right in that "the web" is one of many protocols available on the internet, but alas it's a distinction that's lost on the general public.

A car would be an analogy for some network protocol not associated with the web. If newspapers represent the web, then trucks would represent HTTP.

[Wojciechowski]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

If you think that analogy is "retarded" you obviously don't understand the difference between the web and the internet. The web is an information source, delivered via a network. A newspaper is an information source delivered over a network.

No I perfectly understand the difference between the web and the internet. Just as I understand the difference between newspapers and roads... and that is why I called your analogy retarded.

[GregoriusM]

Originally Posted by ryukyu

Secondly, who cares what they call it as long as they get the idea across?

'Nuff said.

[a_greer]

JESUS APPLE, the Web is NOT the internet, it utilizes the internet, this is the most annoying misconseption that exists in the technology age: as a corprate PC tech, there is nothing more frustrating than getting a call saying "I broke the internet" when IE (or FF or Safari) crashes

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by Wojciechowski

No I perfectly understand the difference between the web and the internet. Just as I understand the difference between newspapers and roads... and that is why I called your analogy retarded.

Oh really. Well if you can just go ahead and deconstruct the analogy to the point where it is clearly "retarded", I will gladly apologise.

[a_greer]

Originally Posted by kresh

If my home ISP considered the internet to be web browsing/email and prohibited me from anything else, yet marketed it as the internet I would sue them.

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by bsenka

The popular usage is definitely to use the term "internet" to specifically refer to the world wide web. People don't even use the term browser for the most part, they just call it "the internet". If you try to correct them, and explain that world wide web, email, FTP, and all kinds of other network things they use are all part of the internet, they look at you like you are the second coming of Cliff Clavin. Once something gets into the common vernacular, it's pretty much irrelevant what the "proper" term is.

I'm in favor of either "the interwebs" or "internets".

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by Wojciechowski

No offense, but that analogy is retarded.

I second the motion.

[GregoriusM]

Originally Posted by a_greer

JESUS APPLE, the Web is NOT the internet, it utilizes the internet, this is the most annoying misconseption that exists in the technology age: as a corprate PC tech, there is nothing more frustrating than getting a call saying "I broke the internet" when IE (or FF or Safari) crashes

I was a computer tech and had to deal with people who called file types, software, hardware, etc. everything under the sun.

To take the time to educate them down to the level that we are trying to do here would have taken me, and 10 other techs to do, without getting to the problem.

"The box on my screen goes away when I click on the OKAY button. What did I break?"

"Well, technically, sir, it is a cathode ray tube encased in a plastic box with supporting circuitry allowing your computational device which itself is encased in a plastic box with supporting circuitry and software, firmware......".... you get my point?

K.I.S.S. principle.

To get any more than that is very often a waste of time.

I am a computer person and I call the box on top of my TV exactly that when I call the cable company to get help. "The box has a flashing R on it". I don't get anymore "technical" than that. It is up to the tech person to decipher what is wrong and ask the appropriate questions.

The world in general knows it as "the internet", and to call it anything else is going to confuse people.

Apple is not going to change that.

So, call it what the people call it, so that when they DO phone for help with their iPhones, the techs can understand that when they say "internet" they mean the Safari browser, and when they say email, they mean email, and when they say phone, they mean phone.

The reality is, kids, that the populous calls it the internet when they mean getting on the computer, firing up their browser and surfing.

I am "on the internet" right now. I'll call you back later when "I'm off the internet".

That's the way it is.

Greg

[icfireball]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

I've got to say, I'm disgusted that Apple let this ad get out. It's not "the internet", it's "the world wide web".

Oh, and Balthazar is fantastic. I highly recommend it.

Also interesting that the term "Internet browser" is used in addition to the term "Web browser."

Opera says: "A better and faster Internet experience with a full Internet browser"

Internet Explorer is not titled Web Explorer. It's titled Internet Explorer.

And by the way, did I mention that the Oxford English Dictionary lists "World Wide Web" as a synonym for the Internet?

It's really not worth going here, but if you really want to get technical...
A square is a parallelogram, but a parallelogram is not a square. If you want to get technical, the internet is the parallelogram (broad) and the World Wide Web is the square (specific). By saying the iPhone displays the internet is like saying the square on the piece of paper is a parallelogram. We'll yea, there are other kinds of parallelograms: a rhombus and a rectangle are both parallelograms, but it's not incorrect to say the square is a parallelogram. Sure it's not all parallelograms, but it definitely is a kind of parallelogram. The web is a form of the internet (one of many).

The fact is, since when has advertising been technical?

[a_greer]

The internet is nothing more than a network of WANs, or a super-wan if you will, "the internet" really only exists in the bottom 3 layers of the OSI model, Physical(1 or 0, on or off), data-link (uses MAC addresses), and network (network addressing schemes like IP)

The applications are what it is all about, but the applications are not the internet!

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

I second the motion.

How lovely. Thanks for that. I see you provide no actual explanation for this.

Do you deny that the internet and the web are two different things?
Do you deny that newspapers and roads are two different things?
Do you deny that the web is an information source?
Do you deny that newspapers are an information source?
Do you deny that the internet is a network?
Do you deny that roads form a network?

In order for the web to get to you, information travels over a network - the internet. In order for a newspaper to get to you, information travels over a network - the road network. You can even take it further and have trucks being the equivalent of HTTP.

Now sure, the analogy isn't perfect. But I think it actually does a pretty good job of translating something that causes most people to glaze-over into something they can relate to and understand.

[a_greer]

Saying that the web is the internet is like saying that HBO IS cable tv; you leave room for nothing else!