First, your overall response to the question is very good. What many fail to realize is that for a revolution to mean anything (historically) it [mostly] requires for the
revolution to be successful, No?
I have intermingled some comments and questions where appropriate.
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Originally Posted by
melgross 
I see this phone as being far ahead of whatever's out there now. Do I see it as revolutionary? Well, yes, in a way I do.
What we've been seeing is that when Apple implements a feature, it becomes an important feature to have. It becomes used. When other companies have introduced the same features, we haven't seen that. One reason is as Jobs has said, Apple sweats the details. They get it right. Android phones have a fair amount of poorly thought out features. The OS is still wonky and crude. It's not just my opinion, but the opinion of even the reviewers in many cases, even if they liked the phone. The same thing is true of the hardware. As I said, a crappy 5 MP camera, which is what these other phones mostly have, isn't impressive. If this camera proves to be as good as it looks to be, then it will make a major difference. The same thing is true of the 720p recording. I've seen that on a couple of other phones, and it's not very good. If Apple's 5 times zoom works in movie mode, it could be spectacular, if it works the way I think it might. We can look to the 5 MP sensor for that. You only need 921,600 pixels for 720p. We've got almost 6 times that. Zooming to 5x will still leave us with more than we need. It will remain sharp throughout the entire zoom range.
Can you elaborate on this? I have a Panny hdc-sd1 that has 12x Optical Zoom and beaucoups Digital Zoom.
Mostly, I use the cam to capture the grandkids soccer games and I usually sit at midfield -- so the action is up to 50 yds away. The 2-5x Optical is fine for most cases, so I seldom use the digital... there are times tho, where I want to zoom on the face or legs of a player-- goalkeep, free kick, corner kick, etc.
Are you saying that this new iPhone camera system has the possibility of equalling a 5x optical zoom? If so, that's big... really big!
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This phone can actually be a substitute for the $150 and cheaper digital cameras that people still buy in large numbers. That would be revolutionary. But, even now, iPhones are the biggest contributor to Facebook pictures.
It reminds me of the 8 hour recording time that VHS has in relation to the 5 hour record time of Beta. It sucked. It really wasn't useable. This is like a lot of the features of other phones. The features exist, but they aren't good. Apple's are good. Yes, I know that Beta died out. But Apple isn't Sony, and the iPhone isn't a Beta machine.
Ahh... the VHS- BetaMax wars. My Dad was an audiophile. Hie built his own Hi-Fis, Speakers (Stuff like base-crossover circuitry, folded horns- small night-stand-size devices where the sound emerged at the back and bottom from an internal folded-horn then used the walls and ceiling of the corners of the room to complete the effect. He could make a candy dish jump off a marble coffee table on the other side of the room. Anyway, we would argue, and he would prove to me (audibly, and visually on an oscilloscope) that BetaMax was vastly superior..
But, AIR, the thing that won the war was the early formats were limited to 1 hr BetaMax vs 2 hr VHS... You could program your VCR to tape a 1-2 hr movie on TV with VHS. You had to be there [to switch tapes] with Beta! Convenience trumped quality!
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I'm willing to bet that Apple's video calling will be used, while that of others won't. That makes that feature, on the iPhone, revolutionary.
The OS is better too. Apple now has covered the features other phones were offering in more poorly functioning fashion. 7 hours for 3G talk. What other smartphone comes close to that? The highest rated Android models all have fairly poor battery life. 40 hours music. Who else has that?
It's the totality of the package that matters. If you want to pick out a feature out here and there from other phones, that's fine. But it tells you nothing about the whole experience. And in that, this phone is revolutionary, as have the older ones been.
I see people who don't like Apple on other sites going meh about this, but that's just because it's an Apple product. I pay no attention to it.
AT&T's plans now cost less than they did. The difference may not be all that much. Sprint and T-Mobile offer slightly cheaper plans because they aren't doing that well, and have no choice.
