[roadcyclist]

Yeah you dealin' with old school,...I don't use a computer at all to sync my E90,...copy music, videos, pics, everything right to it, or it's memory chip with one,...guess this writer should have quantified "business phone" from "best phone" that's where iPhone and the other SmartPhones truely seperate, and this is where iPhone becomes "cool" -vs "lags far behind, expecially in the business world",....

[SkateNY]

Did it occur to that, with so many problems and so many complaints about the iPhone, that you might wanna try a different product? After all, so many people here are claiming that there are better alternatives, at lower prices and with better features. Isn't that what you're saying? Is it really worth it for you to continue to repurchase a failed product for the sake of avoiding a penalty for voiding your carrier's contract? You need to stop complaining and take a serious look at your judgment.

[adz08]

I'll be honest, I have no idea about Mac support, I thought there was a mac version of PC Suite, but if not then Nokia have missed the boat on something! Im a Windows boy so its fine for me.

I do agree, the iPhone just works, if your a big user of iTunes, it is a alot easier just to sync directly, thats what I like about my iPod Touch. It does tend to take some time to get the n95 working the way you want. Specially if you do a firmware upgrade and have to start right from the beggining.

Back to the original article, this would have made more sense to me to say the best phone on the market. I believe as a standard phone the iPhone probably does beat most of the competition. Its by far the best music player (although don't the new Samsungs have the same sound hardware as the iPhone/iPod?), and for gaming it definently beats the N95. And the App Store, touch screen etc. I just don't think it does enough to qualify as a smartphone.

It will be interesting to see some comparisons with the Nokia 5800 when thats released, as this will be a more direct symbian competitor to the iPhone.

[poooooof]

The iPhone is a fancy beta... The hardware is great, no doubt about that.

But both the Phone, and it's PDA features lacks important functionality to make it a useful gadget.. It's just a little better than a POTS and less than any full feature cell phone.

I'm using a 3G/16gb version 2.1, it really should've been version 0.21

[olusan]

I haven't really heard of so many complaints about the iPhone actually. I've never had a problem with it & the one I got mi Julie did some weird thing, which was unfortunate, but Apple have this thing called the Genius Bar (hell of a name) and she went there and they just with a blink of the eye and not that much explaination, gave her a new one. I was waiting outside and that took like 5min tops except for the line, which included them reloading all her prefs and stuff. I have never experienced that with any smartphone... good customer service.

Plus what people have to understand is that Nokia and other companies have been going at it in the mobile phone world for far longer than Apple have. So just like all the rest it just gets more developed and hense better. But they're off to a great start I'd have to say.

[smpaudio]

Apple obviously doesn't want the iPhone to do certain things. With its lack of cut and paste and document creation (apart from email), the iPhone seems to be envisioned by Apple as a "remote portal" to your EXISTING data. And I think this is a key factor in all their decisions about what it can and can't do, and all this fuss about which apps can and can't be sold. The iPhone is a reader; not a creator.

That's really where the other brands outshine it- if you consider "outshining" to be doing something that another product wasn't made to do. Kind of like how I can't plow snow with my Honda Element.

I personally wish they WOULD take the content creation approach for the iPhone, nothing would make me happier. But alas, I don't think they will. It seems to me that they are trying to keep the iPhone, from ever being able to replace a laptop's functionality. Jobs wants to sell laptops AND iPhones for now.

And iPods. And iPod Nanos. And iPod Touches. And...

[adz08]

If Apple went all out next year with the next iPhone, stuck an 8 megapixle camera in, with decent optics, added all the missing features like mms/video recording/cut + paste etc. Then also create some apps allowing me to actually use the thing as a mobile computer then they would have another customer! I just can't see them doing it, as you said, it would start to tread on the heels of the macbooks. Which is a shame, because there is no question about the quality of the touchscreen, App store, and the browser/email elements, but they are let down but the rest.

I'm due an update with O2 soon, (in the Uk, they have the iPhone), I think that upgrade for now with be going on the HTC touch HD, its the most all round device on the market at the moment I think. Although I dont think the US have that either?

[olusan]

Yeah, I don't think Apple will ever do something like that. I frankly speaking don't mind not having tons of doc creation in the iphone. Maybe they can leave that to someone who makes that into a cool app or something. But really anything that'll bump up the cost, I'll pass, because that's why I think it's $300 rather than $600 - $700. Now one might not be directly paying that through your carrier like 02 or Orange or Verizon etc, but if you're in the US and see a crazy cool phone from Sweden or German not available through a carrier and you want to buy it, you've got to shell out those laptop prices for it.

The cut n paste and improved cam pixles would be great, but I don't care too much about vid (usually the pictures not the greatest or you're paying way too much for the device). I just think that the majority of people with the excel spreadsheet function on the phone, etc don't even use them. I actually bet tons of folks all around the world, I'm talking "PDA geeks & wannabees" who like tinkering, do really mess with those funktions too much. Why because they do have laptops with huge 13'-17' screens that have all those and more programmes.

And my biggest criteria ------ syncing to any of my Macs. If I got an HTC touch HD, I'd bet that it won't help me out like that - syncing to my Mac. Even though I'm sure it's a really great device.

It's like in this day & age, how can you have a phone only sync to one platform! All that money and thought into it and all the doc creation, but if you've got a mac, other than just plain emailing it to yourself, you can't sync nothing. That's one of the main reason for me jumping on board. All that other stuff'll get far better.

[SkateNY]

The iPhone not only caught up, but surpassed its nominal competitors.

Read it and weep. Or not.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27681665

[SkateNY]

"Just last week, JD Power made headlines when it released a study showing that Apple's iPhone was the top mobile device among business users."

Please, stop telling me how "business users" don't like the iPhone. You're making my ears hurt.

[jdelaro19]

Personally, I like HTC products more than Nokia, but I definitely agree that we need to start buying our own phones here in the U.S. and quit buying in to these 2 year contracts. I will never have a cell contract again, and I have been buying my own phones for years now and it costs a LOT less and I get to switch companies when I want to. We have been taken advantage of for a long time, let's make these cell companies realize that we are going to do what we want, not what they want.

Cheers,

jdelaro19

[Susanbs]

We have had a horror- 23 days, 97 e-mails lost, and one iphone won't synch. ZERO HELP from MOBILEMESS, which is a "chat" & e-mail support.
Dear Mr. Jobs,
November 21, 2008
It is now 23 days with no solution. ITUNES DOES NOT SYNCH BY MOBILEME SINCE IT CRASHED TRYING TO SYNCH TO LAPTOP. MobileMe appears to have done zero in this time. I will be leaving NJ on Sunday morning. Wed will be 30 days, and the last day to return the phones for credit to APPLE & ATT.
Is there any reason to think that they will ever be fixed?
Iphone support sends me to MobileMe & MobileMe sends me to Iphone support. Apparently, you have no integrated support and that is why I have a non-functioning iphone.
This answer is just not satisfactory.
Thank you for the update. I understand that you have been cleaning up your calendar, and you have found that some changes have appeared after syncing the calendar to your iPhone using iTunes.
Unfortunately, there is not an update from MobileMe Engineering at this time. I know that it is important that you have this issue fixed before Saturday, but it is unlikely that this matter will be fully investigated by that this date. I would advise you to use iTunes to sync your calendar to your iPhone in the meantime, but I understand that the calendar does not appear correctly when syncing with iTunes.
MobileMe Support will be investigating to the best of our ability why this calendar is not syncing to the iPhone correctly with MobileMe. However, any questions you have regarding syncing your calendar to your iPhone using iTunes will need to be addressed by iPhone Support I will reply as soon as I receive an update from MobileMe Engineering.
Dear Mr. Jobs,
After speaking with Clarke on November 19, I did the trouble-shooting listed below on my own.
Still, my iphone does not synch with Mobileme properly- it synchs less than 1 month.
The hard-wire synch still has problems.
As of 1:00 today NY time, I have no answer from MobileMe. It is now over 3 weeks.
I believe it must be iphone problems, since Outlook synchs perfectly with MobileMe.
Please help
11/21/08
I tried to synch again with MobileMe.
Strangely enough, Mar 19, 2008 one item appeared (not a repeated one) on the list. That item is not on Outlook.
October 23, 2008 one item appears (not a repeated item, case #...
Oct 26 is the beginning of the transfers. Nothing before Oct 23 exceot some NJ repeated items.
Some repeated NJ items appeared beginning Aug 2, 2008.
The tags apparently disappeared when I deleted those repeated items.
With the cable synch, items still missing from LIST, and tags back. Calendar does go back to Jan 2001 (like Outlook).
11/20/08
I have gone through my calendar. I deleted about 40 repeated items from 2001-2008. I started the events again in 2009 with 3 year ending dates, 2011.
I put ending dates on the NJ items (since I couldn't erase them), no ending date after 2011.
The tag on Mar 22, 2001 is still there, and items in the DAY & MONTH are missing from the LIST IE: Jan 3 2001 JECKYLL & HYDE.

From: superscheer [superscheer@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 8:15 AM
To: sjobs@apple.com
Subject: URGENTLY NEED HELP
Importance: High
November 17, 2008
Dear Mr. jobs,
I am hoping that a company such as Apple with a fine reputation for service will do something to remedy the horror we have been going through.
On October 29 my husband & I bought 2 new iphones to replace our original ones.
MobileMe immediately lost 97 e-mails from my husband’s inbox. They were never retrieved.
Then MobileMe merged Windows Vista PC with iphone (646)-258-3111. At some point, it deleted all calendar entries before Oct 10, except for repeated items. Many repeated items were duped. Many deleted items reappeared. Many items were deleted. The iphone has tagged items in red in addition to the same repeated items.
In helping to set up MobileMe , Apple support crashed Outlook on my Windows Vista laptop. (As with old iphone) on the calendar many repeated entries were duped or lost. Many deleted items reappeared. Error messages appeared on Outlook.
Contacts on laptop were duped (later I cleaned them out).
I disconnected MobileMe. I have had to go back to January 2001, delete dupes, clean up, & put back info on PC, & laptop, and iphone. (I still do not know what is missing). The iphone still has problems. Deleted repeat items return. Calendar items were deleted. The iphone does not mirror the PC, even after synching with a cable.
Saturday night I gave Apple my password to go into MobileMe and troubleshoot. Until then, MobileMe was synching with my PC. Now it is not.
Alec Walker & Lindsay Hawthorne @ Apple Fifth Ave NYC have been trying to help me. Both have been very nice & tried their hardest. Today, Jamie, the manager, told me I could either bring in my PC from NJ (which synched until Apple got my password), or I could call AppleCare, (who caused my laptop to crash in the beginning). I found both of his suggestions useless. The problem was not with my PC, which synched fine with MobileMe until I gave Apple my password. The cloud mirrored my PC until Saturday night.
This system of “chat” & e-mail service for MobileMe is a not worthy of Apple & is a total, unacceptable failure. I have been waiting for days on end for help. There is no human I can speak to who understands the problem. To even imagine that this could be settled by e-mail is beyond the pale.
I need a high level tech to help me by phone- someone who understands MobileMe.
I have spent hours & days and weeks just trying to get started. Luckily, I had backed up my contacts & calendar. I have cleaned everything out ON MY OWN, and I need professional, high level telephone tech support to sort this out.
MobileMe does not work, and the cable is not synching correctly. I have had a non-functional iphone for almost 3 weeks now!
I hope you will have a high-level tech call me.

[smpaudio]

Why is a long-winded, poorly written, confusing request for technical support (to the CEO of Apple no less) being posted on PCWorld?