Invention Of the Year: The iPhone

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Time has named the Apple iPhone Invention Of the Year. Whether or not you like Apple, if you’ve had a chance top play around with the iPhone, you’ll agree it is one of the coolest phones ever.

Yes, there's been a lot of hype written about the iPhone, and a lot of guff too. So much so that it seems weird to add more, after Danny Fanboy and Bobby McBlogger have had their day. But when that day is over, Apple's iPhone is still the best thing invented this year.
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Can it call people? I mean that is all I use my phone for, so if it can call people better then my current cell phone, well then I much have it! I remember when I was bought the stupid razr for xmass, I hated the thing because everyone thought it was so cool. Yeah its a phone, it makes phone calls, stop asking me about it.
 
I have to give it to them about the touch screen navigation. Although, I wouldn't say it's the GREATEST thing ever. But for this year, yea---. Touchscreen's been out forever. Even the phone WM2003SE (hated it...). You caught my drift. 'Nuff said
 
I dont post much on Hard anymore... but I had to login for this one:

The HTC 2925 (AT&T Tilt) is a much better phone: faster, more practical, more features, can run emulators flawlessly, has a better camera, >>> GPS <<<... and can be had for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY dollars if you sign a contract with AT&T through Newegg.com.

The only thing the Iphone has that the Tilt doesnt is a "good" web browser... and even then, mobile browsers really arent that bad.
 
must have been a slow year. its a bloody cell phone people, get over it.
 
I finally got a chance to examine an iPhone the other day. I really didn't expect much, so I was pleasantly surprised by the functionality they pack into it. The touch screen is a tremendous improvement over the scrolling I have to do with the Blackberry. I'm not sure how durable it will be in the long term, but so far I'm impressed. I'd get one today but our IT dept wont support anything but Blackberry for the email servers. :(
 
hmm, I do think that the iPhone is pretty sweet, and I'm an anti-ipod person. Of course, I won't be owning the iPhone any time soon because it's too expensive and it's gsm. I need cdma for best coverage where I live.

Drop that baby down to $100 with contract and make a cdma version and I'll be all over it.
 
LabRat said:
I finally got a chance to examine an iPhone the other day. I really didn't expect much, so I was pleasantly surprised by the functionality they pack into it. The touch screen is a tremendous improvement over the scrolling I have to do with the Blackberry. I'm not sure how durable it will be in the long term, but so far I'm impressed. I'd get one today but our IT dept wont support anything but Blackberry for the email servers. :(
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Chances are its because iPhone doesn't support Exchange. My Blackberry does. Your IT Department didn't have a choice.
 
Its so silly that you can't pull the battery to put a charged one in. That is enough to make it not the invention of the year. Besides, I am sure there is something way more humanitarian that actually deserves an award like this. How freakin' stupid is Time?
 
I'll be over here, loading dozens upon dozens of third-party apps onto my 8525 if anyone needs me...
 
Greatest american invention maybe, but Japan has had phones that crush the hell out of the iphone for a very long time. The damn thing doesnt even have 3g, its a joke in asia where people have been watching free digital tv and using fast internet on an ultra highres screen for a couple years now.

I think the ipod touch is a better invention (and even its not that great of an idea at 16gb), it serves its purpose way better than the iphone which is really just a half assed phone with a nice mp3 player and browser.

And if its the multi-touch tech they are claiming as the best invention of 07 then Apple had nothing to do with INVENTING multi-touch, they just bought the rights to use it.
 
I'm no apple zealot, but my 4 year old sony was breaking. I picked up the iPhone for email + web + mapping. It's a wonderful device!. Anyone who talks badly about the iPhone, secretly wants one. I don't think it's the greatest "invention" of the year, but I do think it's the greatest cell phone of all time.
 
I think it was invented last year or earlier. It went into production last year.

idividebyzero said:
...in asia where people have been watching free digital tv and using fast internet on an ultra highres screen for a couple years now.
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?

Digital HDTV has been broadcast in major US markets since '01 or earlier. I still have a high res SGI flat panel that was purchased in 1999.
 
iphone is a cool little gadget that's concentrated on market value and gimmicks but lacks true usability and essential functions. It's overpriced, locked beyond usefulness and it makes the owner look at least 25% ghey. :p

I would never get one, even if it was $50 on sale. Nokia FTW!
 
"Apple's iPhone is still the best thing invented this year"

Then it has been a bad year for inventions if this is the best of a bad lot.
 
After a bad run with the BlackJack for 6 months, I finally dropped the cash on an iPhone a few weeks ago. I love it, but I have never been nor will I ever be an Apple fanboy. Invention of the Year? Not in my eyes. Best Multifunction phone? Sure.
 
I think the term "Road Apple" fits. Greatest Invention, not even close.
 
I wouldn't even call it an "invention." Sure, it's a nice expanion on smartphones, but there's nothing radically new in it. Apple may hold a patent on the touchscreen interface, but they patented the layout on it- the touchscreen itself isn't new.

The iPhone is no more an "invention" than the next Radeon, or Ford's next sedan. They are new products. I'm going to have to call Time out on this one. (Pun intended.)
 
I don't really get all the haters to be honest. Apple bring out a really beautiful looking product that combines ipod (which pretty much everyone has) and phone (which everyone has) along with some other bits and bobs and suddenly everyone is hating, even though it's flying off the shelves.

Not everyone wanted, or expected, a smartphone that looks and feels like a brick. Why do all the power users that need smartphone level functionality, immediately start hating on the iPhone whenever someone else decides it's a highly desirable product? Apple didn't make this product for you, get over it.

I didn't get one myself but there is no denying that it's a ridiculously slick product and I'm hanging onto my iPod Touch until the phone's storage is a bit larger.
 
Would everyone please, please stop saying that the iPhone integrates an iPod? It's just spewing out Apple's ridiculous preying-on-the-uninformed marketing that has been shoved down everyone's throats for the last few years. An iPod is nothing more than an Apple-branded music player, a specific device. It would be like me claiming that my phone integrates a Cowon D2, or a Sansa e200, or a Creative Zen. It just doesn't make sense.

Sorry about that... that was all the frustration from the week. Happy Friday, everyone!
 
Finkus said:
I don't really get all the haters to be honest. Apple bring out a really beautiful looking product that combines ipod (which pretty much everyone has) and phone (which everyone has) along with some other bits and bobs and suddenly everyone is hating, even though it's flying off the shelves.

Not everyone wanted, or expected, a smartphone that looks and feels like a brick. Why do all the power users that need smartphone level functionality, immediately start hating on the iPhone whenever someone else decides it's a highly desirable product? Apple didn't make this product for you, get over it.

I didn't get one myself but there is no denying that it's a ridiculously slick product and I'm hanging onto my iPod Touch until the phone's storage is a bit larger.
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Not once did you use the word "invention" in your post. Thank you for proving my point. :) Not every "product" is an invention.
 
Invention of the year? The iPhone cannot even be called an invention. Phones with touchscreens, phones with cameras, phones with Internet (and not crappy at&t Internet), phones with MP3 players, and phones with other features that the iPhone does not have had been around before the release of the iPhone. All the iPhone did was put some commonly-desired features into one pretty feature.

Hey, it's a great phone. But let's admit it; they're just calling it invention of the year because its by Apple.
 
One thing I want to know about the iPhone is how does one prevent the screen from activating, lighting up, clicking buttons, etc when it's in someone's pocket or purse.
I know many people stuff phones into a pocket or purse crammed with all sorts of stuff. What's to keep it from scratching the heck out of the screen or accidently calling someone or just having the light on the phone come on all the time and killing battery life.
Just something I thought of one day after one of the endless ads on TV.
Personally I carry a flip phone to prevent accidental button pushing, so how does it work on the iPhone?

...just had to ramble on and on with my $0.02:cool:
 
Why it is just a phone.. I will agree with it being a really nice phone but still the same idea is still there from long ago..
 
The iPhone!!!

Not only Phone of the year, but Invention of the year!!
Through cunning and strategic advertisements, We suckered people into buying millions of these phones, while we left out basic funtionality.. We overHyped this POS to get people to buy it and be dissapointed and want to get the REAL version comming out next year..

High Speed internet? No way
Multimedia Messaging, Not on my watch!

Best thing EVAR!

Get real..
 
...And how much was TIME magazine paid to write that article? I had to do a double-take on the URL to make sure it wasnt the enquirer. A little copypasta for those who cant remember what the articles main points were:

1. The iPhone is pretty
2. It's touchy-feely
3. It will make other phones better
4. It's not a phone, it's a platform
5. It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come
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I dont own an iPhone, so I cant really refute or agree with the main points noted in the time-magazine article... but I really hope that was some heavy sarcasm. Im going to leave it at that, since that article is giving me a headache already.

Now... As far as calling it an invention, Im not certain if I can categorize the iPhone as an invention. I see the iPhone, like many other 'phones' similar to it, a PDA/handheld PC that can make telephone calls. They are not the first with this pda/phone like combination, its not original... almost nothing is with any company. A new laptop, a new videocard, a new car... Theres not much I would consider an invention. Innovative use of existing technologies and ideas, but not true original inventing.

Either way, I really hope 2007 hasnt been such a slow year of technological developments, that the iPhone was the best we could come up with. The iPhone is indeed the fanciest phone avalible currently, but thats the end of it.
 
DustMite said:
One thing I want to know about the iPhone is how does one prevent the screen from activating, lighting up, clicking buttons, etc when it's in someone's pocket or purse.
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IR inout/output diodes at the top of the screen area monitor for anything near.

If there is (short of a finger at work) the phone powers down the screen.
 
A cell phone gets invention of the year.. and it's the iPhone? LOL. That is pretty pathetic.
lol.gif
 
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