Hai guys, went to a party last night and had a play with an iphone, omg these things are so advanced and revolutionary compared to my old skool sony ericsson.. So anyway with my contract ending in Jan, I'm thinking of getting one or something along the lines of an iphone..

I was told about the HTC TOUCH HD which looks pretty impressive but I'm not sure how it compares to iphone as i'm not up to date with all the tech jargon..

What are your thoughts/experiences?

The only really great thing about the iPhone compared to other finger touch smart phone is the touch screen. No other phone has the glass multi touch coz apple was smart with they're patents. You'll cringe at most other finger touch screens after using the iPhone's.

They all suck, HTC Diamond is s***, anything running CE is s*** (imates, o2's, HP's) the samsung omnio or whatever the f*** it called is meant to be good. iphones are terrible but good for fags I guess. I would say the best one is n95, n96 but they are s*** too.

iphone just dont f***ing drop it

iPhone

I'm pretty happy with my e-71. Awesome battery life, not as brick-like as my old n95. Using a real keypad is a big plus to me. The nokia email client is pretty darn good too.

They all suck, HTC Diamond is s***, anything running CE is s*** (imates, o2's, HP's) the samsung omnio or whatever the f*** it called is meant to be good. iphones are terrible but good for fags I guess. I would say the best one is n95, n96 but they are s*** too.

Why are they s***? I was thinking of getting an n95 or 96, what's wrong with them?

I'm pretty happy with my e-71. Awesome battery life, not as brick-like as my old n95. Using a real keypad is a big plus to me.

real keypad? Dude at work has one of these and the keys are so small you'd either have to be a girl with small fingers or use a pencil to press the keys.

last edited by whoop at 18:50:28 16/Nov/08

Been through 4 n95's now. There is one for sale in my garage sale thread

Great insight Ross...

e71 user too

keypad is fine, you just get used to it, my fingers are uber phat and i use my thumbs to type, dunno what ur talking about

www.nokia.com

You must deliberately drop your phone and throw it at people cause I've never had to replace any phone I've had (about 6, 3 diff brands).

Have a look at the Blackberry Bold - best phone i have had.
http://www.blackberry.com/ap/products/handhelds/blackberrybold/

ive got a htc touch diamond, its neat in the respect you can customize the heck out of it and there is a large base of 3rd party apps available for win mo (ie kinoma play, awesome multimedia app) but the touchscreen is not as great as apples iphone.

I will probably sell my touch diamond off for a iphone or back to a nokia n82/e71

no, babies, destroyers of phones.

Hai guys, went to a party last night and had a play with an iphone

lol

iphone +1

just got the samsung omnia. im loving it. 8gig onboard and upto 32g with micro sd. gps, wifi, bluetooth adp2 or what ever its called, slick styling too. just orded some bluetooth headphones and the oakley bluetooth sunnies so i can listen while i run / board etc.

ripped soem dvds to it for the train, runs them nice. apparently its got the fastest cpu.

i was wondering if any of you people still make phone calls on these phones or are they just a trendy fashion device that doubles as a mp3 player?

i was wondering if any of you people still make phone calls on these phones or are they just a trendy fashion device that doubles as a mp3 player?

your mum gets a call from me every now and then

iPhone +1

If you want to do more than make phone calls, I'd get a different phone because its not that featureful. Sure is easy to use though, and unlike every Windows Mobile device I've ever seen, the interface doesnt lag when you try to use it.

I've got a n95, an o2 xda II and an iPod touch, I'm throwing the lot away for an iPhone or a g1 when I get the chance.

n95 - amazing features, great camera, but not a great user experience, slow UI, crashy/crappy applications, keypad dpad is pathetic.

o2 xda II - Windows mobile, nuff said, worst phone I've ever used, pulling out a laptop and using Skype is faster than making a phone call on it. Good for PDA type stuff but.

iPod touch - Awesome user experience, touchscreen is a little dodgy, but overall much better UI.

The only thing stopping me getting an iPhone straight away is the g1 potential.

i was wondering if any of you people still make phone calls on these phones or are they just a trendy fashion device that doubles as a mp3 player?

your mum gets a call from me every now and then

my mums dead i didnt know they burried her with a phone...

mmm Guess thats why she didnt move around much last night.

i wasn't aware that anyone driving a prius with a $15k stereo was in a position to call anyone a fag

fyi... Blackberry Bolds seem pretty nice. Anyone saying get a g1 is an idiot.

That is all.

Great insight Ross...

I agree completely and utterly with Ross. They're all s***. The iPhone seems great - and its probably the best on the market, but I'm reserving judgement until I see/use a Google Phone - but at the end of the day it's a piece of s*** too, its just that it's slightly less so than the others

Sure is easy to use though, and unlike every Windows Mobile device I've ever seen, the interface doesnt lag when you try to use it.

Except when you, like, open an application and get that fake "I've loaded!" screen then have to wait 1-5 seconds for the application to actually load!@#

edit: I should add, I really really want an iPhone, because I love the idea of being able to check my email on the go and do light web browsing and have Maps/GPS in one handy device. Also the Stanza book reader is really good and I think could replace my ipaq as book reader of choice, so that saves me carrying around another device.

But, I can't justify buying one because I think the negatives necessitate making a bit of a stand and not giving apple any money for it.

last edited by trog at 11:06:30 17/Nov/08

It depends on what you're going to use your "smart phone" for. You can pretty much break this down into major categories:

- If your major concern is email, texting etc. (copy and paste LOL) Get Blackberry Bold.
- If multimedia, looking cool, and (supposedly) intuitive user experience is your major concern, get iPhone.

As for making phone calls etc, well they all do that and 99% of them does the job just fine.

I just changed my phone from crappy SonyEricsson Z750i (seriously don't get this phone), to boring old RAZR v4ixx. Only because I wanted slim, flipped phone that's fast to use. I couldn't be happier with my dumb-fone heh.

I should add, I really really want an iPhone, because I love the idea of being able to check my email on the go and do light web browsing and have Maps/GPS in one handy device.

get an n96 then

If you want the user experience and decent UI of the iPhone, then get one. But don't complain when you find it doesn't have video recording, MMS or background running apps. I bought my iPhone after having an iPod touch for a while and having phone after phone which either had a crappy or slow interface, too many options which I never use, or a s***ty browser. And I must say most phones I had before the iPhone had all of these...

Nokia E65 - incredibly slow UI, nice keypad and feel but slow. And the Nokia browser and Opera mini sucked. (yes opera mini is great as a WAP phone but Safari srsly kicks it).
Nokia 6500 - fairly ok UI, better than the E65 but nothing like the iPod touch's UI. It was a good phone but after getting my iPhone i wouldn't go back.
Motorola RAZR - s***ty camera (VGA), terrible browser, no 3G

By the way, iPhone has surpassed the 12-quarter winning streak of the RAZR.

If you're gonna get an iPhone, make sure its got the features you want. That said, I doubt I'll ever go to another phone (unless its a BB Bold or Nokia E71 or something). The iPhone UI really does make the phone as a whole that much better.

Motorola RAZR - s***ty camera (VGA), terrible browser, no 3G

I don't wanna sound like a RAZR fanboi but the V3xx is actually NextG compatible, that is to say it operates at Telstra's UMTS 850 so it's fast. For me it's perfect cheap, fast and works. The menu in this RAZR is fast apparently the fastest of the RAZR models (which has been historically slow from what I've read). I can certainly attest to this, the V3xx menu is fast and responsive.

But yes the rest of what you're saying is true of the RAZR, camera isn't great and default browser is crap but then default browser is s*** in 99% of the smart phone.

/back to your discussion.

Well the RAZR was pretty good but after '12-quarters'... nah it isn't.

The newer ones are better. RAZR V9 looks cool.

www.graysonline.com.au if you after a phone..think i've seen couple phones for sale for like $50..brand new or reconditioned..

mmm Guess thats why she didnt move around much last night.

HAHA i love it

Well the RAZR was pretty good but after '12-quarters'... nah it isn't.

The newer ones are better. RAZR V9 looks cool.

I agree with you. The styling for the older style RAZR (aka RAZR 1) is old but they still look great in my eyes :) Plus I always like flipped phone, my first phone was a Motorola MicroTac flip (back in '95) heh I guess I've always had thing for them.

I find the V9 to be too big and too "glassy", and you can't flip them open easily with one hand (at least I couldn't). One of the other reason I liked the "older" style v3 RAZR is that it's not finger prints magnet... but again this is only me being old and crusty :)

On a side notes, I played around with iPhone whilst I was waiting to get service at Telstra shop where I got my RAZR, and I could see the why people are raving about it.

Definitely has its down side but what phones don't really.


last edited by Opec at 12:08:47 17/Nov/08

+1 vote for Ross to do the review threads for new phones ..... oO

MicroTAC > iPhone
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/12/23612-004-92012F57.jpg

Has anyone noticed that Wikipedia is goddamn slow these days?

I've been checking into this alot lately too

The choices i've come up with are

Samsung Omnia i900 - pretty good, and actually the one i'm leaning towards most.
HTC Touch *(Diamond, HD) - all good enough, but they seem to lag, and i've heard not nice things about just delay between command input and actual time, see front page of penny-arcade for another not nice review.
Nokia N* - All good, but just not up with the others in terms of touch screens.
Blackberry Bold or the other new one - Good, but looking to be super expensive.

For the best details i've seen on phones is http://www.gsmarena.com.au

yep you'll be disappointed with anything other than an iPhone

If you want a phone that has all the features of a n95 join the n8800 club. I like being able to pick it up to answer it, flip it to silence calls and tap the screen to get the time. I also love the glass and metal because it seems to be baby drool proof. A lot of places didn't stock them cause of the price but they have come down 600 in the last month so on the same level as n96 now i believe.

i dont get to much lag with the htc touch diamond as long as you dont bog it down by running 50 things at once.
its fine typing things just as long as your used to the type of touchscreen used in non-apple phones (resistive?)

i can type fairly well using thumbs on the fullqwerty keyboard, standard phone touchscreen keyboard is even faster, if not faster than a proper 1-9 hardware keyboard.
windows 6.1 mobile isnt *that* bad, web browsing is ok to with opera mobile, though i think the iphone has that one in the bag because of the bigger screen.

if you want to browse web heavily go the iphone, otherwise omnia/htc and if you dont want a smartphone, get a nokia n82/85

Also, if you get a windows mobile phone, get kinoma!

www.kinoma.com

So I went to Carindale to pick up an iPhone, and just when I was about to say "lets sign me up" when I thought to myself, will it play my 1000's of mp3's that I have "acquired" over the years.. They salesman wasn't 100% sure so I thought I'd ask the guru's... please say it will play .mp3 format or I can convert my mp3's to an iphone compatible format...

mp3 yes, wma no. (unprotected wma's can be converted to aac (or whatever) in itunes pretty easily)

Pretty sure it will play MP3's...

urgh

Blackberry Bold or the other new one - Good, but looking to be super expensive.

Giri, Bolds are about $600. Hardly expensive. The storm is supposedly going to be cheaper than the Bold. Only issue is, Storm is exclusive to Vodafone.

beware the kill switch!

ok cool

It'll play any music format that iTunes can I believe. iTunes will automatically convert WMAs to the 'Import from CD' setting when you add them to your library I think.

iTunes 8 can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC, and Apple Lossless.

iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books. There is limited support for Vorbis and FLAC enclosed in an Ogg container (files using the FLAC container format are not supported) or Speex codecs with the Xiph QuickTime Components.

i bought a n96 today... wondering how to convert computer movies or video files (avi/mpg) to a format this phone can understand? any programs out there?

n96 sucks btw, luckily i didn't pay for it.

You are so dodgy. Why is tha... oh. Arab. :P

n96 is awesome, the camera led is awesome, the new multi-tasking control is neat, the screen is unbelievable, the media manager is very neat.. Why don't you like it BigZub?

Need a new phone soon, my n70 is crappy and the camera is way too slow/crap to be of any use to me.
Looking at n96, looks pretty neat.
Infi you know much about it's capability as a book reading device? The screens pretty huge, but can it open pdfs and such?
The Camera led is definately an attractive feature, the youtube clip of the flash i saw was pretty impressive.
Can you use it as a flashlight? I find it useful on my old nokia something or other.

It'll play any music format that iTunes can I believe. iTunes will automatically convert WMAs to the 'Import from CD' setting when you add them to your library I think.

iTunes 8 can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC, and Apple Lossless.

iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books. There is limited support for Vorbis and FLAC enclosed in an Ogg container (files using the FLAC container format are not supported) or Speex codecs with the Xiph QuickTime Components.

I have some itunes songs which I guess have DRM on them, is there a way to convert them so they play on my xbox 360 throguh streaming? I tried converting them from within itunes but it has a whine that its protected. I thought I heard they stopped the DRM's. Could be wrong though./

iTunes can burn your DRM songs to a CD.

You could try NoteBurner if you cbf using real CDs

fireblood it does read pdf files.

infi, at the end of the day its a good phone man, i'm just a picky c***, me being a plumber i go through a phone every couple of months, i just keep breaking em, so my 6300 has been the most reliable... n96 wouldn't survive a day hehe.


what programs can i use to convert vid files to nokia video? (3gp, or whatever it is)

I have some itunes songs which I guess have DRM on them, is there a way to convert them so they play on my xbox 360 throguh streaming? I tried converting them from within itunes but it has a whine that its protected. I thought I heard they stopped the DRM's. Could be wrong though./

They haven't stopped selling DRM'ed stuff, but they now also sell non-DRM'ed stuff (iTunes Plus). I can't recall how to strip the DRM, but bear in mind it's probably in violation of some law - in Australia, anyway - you're in ze Nezzerlandz which probably has awesome laws so can get away with it. Start here and work your way from there; not sure if hymn is fully up to date.

what programs can i use to convert vid files to nokia video? (3gp, or whatever it is)

Google MediaCoder, it has some pre-defined templates for 3gp I think that should do the trick.

Optus have the samsung omnia on their website for $0 upfront, $49 cap, but the website is being gay and not letting me purchase it :( I get to the credit check part and it comes up with an unformatted (white background, times new roman font) error about the check failing. I'm not sure if the mechanism failed or my credit check failed.