That Cingular claim sounds like BS to me. The only network enhancement made was visual voicemail. Unless of course there is more magic in the phone that we haven't heard of yet.

For the last two years, when someone leaves me a voicemail it shows up in my inbox in the "voicemail" folder with the name and number of the person, the time and date they called. Click to hear the message.

How is "visual voicemail" different, exactly?

Every message you get is artistically reinterpreted and made into a 30 second pantomime video.

I'll bet the mime is wearing a beret, too.

It is made by Apple, so there will be a new version every 6 months making the old version obsolete. The new version will have all the features the old version was lacking plus storage will double. When it is announced people will foam at the mouth, scream like little girls and demand to be allowed to kiss Steve Jobs.

I believe this is new for any US provider and/or phone. Sounds like it's not new elsewhere, though, from what you're saying. Doesn't surprise me. US providers are behind the curve on most mobile phone innovations.

Mentioned on the Cingular page here http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-s...s/signMeUp.jsp

Oddly, despite seeing a brand spanking new Cingular is now "The New AT&T" commercial during 24 tonight, there is no mention of that on the Cingular home page yet, not even a little tiny link. Big iPhone splash on the front of the personal home page (not business home page, tho).

I am surprised that apple is doing all this branding with the CINGULAR label. Officially as of monday the 22nd they will commence rebranding as AT&T! Let's hope that customer service will improve with this change! My question is for all of us who stuck it out with our old blue sim cards if we will be allowed to get new at&t phones ;-) (like the iphone!?!) without having to be migrated! I am unwilling to change my no roaming or long distance within north america and long distance rates at a max of 7 cents a minute to europe and asia!!! Too good to give up... i am been through many unlocked devices! (the way the iphone really should be sold!!!!) Teach the american market a thing or two! Anyways can't wait to get my hands on an at&t iphone!!!

Happy Travels!

Some preliminary observations:

1. Cingular is a non-starter for me. Worst company in terms of price, service, experience, not to mention very inferior to sprint's high-speed service. However, cannot imagine why Apple wouldn't eventually release a CDMA version if the product is even close to as popular as the Moto razr (which even sprint belatedly added to it's lineup)

2. Price is too high to get a significant market share, simply compare with sales for Treo, etc. People are willing to pay $99 for a phone, $199 for an ipod, maybe $199 for a palm, but not $500 in one pop. Just human nature. And the kids who are apple junkies are even less likely to afford one. Plus, as noted, the data service contract adds even more recurring cost every month.

3. Form is nice but doesn't work for those of us (a majority) who prefer clamshell phones. Then again, maybe phone form will take a backseat with the advent and improvement of bluetooth headsets (does this thing even have bluetooth?)

4. Touchscreen is a mixed blessing. I am fed up with the crappy screen on my Palm E2 - sadly much inferior to my old handspring. Apple generally has pretty good build quality, but touchscreens are notoriously problematic, no doubt one of the reasons both blackberry and palm (treo) use tiny keyboards. That being said, I would much prefer a phone touchscreen to the numeric hunt and peck when I use my Razr phone to send a text message or gmail mobile reply.

5. Battery life under typical use? This will be interesting. I don't know about ipods but I find my last 2 cellphones were fairly drained after a rather average day of voice and data use.

6. I always love it when people rave about the cameras. I have yet to see a cellphone where the picture quality isn't absolute crap or useful for anything more than, well, viewing on a phone. But YMMV. Certainly Nikon and Canon are not quaking.

Despite all my negativity I predict the product will be quite popular among the younger set who are big on texting, photo-messaging, and ipod/music. But not so useful for us old ++rts who own a lot of CDs and don't need to travel with our entire music collection.

I suppose at some point I will bite the bullet and get a combo device when I find something with a better screen than a Treo (and better form) that can handle my Palm calendar/address/memo software and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Here's a question - why no built in radio? Are the parts that bulky? Or is it just not something that appeals to the target market?

Personally I would love to see a device with AM (not FM) where I could get free news and sports broadcasts but apparently you need to be driving a vehicle to find these anymore.

...and a victrola!

dont remember seeing this here, sorry if repost >

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/...s-list-part-2/

“No 3G is almost a deal breaker. EDGE is horrible for a device this advanced…how did that get overlooked?” –It wasn’t overlooked. 3G (HSDPA) is available only in a few cities. Apple says that when it’s more prevalent, the company will upgrade the iPhone.

i.e., offer a new phone with 3G capabilities. I'd bet money that the iPhone introduced last week does not have a 3G radio.

i dont understand all the people in europe and us .

i only know two countries which have only 3G coverage.
the rest has GSM + 3G coverage.

GSM has a ten time longer standby time than 3G, so i am sure in europe this phone will be a big hit.

in europe you dont need 3G for a phone. let me know a reason why you might need 3G if you have EDGE, which is supported by T-mobile in europe.

most users of smartphones with 3G + GSM will run the phone in gsm mode, as the battery will hold so much longer, so there is no reason for 3G.

anyway, for countries like japan where only 3G coverage is available, apple will 2008 bring Iphone2 to the market.

but i think if you are permanently online, GSM + Edge is enough even for emails and syncing over the GSM net.

dp

Wrong on many counts. Here in the UK for example, the major networks skipped EDGE and went straight to 3G. They massively overpaid for 3G licences and need to recoup. EGDE is irrelvevant and just about non-existent here. Only one out the five major mobile networks (Orange) has EDGE here, a small partial network, and that fact is so obscure that most people dont even know it - the network itself doesnt publicise it and it doesnt use it - it puts its customers on 3G.

Also, you dont buy a shiny widescreen smartphone if you weren't planning on surfing the internet extensivley and watching video on it.

Here in the UK it is becoming quite common for people to watch news clips sports and oterh video streaming on their phones. SkyTV (popular satellite TV provider) even allows you to watch your home subscription on your phone.

People are not going to walk backwards to the primitive past here, not even for Apple. Sorry. The phone will need to have 3G if they plan on selling it at the nosebleed price points they are in.

Radio=free content. Apple wants you to buy from their ITunes shop or pay to stream it from the network operator. Which is why they dont build it in to their MP3 players even though most of their competiton has them. Apple is a very efficient bleeder of pockets!

The difficulty with AM radio in MP3 players and phones is the length of antenna needed, I suspect.

Why all the hate for cingular?
I have been with them since they were bell south mobility here in GA and have never had a problem with customer service, or signal strength.

Of course I am just a plain old cell phone customer, no email,no text messaging etc.
Am I just lucky ?

My only real concern is the lack of true 3g speeds. But in reality I suspect most people hate all cell providers and if it was tmobile there would be just as many concerns...
I have sprint and can use my blackberry as a EVDO modem...I get about 1mbs down and 100k up and thats great for areas with out wifi...I'm just not willing to give that up...so now I'm looking at 2 years with cingular and a sprint USB EVDO modem...thats just too expensive and restrictive for me.