Dave Winer: "Look, all the other people reviewing the iPhone are gushing. I just don't have that in me, at least at the beginning."

Joe Nocera (behind the NYT paywall): "Did Apple really expect people to mail their iPhones to Apple HQ and wait for the company to return it with a new battery? It was bad enough that the company did that with the iPod — but a cellphone?...there is no such thing as a straightforward answer. There is only spin...'It is about assured obsolescence,' said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group..."

And Jezebel visits an iPhone line in New York: "They were all, of course, looking to sell their iPhones on eBay."

Comments

[Ged]

I do not use these words lightly, but I'm getting tired of hearing all the nay-saying concerning the iPhone. Anyone who thinks the phone will be anything less than a stellar success is a fool.

I've witnessed the phone first hand and what it can do. I see the battery life and YES, its speeds on the improved EDGE network, and it all is really, really great. Think it will break like china if you drop it? Guess again. Think Apple won't sell 10 million of these in the first year? Then you don't know consumers and their need to have the latest and greatest.

I work in the software and design industry, and I can say that the iPhone is already re-defining the cell phone industry from both within and without. It really is ground breaking and people crave it like no gadget in history. All these nay-sayers can get ready to eat a huge helping of crow around this time next year. I'll a big, heaping pile just for them.

[Ed Cone]

Let no man speak ill of this wondrous device!

Critiques equal criticism, and criticism is heresy!

Strong in this one, the force of the Apple cult is.

[Ged]

Unfortunately there is a difference between legitimate criticism and criticism for the sake of pure eyeballs. 99% of the negative articles that have come out about the iPhone fall into this second category.

Case in point, this article from Rob Enderle that John Gruber called out over at DaringFireball.net

Just one of the money quotes: "Enderle also believes that the iPhone, which he clearly has never touched, is “pretty slick” and thus will be prone to dropping."

Of course this analysis was made without ever actually having held an iPhone OR dropped it. Fortunately the guys at PC World did just that. Result? Works just fine.

Magnify this kind of baseless, negative press by a thousand and you get the current state of journalism on the iPhone. Users, however seem to disagree.

[beth]

Hey Ed! Don't know if you're aware of it, or if it's just my side, but I can't get to your site through edcone.com anymore. It's been like that for 2 days. I had to go to the typepad address to get in.

[Ed Cone]

Ged: 99% is a lot. The two pieces I linked seemed pretty thoughtful. Is it possible that some people are thinking and writing about an electronic device, not signing up for a religious war?

Beth: I am aware of this problem, and trying to fix it. Thnx.

[Ged]

"Thoughtful" or the result of someone who hasn't RTFM?

From the David Winer post, this was his main gripe:

"And here's the same site on my iPhone. My eyesight isn't great, but I can't imagine even someone with perfect eyesight being able to read this. Has anyone figured out how to change the default font size in Safari?"

Yes, its called a single tap on the screen. You zoom in to any size you want with a single tap, and double tap to zoom back out. There is no "font size adjustment" on the iPhone. He would have known this if he has watched Apple's easy to digest video walkthrough of the device. But instead, he decided to post a public, uninformed gripe online.

And this from the Jezebel post??

"All in all, the line was more like the line for a Jack Johnson concert than any sort of nerd-a-polooza. A lot of people were reading complimentary issues of Heeb magazine. (The magazine's clever marketers were stingy, though; when I asked for one, a woman hissed that they were for line-waiters only. Touchy!) Some people sunbathed but (I know, I know, skin cancer!) seriously, some of these people needed sun badly."

So the people in line waiting for the iPhone "need sun badly" and you think that is "thoughtful"?

I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass here. I agree that the NY Times criticism of the iPhone's non-replaceable battery is warranted, but most likely by the time the battery needs to be swapped out, the user will most likely be upgrading to iPhone v 2.0.

Just offering a counter opinion to the negative press.

[Louie Mantia]

Hey there, I just wanted to let you know, sounded like you had some frustration. With Safari, to enlarge the text, just double tap on the block of text, and it will fit to screen.

You can also use a reverse pinching motion (moving two fingers far apart) and you can zoom in. :)

Hope this helps.

[Danny Wright]

"I agree that the NY Times criticism of the iPhone's non-replaceable battery is warranted, but most likely by the time the battery needs to be swapped out, the user will most likely be upgrading to iPhone v 2.0."

Well hay-ull. That mindset explains the logic that in turn explains why my iPod G4 crapped out TWICE -- once before the 1-year warranty was up and then, when I got my "new" (Read: refurbished) iPod under the warranty, once it crapped out, what Apple was REALLY trying to tell me was that it was time to upgrade.

I love Apple computers, but I find their forays into handheld devices to be wanting. At some point the focus on "innovation" places a burden upon the customer. It's not unethical, but for my dime, if it isn't an Apple computer and is an Apple ______, then it's shite.

[Ged]

"Well hay-ull. That mindset explains the logic that in turn explains why my iPod G4 crapped out TWICE -- once before the 1-year warranty was up and then, when I got my "new" (Read: refurbished) iPod under the warranty, once it crapped out, what Apple was REALLY trying to tell me was that it was time to upgrade."

Danny, in counter to your experience, my iPod Mini's battery lasted 2.5 years before I had to give up on it. And yes, I used it all the time. I'm not saying you didn't have a bad experience, I'm just saying that the vast majority of iPod owners get *years* of battery life from their iPods. Only time will tell regarding the iPhone.

[Ed Cone]

Uh, Ged? The Jezebel piece was a gossip/fashion blog's snark about the kind of folks who hang out in lines for new gadgets, not tech criticism. One subspecies in such lines: humorless fanboys who cannot believe that the rest of the world doesn't take this stuff every bit as seriously as they do...

[Ged]

Ed, so are you linking to "thoughtful criticism" of the iPhone, gossip or both?

And what of the David Winer piece? Or the Rob Enderle at Daringfireball where the iPhone is "prone to dropping"?

Can you at least see where I'm coming from on this or are you resolved to put me squarely in the "Apple fanboy" column?

[Ged]

Also, funny how this "dud" of a phone is literally shaping the cell phone industry as we speak.

[Ed Cone]

You are starting to scare me, Ged.