Why I Gush
July 3rd, 2007As an experiment, I turned on Bluetooth on the iPhone and grabbed my Plantronics 640 headdorkset. Entered the password and the devices were paired. Not a big deal. The cool part is when you make a call with a paired device:
The phone asks you how you’d like to use it; paired device, the iPhone itself or speaker phone. BRILLIANT. After a moment, the panel flips over and where the speaker button was, a button appears called “Audio Source”, only a click away. While talking. Very nice. On any other phone I’ve had I couldn’t change from the headset without a lot of pain and making the caller wait while I dug around badly designed menus.
This is why people are having spontaneous freakouts over this phone. I’m sure there are other devices that offer these features, but none do it as easily or as visually as the iPhone.
Better: when the iPhone was hooked into the car stereo, a call came in, ringtone playing over the car speakers, music playing at slightly reduced level. I hit the answer button on the Plantronics dorkset and the music paused so I could talk. Finished the call and the music started again. Name ONE phone that operates that considerately.
It’s the simple things that make devices our friends and fanboys like me blabber on. o
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July 3rd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Jon. Take the iphone out of your pants. That shit ain’t legal in Utah.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Jon - is the plantronics 640 the recommended bluetooth headset for the iphone - just curious. I’m getting the iphone via web order and haven’t gotten a bluetooth headset yet.
thanks
aap
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
must…wait…til…house…sells…feeling…physical…pain…
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I laughed out loud at Amanda’s comment. You do seem smitten. I have to admit, I’m no apple-ophile but the automatic volume adjusting so you can answer a call in the car sounds awesome.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
apurva, I don’t know that there is a recomended Bluetooth headset. I just used the one I had. The one that Apple sells is kind of expensive, but comes with a custom charging dock.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
thanks Jon - i’m currently efforting to find a plantronics 640 at a reasonable price.. Also - another geek question, headphones, I’ve heard you need an adapter - are you ok with using the ones that Apple gives with the iPhone?
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
You asked…. Pretty much all of the Sony Walkmen phones that have been out for awhile will do what you described if listening to music when a call arrives. Just saying… I want an iphone though. Must wait until a: price gets lower, b: I need to replace my phone. My Sony w810 still holds strong. cool phone though!
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
God damn you, Jon Armstrong. You are slowly whittling my “wait for v2″ mentality away. I can almost hear the money leaving my wallet.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:34 pm
the husband and i both got iphones on launch day and are equally smitten. it’s hard to explain to others because for as much as there is to dislike about the iphone, i don’t think there’s anything to erase the giddy feeling you get when you play with it.
well, except that mine has hardware issues and needs replacing, grrr. THAT was buzzkill.
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I never thought you could love a device as much as the lensbaby.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Regarding the Bluetooth interaction with the stereo, if you’re interested in getting the same functionality with your Mac and iTunes, check out BluePhoneElite (http://mirasoftware.com/BPE/). I’ve been using this for over a year now with my RAZR. Anytime a call comes in, iTunes pauses and the caller ID information is displayed on-screen. After I either talk to them or ignore the call, iTunes starts right back up.
Glad to hear they’ve extended the capabilities to the car too.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
that sounds like what heaven should be like.
July 4th, 2007 at 4:26 am
Jon, seriously, you are causing me pain. Pain because IT ISN’T OUT IN THE UK YET AND IT IS DAMN WELL KILLING ME!!!!!
Ahem. I cannot wait until I get my hands on the iPhone. Someone actually said to me yesterday that they don’t understand what all the fuss about, and I responded by asking him what rock he had been living under for the last couple of years.
July 4th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Brewcaster, that’s cool about the Sony phones. I think the revolutionary part of the iPhone is that it does more than three cool things in one package. The web browser smacks down anything I’ve seen on any other phone. And that’s just the web browser.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:59 am
There may be some geek subtlety here that I am missing, but when I am in my blue-tooth enabled car with my fucking dumb razr phone and a call comes in, the music reduces volume, then pauses mid-track, then comes back on when I disconnect. That’s what we’re talking about, right? But the thing that pisses me off is that there is no way, short of picking up the phone which defeats the bluetooth purpose, to ID the call. and I hate answering without ID. Will the iphone tell you who is calling? Because *that* would be considerate.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I think it’s cool just seeing one’s name at the top of the phone in such a great font. I’m easily amused.
I’m dying from iPhone lust. My online ordered phone won’t be here for WEEKS!!!!!!
July 5th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
I went to the Apple store the other day to check these out and, seriously, wow.
But, I was having trouble typing with the keyboard and I have little fingers. My husband got annoyed after about a minute which wasn’t helping my case in convincing him we need one. Does the typing get easier? I had to push and backspace a letter about 4 times before I finally got the right letter and not the one next to it.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Check out these very cool iPhone wallpapers on pixelgirlpresents.com:
http://tinyurl.com/2mswmx
Again, not helping with the fact that I want this phone so much and it doesn’t come out in this damn country for 6 months!! George says you’re permanently attached to the iPhone now, LOL - I don’t blame you!
July 6th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
I’m not a phone junkie (just ‘puters in general, and Photoshop) but I must say, the iPhone looks VERY cool. But this is going to burst a few bubbles once the battery needs replacement:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19627590/wid/11915829?GT1=10150
July 6th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Did you see this? http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/iphone-the-musical-lyrics/
Totally New York!
I Want an iPhone
(To the tune of “I Did It My Way”)
New lyrics by David Pogue
And now, the end is near,
I’m sick to death of this old cellphone.
Bad sound, the signal’s weak, the software stinks—
A “Made in Hell” phone!
I’ve heard there’s something new,
A million times more rad than my phone,
I too, will join the cult,
I want an iPhone.
Concerns, I have a few;
It’s got some flaws, we may just face it,
No keys, no memory card,
The battery’s sealed—you can’t replace it.
But God, this thing is sweet,
A multitouch iPod Wi-Fi phone,
You had me from “hello,”
I want an iPhone.
I want to touch that precious screen,
I want to rub the smudges clean,
I want my friends to look and drool,
I want to say, “Look, now I’m cool!”
I stood in line, and I’ll get mine:
I’ll get an iPhone!
For what is a man, what has he got?
With no iPhone, then he’s got squat.
It’s all the things a phone could be—
So what if it’s AT&T?
I took a stand, paid half a grand…
And got an iPhone!
July 9th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Blah…do I understand correctly that ATT is the company you must use for iPhone? Nice gadget, but I hate ATT.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I told myself I’d wait until generation 2 at least. I told myself there was no reason to switch carriers or to spend the money right now.
I’d read article after article. I read review after review. I watched videos. Yeah, it looked really cool, but I could wait.
The local Cingular/AT&T store had a demo in stock. “I’ll check it out, but just for fun,” I told myself. I played with the phone for a good 20 minutes and then walked away, proud of myself for not purchasing one.
A few days went by. I couldn’t get it out of my head. “I’ll just check and see how much of a credit deposit they want from me,” I told myself. “After all, I recently went through a career change and am making much less money now and have really crappy credit after having the house foreclosed upon and 2 of the cars repo’d. I’m sure the deposit will be HUGE. That will keep me away.”
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. But I walked away again.
The day before yesterday I succumbed. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to have one.
I bought an iPhone. It rocks!
(PS- The credit/repo/foreclosure stuff is all true, and I’m not ashamed of it)
(PPS- This would make a good blog entry. I think I’ll go ahead and publish this comment on my blog as its own entry)
July 15th, 2007 at 6:11 am
That technology to lower the volume in the car radio is a function of the car system, not the phone, and it’s definitely in place in newer Acuras and most Hondas.
July 15th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Jessy, while that may be true of some stereos, in our case, it was the phone doing the audio mute. It did this without requiring any input from us. As the iPhone is the first phone I have had that plays music with decent controls and interoperability with my computer and car stereo, this experience was a first and underscores how nice it is to have a phone with a sweet interface and an iPod connector.