AP, yeah, you can do the TiVO over ethernet. It works great. I hacked my TiVo so I can stream shows out to a computer as well. There are many nice guides on the Internet. I recommend Steveo Tivo’s quides. Ditch the landline, they are just making you pay double. Mine is gone.

RightWinged, it’s still early, but I’ve been trying for the last four days to get an iPhone. Completely sold out in the Puget Sound area here in WA state. It’s a game changing device in many ways. And not just the device, but the whole strategy.

1) Browser doesn’t support Flash yet. So, no Hot Air video viewing on it.

But if HotAir started encoding in H.264, videos would be viewable on iPhone. And it would reduce bandwidth. There are now dedicated hardware encoders out there, that will greatly speed up video encoding, while delivering a much clear and smaller video from the web. H.264 is the future.

2) 14 hr battery life for talking (more or less). More for playing music, less for playing videos.

This is the reality of most smartphones. If you want to do more, you get less battery life. The iPhone is on the better battery life end of the smartphone spectrum. A Treo 680 does not even last a day. Ask me how I know.

3) Battery lasts for 300-400 charging cycles (full discharge/full charge; half discharges/charges don’t count as a cycle). When the battery poops out, you have to send it to Apple for 3 days so they can replace it for 80 bucks.

The reality is that if one keeps the device on the charger when not in use, then battery management circuitry eliminated the deep cycling that depletes Li-Ion batteries, and will extend the life two more than a couple years. That’s way past the warranty, and third party sites will do battery replacement by then for much less than Apple’s price, and with quicker turn-around. It’s not a show stopper.

4) Apple has stated repeatedly that the phone can and will be upgraded with new features by software update. Some people think that this also means a software upgrade to 3G capability since the iPhone is slated to be released in Europe later this year, which is way more 3G in places than the U.S.

I suspect we will know soon as the dissections continue. If the radio is 3G software upgradeable, that would be huge. I doubt that, but all of the other value add software to be delivered via software update is a huge reason that Apple will redefine the smartphone market.

5) Safari browser isn’t Safari 2.0 or Safari 3.0. It’s a hybrid. It displays CSS better than 2.0, but not as well as 3.0. That means your browsing experience may look a little different than it does on a desktop. But, that said, it does display web pages straight off the web. No cell-phone lite versions.

This is simply to account for the small screen and more limited capabilities of a smartphone. That said, it’s by far and away, the best web experience ever on a cell phone. I was at the Apple store yesterday browsing to HotAir, it looks fantastic.

6) Mail doesn’t have mail-push. That means you won’t see mail in your iPhone inbox until you actually do a check mail call.

If you use IMAP, there is a feature in iPhone Mail that supports IMAP IDLE, so while not true push, it is close enough that you won’t know the difference. Treo ChatterEmail IMAP users will already be aware of this. Leopard Mail on the Desktop will also have IMAP IDLE. If you are still using POP based mail, you are in the dark ages.

In general though, good comments. There are caveats to the iPhone, just not as many as the MS controlled tech press will admit.

JeffB. on July 4, 2007 at 7:03 AM