Apple Plans Cheaper Nano-Based iPhone 343
bigkahunafish writes "It seems Apple is planning a cheaper version of the iPhone possibly based on the iPod Nano. This phone would be priced below $300 making it more affordable than the $500-600 iPhone. This should bring Apple phone technology into the hands of more users, though this cheaper phone could have more limited functionality. From the article: 'Sales of the [original] iPhone are expected to be limited to a small percentage of the market due to its high price tag, particularly in the United States where 85 percent of consumers tend to spend $100 or less on cell phones. But analysts forecast that a cheaper phone from Apple, which leads the digital music player market, could pose a much bigger threat to long-established phone makers such as Nokia, Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Ericsson, owned by Sony Corp and Ericsson.' I just hope they don't make a phone based on the iPod Shuffle."
Re:I'm waiting for the iPhone Shuffle (Score:1, Informative)
This statement isn't exactly correct; if it's based on a non-random seed than it's a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), not a random number generator (RNG).
It's possible to construct an electronic device that spits out random numbers, but it won't be using a seed. It will be using a physical process such as electronic noise, radioactive decay, or something else accepted as random.
Re:Buy now...Unless (Score:5, Informative)
Then the iPhone "pays" for itself.
I've had mine for just over a week, and I don't regret the money to get these features in a phone I can read in the bright sunlight.
Re:changing the normal pricing model (Score:2, Informative)
Timster's Guesstimated Used Working iPhone Price in 2009: $300+$30+$60 = $390.
Conclusion: If you feel like revamping a 2 year old piece of hardware to save 20%, go for it, but those who would not are certainly not idiots. I can't predict the features that will be available in 2009, but I must believe that they will be worth at least $110 more than a used first generation iPhone.
Re:I'm waiting for the iPhone Shuffle (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Two pieces connected by a cord? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Really? (Score:2, Informative)
Well first of all Nokia had a concept called AEON years ago. [url=http://mobbit.info/media/3/NokiaAeon_1.jpg]H
Re:How more limited can you get? (Score:5, Informative)
Bullshit. That is nothing more than Slashdot kool-aid drank by people who have never even seen the phone in person, much less used one. I was skeptical of the iPhone too, reading idiot after idiot review in newspapers and magazines and on Slashdot from people who either never really used an iPhone or didn't like it to begin with after reading nothing more than paper-specs. I have been stuck with a Blackberry and a Treo at work, at different times, on an everyday basis and I have been waiting for something better ever since. So, I actually went to an Apple store and tried an iPhone out, for about an hour. I browsed the web, called some people, listened to the iTunes app, checked out the email app, checked out the built-in VPN, checked out how it automatically switches from EDGE to WIFI and back to EDGE whenever you come within range of a WIFI access point, tried seeing how fast and accurate I could type on the screen and much more. I was absolutely impressed. The iPhone is incredible. Then I went home and did some more research, looked up competing phone plans in my area with equivalent phones and plans (e.g. Verizon was $20-$40 a month more on equivalent plans with a Blackberry at $339 and Treo at $429 after mail-in rebate) and went back to the store to check out the iPhone, in person, again. After spending another hour using the phone, I was completely sold. So, I bought the 8GB version, which has so far been the best phone and ipod I have ever used. The included earbuds with the iPhone microphone and iPod control built-in are very nice. Features such as voice dialing and instant messaging I am sure will included in future software updates to the iPhone. And even if not, I am not missing them at all. I don't use my phone in the car, so voice dialing is a moot point to me.
One of the best things about the iPhone is its seamless integration with Outlook 2003+ and Entourage 2004 11.2.3+ as well as the excellent support for IMAP. I am currently beta testing the iPhone within our corporation for a bunch of other people who are looking to buy the iPhone for both personal and work use as well.
The point is that iPhone 1.0 is a solid product, what 1.0 releases should be. Plus all but one or two of the so-called missing features are software features. Something Apple can easily add to the iPhone, at any time, with only a software update and without having to create a new phone. Which is very nice.
Also, a point which everyone seems to miss, is that I now have the best iPod I have ever used. Ever. And honestly I do not listen to more than 4-5GB of music, podcasts or videos at any one time, which iTunes 7.3 lets me sync with the iPhone fairly granularly. So, I sold my 80GB iPod on eBay for $300. Which made my iPhone only a $300 purchase to me, which nothing else could beat.
Re:How more limited can you get? (Score:3, Informative)
Uhhhh... OK, done. You do know you don't need a BlackBerry server to use a BlackBerry, right? When you sign up for a BlackBerry service plan you pick one or the other -- "enterprise connectivity" through BlackBerry's server package, or an Internet service that will poll POP or IMAP accounts (open or SSL) and deliver the mail to your handheld. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server just gives you added features, such as calendar sync. Another option is to set up your POP or IMAP servers to forward copies of incoming mail directly to your BlackBerry's individual email address. The advantage of this method is that you can use any spam filtering software you want on the server side and the mail gets delivered to the device virtually instantaneously.
Re:How more limited can you get? (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe the iPhone hysteria is wearing off?
From last week:
There are few things that are as much fun as ... (Score:2, Informative)
Mock Apple, it's products and they crawl out of the cess-pools to mod you troll, flame-bait, whatever.
Whatever, I really don't care. It's fun, and I'll continue to do it.
Karma to nuke.....
Re:I'm waiting for the iPhone Shuffle (Score:3, Informative)
There's also the problem of clustering in some random number generators---overemphasis of a small number of nearby values and underemphasis of other values. This is what most folks think is happening with most MP3 players' random schemes.
My music player periodically gets on a kick in which, out of a string of ten songs, seven will be from a single artist. This happens pretty often---far more than an equal probability selection would expect. Crudely, the odds of picking seven in a row out of a CD of 12 songs with a music player containing 100 songs is 12/100 * 11/99 * 10/98 * 9/97 * 8/96 * 7/96 * 6/95, or one in about 20 million, so if you pick ten times instead of seven, the odds are not going to be a lot better. If the numbers were purely random, this wouldn't be likely to occur in my lifetime, much less every three or four weeks.
Total possible outcomes:
100! / (100 - 10)! = 6.2815651 × 10^19
Possible successfully outcomes for the seven picks from the single album:
(12 *11 *10 *9 * 8 * 7 * 6) = 3,991,680
Most possible successfully outcomes for the three picks that came from anything:
(100 * 99 * 98) = 970,200
Note that the actual possible successful outcomes depends on when the non-album choices were picked, but we want the highest possible probability, so assume that they were picked first. Also note that we want to include the probability of picking 8, 9, or 10 from that album, so don't subtract off the album from the 100 possible selections.
Maximum possible odds of this happening:
(970,200 * 3,991,680) / 6.2815651 × 10^19 = 1 in 16,220,001
In my experience, unless you have a very small number of items in the pool, if it doesn't seem random, it probably isn't.
Large number calculations by Google (tm).
JP Morgan Retracts - no nano iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/10/jp-morgan-retracts