Send in the iClones

Last week at CTIA 2008, the biggest tradeshow in the U.S. devoted to cell phones and other things wireless, key manufacturers Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson didn't even try to deny that the upcoming models they eagerly trotted before us bore a strong resemblance to the iPhone.

The newcomers unabashedly borrowed from Apple's hit multimedia smartphone in looks and ergonomic design. Like the iPhone, the Samsung Instinct, the Sony Ericsson X1 (click on the image at right for a closer look), and the LG Vu have a large, dark touch screen (about 3-in. measured diagonally) framed by a shiny metallic edge. Their interfaces, though distinct, all provide a quick way to jump in and out of their many functions, from phone calling and text messaging to media playback and Web browsing. And like the iPhone, if you select the wrong application icon, pushing a home key brings you right back to the main menu.

Pending our thorough tests of these pending pretenders, we can't say how well they stack up against their inspiration. But used briefly on the tradeshow floor, their performances seemed quite impressive, and some even add useful features the iPhone lacks.  Here are my first impressions:

iTunes movie rentals: A generally strong opening

After years of simply selling movies, iTunes last month added the option to rent them. The service adds a welcome and relatively painless way to view films on your iPod, iPhone, or computer—though the service does have a few minor annoyances. After renting and viewing on a number of computers and players, here’s what we liked and disliked about the new service:

HIGHS

It's less costly than buying. If you're like me, you’ve resisted movie-watching via iTunes because you don't want to pay $9.99 apiece to own films that you'll likely watch only once, especially given the restricted size of computer and iPod screens. The rental costs—$3.99 for new releases, $2.99 for catalog titles—are in line with those for pay-per-view offerings from satellite or cable companies. Apple says selection will also be comparable by the end of February, when it promises more than 1,000 titles.

Decent picture quality. We viewed movies on a laptop and desktop, two iPods (a Touch and a Nano), and an iPhone. They looked good on all platforms—bright, clear, and surprisingly sharp. Unsurprisingly, it was hardest to appreciate that quality, and the movies themselves, on the tiny Nano screen, though the images were still surprisingly watchable.

Apple doubles the capacity of iPhone, Touch

Expanded capabilities, expanded capacity. New versions of Apple iPhone and Touch (the iPhone-without-the-phone), available today, have doubled the maximum storage capacity of these big-screen multimedia devices. They provide 16 and 32 gigabytes (GB) of storage, respectively; both cost $500.  Still available are the 8GB iPhone, $400, and 8GB and 16GB Touches, $300 and $400, respectively.

The storage boost comes just weeks after the software upgrades announced at the MacWorld trade show in San Francisco, which added GPS-like tracking on Google Maps, rented-movie playback, and customizable menus to these Wi-Fi-enabled products. In September, when the Touch debuted, another software update enabled both products to download iTunes content directly over their Wi-Fi connections.

These content options further challenge the capacities of these flash-memory digital media players. For example, just one movie rental alone can eat up 1.5GB to 2GB of storage. Add to this the ever-growing library of TV shows and free video podcasts and an iOwner could face a content overflow. That may explain why Apple discontinued the 4GB iPhone just two months after its June 30th debut.

Just ordered a less-than-maximum-capacity iPhone or iPod you don’t want? Call and cancel the order. If it's already shipped, Apple says, you can refuse the delivery and call the company to order one of the new, large-capacity models.

—Mike Gikas

Macworld 2008: Add to your iPhone; handsfree talk

Besides printers, scanners, and networked storage solutions, which you always expect to find at Macworld, the focus this year seemed to have shifted towards new 3rd-party peripherals revolving around iPhone. Dozens of new headset, headphones, and docking options have recently become available to support Apple's new flagship product.

Macally, a long time provider of Mac peripherals, offered Tune Pro and FlexTune. Designed for the iPod, TunePro is an audio minisystem with a flat-panel appearance and includes an alarm clock—perfect for the nightstand; FlexTune is a small but very versatile charger and speaker set for both iPod and iPhone. What was interesting about the latter was the way the speakers could slide laterally so the iPhone could be rotated to landscape mode for video viewing, to minimize the device's footprint on an office desk.

Skullcandy offers creative designs that appeal most to a younger crowd. They recently introduced the iPhone FMJ headset. They also offer full-featured wireless headphones. Most of their prices are under $100, except for the high-end phones, which retail for $169.95.

Ultimate Ears offered four models of high-quality headsets for iPods and iPhones: the Custom, the Triple.fi, the Super.fi, and the Metro.fi for the style conscious.

I briefly stopped by Xtreme Mac as well, and saw a wide variety of good-sounding, aesthetically-pleasing docking stations, speakers, and clock radios, most notably the Luna X2 and the Tango X2. They also offered nearly a dozen varieties of cases, pouches and protective covers for iPods and iPhones.

One of the more interesting presentations I attended was from Altec Lansing, who said their new T612 iPhone dock and speaker system (Click on the image at left for a closer look.) is the first to be "Apple certified", meaning Apple agrees to sell them in Apple stores. Apparently such certification is difficult to attain, as Apple has very tight engineering standards regarding specific emissions and GSM shielding. Capable of both desk and wall mount, the sound is very rich and clean. It is also backward compatible with dockable iPods.

MacBook Air, super-thin notebook, introduced

What may be the most talked about of Apple's four major product releases Steve Jobs introduced today is a new addition to the MacBook line called the MacBook Air. With a teardrop profile only 0.76 inches at its thickest point, it's the thinnest notebook computer ever. (You can get closer looks at the new MacBook Air by clicking on each of the embedded images.)

Apple didn't compromise much on features. There's a full-size, backlit keyboard, 13.3-inch screen, iSight webcam, large trackpad with multi-touch gesture support (similar to the iPhone's, which lets you use your fingers in more ways than the traditional tapping and sliding), plus a new magnetic latch.

There are only three ports on the right side: USB2, MicroDVI, and a headphone jack. (There's no Ethernet port for wired networking, but that's not really an issue with a notebook designed for extreme portability.) Apple says that the 1.6-GHz Core 2 Duo processor is 60 percent smaller than chips made for other models. The standard MacBook Air comes with an 80GB hard drive—or a 64GB solid-state drive for an additional $999. The standard memory configuration is 2-GB and Apple claims 5 hours of battery life. The built-in wireless capability supports 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

There's no internal CD/DVD burner; to use discs you need the $99 external MacBook Air SuperDrive which connects to the USB port. Also, a new custom application in Leopard called "Remote Disk" lets you wirelessly "borrow" other users' CD/DVD drives.

In keeping with Apple's environmental initiatives, MacBook Air notebooks have a fully recyclable aluminum case, displays that are mercury and arsenic free, and logic boards that are BFR and PVC free. In addition, the packaging has 56 percent less volume, to save trees.

The base model, which starts at $1,799, pairs a 1.6-GHz processor with an 80-GB Parallel ATA hard drive. A second model that features a 1.8-GHz processor and 64-GB solid-state drive starts at $3,098. Both ship in two to three weeks, but can be pre-ordered starting today.

Compared with Windows-based 13-inch slim-and-light notebooks we've rated (Consumer Reports' Ratings are available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers only), the MacBook Air is pricier and its hard drive is a bit slower and has a smaller capacity, but weighs more than a pound less. When compared with notebooks in the 3-pound range, such as the Sony TZ series 11-inch or Toshiba Portege R500 12-inch, its pricing is very competitive.

Macworld 2008: Preview

Apple goes into Macworld Expo, the annual party, love fest, and religious revival for the Cult of Mac, which opened today in San Francisco, following a year that's had a few fizzles (Apple TV, the first release of OS X Leopard, 10.5), one big hit (the iPhone) and under-the-radar sales growth of 40% for Mac desktops and laptops. The one adjective that no longer describes Apple is "beleaguered."

While analysts don’t see the same kind of explosive growth for Apple this year, they still hope a few compelling new products and services will keep the company on a growth track.

I do believe Apple will deliver. My first clue was this week's pre-event announcement of a new MacPro tower and XServe, powered by 8-core Intel Xeon processors, offering 2.3 times the speed and raw horsepower as the dual, quad-core 3.0 Ghz machines being sold only a month ago. If they couldn't wait one week to announce this, it often indicates they have so many other things to show us, there simply wasn't room in the Keynote program to hold it all.

Below is a distillation of predictions, hopes, and wishes from the amassed Mac pundits and bloggers for Keynote 2008:

Movie rentals in iTunes—Fox and Disney are reported as already signed on and almost everybody wants the "One More Thing" to be—at long last—the entire Beatles collection, made available at the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). (If that happens, no one will be crying over the loss of Universal.)

Improvements to iPhone: A 16GB, 3G model, with no limits on cell service provider—we can certainly dream, can't we? Also rumored is an iPhone SDK (software development kit), which would mean that there would be a market for third-party software. We might even see a demo of 3rd-party apps—something developers were clamoring for most of last year.

Office 2008—slam-dunk #2, as Amazon is already taking pre-orders. I expect someone from Microsoft will make the official announcement during the Keynote. (I'll write more on Office later in the week, when I get to see it for real.)

Leopard 10.5.2—this is almost a slam-dunk, as the Developers Cut is already making the rounds. There are at least 75 fixes and feature additions in the works, and this would be a perfect time to announce their deployment.

New Cinema displays with touch-screen and built-in webcam—possibly 24-, 27- and 30-inch models, an upgrade that is long overdue.

Blu-ray drives in some Macs—a rumor that is growing some legs, now that Blu-Ray seems to be winning the format war, and there is going to be a growing need to handle HD content.

Ultraslim notebook/touch tablet—this is the biggest rumor to make the rounds, and highly likely: Apple fills out its laptop line with an ultra-thin notebook, running on flash memory instead of a hard drive, sporting a 12-13 inch touch screen, which could possibly fold over to become a tablet Mac.

Final Cut Studio update—not likely, but definitely overdue, considering the plethora of new digital camcorders that have hit the market

Apple TV "2.0"—look for a "reboot" of this product, with new features, more storage, and built-in compatibility with iTMS movie-rental.

If you are not attending this year, here is a link to sites offering live blogging of the Keynote (SFW). Stay tuned!

—Thomas A. Olson

Thomas Olson, the Publishing Systems Administrator for Consumer Reports' Editorial, Design, Production and Pre-Press groups, has been a Mac enthusiast since 1984.

 

CES 2008: Four web sites worth a visit

The Consumer Electronics Show has become a showcase for content as well as hardware, and more exhibitors are featuring electronics-related websites. Here are four intriguing sites I learned about while browsing the exhibit booths last night—two that help you buy gear and two that help you share the content you create on your gear.

The tagline for Retrevo.com is "matching people and electronics." The site offers category overviews and product pricing summaries in real time. But its real distinction lies in capabilities built on computer algorithms. Retrevo crawls the Net to gather features data on products, which it then analyzes against a list of possible features, each assigned an importance level. It rolls those together with price data to assign a value score to each product. You can view a list or a rather complex "value map" reflecting Retrevo's judgment of the best-to-worst values in the product type you're seeking. The site also offers handy content for products you already own, including searchable manufacturers' manuals and tips on using the gear from users and expert sources.

When it comes to finding out how easy it is to use a cellphone, there's no substitute for actually holding the thing in your hand and trying it out, as we recommend in our advice on buying a phone. But tryphone.com offers the next best thing: a virtual, actual-sized version of the phone with menus and buttons you can explore by pressing your computer mouse. For now, there are only 10 phones up on the site, including the iPhone, the Blackberry Pearl, and the Samsung Juke, but tryphone says it will add three more phones a week until the site boasts hundreds. This site might be worth a visit even if you already own one of the listed phones, because there are tips on how to use them.

While there are plenty of sites for sharing and storing your photos, there are few or no such services for home videos. Motionbox.com fills that gap. There's a free service that's limited to 300 MB, a capacity you can quickly exhaust if you're a true camcorder auteur. A premium version, which costs $29.99 a year, offers unlimited capacity and the ability to download your videos in full resolution. Either service allows you to order Motionbooks, 3.5-by-2-inch flip books that animate a 15-second video clip of your choice. They're $8.99 apiece.

Finally, there's eJamming.com, a site for musicians that made a high-profile debut during yesterday's CES keynote address by Paul Otellini, the CEO of semiconductor giant Intel. The popular band Smash Mouth used this site to play together although each musician was at a different location in Las Vegas and the singer was on-stage with Otellini. The performance seemed flawless.

You can view the keynote address and performance via the CES Web site, www.cesweb.org/about_ces/multimedia.asp (scroll through the "playlist" of videos on the right) and via Intel's CES-related Web site, http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/ces2008/index.htm?iid=pr1_marqmain_ces2008 (scroll to the bottom of the page to find the link to the online video.).

To replicate the way musicians settle into a groove in a room, each adjusting their timing to that of their colleagues, eJamming's software analyzes the time delay, measured in milliseconds, among the players and adjusts it as needed. The site, which is free, allows you to post a recording of your playing and to solicit musical partners. Spokesmen say the site already has over 10,000 users and has been responsible for bringing together musicians from disparate countries to, er, e-jam together.

—Paul Reynolds

LG Voyager Cell Phone: First impressions

If a new cell phone is on your holiday wish list, wireless service providers and phone makers are more than happy to flood you with dozens of new models that offer a slew of new features and other goodies.

To be sure, one of the hottest wireless phones for holiday shoppers is Apple's iPhone. But if you're a Verizon customer and are hesitant to switch over to the AT&T service, there's good news. The wireless carrier now offers the LG Voyager, a cell phone that closely mimics the iPhone's touch-screen and other capabilities. (Click on the image at right for a closer look.)

On ConsumerReports.org, we've taken a closer look at this iPhone competitor as well as Verizon's other heavily-promoted phones, the LG Venus and Samsung Juke. Check out our free report all three phones.

The report also has an online video which shows the LG Voyager in action. Click on the player below or go to our most recent cell phones Ratings report on ConsumerReports.org to see the video. (You must have Macromedia Flash software installed to watch our free online videos.)

The iPod Touch: Our first impressions

An iPhone minus the phone, and plus some welcome extras

Our tests of Apple’s new iPod Touch confirm that it is indeed essentially an iPhone without the phone. You get the same generous, 3-in.-wide multi-touch screen, the same superb interface that seamlessly links a multifaceted media player with a powerful Web browser, and the same Internet access via Wi-Fi.

Shedding the phone allows the Touch to be few millimeters shorter and thinner than the iPhone and about a half-ounce lighter--just 4.2 ounces. (Click on the photo on the right, for a close up view of the iPod Touch, left, and the iPhone.) Of course, it also deprives of you of being able to make calls, easily send-e-mails, or surf the Web on the cell network. But phone performance on the iPhone is only so-so anyway, and the phone is married to AT&T, whose middling performance we document in our most recent survey on cellular service providers.

The Touch costs $300 for our 8-gigabyte (GB) test model, which holds about 2,000 songs, or $400 for the 16 GB version--the largest capacity of any flash player on the market.

Related stories:

• Our first impressions of the new iPod Nano
• Inside the iPhone
• How to choose a digital music player

Next: The iPod Touch's Highs and Lows, as well as more images.

Apple's new iPod -- an iPhone minus the phone

The iPhone now has a non-telephonic sibling. As part of a revamp yesterday of its iPod players, Apple unveiled the iPod Touch (see photo on the right. Click to enlarge.), a multimedia player looks like the iPhone and has the same features and capabilities except it lacks a phone, a camera, and the iPhone’s text messaging and e-mail applications. A Touch with 8 gigabytes is $300; one with 16 gigabytes is $400. The players will be available later in September.

The Touch also led Apple to touch up the iPhone, launched just two months ago. Effective now, they have discontinued the 4-GB iPhone and cut the price of the 8-GB model by $200, to $400. (In addition to making the iPhone more affordable, that means those who already own the device have essentially paid a premium of around $3 a day to be among the first iPhone users.)

These images (click to enlarge) show how similar in appearance the new iPod Touch (on the left) is to the two month old iPhone (on the right).

Also, as Apple promised when the iPhone debuted, sometime this month the iPhone will be able to download iTunes content via their Wi-Fi connection. (The Touch will also have this capability.)  iPhones already in circulation will need to download a patch. Among the available downloads for the iPhone will be song-based ringtones. The catch, you’ll have to pay iTunes 99 cents for the privilege, even if you already own the song.

Other iPods have been revamped, with these new models available as of this weekend:

The largest-capacity iPod ever. The hard-drive-based iPod, now called the iPod Classic, is getting a minor facelift and a major boost in storage. There will now be a 160-GB (40,000-song) iPod, the biggest capacity ever for an iPod, at a price of $350, the same as the previous 80-GB model. The new 80-GB model will be $250. The Classic will come in black or white.

A Nano with video. A new Nano (see photo left, click to enlarge) will be able display videos on a screen that’s been expanded to 2 inches in diameter. It has a new squarish shape (2.5 in x 2.06 in. x 0.26 in.). There’s no longer a 2-GB Nano. The new 4-GB version costs $150 and is available in silver. The 8-GB model costs $200 and is available in silver, blue, red, green, and black.

More colors for the Shuffle. The Shuffle is available in more hues, including silver, blue, red, green, and purple.  Otherwise, it's unchanged -- it still lacks a screen, and there’s still only one capacity, 1 GB, and one price: $80.

-- Mike Gikas

iPhone Hacking Raises Security Concerns for all Smartphone Users

Security analysts have long predicted that hackers who routinely pester computer users would eventually target smart phones, whose advanced network connections and operating systems continue to become more computer-like. Indeed, smart-phone virus outbreaks have been reported in Europe and Asia.

This week Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a U.S. independent testing lab, dramatized the looming danger by piercing the defenses of the much-vaunted iPhone. (ISE is the lab whose help Consumer Reports seeks for our evaluations of security software. See our report on how we test antivirus software and look for our 2007 State of the Net report, which posts to ConsumerReports.org in early August.)

See our complete coverage on:

• Apple's iPhone
• Internet and online security risks

Some telecom experts believed the iPhone was relatively immune from such attacks because of the limited access Apple granted third-party developers to iPhone's operating system (a stripped-down version of the one that runs on Macs), and because iPhone's Safari Web browser lacks the ability to use plug-ins, such as Flash, a primary entry point for Web-borne attacks.

Yet ISE was able to hack into a New York Times reporter’s iPhone when it (voluntarily) visited a special Web site they created, which uploaded malicious software and gave the "hackers" unlimited access to files and phone functions. (Note: The embedded link will take you to the New York Times Web site, which may display an online ad before presenting its story on hacking the iPhone.)

Besides downloading contact information and recent text messages, ISE claims it was able to seize control of the phone, and program it to dial any number, send any text message—-even turn the iPhone into a bugging device to eavesdrop on anyone within earshot. More important, while ISE’s focus was the iPhone, their main point is cell-phone providers need spruce up their security act. More details of ISE’s iPhone effort are available on http://www.exploitingiphone.com/.

ISE has sent its recommendations for security patches to Apple. In the meantime, it offers these tips for iPhone and other smart-phone owners to minimize risk:

• Only visit Web sites you know
• Only use Wi-Fi networks you trust
• Don’t open Web links from e-mails

--Mike Gikas

iPhone, the camera phone

Despite its high price tag and innovations such as its touch screen, Apple's iPhone doesn't break new ground in all features and functions. Sometimes it's merely competent--as with its built-in camera, which is fine but nothing special.

The iPhone's camera does have a 2-megapixel (MP) sensor. That's more than most camera phones (at least in the U.S.), which are limited to no more than 1 MP of resolution. But other phones, such the Samsung SCH-a990, Sony Ericsson K790a, and Nokia N95, offer 3 to 5 MP.

But resolution is only one ingredient of image quality. The iPhone's camera yielded photos that were comparable in overall quality to those from our tests of those high-res cameraphones. Which is to say images were better than those from most cameraphones we've tested but fell short of those from a typical digital camera.

The iPhone's dynamic range (which is the difference between, or ratio of, the lightest and darkest elements of a displayed image) was especially good, with minimal visual noise in the resulting images. Also images taken in low light were passable, which they aren't from all cellphones. On the other hand, color balance was only fair, with many daylight shots bearing a bluish tinge.

The iPhone: Some issues to consider

With the initial clamor about Apple’s first phone now over, non-Apple-aficionados can ponder whether to pony up $499 or $599 for the device. As our tests wrap up, here’s what to consider if you’re still on the iFence about the iPhone:

• How important is phone performance? As we mentioned previously in our video review, the iPhone offers superb multimedia functionality via its unique touchscreen and integration with services like YouTube and Google Maps. But, as we've also said: As a phone, it’s only so-so in voice quality and AT&T’s service has some issues.


• Is your present phone under contract? If so, you’ll need to pay out the contract or pay its termination fee of up to $200. (If you have a contract with AT&T, the termination fee will be forgiven. Read Consumer Reports' recent report on the high costs for changing your cell service for other money saving tips.)


• Are you shopping for an iPod? The iPhone’s 4- or 8-GB iPod is the best MP3 player built into a phone that we’ve ever tested, and offers a new and appealing interface. However, we’d be surprised if new iPods with those features didn’t arrive later this year.


• Do you now text a lot on a keypad? The iPhone’s text-entry interface is fine, and easy enough to learn. But it’s very different from sending text messages on the QWERTY keyboard found on most smartphones. Speed texters on that type of keyboard may want to stick with it.


• Do you need PDA functions? The Palm Treos and most Blackberrys are better at these. With the iPhone, you can’t edit or create documents, nor can you enter or edit calendar appointments on the phone itself--you can do that only through iTunes on your computer.

[July 9, 2007 Update: As blog reader Shawn Duncan notes in this post's comments, we goofed on this. There is a way to create and edit new documents and calendar entries on the iPhone. --Ed.]

More next week from our continuing tests of the iPhone. But please add your own comments here and in the iPhone thread of our online discussion forums. (Our boards are free to read, but registration is required to post messages.)

--Mike Gikas

iPhone, the cell phone

With all the attention given to its multimedia features and innovative touch screen, it’s almost easy to forget the iPhone is, well, a phone. And some of our initial tests of Apple’s first cellphone suggest that telephony may not be its strong suit.

In voice-quality tests, the iPhone’s performance has been undistinguished at best. Quality when listening to a call was fair. Calls from the iPhone heard on another phone were good in quality. By comparison, among the AT&T-compatible smartphones in our current Ratings (available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers), only the Palm Treo 680 scored that low in voice quality. The best-sounding AT&T-compatible phones, the Samsung BlackJack and Cingular 3125, scored good and very good respectively in listening and talking modes. And all those phones cost $100 to $200, compared with the $499 and $599 price tags for the iPhone.

Other ways in which the iPhone could use a little more polish as a phone: It has no voice-activated dialing and offers no easy way to access frequently called numbers. On the other hand, its visual voice mail (see image) offers a unique advantage over other phones. As we demonstrate in our video First Look (Macromedia Flash required to watch our review of the Apple iPhone), its interface allows you to skip listening to every message in sequence. Instead, you view a list of calls (Click on the image for a larger view) and tap the one you want to hear or click on it to return the call. The feature even allows you to retrieve messages you’ve deleted by plucking them from a deleted directory, much as you retrieve e-mail messages from your computers’ trash.

Got your own iPhone experiences to share? We appreciate the comments you’ve been sharing in response to our blog entries. We’ve also now opened an iPhone thread on our cell phone discussion forums. (You don't need to be a ConsumerReports.org subscriber to read our free online discussion forums. But you do need to register to participate in our online discussions.) And our testing continues, with more results expected later this week.

--Mike Gikas

iPhone display shines in early tests

On most phones, the display is important enough. On the iPhone, it’s paramount because it also serves to control the device, which has very few buttons or other controls.

Display quality, then, was our first order of business in our iPhone tests, which began today. Our initial findings:

Brightness and legibility. iPhone’s 3.5-in., 480 x 320-resolution display proved to be excellent in readibility even in bright sunlight, a setting that washes out many screens. In fact, this may be the most legible cell-phone screen we’ve ever tested. Most notable was how readily we could read details--the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls, and signal and battery meters, for example--even in the midday sun. One quibble, however: The chrome-like frame can produce annoying glare when you hold the iPhone at certain angles in bright sunlight.

Surface issues. The iPhone’s mirror-like surface does draw smudges. However, the smears weren’t distracting on most functions, though they were quite noticeable where the screen was dark. (Click on the image above for a larger view and you'll see what we mean.) The iPhone comes with a chamois-like cloth that effectively wipes off smudges with a light buff. And in a quick scratch test--placing the iPhone in a pocket that also held four sets of keys--the glass screen came out unscathed.

We continue to assess other aspects of screen performance, and will report on those and other tests through the coming week. Meantime, if you’re among the new iPhone owners, we invite your impressions of the device in the comments below.

--Mike Gikas

The iPhone Launch: The Countdown Begins

Now just a few hours from the its retail launch, Apple’s iPhone continues to engender the kind of blatant material lust we haven’t seen since Gollum’s pursuit of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings movies (“We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.”)

Since our own plan is to buy a number of iPhones immediately and work through the weekend performing a hands-on evaluation of the phone, in the interim we thought we’d recap what’s been already said by the four journalists who received evaluation units a few weeks ahead of the rest of us. (The policy of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, requires us to purchase the products we review).

The reviews by all four of the reporters--Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times’ David Pogue, Ed Baig from USA Today and Newsweek’s Steven Levy--were predominantly positive. But all acknowledged some drawbacks, most notably the comparatively slow AT&T EDGE network. Many of their assessments echo issues we raised in our earlier coverage.

• Complete iPhone coverage in this blog
• Interactive: Inside the iPhone

The iPhone and AT&T Wireless: A match made in, well, not heaven?

While the iPhone itself might live up to its considerable hype--we’re still a few days shy of getting our hands on one--Apple’s exclusive deal with AT&T Wireless for cellular service could leave some users happy they can also use the phone to listen to music or watch YouTube clips.

That’s because for several years, AT&T Wireless--formerly known as Cingular--has been among the least satisfying service providers, according to Consumer Reports’ annual customer satisfaction surveys.

In fact, in our latest report, from January 2007, AT&T had  “middling to low” customer satisfaction, with static and busy circuits cited as widespread problems (as they’ve been in our previous surveys). Frequent service-related problems were compounded by the company’s relatively low marks for helpfulness in handling customer questions and complaints.

In addition, the iPhone will run on AT&T’s “2.5G” EDGE network, rather than one of the faster “3G” networks available from the major carriers, such as Verizon or Sprint’s EVDO, or even AT&T’s own UMTS/HSDPA network (Don’t worry about the acronyms. The upshot is that EDGE has much lower bandwidth than true 3G networks.). Reportedly, AT&T has been working to upgrade the Internet capabilities of some of its towers to ensure higher minimum data speeds than were originally reported.

And some journalists who received models of the phone in advance have said that AT&T’s  wireless service is a potential weak point. David Pogue of the New York Times' Technology section highlighted our survey findings while Walt Mossberg over at the Wall Street Journal's Personal Technology section has called it "a major drawback" for the sleek device.

(We expect to buy the iPhone on Friday--just like you would. After testing by our reporters and engineers, we'll report our findings here on the Blog as well as on ConsumerReports.org. In the meantime, check out our interactive guide to the iPhone.)

But the combination of slower network speeds and poor customer service might not bode well for early iPhone adopters (there are already rumors that a second-generation iPhone will be 3G-capable), especially since Apple’s deal with AT&T is a five-year exclusive. And AT&T’s just-announced service plans for the iPhone require a two-year commitment.

The good news is that the pricing plans, announced on Tuesday, appear to be competitive. Three versions will be offered, ranging from $60 to $100 per month, and there’s a one-time $36 activation fee. The basic $60 plan includes 450 minutes of voice time. An $80 step-up plan bumps voice time to 900 minutes.  The premium plan, priced at $100 a month, includes 1,350 minutes of talk time. All three include 200 text messages, unlimited data services, and “visual voicemail,” which lets you see the types of voicemail you’ve received and access them individually, rather than in the order in which they were received.

In addition, unused monthly minutes can be rolled over to the next month, and there are unlimited calls between mobile phones.

iPhone ads: Glimpsing the newest Apple

The anticipation and speculation surrounding Apple’s iPhone, on sale June 29th,  is being stoked by a barrage of commercials. The 30-second spots — four thus far — offer snippets of the iPhone’s cool touch-screen, Web browser, GPS functions, and music player in action.

For example, one commercial shows a hand “flipping” through a virtual parade of 3-D  album covers before tapping the screen to make a selection; another shows a similar pair of fingers gliding  over the touch screen to surf the Web on the iPhones full-featured browser, while the display constantly readjusts its orientation.  They typically end with the iPhone switching to phone mode to take a call.

Apple watchers are scrutinizing these spots to glean iPhone insights. They’re noting details that escape casual viewers. For example, some have noticed a mysterious 12th button that appears briefly in one of the commercials. What does it do?  The spots are also fueling predictions about the iPhone user experience. The biggest debate centers on what it will be like to peck out messages on the device’s virtual keyboard. (An historical note: Remember that Palm’s first smart phones had touch-screen-based keypads, but customer complaints about tactile feedback forced them to add the tiny chiclet-style keys they sport today.) 

These speculative blog discussions are akin to reviewing a movie based on its trailers. But if you do want to follow them, type “iPhone commercial” into your search engine of choice. Have some iPhone comments and insights of your own? Add your comments below. 

Previously:

• iPhone: Why you may not want to answer its call yet
• iPhone: The Reality Check

— Mike Gikas

iPhone: Why you may not want to answer its call yet

With the iPhone’s long-anticipated debut just weeks away, the buzz that greeted its January announcement has risen to an ear-splitting roar. A Google search of the term “iPhone” turns up hundreds of articles that in one way or another predict the transformation of cell-phone life as we know it, beginning on June 29.

You can’t yet buy the iPhone, but you can already buy screen protectors, chargers, and other accessories     for it. (For example, see this press release on PR Newswire.) There are also at least 10 iPhone books in the works, such as “How to Do Everything with Your iPhone” (from publishers McGraw-Hill Osborne) and “iPhone for Dummies,”with publication dates as early as August.

All this for a phone that’s been actually held by, like, a dozen people, most of whom work for Apple, and that you can’t even pre-order it yet -- though some AT&T stores are taking names of would-be buyers for a waiting list. (In fact, our test folks have already pre-ordered five in that manner.)

True to Apple’s flair for high style, the iPhone may be the coolest-looking cell phone ever. And as we've previously noted, its specs -- including a 3.5-inch-wide color screen and WiFi connectivity -- are impressive.

But, as we also pointed out a short while after the iPhone’s MacWorld preview, several issues threaten to scuff this glistening Apple. These include a screen that might smudge, a data-network that’s slower than others, and the iPods’ track record for battery life.

Podcast: A brave new year for electronics?

No doubt about it. The CES and MacWorld trade shows generated a lot of buzz. In this edition of the Consumer Reports Electronics Podcast, our editors and experts analyze the big news from both shows and how these announcements will shape the products in consumer electronics and computers we'll see this year.

Here's a rundown of this 25-minute-long podcast, with links relevant to the topics discussed:

1. A brief introduction
2. At 2 minutes into the show, Paul Reynolds and Jim Willcox discuss HDTVs, including:
   Pricing
   Advanced display technologies such as SED, LED, and OLED
3. At 11 minutes 40 seconds into the show, Donna Tapellini, Dean Gallea and Tom Olson discuss Computers, including:
   New operating systems such as Windows Vista and Apple's Leopard
   Apple's iPhone
   Novel uses of Windows Vista's SideShow feature
   Advances in wireless network connections
   DigitalFreedom.org, a Web site advocating "consumer rights" to digital media and technology
   MyGreenElectronics.org, the industry's efforts to promote recycling and enviornment-friendly electronic products

We obviously couldn't cover all the important news from the trade shows and still keep the podcast to a managable length. So feel free to browse our posts and you'll read some great coverage about new portable GPS navigation units, the failing attempts to end the battle over high-def DVD formats, and unique new products, including a Mac "tablet," a USB device that captures handwritten notes, and a new thin digital camera with a powerful but unobtrusive zoom lens.

You can download the current podcast directly to your hard drive by right-clicking this link — or just click here to subscribe. 

Tell us your thoughts about this podcast by e-mailing us at: podcaster "at" cro.consumer.org.

We look forward to your responses and we hope you'll check in regularly for the latest posts.

— Paul Eng, Web Senior Editor

iPhone: The Reality Check

Now that the hoopla surrounding iPhone announcement has subsided, it's time we take a more sober look at it. But first read my colleague Tom Olson's detailed iPhone preview, which includes his impressions of its Macworld debut demonstration. 

One nice thing about the part-smartphone, part-iPod, part-network receiver he left out: It's a quad-band, or world, phone. Besides the two frequency bands in the U.S. (800/850 and 1900 MHz), it operates on two bands prevalent in Europe, most parts of Asia, and other areas (900 and 1800 MHz). That means you should get the maximum cellular coverage at home and abroad.

We weren't given much time with the iPhone at Macworld, but we'll give it a thorough test in our labs when it becomes available later this year. Along with some positive first impressions, however, our early peek at this all-in-one phone also revealed some potential hang-ups:

Price. With a two-year Cingular contract, a 4-gigabyte (GB) iPhone costs $500, while the 8GB model will set you back $600. That's a heck of a lot of green, considering top-of-the-line smart phones from Palm and RIM rarely reach $350 with two-year contract. 

Smeared images? The 3.5-inch color display appears brilliant, and the fact that it doubles as a touch screen seems like an innovative way to save space on controls. But its dark, mirror-smooth finish will likely attract smudges, highlight scratches, and make it hard to see in sunlight. Imagine all the oily residue left by fingertips pecking out messages and phone numbers on its virtual keypads. Think about all smudges and, perhaps, scratches left by the five o'clock shadows and rouged cheeks that brush against it during phone calls. Want to watch a video? You may need to keep a bottle of Windex handy. 

Macworld: What was missing from the keynote

As this is the first Steve Jobs Keynote I've ever attended where the Apple CEO never mentioned a computer, perhaps it was, indeed, appropriate when he announced that "Apple Computer, Inc." would now be simply "Apple, Inc."

The two-plus hours of the keynote were devoted almost entirely to Apple TV and the iPhone. Early on, Jobs mentioned the 2 billion songs sold on iTunes, the 50 million TV shows sold/downloaded since that service began, and the addition of Paramount as a movie partner.

And of course, no Keynote would be complete without a few digs at every Mac user's favorite "competitor," including a large pie chart showing Zune's barely visible market share, a quote from Microsoft's Jim Allchin that said if he weren't working there, he'd buy a Mac, and the latest "I'm a Mac" ad showing the poor PC wearing nothing but a surgical gown, as he fearfully awaited his upgrade to Windows Vista and all the "major surgery" to his inner workings that would surely ensue.

All that took ten minutes, tops.

But other than the claim that "half the Macs we sold last year, in every supply chain, were sold to switchers [from PCs]", no mention was made of computers, or any improvements to any existing Apple products, be it hardware or software:

• No new chips for any computers
• No updates or upgrades to Apple applications/suites, such as iLife, iWork, Aperture, or Final Cut
• No new desktop displays
• And nothing at all about OS X "Leopard — and isn't that supposed to be released relatively soon, now?

It was as though Apple's other products just didn't exist. There was certainly nothing new on the show floor in that regard, either. All the floor demos were for the iPhone and Apple TV. I can understand why Steve was really elated over his newest products, but at least he could have given the crowd of Mac faithful a sense of when he will talk about those other things, and not just leave us all hanging.

And of course, with all the hype surrounding Apple's partnership with Cingular, there was no mention of "net neutrality" at any time during the presentation...in case anyone was wondering.

— Thomas A. Olson 

Thomas Olson, the Publishing Systems Administrator for Consumer Reports' Editorial, Design, Production and Pre-Press groups, has been a Mac enthusiast since 1984.

Macworld: Apple's not just a computer company anymore

In a lengthy presentation that barely touched on the company's traditional computer products, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wowed the faithful earlier today with the introduction of several new products — and a new company name. Banishing the word "Computer," Jobs declared that the company will henceforth be known simply as "Apple, Inc." The new identity seemed fitting for a company now known more for the iPod than for its computer products. And the devices introduced by Jobs at the Macworld Expo — the $299 Apple TV networked media player and the long-awaited $499 iPhone (pictured) — certainly position the company even more firmly in the consumer electronics camp. We'll have a detailed report on everything Apple later today. In the meantime, remember the name: Apple, just Apple.

— MP

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