A note on all the iPhone coverage

Yeah, we hear ya, we know some of you are sick of it. That's cool, exhaustive coverage of any gadget isn't for everybody, but instead of making a big fuss in comments why not enjoy this beautiful summer weekend? We're not skipping over other news to cover this iPhone stuff -- news is ALWAYS really slow on the weekends, and we've got a major product to cover the hell out of. Still, we'll try posting more stuff to mobile to cut down on the iPhone spam. Thanks for understanding!

<3 Engadget

P.S. -See also: iPhone and Apple-free feeds.

[Fred @ Jun 30th 2007 11:59PM]

Awwww...I love you guys... :)

[Carbonize @ Jul 1st 2007 12:00AM]

Was there this much coverage when the PS3, 360 or Wii came out?

[Sneakz @ Jul 1st 2007 12:02AM]

Not even close to this much coverage. And that was three consoles in total!

[Ryan Block @ Jul 1st 2007 12:02AM]

Maybe not as much, but to be honest there wasn't as much to cover! This isn't a game console, this is a device running a whole new mobile operating system.

[Eric @ Jul 1st 2007 12:04AM]

There wasnt as much hype over the PS3, 360 and Wii. The consoles are targeted to gamers and if you went to Joystiq or 1Up when the consoles were release they had extensive coverage. Anyone will enjoy and iPhone whereas only gamers will enjoy the consoles.

[Chris M @ Jul 1st 2007 12:24AM]

No.

I appreciate you coming out to say that you acknowledge this at least, Ryan. I'm sick of the news too; and realize news is sometimes slow on weekends- so I guess the choice was iPhone or nothing. I think the whole deal is that people heard a lot about the iPhone pre-launch; and now that it's out- it's all flooding together into one huge iPhone storm of news in the minds of those of us unimpressed with the device.

I'll be playing around with my new Sprint Moto Q, for a few days; and by the time I get done molesting it, the iPhase should be over with.

Chris

[Bob @ Jul 1st 2007 12:34AM]

Yeah but Apple didn't make any of those!

[Jason @ Jul 1st 2007 12:40AM]

Sorry to bust your bubble, but the mobile phone industry dwarfs the game industry. Not to mention, the iPhone happens to be the most highly anticipated consumer electronic device in history. Deal with it or move on.

[Carbonize @ Jul 1st 2007 12:43AM]

I just checked by clicking the link for the iPhone tag and for the month of June alone there is over 7 pages of iPhone entries with 15 entries per page. Thats over 105 entries a month so thats 3.5 iPhone stories a day.

[NovaLand @ Jul 1st 2007 3:21AM]

Can someone tell me what's so special about the iPhone? My SonyEricsson looks almost exactly the same, have a touch screen that I use to call with and so on. I just can't see what's so special with the iPhone?

[Jagannath A @ Jul 1st 2007 3:46AM]

@Carbonize

there r still some iphone posts that is not 'iphone' tagged check 'em also :D

[Nando @ Jul 1st 2007 12:01AM]

We

[Nando @ Jul 1st 2007 12:02AM]

...love you too, Engadgy... :)


Will you marry us?

[EngadgetFanBoi @ Jul 1st 2007 12:16AM]

well said Nando, well said...

[Eric @ Jul 1st 2007 12:02AM]

You guys dont have to apologize. If you dont want to read about the iPhone dont go to any tech blog for the next few days...

[andrew harrison @ Jul 1st 2007 12:13AM]

I agree, no need to apologise. People need to learn to just deal with it and stop complaining on every single iPhone article.

[infinitespecter @ Jul 1st 2007 2:50AM]

@Common Core 2 Duo

I did (or rather, am about to). I am leaving Sprint with a year left on my contract. The sale of my phone will cover the cancellation fee.

[Common Core 2 Duo!! @ Jul 1st 2007 12:23AM]

You know I really want to see a poll of how many people took the cancellation fee ( termination fee ) and jumped ship to AT&T. Would be interesting to see.

[booyaka @ Jul 1st 2007 12:03AM]

I don't see what's smart about this phone, you can view youtube videos and it has google maps built in. Ummmmmmmm ....yeaaaaaa

[derek @ Jul 1st 2007 12:12AM]

haha you are so stupid.

[booyaka @ Jul 1st 2007 1:14AM]

You're such a big bully!

[Keith Myers @ Jul 1st 2007 12:08AM]

Thanks for thinking of us non-iPhone lovers

[Bob Delani @ Jul 1st 2007 12:12AM]

"instead of making a big fuss in comments why not enjoy this beautiful summer weekend?"
lol, this reminded me of the bravia balls commercial for some reason..
http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/braviacommhigh.html

[Kyrra @ Jul 1st 2007 12:12AM]

I'm actually enjoying all the iPhone coverage. Please keep it up. :)

[Matthew Stenz @ Jul 1st 2007 12:18AM]

I waited in line for about 3 hours on the 29th. Sadly, the last 8GB model went to the guy in front of me, so I had to go home and order one online. So in the mean time, I kinda like reading about all this stuff, as silly as that may be.

[plh2034 @ Jul 1st 2007 12:25AM]

More iPhone coverage please. I'm reading every bit of it.
As for the "im sick of iPhone coverage" gumps. You were given an iPhone free version of Engadget but you are all so pathetic that you would rather comment about how much you hate the phone on every single post. I feel sorry for you.
I'm not getting an iPhone but i appreciate it because this is the healthy competition needed to make all the other cell phone makers step up their games.

[Jeff @ Jul 1st 2007 12:42AM]

"I'm not getting an iPhone but i appreciate it because this is the healthy competition needed to make all the other cell phone makers step up their games."

You're still missing the point.

The reason haters exist is because the iPhone doesn't really *do anything* that other phones don't already do, yet still it's being treated like the second coming of Christ. In fact, it is actually slower and less functional than many phones already on the market at much lower prices.

The fact that people like you think it's going to force other manufacturers to "step up" is part of what's wrong with the cell phone industry in this country. Our standards are apparently quite low, and we're apparently demanding even less from our new marquee products than we do from the phones we already have. We're going backwards, and we're celebrating it. That's what the rest of the industry is going to learn from this - that rather than useful features, network speed and quality, we all apparently want non-replaceable batteries, non-upgradable memory, 2G network speed and no voice dialing. Great. And that's why some people are a little annoyed at all this coverage.

You know, people wonder why our phones are about 5 years behind the phones in Asia. This is part of the reason why right here. We're stuck on brand loyalty and gimmicks instead of functionality, and that's only being reinforced by the iPhone. The Razr set us back a good 2 years with its tiny screen and its "thinness" that every manufacturer had to copy above all else, and now we're going to be stuck with phones that have unprotected touch screens but are otherwise slow, proprietary and non-upgradeable. Meanwhile, other countries around the world continue to push cell phone technology forward while we fall further behind.

[xxdesmus @ Jul 1st 2007 12:51AM]

@Jeff

Well said, and I completely agree with you.

[voisine @ Jul 1st 2007 1:03AM]

I'm having trouble understanding how people like Jeff here can't see how the iPhone is a huge leap forward in mobile technology. Not in terms of the underlying specifications, but in terms of actually being usable. I'm a software engineer and complete gadget geek. I had an lg hsdpa/media phone... I never use it for more than making calls. Navigating the interface to get it to do anything is just a pain in the ass, a completely frustrating experience. I'm smart, I can figure out how to make it work, but like any creative, smart engineer, I'm also lazy.

The reason the iPhone is such a huge leap forward... it's the interface stupid. No one has ever made a mass market device with a multi-simultanious touch, gesture recognizing interface that actually works. The interface enables you to manipulate your information in new ways that weren't possible before. This was obvious to me the second I saw the iphone keynote in January. This is as big a leap forward, and as much a paradigm shift as the mouse. When I saw it, the first thing I though, damn, I want that on my laptop!

[plh2034 @ Jul 1st 2007 1:05AM]

OK THE IPHONE IS GARBAGE!
But you 2 are still here on the iphone pages picking at it and inflating the comments section pressed to fight.

What you are not getting is i like the iPhone because i believe it will get other companies to make better products to top it.

We all know the iPhone isn't perfect but It has battery life, screen size and resolution, a real web browser and 8GBs of built in storage. I have the Sprint PPC 6700 now and those 4 iPhone features alone added to my 6700 would make me happy.

Maybe HTC will see the hype iPhone receives and take the few things it is doing right and improve upon them thats all i'm saying

[t-bone @ Jul 1st 2007 2:38AM]

I'm with voisine. I don't have an iPhone but I played with it in the store for about ten minutes. After that I went and looked at the Sync. OMG that phone was so boring, not out-speced, just boring. I am positive I would have thought differently if I looked at it first. That made me realize just how much the menu system in phones sucks.

[plh2034 @ Jul 1st 2007 3:07AM]

Thanks V but the Shift is a UMPC with a 7" screen why are you bringing that up? I'm not willing to carry a purse to hold that thing.

The Advantage looks nice how thick is it? Is it thicker than my 6700? Running Windows mobile means i still can't get HTML web surfing? Is it stable? My current and past Windows mobile devices are not. I say the jury is still out on the advantage.

Oh yeah and i live in the USA neither of those HTC products are available here and even if they were I cant do GSM in my area. I've had T-mobile and Cingular phones and the coverage is sub par where i live/work/travel.

[John @ Jul 1st 2007 3:23AM]

@ Jeff

"That's what the rest of the industry is going to learn from this - that rather than useful features, network speed and quality, we all apparently want non-replaceable batteries, non-upgradable memory, 2G network speed and no voice dialing. Great. And that's why some people are a little annoyed at all this coverage."

1) Non-Replaceable Batteries - I doubt many, if any, companies will copy this. It's an Apple trademark that's been around since the iPod.

2) Non-Upgradeable memory - It's a phone, not a PC. And if by memory, you meant disk space, then I think 8 GB is enough. My current phone has 1MB of disk space and somehow I made it by.

3) 2G Network Speed - As mentioned before, EDGE is a 3G standard. Also, it's not widely adopted in AT&T's infrastructure, so why would they make a product that's compatible with even less people than it already would be with availability on one carrier?

4) No Voice Dialing - Only douchebags use voice dialing. I feel bad for your co-workers, family, and friends if you're actually tacky enough to use it around them. The lack of voice dialing weighs more into the demographic (early 20 year olds); none of whom use voice dialing.

And those of us concerned about what the latest innovation in cellphone technology is in Asia? Last I checked, it was the ability to project video from your phone onto the wall. Man, no wonder the iPhone sucks so badly! No video projection! Forget government bans on stem-cell research, that's nothing compared to what Apple's doing. They have the RESPONSIBILITY to push technology forward since every other cellphone company is INCAPABLE of creating technology that SELLS!! But no, instead, they choose to improve on what's already available! How DARE they! God forbid I can make conference calls with the push of a button! I downloaded a hack for my Sony X5000 smartphone that makes conference phones in only 5 scroll wheel turns and 3 button presses, and it cost me 50 Dollars less than an iPhone! Also, everyone knows visual voicemail has been out since cell-phones were invented. Hell, my 5lb Nokia phone from the 1980s had visual voicemail AND a multi-touch screen. There is absolutely NOTHING NEW WITH THIS PHONE!! AURUGGGH ENGADGET IZ TEH SUCKS!!

[Dismal @ Jul 1st 2007 3:29AM]

voisine I understand where you coming from, but what makes me mad is the very fact that the UI is so intuitive, yet the hardware is not very special at all (I would to two SD slots over 8gb on board memory any day of the week).

It would be fantastic if Apple would sell their Interface to other manufacturers and compete with windows mobile, But instead they think everyone should mindless drones that only buy products from apple. Hell, even Gates is not so vain to think everyone needs a windows pc and that they should pay a ridiculous markup for it simply because it has a windows logo on it. Maybe if Apple would sell their operating system apart from their computers they would not have such a measly market share, and then if MS actually had some real competition for their market share they would release an operating system thats wouldn't be such crap (relatively speaking).

[John @ Jul 1st 2007 3:38AM]

@Dismal

First comment on engadget that ever made me laugh out loud. Please let me know when Ben & Jerrys starts selling their ice cream at Baskin Robins and when BMW starts designing the interiors of Ford trucks. Thanks.

[plh2034 @ Jul 1st 2007 4:00AM]

I happen to like the whole multi touch set-up.
The iPhones OS seems smoother than Windows Mobile.
Oh yeah and the UI looks great.
Add that to the to the list of things HTC doesen't have.

[Benny @ Jul 1st 2007 12:04PM]

@ John.

That is a seriously bad analogy. As far as ice cream goes, the way Apple sells software is like Ben & Jerry's saying "You can buy a tub of our ice cream, but only if you buy a Ben & Jerry's refrigerator to keep it in! Oh and by the way, you can't keep Baskin Robins' ice cream in there, sorry."

Apple does limit its market share by making software proprietary... while Windows does generally suck, Joe Public can walk into his nearest electrical store, buy any PC he likes and know that it's going to run XP or Vista or whatever.

I'm not complaining though. I love Apple's hardware and software and am a proud owner of a Black Macbook. However if Apple were to open up and let OS X be used on other machines, there's bound to be massive increases in support for the platform. Whether this would be worth the likely compromise in security is another matter :P

[Malcolm @ Jul 1st 2007 12:31AM]

hey.. the engadget logo looks cute. :p

[Zeus the God @ Jul 1st 2007 12:35AM]

STOP PLAYING WITH MY HEART!

[dfkd @ Jul 1st 2007 12:38AM]

Here's a plan...If the haters here see "i" anything...you can roll your scroll wheel three times and then you wont see it anymore.

QUIT WHINING!

If you dont like what they're printing read somewhere else or start your own magazine.

[stephan @ Jul 1st 2007 12:39AM]

boo to the haters.. we're lucky to get more than 3 posts during the weekend. the iphone is worthy of the coverage, keep it comin. doesn't even stack up to the release of another gaming system, you guys are doing great

[iPhone @ Jul 1st 2007 12:46AM]

What exactly is the point of Engadget Mobile if you don't post news on like... mobile devices (such as cell phones) there... You post at one, not both.

I don't even know why Engadget Mobile exists if you are just going to post it at the normal Engadget anyway.

[Ryan Block @ Jul 1st 2007 12:48AM]

Most of our features/unique content is going on the front page. News is getting crossposted. The rest of the non-iPhone/non-front-page mobile news is still going up over there!

[Prasand J. @ Jul 1st 2007 4:51AM]

I noticed that the comment count is not the same on both sites. Why not just use the engadget mobile database, and pull the items with a flag marked as "general" or "main" to show those items on the main site as well (instead of cross-posting)?

I'm suggesting that because the other site may lose traffic since those wanting attention will post in the more popular location (thus the location having the most replies). You can also off-load resources to the other server that way.

[Paul @ Jul 1st 2007 1:47PM]

I'd rather read one site for my gadget news than have to wade through posts on two sites, thankyouverymuch.

[Joe P @ Jul 1st 2007 12:47AM]

At this point if you're still complaining after Engadget has repediatly offered feeds without iPhone stuff and apologized for the news then you need to pull your head out of your arse and get over it.

[xxdesmus @ Jul 1st 2007 12:48AM]

Please for the love of god, enough with all this iPhone bulls**t. We don't need any more articles about this wonderfully over-hyped and under-featured device.

What is that phrase: "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything." Well, "If you don't have anything else to report on [other than the iPhone], please, just don't report anything."

You guys have been ridiculous lately. While I am glad you are acknowledging that maybe you have reported the crap out of this piece of plastic, you have still lost a large chunk of respect in my book.

[Jeff Lewis @ Jul 1st 2007 12:51AM]

Sorry Ryan - it's your blog, you have the right to publish whatever you want - BUT, your apology in short is: We're sorry we're going to flood what was a general tech blog with a near crazed obsession with a single product, and we know a lot of you are tired of it - but so what?

Not exceptionally sincere.

Just a thought - when your *customers* are telling you they're tired of it, maybe you might want to listen?

Anyway, your counter argument about the Wii and XBox and so on is specious. The Wii, for example, represented a major change in gaming both in terms of technology AND in terms of market penetration. It's STILL sold out in many places - almost eight MONTHS after it's introduction. And now it's being opened up for developers.

The XBox 360 is different because for the first time, Microsoft is introducting tools to allow the average hobbyist to write games.

It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone - and not even one of the more interesting ones out there. If you actually took the time to cover some of the other phones out there to this degree, you'd see this.

The ONLY thing that makes the iPhone special is the name 'Apple' associated with it. I sincerely doubt that if this phone had been made by Microsoft it would have gotten 1/2 the airtime - and I'm also equally sure you'd have been obsessing with what was WRONG with it rather than what was great about it.

The public seems to agree because Apple couldn't even sell out their stock on their first day. If the feeding frenzy was as great as you (and others) made it out to be, I had half expected people to be rioting in the streets after the crowd of millions couldn't get their iPhones on the first day. Heck, even RIMs stock went up a record 22% the same day the iPhone came out. Read the clues guys.

But in the end - here's the best evidence to date that perhaps you've gone over the deep end on this one...

The very fact that in the last week, you've had to

- come up with a way for people to NOT read your site (and how screwed up is that? a guy creates a blog and then has to find a way to get people to read it without reading it?)

- TWICE remind people that this 'out' exists (which SHOULD tell you that it's not working)

- and finally - publish a half-assed apology.

Have you EVER had to do that before? I've never seen it here before. Not even on things like the Mac mini or new MacBooks.

Maybe it's time to start that 12-step program to recovery with the first step: Admitting that Engadget has a problem.

Oh and maybe looking at some of your iPhone articles and ask yourself: do you REALLY want your reputation in journalism to come down to 'I wrote an article about which swear words are in the iPhone prediction dictionary' and 'fat guy has a Zune tattoo'? I know I wouldn't.

But hey, if you want to become the Fox News of gadget journalism - have fun. :) We'll sit back and enjoy laughing at it all. My only complaint is that I miss having a place to read *interesting* articles on new tech and gadgets.

Cheers.

[Ryan Block @ Jul 1st 2007 1:53AM]

Perhaps you've heard of the vocal minority? There is a number of people complaining about the coverage, and probably plenty who want it to go back to normal -- and it will.

Meanwhile, we continue to experience record traffic, and there's not a ton of news out there but iPhone stuff right now, so it's clear why people are coming to Engadget in droves.

Simply: *some* vocal customers are telling us to cut out the coverage, and orders of magnitude more are flooding the site to read all the iPhone news.

Welcome to the extremely vocal minority!

[BSW @ Jul 1st 2007 2:12AM]

Wow, can't let that one go.

Engadget's 'customers' are the advertisers, not you. You are the PRODUCT being sold to those customers.

So anything that drives mass page-impressions is all that matters to such a 'business'.