Discussion on:

Comparing smartphones to cars, from Prius to Lexus

Original post:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=5337

Last I checked, a Jag didn't require it's drivers to hold it a special way for it to run.....

You need to "upgrade"

ITYMTS the one that does not catch fire:

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/07/09/iphone_4_burns/

Now have a laff at this:

http://infoworld.com/d/hardware/10-reasons-why-the-pc-here-stay-889

I would genuinely like to know what Jobs is smoking. Everyone knows that in the early days one of the Mac team was strongly into acid, but I don't think it was him. Unless someone spiked his coffee.

Why a Toyota or Lexus..."sticky keys", like the sticky accelerator.

I used to live in the UK and owned an 'S' type Jag mine used to have zero traction in snow! So yes i do see the same similarity in that they both look great but there is a major issue in handling...

iPhone upgrade path - license to print money.

While I agree that there have been (and will be) Jags which have issues (or bugs if you wish) ALL Apple devices have some deficiency or other.

As a lot apple devices can be described as over-priced, under-performing and feature deficient. None of these tags can be applied to a Jag.

The only way to compare an Iphone to a Jag is if the Jag is a rusty, broken down specimen that rolled off the production line in the 1950's. And even then the car can be restored, the phone can only be used as a paper weight

Better in the outside and just ok in the performance ..... especially for iphone 4, you have to know "how to" handle a phone ? c'mon .... only better screen and less elsewhere ( camera , memory ) and dont forget ... you have to buy another apple product so that you can play around with your phone ....

No one has been able to give the exact span of the Toyota Prius battery life. It is a hybrid battery that lasts a fairly long time. Toyota people state that the Toyota Prius battery life is not measured on years but rather on the mileage. The Toyota dealers do have replacement car parts for sale like batteries available.

An iPhone says that you?re more of an intellectual, I have to disagre you ar probably more of gamer or gadget/design phetish if you use an Iphone,. Iphone 4 as a car would be an ferrari funn flashy and manny annoying minor fault "Iphone 4 like reception",

Nokia/Blackberry hardcore professional company manager that use your phone for professional work and not much else. Nokia as an car would be an VOLVO secure and reliable nothing more and nothing less.

But still i Love my Iphone 3Gs going to cheange to an Iphone 4, but it not a professional tool its a toy...

No, a lemming is more like it. It should be sold thru "Toys R Us".

I guess my pay as you go Samsung and my Kia Soul say a lot about me...

I just don't know what!!!

(oops, replied to wrong post. Sorry)

Ouch! That hurts.

Though upon reflection, maybe a LeBaron would be a better analogy. Many of us Backflip owners ended up with the device because it was the only Android device available if one was contractually tied to AT&T, plus it has a physical keyboard.

If I remember correctly, for years the LeBaron was the only American made production drop-top. (May have been available in a Corvette - not sure.) Sure, it wasn't the greatest car, but if one wanted that specific feature (convertible) it was the only real choice.

So AT&T Android with keyboard = American convertible $100K

The Sebring repolaced the LeBaron in 1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Sebring

There are alternative American convertibles now, just as there will eventually be more AT&T Android w/ keyboard handsets.

At almost 6-and-a-half feet tall, I don't fit into a one of them, darn it!

The Jeep Wrangler. Even now it's the only 4-door drop-top car in the world--as far as I know.

And believe me--even at 6-foot-plus, you'll fit under that soft-top.

or CJ is in a category all by itself. This is as it should be.

The Jeep is not a car, it is a Jeep.

Edit: and a four-door Wrangler is just wrong!

I always love a good comparison...

Even if it is a matter of opionion. Maybach, which one is the Maybach???

How can we get to the Maybach he didnt even identify the Mercedes. How do you compare smartphones to luxury cars and leave off the Mercedes.

p.s. The Maybach of smartphones would be the $3,350 "Sectera Edge" developed for the NSA carried by our president dubbed the "BarackBerry." [http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Obama-Wins-BlackBerry-Fight/]

Vertu = Maybach. Just like a Vertu is nothing more than a Nokia with fancy dressing, a Mayback is nothing more than a Mercedes S class with some fancy outside. A Nokia and Mercedes provide similar to the Vertu and Maybach at a tiny fraction of the price.

Remember the Park Avenue? Years ago it had an automatically retracting antenna. If it didn't get ripped off by the car wash, it would eventually fail in either the up or down position. Signal bars seem to be just like that on the new iPhone.

I require reliability and functionality first and foremost from my devices.
The TouchPro2 meets these requirements nicely, especially since I've updated the OS to 6.5.
Is it the prettiest, or fastest or lightest weight smartphone out there? Not at all, but the slide out keyboard, 3G data (4G not available where I work anyway), global network support, and a very respectful display, seem to put this in a mid-tier Volvo catagory (especially given it's price point) vs a Honda Accord. The LG Rumor Touch is more of an Accord or Civic type of offering....

How about cars that are never in stock = HTC.

My phone (not surprisingly) isn't given a mention in your list. I currently have a picture of a Danish made Zenvo ST1 on my desktop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenvo).

Although I never made the link (until reading this post), it reminds me of my Nokia N900: Leading edge, limited production and still under development.

And, while not made in the same country, it's close enough. I'll probably never even see an 'ST1' in real life, but I love my N900.

Jason, you are right in comparing a Iphone 4 to a Jaguar. Like the Jaguar the Iphone 4 is a beautifull creation. Like most Jaguar is consider a lemon. Jaguar use the Lucas electrical system call the Prince of darkness, because it always fail in the most needed time. In the quality department is almost at the bottom. That is why Ford had to get rid of the brand. Iphone 4 is the same. Beautifull to have but quality service as a phone is...bad to the bone.

Yeap, you got it right! A Iphone is a Jaguar, and a lemon.

Well, at least I know that I won't be getting out of KIN through its trunk :)!

I think Yugo reference was misplaced. It was great car compared to what was available to average Yugoslavian at the time. The mistake was offering it to Americans who were used to completely different types of cars.

Jason should have used Electric Yugo instead. It's in "Coming soon" phase since 1970s! Now that few were hand-made, a small company started to manufacture them. They are overpriced and under-performing.

Got 2 of em for free with 3 year virgin mobile contract. So far its an awesome phone, good reception and sound quality. I have never had a phone with so many options. The concept of remapping buttons... awesome.

Its too bad it tried to make a qwerty out of the number pad. Makes it hard to call a phone number with words in it, need to look at a real phone while dialing.

You don't know where the letters are? I thought everybody in your generation texted so much they knew exactly which number every letter was on and how many times to push to get it!

At least not by phone, I've used web services, but that's it.

Apparently you haven't figured in the flawed design of the iPhone 4... Or you're one of those that agrees with Jobs that people are just holding their phone incorrectly.

"An iPhone says that you?re more of an intellectual."

BWA HA HA HA!! *sniff* *snort* BWAH HA HA HA HA!!!

I'm not a hater of apple (I own 6 iPods, an iTouch, an iPad and a Mac Mini), but seriously? Owning an iPhone means you consider yourself trendy or hip, and that's about it. No one who deals with iPhone users on a regular basis would ever refer to them as 'intellectual', unless ironically.

Of course iPhone owners very often consider themsleves to be 'intellectual'. Just as Sarah Palin probably considers herself to be articulate

I suppose you think Obama is articulate and intelligent. That's why he can't string two word together without a teleprompter and won't call a terrorist a terrorist and goes around the world bad mouthing the USA. Please keep your uninformed, ridiculous political comments out of a tech forum. It just shows you aren't very intellectual for sure.

I'm definitely on the conservative side of the fence and I found his comment to be spot-on as well as hilarious. The person that inserted the politics into it was YOU!

mcgarvey took a cheap political shot and jgt nuked him/her when a flyswatter would have been more appropriate. However they are both right. For full disclosure I'm a conservative libertarian.

How is using Sarah Palin in a tech forum hilarious and spot-on. There are plenty of dumb politicians on the other side he could have used. It just shows his and your bias toward smart conservative women. I'd take Sarah over Pelosi, Boxer or any other idiot Democrat politician.
If you would care to really read or pay attention to places like nationalreview.com instead of getting your opinions from nbc, cbc, abc like the rest of the sheeple you might be able to keep up with Sarah.

But Sarah Palin is one of the very few that not only support his point, but is instantly recognizable. If he'd chosen Alvin Greene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Greene) or Nikki Haley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley), would you have known who he was talking about or what he meant?

And calling those whose politics differ from yours dumb or idiot reflects not on them, but on you.

"And calling those whose politics differ from yours dumb or idiot reflects not on them, but on you"..... which was exactly my point to begin with!! He was making a useless political point in a tech forum. Sarah Palin has millions of fans who thinks she is bright and articulate, so not everyone would agree with his or your choice of using Sarah a "dim wit" example. Nancy Pelosi makes some outrageous statements that never get reported by the MSM media because they won't condemn one of their own!

IMO, Sarah Palin ain't doing the Republican party any favors any more than Nancy Pelosi is doing the Democratic party any favors. As a bright and articulate (and very conservative) friend of mine said about Palin, "I don't want the president of the Harper Valley PTA in charge of the country."

or Andrea Merkel, or Olympia Snow, or Nikki Haley, or Queen Elizabeth, one of her supporters would be posting here instead of you, but every bit as bent out of shape as you are.

"Lighten up, Francis."

It's the Sarah Palin phone!

Ah, the specious teleprompter rebuttal. Yes, I think Obaba uses a teleptompter, as do most speakers that have them available (to say otherwise is ignorant). Those that do not typically use index cards or something similar. Most do NOT simply scribble crib notes on their hands (unless they are in junior high). Nor do they wear earpieces hooked up to radios hidden in the back of their suit.

And when has Obama gone around "bad mouthing the USA", anyway? Apologizing when you mess up is not bad mouthing, and thinking you are too good to apologize when you mess up is the sign of either being immature or, worse, sociopathic.

Glad you took the opportunity to display your hatred in a tech forum. However, inferring the original poster is less than intelligent by going off in a partisan, uninformed rant doesn't say too much about you.

Without the teleprompter Obama is lost for the right words. Have you seen him screw up repeatedly when the prompter fails? He is close to Biden without it!

The most inarticulate President I remember in the past 40 years usually gave the impression he couldn't speak in public, even with a teleprompter.

Guess who. You may now go nucular.

...your dog is mistaken!

people who show no respect for those whose opinions differ from theirs screaming about the people they idolize not getting any respect.

Fire up that synapse and think about it.