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Apple Offers iPhone Guided Tour Video

Prospective iPhone buyers interested in learning more about using the combination iPod and smartphone can brush up on their skills ahead of the June 29 launch thanks to a new guided tour video on the Apple Web site. The 25 minute video explains how to use iPhone features starting with how to turn the device on, and leading up through making phone calls, surfing the Web, sending and reading email, and more.


iPhone Guided Tour

Offering the iPhone guided tour video ahead of the actual iPhone launch was a smart move on Apple's part. iPhone buyers that watch the video before rushing out to their local Apple Store or AT&T retail store will be able to use the device immediately, instead of working through a manual after making their purchase.

Since many early adopters are likely to take advantage of Apple's guided tour, it may also help to boost the perception that the iPhone is a simple to master product - something that can't be said about many of the smartphones that are currently on the market.

The iPhone guided tour video is free, and available on Apple's Web site in small, medium, and large streaming formats, as well as a 175MB download.

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daemon said:

member since 17 May 2007 with 305 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Quote
Jeff Gamet wrote:
Since many early adopters are likely to take advantage of Apple's guided tour, it may also help to boost the perception that the iPhone is a simple to master product - something that can't be said about many of the smartphones that are currently on the market.

There you go again Jeff, making unsubstantiated claims about the competition's product.

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deasys said:

member since 08 Apr 2003 with 243 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

"Unsubstantiated?" Not hardly. Good one, daemon.

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daemon said:

member since 17 May 2007 with 305 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

You see, when you say something is really easy to do on x but is extremly difficult to do on y when x has never been used by you or anyone else since it hasn't been released and you don't give sources or experiances siteing just how hard it is to use y, then you are making unsubstantiated statements.

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rjackb said:

member since 08 Dec 2005 with 31 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

I just watched the new iPhone video tour and though it was interesting that they didn't mention their iPhone Calendar application at all. Presumably that application would include a to-do list which is one of the most important functions of a smart phone for me (I have lots of things "to-do" but hardly any actual appointments or meetings). I currently use a paper-based DayTimer for this purpose but would love to ditch it for a smart phone.

Jack

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Do watch the video tour. It's actually a "manual" for many of the functions.

An interesting revelation is at about 13:28 about email:

"iPhone also includes built-in readers for viewing many attachements, such as PDF, JPEG, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel files."

They show an example at 14:30. Thus, if you want to be able to read Word or Excel files, simply email them to yourself.

At 15:00, watch him use two thumbs to type, like a lot of people do with smartphones. This probably would be less likely to cause repetitive stress injury because it takes less effort than pressing the stiff keys on most smartphones, perhaps avoiding the dread "Blackberry thumb."

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A guest said: (hide)

rjackb, you're absolutely right! I am using Motorola Phone Tools to sync my MS Outlook Calendar, but have always hated the fact that I couldn’t sync my To Do List. Now I have to use an add-on program called “Task Manager” to input my To Do List manually on my V3 RAZR. If the iphone has a To Do List feature, it’s worth the money.

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A guest said: (hide)

Amusingly, the Iphone DOESN'T have a to do list - which means I WONT be buying one!

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A guest said: (hide)

The iphone DOES have a to do list.. I just used it on my friends phone...

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A guest said: (hide)

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Guest wrote:
The iphone DOES have a to do list.. I just used it on my friends phone...

No it does not, I have called apple, went into the store, and checked the website, and all have said that it does not have a to-do list as of yet. Also, the calendar on the iphone does not support multiple calendar viewing (i.e., if you use more than one calendar in iCal on your mac, the iphone will sync them all into one calendar on the iPhone, in just one color, and it will not tell you which event comes from which calendar.) It seems that apple underestimated how much mac owners use the ical application, and I'm not sure how apple can call the iPhone a pda/smartphone replacement when it does not support the most important element of a pda: an good calendar.

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