xenadu

Now I just get a 2-factor auth loop when I try to checkout until it eventually gives up and tells me to visit a Sprint store.

I would if Sprint's website weren't falling over.

I have no inside knowledge whatsoever but my guess is the CDMA version is using Qualcomm baseband and the non-CDMA version is using Intel baseband. The CDMA version is sold in the US for Sprint, VZ and in China Apple has always had a different SKU for CDMA. Even if the physical hardware were the same anyone who ships CDMA support has to pay an extra royalty to Qualcomm, thus multiple SKUs. At some point soon Sprint needs to drop CDMA as a requirement for new devices.

Finally got the website to activate. Everything's working so far.

The website won't let me activate, it just says that device cannot be switched to at this time. Phone support dumps me even though it's the automated system. What an embarrassment.

Apple does a great job keeping it a secret while they're doing R&D but over the past year they had to manufacture 222 million iPhone 6/6+ devices. It simply isn't possible to keep it secret and still have enough phones for launch day. The components need a 4-6 month lead time at least... and guess when the first supposed parts for the 6S started leaking? Unless and until the iPhone begins to be manufactured purely by robots (including the parts assemblies) the days of being completely surprised are over.

See my post above; your premise is incorrect. Exclusivity was AT&T's blood price for allowing Apple to sell the iPhone on their network. It wasn't Apple's choice. Steve Jobs was so angry at the carriers for being assholes he had a team seriously explore the idea of building their own cellular network or using WiFi. AT&T (Cingular) at the time took a risk and it seems to have paid off.

How quickly everyone forgets history. Do you guys not remember Sprint and Verizon locking out features of phones just because they could? The carriers were 100% in control of all software on phones, period. Without the iPhone there would be no app store as we know it today. That was Apple's real genius move: Apple controls the software, the iOS update cycle, and the app store. Take it or leave it. The exclusive agreement with ATT wasn't by Apple's choice, it was ATT's blood price to deign to allow Apple onto their precious network. Verizon was Apple's original choice and told them to go take a hike. I know from personal experience that trying to write software for phones pre-iPhone was a joke. You had to buy expensive development kits, then go to each carrier and beg their permission to develop an app for their unique snowflake of a store. Then their team of "experts" (read: idiots) would demand you make changes to your app. Then they'd allow it in the store, charge $7 for it, and take 80% of the revenue. Apple broke the backs of the carriers. Android wouldn't be allowed to do half of what it does if the carriers hadn't been desperate to combat the iPhone. You can see that legacy in the fact that all Android updates (except Nexus) have to be approved by each carrier individually. We should also remember that the idea of a phone really being a pocket computer that happens to have a cellular radio was very niche at the time. Geeks like us had them but the vast majority of people did not. I remember having to install custom ROMs and a registry editor and task manager on my Windows Mobile phones (yes all three of them) just to be able to kill tasks or turn off services that made them unstable or ate battery like crazy. No normal person had a hope of working one of them. As for the idea that the LG Prada was touch... yeah, so what? My Windows Mobile phones were "touch". They sure as hell weren't designed for touch though and the gulf between those phones and the iPhone was enormous. Not that those were unique... The Apple Newton did it before they did. And others did it before Apple originally. It is very rare for the first iteration of an idea to be successful or even good. No one cares about the inventor of the car, they care about Ford because he made cars mass-market. No one cares who invented the mouse; are PCs invalid because Apple shipped the first mass-market mouse? No. (I'm not even getting into the argument of whether Apple "stole" the Xerox PARC stuff - they didn't, Apple paid thousands in stock to Xerox for the privilege of touring PARC and using what they saw - stock that was ultimately worth billions) So the answer to the question is that without the iPhone the carriers would still be firmly in control of the phones like they were in the pre-iPhone days. There wouldn't be huge app stores with $0.99 apps. OEMs would still grovel at the feet of the carriers. Without exclusivity ATT would not have grown to the behemoth they became. That is unfortunate but it is the industry's own fault for laboring under the delusion that they are anything other than a dumb pipe to move data around. Sprint was never in the running because of their awful Nextel merger. Given their cash position and everything else I think the fact that they jumped on the iPhone as soon as possible speaks to the economics of the deal. They aren't stupid. That goes for the rest of the world too... many a carrier has proclaimed they didn't need the iPhone and wouldn't bow down to Apple. Thousands have changed their tune. They didn't want to give up control either but their customers had different ideas.

Same for me last year - the order status said up to 4 weeks, then it shipped and arrived on launch day. Took telesales 51 minutes to get it sorted out but the orders are finally in.

I've been using the GM for a week and the first time a call came in on my phone in the other room while I had my iPad on the toilet was freaky . It's really nice though, no setup required... It just "knows". It's also a great solution in marginal signal areas. I can put my phone over by a window or wherever gets decent signal, then handle the calling and SMS on my iPad.

The gold 64gb 6+ said the same thing "3-4 weeks", then I got a tracking number last night. Same happened last year with Sprint orders. My wife's phone was through Apple, no problems there. For me, the company is paying and they are on Verizon. The idiot rep says it will be 10/22 before it comes in. Then why did I bother getting you my preorder ahead of time jackass?

Apple is screaming as loudly as they do within their self-imposed policies that you had better adopt AutoLayout because new device sizes and resolutions are coming. I never thought they'd do third party keyboards but given the security infrastructure around extensions it makes sense to allow it since you can be guaranteed it isn't recording your keystrokes and sending them off to some server. Also they changed the NDA: you can discuss anything they reveal at WWDC on public forums, you just can't post screenshots, reviews, or distribute the software (duh).

You beat me to the punch! The largest slice of our debt is money one part of the federal government owes to another part. The next largest slice, by far, is money owed to US citizens. The security concerns are around potential backdoors. NSA spying notwithstanding, the government doesn't (and legally can't) compel Qualcomm to include spying hooks in baseband chips for example. But in China, the party and military can make them include hidden backdoors or anything else. That's the concern anyway, well-founded or not. It's already a concern for the military that so many electronic devices and chips are made overseas.

Sorry, I was just joking. LTE has a bunch of patent licensing costs too. Qualcomm is shipping over half the LTE basebands right now, though Broadcom and Intel seem serious about challenging them. Either way, you can't just manufacture a baseband chip... It's fairly specialized, maybe 10 companies in the world have the expertise, and you have to pay the patent piper regardless.

Well then I have some bad news for you...