New iPhone 4 Released Amid Technical Difficulties

Many of us know the showman side of Steve Jobs. Jobs has been known as one of the best public speakers in the technical industry. He will often stun audiences and has a flare for wowing everyone in the room. Much of this is due to his presentation, but the functionality and performance of his gadgets plays a huge part of this. It was a failure in this technology that led to a rather amusing product demonstration by a visibly irritated Steve Jobs. So the big question is whether the new iPhone is really worth all the hype.

The new iPhone is full of new features and additions and is set up for a 4g network. This lightning fast technology and amazing speed would be great, if it can actually connect. The problem that Steve Jobs had was that the iPhone could not connect to the network. Of course, there were all sorts of comments about AT&T's sub-par service and spotty network availability. Many of the bloggers and media in attendance were calling for a Verizon connection to solve the problem. While this garnered chuckles and guffaws from the crowd, it just got Steve Jobs more upset. It got to the point where Jobs pleaded and basically demanded that everyone get off the network, as if the entire tech blogging world would listen to a flustered Jobs and abandon their live blog feed from the biggest tech event for a while. This just elicited a "yeah, right" type response and helped to get Jobs worked up even more. Through the entire demonstration, Jobs continued to attempt a connection and constantly blamed the audience for the shoddy performance of his network.

With this problem nearly stopping the demonstration, Jobs was able to work around this little hiccup and continued to show the functions of the new iPhone in an offline mode. While the new functions and image displays are breathtaking and top of the line for the iPhone line, it would be more impressive to see it actually go to a website. This shortened demonstration may have shot the new iPhone from the number one spot. The fact that the iPhone cannot connect to its own network in an arena where the connection should have been set up for the phone to excel does not bode well. How many people will honestly shell out over $200 for a smart phone that is not very smart? If I want a camera phone that can only make calls and show images stored on it, I can get one for free with a new contract. By the time the new iPhone is released in July, the older iPhones will likely be offered for free with a new contract as well. At least these will connect to a network.

Basically, the entire point that was made from this little flop is that Apple is just as prone to crashing as any other devices out there. While many of us knew that, this is just a glaring example that is nearly as bad as the Windows "Blue Screen of Death." The solution that Jobs suggests by his comments in this conference is that you just have to have everyone else get off the network. I wonder how Starbucks will handle this. Will they have a line for people with the new iPhone? Will they let you ask everyone to vacate the wifi when they need to go online? If the phone can't connect under prime conditions in a major demonstration, how can it be expected to connect under everyday circumstances? This may lead to a new migration to the new Droid. After all the Incredible really does live up to its name and can at least connect to the internet. It's worth a look, unless you like asking everyone in the room to get off the network. I guess you could always just call someone with a laptop or Droid phone and have them look up what you need. At least you won't have to worry about using all of your web minutes with this new phone.

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Watch Livebloggers Bring the iPhone 4 Presentation to a Halt

Apple Unveils iPhone 4

Steve Jobs to Crowd: "We're having a little problem here."