Unanswered (and Unasked) Questions about iPhone

T-Minus 70 hours and some obvious iPhone questions remain unasked and unanswered:

1. Does iPhone support the A2DP Bluetooth profile that allows high-quality stereo sound to be streamed over Bluetooth? Many phones don't. It seems absurd that an iPod with Bluetooth wouldn't—but absurdity has never stood in Apple's way before.

   Answered! Engadget answers this one: no A2DP support. Dude!

2. Will I be able to use my iPhone as a Bluetooth modem with my Mac, thereby providing always-available (albeit pokey) wireless connectivity through my $20 all-I-can-eat AT&T data plan? (For those unfamiliar with the concept, see this article on how to do this with a Blackberry Pearl.)

   Answered! The New York Times has the answer: No.

3. Will iPhone be able to pair with an external Bluetooth GPS receiver to become location-aware? That would be groovy, especially since I happen to own an external Bluetooth GPS receiver.

   Answered? The New York Times seems to say no.

4. When I download my POP3 mail with my iPhone, it will be marked as downloaded at the server, and my desktop mail client won't receive it when it asks for new messages. Is there a reasonable solution to this, or will Mail.app on my MacBook Pro really need to download the last 30 days' worth of email by using the recent: prefix each time it checks for new messages? (A Gmail-specific solution would be fine by me.)

   ?

5. How long will it take iPhone users to completely swamp the AT&T EDGE network with YouTube downloads, thereby forcing AT&T to first beg customers to stop downloading so much stuff and then either (a) further upgrade their network, (b) impose bandwidth limitations on individual customers, or (c) reprice their unlimited data plans?

   ?

I suppose we'll know soon enough.

Comments

[vinnie mirchandani]

My Cingular 8125 which cost about 250 can do 2 (use as a tethered modem on road where I cannot find a free hotspot. Not sure I would replace my DSL or Cable speed at home), 3 and 4 (I think you can tell Outlook to keep messages on server and then download to your desktop also) and you can jury rig to do 1

It will be annoying to share the already slow ATT network with people willing to pay $3, 4, 500 more to Apple for less functionality in some areas.

As NY Times say, one heck of a ststus symbol ...enjoy -)