Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Posted by mike_ch

PS3 price for not spectacular call quality (according to CNET's testing) with an iPod Nano strapped on? Arm+Leg AT&T data network pricing? 3G already being discussion for rev2?

No thanks.

Give it a try and see if you feel the same way. It's an amazing thing to hold...

And on the ATTWS data pricing, $20/month for data is less expensive than what my BlackBerry cost ($49/month).

I knew it was going to live up to the hype. I really can't wait to get one, but I think I'm going to hold off and save it for my birthday in November.

So, Hunter were you one of the thousands who waited in front of an Apple Store or were you a little more conscious and get one at your local AT&T store?

Posted by mike_ch

I'll go ahead and gawk at it but there's no way I could afford one. I'm struggling to keep SOME level of cell phone service on right now. :)

Somebody's gotta buy em, I understand, and I'll admit it's got me interested in what the next iPod looks like. But since I use my phone for voice only, I'll just sit and wait a gen or two. Maybe they'll eventually be less dependent on ATTWS someday.

Nah, I waited in line at an Apple store...

Of course, we now know that there was plenty of supply but yesterday nobody had any idea and I needed two phones - if I came home without one for the wife, I would have been in trouble.

Now, this post was written in Safari on my iPhone and worked quite well - I can now admin this site remotely much better than I was able to from my BlackBerry - a nice touch.

I encourage anyone into gadgets to go see an iPhone in person - it is an amazing little piece of technology.

Man, this is annoying!

I run a Las Vegas blog and a mobile phone blog from the UK. I get to go to Vegas once a year, we won't be getting the iPhone until November in the UK, and yet you guys have them both in the palm of your hands!

Grrrr ;)

What's the iPhone's virtual keyboard like to use? I've heard mixed reports so far.

That was my biggest concern. I'm used to my BlackBerry and before that I had a Treo so physical keyboards have been my deal.

I'm happy to say that after just a day with iPhone, I'm almost to BlackBerry speed and improving all the time. The phone has a genius auto-correct feature and if you 'trust it' and just go for it, it works. They called it 'using the Force' and that's sorta what it feels like - just let it go and things work out fine. It has all sorts of slang and cuss words built in too so it's truly based on the way people talk.

I picked mine up today from the local apple store, its everything the hype says it is. Like hunter I switched from a blackberry, I Am still getting used to the keyboard but I am almost up to bb speeds. I dont think the EDGE speeds are that bad compared to the 3G I had with my VZ blackberry and I can surf to ratevegas which I couldn't with my BB. I am with Hunter, check it out in person, everyone who has tried it says they now have to get one!

Okay, I do have to say, it is living up to the incredible hype it's gotten. I'm using one right now, and again I have to say it really is incredible (I just have to hold off on it until November). The only problem is, at least at an Apple Store, you can barely get near the things to use them, but c'est la vie.

Posted by motoman

Wow....I almost dropped by the local ATT store at a stripmall nearby on opening day. Figured they'd have less of a crowd, but a local news station was at another ATT store and they had "campers" at the door.

"Using the Force" -- that's hilarious. Leave it to Apple.

Posted by motoman

Love 'em or hate 'em, for those who still don't get the almost DNA-level similarities between Steve Wynn and Steve Jobs, here's Business Week's take on Apple's unique ability to set the trends through design -- as they call it, "Doing an Apple" -- and the significance of having a single-minded, even dictatorial, risk-taking leader at the helm:

Even After Apple, Designers Dig Jobs
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070627_004206.htm?campaign_id=yhoo

In stock news, WYNN is way off its highs (didn't need to tell you folks that!). But I'm wondering when to sell my few meager AAPLs (Up 75% so far....) so I don't ride a roller coaster down, post iPhone launch.

Posted by mike_ch

Apple's about ease of use and simplicity that can be understood by common people. Common people haven't been on Wynn's radar since Treasure Island.

motoman, I sold a my AAPL a few weeks ago at $117. I had gotten in at $11 split adjusted. I think it has to come down, i think it went to far to fast. No question I got out too soon, but I plan to buy it all back in the next month or two.

I do like the phone. I can't say its the single best phone I've ever owned, at least yet. But I look past the phone itself. As a whole package, its the best. It lives up to the hype. If you just want to make calls, this phone probably isnt for you, but if you want to surf the web, as I do, it is amazing. Google maps is very cool. I don't have service at my lake house, and that sucked this weekend, but I have a land line there. Laslty, EDGE isn't near as slow as I expected. Its now broadband, but its very useable. Now I just pray it works at Wynn, or it goes back! :)

Brian,

I've been a Singlebar (Cingular) customer for years and it does indeed work fine at WLV.

Actually, when the resort opened they hadn't put in all their repeaters yet and I ended up having a long discussion with the chief engineer about it - they added GSM and CDMA repeaters in June 2005 to cover the property - now you get a good signal all through the building - very nice (this isn't unique to WLV though - it's pretty common these days).

Posted by motoman

mike_ch, I was more referring to the way the two companies operate, and it'd be hard to argue they don't affect their respective industries in a similar fashion, and despite intense criticism.

You've pointed out how Wynn may be taking too much control. We who've followed Apple were similarly concerned when Jobs executed his coup d'etat a decade ago. Surprisingly, he proved a mastery of operations that we couldn't have imagined at the time. The better CEO, imho.

Brian, you didn't sell too soon. AAPL could've gone the other way for any number of reasons: profit-taking, a weak release, rumors of flaws. Been there, done that ;) Take the money and smile!

(Sorry if this has wandered slightly OT. Been hankering to get that Wynn/Jobs thing in here somehow for awhile now!)

Posted by mike_ch

I've been an Apple observer for a long time too, y'know. I mean, I suffered through the Macs when they were hardly crashproof and the words "Extensions Manager" caused people to physically recoil.

I'd say there's probably a similar motto between what Wynn does and what Jobs does, in that they're doing what other companies do better, but the similarities end there. In fact, I'd say that the current Wynn seems to mirror the earlier Steve Jobs, who was known to berate employees, or perhaps the earlier Bill Gates who bounced on a trampoline in the Microsoft lobby because "it's my company so I can do it if I want to."

I still think the Michael Eisner parallels (success gone to the head, questionable creative business decisions based upon completely selfish personal opinions, combination President+CEO, etc) are more true though.

Now see what we've done? We've taken an iPhone thread of all things, and turned it into a Wynn thread. A friendly, non-heated Wynn thread (in spite of disagreements), but a Wynn thread nonetheless. Now I understand why He Who Shall Not Be Named calls us all fanboys.

Posted by detroit1051

Hunter, that's fine for Cingular/ATT, but my biggest frustration at Wynn since opening day is intermittent Sprint PCS reception. Sometimes, I could get a signal if I leaned my head and phone against the windows in the room. It worked fine in the casino. I would hope this has been addressed since I was there seven months ago. I don't want to be like the poor saps in the TV ads and experience "connectile disfunction". LOL.

Posted by motoman

mike, we're no so far apart on this. I did say Jobs is the better CEO, and your Wynn-as-Eisner and Wynn-as-early Jobs comparisons are spot on. (Plus they've both been banished and had a second coming of sorts.)

....Say, you're not actually trying to be contrarian here, are you? Because then it wouldn't all be King Anti-Fanboy's fault now, would it....? ;-)

Posted by mike_ch

Moto: I think it is just a bad idea, in principle, for a company's President and CEO and largest shareholder to be the same person. If Kerkorian were also the CEO and President of MGM-MIRAGE, I'd be saying the same thing, even though I think he was a better leader than the people running that company right now.

I like Steve Wynn, for the most part. I think he was great with the Mirage Resorts, I wish that he hadn't have been forced out. The King will disagree, of course, but whatev'. His run at Wynn Resorts, though, is bothering me. He seems to have much more direct control and power over the operation of the hotels, instead of just concentrating on the building of the hotels like before.

My parallels to Eisner is because during the 80s-90s golden period people praised him for, he was just the CEO, the board has appointed Frank Wells (a Hollywood long-timer from Warners) as President, and the largest shareholder was petroleum kingpin Sid Bass. Wells died in a helicopter crash (there's a tribute to him and his mountaineering hobby in Disneyland's Matterhorn mountain) and Eisner took his place, Eisner appointed people like hid kid's kindergarten teacher to board member status, and acquired a lot of stock. The result was one guy having un-vetoable power over many things, the outsourcing of animation, the cheap marketing promotions, the firing of R&D so they could rehire them as independent contractors at lower cost, and things like EuroDisney (which was built in the Wells period, but built in US-unfriendly France instead of Spain at Eisner's insistence. Apparently he toured France as a child or something and loved the country.)

Today, that company is doing a lot better, but they split the CEO and President roles again and the largest shareholder isn't an executive leader but board member Steve Jobs, who is mostly just listening to his Pixar buddies and giving them influence because he's busy with another company to run.

Wynn's personal tastes coming through in all area of the resort, his personal direction over things like entertainment offerings (Spamalot ain't looking too hot right now either), this wage-sharing thing, his combined CEO+Prez title and having friends like Elaine and a former Governor on the board, it just all smells a little too familiar for me.

Posted by Michael Lu

hmmm... new iPhone w/o 3G network or 1 night midweek in a SkyLoft.

Michael,

Without wishing to sound arrogant, but as someone who has now done both, I would agree its a tough choice, but I would go with the iPhone :-). That way when you can go to the Skyloft you can take advantage of the Free Wi-fi without having to borrow one of their notebooks!! LOL!!

One of those stupidly huge Microsoft table computers or one night at The Mansion? :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIkrQu0-v0

Surface = also ran tech.

Tomorrow is my 28th birthday and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for participating in a community that I very much appreciate, for all of its ups and downs. Thank you to you all.

Dang it Hunter! I was going to surprise you tomorrow by posting a new open discussion, the first topic at hand being a thank you for your contributions and of course, a happy birthday.

By the way, did you ever order that September '92 issue of AD? If not, check your snail mail.

Thank you, Mike...

Well, feel free to post the new topic anyway, I won't steal (any more) of your thunder. Actually, I'm gonna close this iPhone topic anyway cause it's really not a Vegas thing.

For those that have iPhones, we now have a beta version of RateVegas for iPhone, located here:

http://www.ratevegas.com/iphone/

While the main site works in iSafari, this is an attempt to match the UI of the iPhone. It is still a work in progress. If you try to use a desktop browser against it, it will look strange as we're using all the custom CSS for iPhone.