Cell Phone Debate...

[fujii13]

A friend of mine works at AT&T in Crossgates. He was given the iPhone for free due to being one of the top salesmen in the country. Three months later, he purposefully broke the screen and threw it out. THREW IT OUT.

Personally, I've used the iPhone a couple of times, and it's just not for me. I need tactile keys. Same with the HTC Touch. If you use a phone for actual typing, texting, or business emails and such, touch screens are not for you. Plus, I've never seen more typos than from an iPhone user, they're just not accurate enough.

As for Verizon vs. AT&T vs. Sprint (T-Mobile isn't even in the competition), Sprint wins hands down. I currently have Sprint, and will not leave them unless they give me a reason to Customer Service-wise. Let me break it down for you (I'll try to use the closest phones/plans as possible):

We'll go with ~500 minutes, unlimited text (to ANYONE, not just your carrier), unlimited picture, unlimited data, 7PM nights.

ATT:
Tilt*: $299.99
Text, Talk & Web 450: $89.99
Early Nights and Weekends: $8.99
Total monthly charges: $98.99

Verizon:
XV6800: $399.99
PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging 450: $99.99
7PM not available with this plan (at least from the Verizon Website)
Total monthly charges: $99.99

Sprint:
Mogul: $299.99 - $100.00 MIR
SERO** 500 offer: $30.00
Unlimited Nights & Weekends starting at 7pm: Free
Unlimited Power Pack Text Messages: Free
Total monthly charges: $30.00

Obviously Sprint is the best choice here. Not only is the cheapest monthly plan, but it's also the cheapest for the equipment, too. Some argue that Sprint does not offer as good service as Verizon, which is clearly why they are not as intelligent as The Fuj. What they fail to recognize is that they're holding this amazing piece of machinery called a "cell phone". It has buttons on it, that control things called "options" and "settings". One of these settings is for "Roaming". As you all (should) know, the only other CDMA carrier in the Northeast is Verizon, so logically, locking to "Roam only" would lock you to the Verizon towers. Bingo, Verizon service without the Verizon premium. Simple enough.

About the Mogul (which I'll be upgrading to in April), the upcoming ROM for it will unlock EVDO Rev. A, which is the fastest wireless data we currently have available until WiMax comes out (also, offered by Sprint), and it will unlock GPS, which will allow Google Maps to use GPS instead of cell tower triangulation.

Verizon are assholes for charging a $40-50 premium for PDAs, that's ridiculous. Plus Verizon is notorious for locking down their equipment for 3rd party apps, negating mp3s for "ringtone use" and even locking down the address book on phones so you have to go to the store to pay the $5 to have it transferred over to your new phone. And the iPhone's "luxury tax" is just as dumb. That is all.


*The XV6800 and Mogul are identical. The Tilt, erm... tilts.

**This price plan requires you to have a Spint employees email address. Luckily, all Sprint employees have their address on their business cards, and if you REALLY feel like ripping off the system, Googs knows plenty of them (Search "@sprint.com"). The SERO website is located at SERO Welcome!.

[Sleepr56]

Yea I didnt look at sprint or tmobile, I dont even know where a tmobile store would be in cny.

I went with the iphone over the tilt, because the tilt way to much of a business phone then I will ever need.

I am also pretty happy with the iphone so far no complaints as of yet. Cept maybe some itunes syncing quirks here and there, and the lack of 3G.

[dmoffitt]

I'm very happy with my iPhone. No device comes close to matching it, the only question is "should I pay this much aka is it worth it to me" - for me I sold a BlackBerry Pearl and an 8GB nano and came out on top so it was a no-brainer.

As far as carriers go, AT&T isn't that bad, the coverage is good, customer service is tolerable (for how fucking HUGE they are). I liked Verizon a bit more, T-Mobile had the BEST customer care but the worst coverage (and devices). Still despise Sprint/Nextel. That's my $.02 - good luck with it.

[CamrySE]

Nothing compares to the iPhone.

[mikecentola]

Originally Posted by fujii13

A friend of mine works at AT&T in Crossgates. He was given the iPhone for free due to being one of the top salesmen in the country. Three months later, he purposefully broke the screen and threw it out. THREW IT OUT.

Personally, I've used the iPhone a couple of times, and it's just not for me. I need tactile keys. Same with the HTC Touch. If you use a phone for actual typing, texting, or business emails and such, touch screens are not for you. Plus, I've never seen more typos than from an iPhone user, they're just not accurate enough.

As for Verizon vs. AT&T vs. Sprint (T-Mobile isn't even in the competition), Sprint wins hands down. I currently have Sprint, and will not leave them unless they give me a reason to Customer Service-wise.

(snip)

A lot of what you are saying is opinion not fact. Any touch screen keyboard is going to take some getting used to. I wouldn't recommend the phone to a construction foreman with thumbs the size of cucumbers. But I digress. I've been very happy with my iPhone, doing everything I need to run my business. Email, Calendar, notes, etc. What else do I need? RDP? Not when the majority of my heterogeneous network is Apple. Probably the ONLY thing I'd want was SSH to fix something on my servers, but I'd bet I can design a webpage with an AJAX ssh terminal.

[JiM P 2001]

iPhone FTW. End of Story. lol

[fujii13]

Originally Posted by mikecentola

A lot of what you are saying is opinion not fact.

Yes, it is just an opinion... of 100% of the consumers out there that aren't jocking on Steve Jobs' nutsac. Gobble gobble.

And I'm not speaking about the iPhone specifically here (you can stop defending shoddy products) I'm speaking of all touch screens in general. The technology just isn't there to replace a tactile keyboard, which is exactly why keyboard-less tablets have gone by the wayside, and convertibles have become mainstream.

Keeping with the discussion of cell phones, even the biggest most hyped up PDAs coming out have keyboards/pads attached:
The updated Nokia E90
The N-Series QWERTY
The Blackberry touchscreen slider
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 - (Personally, my favorite upcoming device. I would gladly stab any iPhone user to death with a dull, rusty spoon for this)
EVERY. SINGLE. GOOGLE. ANDROID. DEVICE.
The list goes on.

I'll reiterate what I've previously said, as it may not have clearly my point in my last post. Touchscreen interfaces, regardless of the platform or manufacturer, are great for portable media players, GPS devices, hand held video game (PSP2 please??), and basically toys in general. Touch screens are great as SUPPLEMENTAL input, for gesture control, navigation, and other quick, low-accuracy input. Unless some serious advancements are on their way, touch screens cannot, and will not, ever be able to replace keyboards for a way to input text to a device with the speed and accuracy that current tactile keyboards allow, and no better proof of that is Apple's own inclusion of the most widely used feature on the iPhone and iPod touch: Auto-Correct.

Originally Posted by JiM P 2001

iPhone FTW. End of Story. lol

Great input. Dunce.

[mikecentola]

Originally Posted by fujii13

Yes, it is just an opinion... of 100% of the consumers out there that aren't jocking on Steve Jobs' nutsac. Gobble gobble.

And I'm not speaking about the iPhone specifically here (you can stop defending shoddy products) I'm speaking of all touch screens in general. The technology just isn't there to replace a tactile keyboard, which is exactly why keyboard-less tablets have gone by the wayside, and convertibles have become mainstream.

You're argument is ridiculous. I'm not defending a "shoddy" product. I'm defending the one I use EVERY DAY. No issues here. Satisfied customer. You are also claiming you're talking about touchscreens in general, when you seem to get very defensive when anyone supports an Apple product.

[offtopic]
Seems like everyone does. Both Dave (dmoffitt) and myself were both heavily into modding PC's from watercooling to extreme overclocking, and tried the Apple product and for us, it was a much better product. No crashing, things are more intuitive, etc. It's not like we're nutswingers from day one. We've seen it from both sides. I agree with the pricing being higher than most, but I also feel you get a lot more with it. Innovative design and usability all come with a price.[/offtopic]

Back to phones... You guys also have to remember that, sony ericsson, nokia, blackberry, etc have all been making phones for YEARS. Apple stepped it up and made a very successful phone from the start. I'd say that's pretty good.

[usmc2801]

I like my free phone from verizon that I got with the plan...it makes phone calls and text messages, I always have good service, that is all I need

[Silver]

iPhone has great sales numbers.

You can argue that "touch screens aren't near good enough" or that there is better technology out there, but the ultimate bottom line is the product sells and sells well, to both Apple fanbois and non. You cannot argue the statistical success of the product.

And typing? I type 90 wpm, on a normal keyword (with a 99% accuracy rate, I've been tested). On the iPhone, I type at 92wpm with a 100% accuracy rate, also tested. Not only is the touch keyboard easy to use, but it makes me a faster, more accurate typer with the addition of the auto correct. You cannot say iPhone is shoddy because it created an interface that supplements and improves the touchscreen keyboard.

And it's called Capitalism... even after the hype of the initial launch of the iPhone, if it wasn't a good product, you'd be seeing people selling theirs off en masse, writing poor reviews, making an uproar, sales drops, etc. But the pure and simple fact is after the initial fanboi hype, the iPhone continues to be a top seller. Just because "your friend" broke his and threw it away, and because you couldn't get used to the touchpad, does not mean that it's the same for everyone.

Bottom line is that it sells, and continues to sell well. I actually find it kind of sad that you can't go beyond whatever bitterness that you feel to see a good product for what it is, not just shun it because it's an Apple product.

Edit: Oh, and when I bought my iPhone, I got a phone, a pda, a gps system, an iPod, a portable dvd player and a camera (granted it's not as great a camera as most digital cameras), all of which I use on an almost daily basis. Money well spent, and I am 100% happy with the purchase.

[dmoffitt]

funny thing is I owned half of the other smart-phones Fuj is talking about and they suck compared to the iPhone. hence why I "owned" and don't still "own" them. You know, as in past tense

PS mike re: SSH I'd bet the SDK comes out and <1wk later there's a native client