Iphone and other Smartphones

[Seibar]

the storm was guarunteed to be a failure. the first iphone had problems, as most anything first-generation does. first tip; dont buy the first of anything!
nintendo makes a new gameboy, month later it has a backlight, month later its foldable, brighter and smaller.
any technology gets better, and errors are to be expected, but testing has to be done. from what i heard (i work for sprint btw) the storm is only for verizon because only verizon would buy/use it. its not 'exclusive' its just the reject.

as for the iphone not running multiple programs, this has its advantages. one, it protects apples software from things like jailbreak. 3rd party tools can have a huge impact on your product, and its good to protect them.
secondly, running multiple programs is the common cause of slow running devices. when people come in to my work with slow PDAs the first thing we do is check their task manager for multiple open programs. people dont realize the 'x' doesnt close a program, just hides it. this may be why people dont complain about the iphones speed.

speaking as a repair tech, getting a touchscreen phone without a keyboard is usually bad. if the touchscreen goes bad (lg instinct anyone? i get 2 of these a day+) then your SOL until we get you a replacement. if you have a keyboard you can usually still use this as a backup.

with sprint/nextel, you can get the everything plan. for 99 a month you get -everything-. internet, email, sprint tv, music, etc and unlimited phone/texting/etc
theres no additional mobile charges or random shitt. this is a fairly new plan and many people are still on the older 129$ plan to get everything like this.

a pretty sweet new smart phone we've liked here at work is the HTC Touch Pro. this is the upgraded version of the Touch diamond, and now features both touchscreen and a slider keyboard so many people like now.
http://crave.cnet.com/i/bto/20080604/HTC_340x367.jpg

as for service; it differs for everyone. where i live verizon is best and sprint sucks, but 20 mins up the beltway to work my verizon cuts out occasionally but sprint has full bars.
dont judge service based off other users, signal changes everywhere.

personally, i have a verizon Boulder (water-resistant if not proof, military grade) since i go through 2 phones a year due to water damage.(yes i work for sprint but have verizon, lol)
then i have a 32gig iTouch, which is basically the iphone without the phone and 3g network, you just access wifi hotspots.

for blackberry, i'd stick with the 8100 Pearl. great small blackberry device.
http://www.menalto.com/gallery/d/413...0_TopAngle.jpg

[Katlan]

Regarding all the GPS debate... Yes, the 3G is techincally a GPS system, it's just not the type of GPS everyone wanted. It's good for what it needs to be, but I still wonder why they didn't release a GPS system in the Iphone that at least auto-updates itself turn-by-turn (would make it much more user friendly). But the new satelite feature is pretty hot

My new Apps Store toys:
I Love Katamari --
There are also some other games I would like to try but I don't feel like spending the money right now:
Hero of Sparta
Rolando

"I love Katamari" is horrible from what I have heard... mass technical issues really kills the fun factor. I'm sure they will be fixed, but they released the game as a "beta" product.

and wth at you not getting "Hero of Sparta" & "Rolando"? They are easily among the two best games for the Iphone atm (alongside SimCity)!

[Clipse]

Katamari has already been patched and is actually playable now. Puzzle Quest Part 1 just came out today for $10... fucking App Store rapes my wallet weekly lol

[octopus]

Regarding all the GPS debate... Yes, the 3G is techincally a GPS system, it's just not the type of GPS everyone wanted. It's good for what it needs to be, but I still wonder why they didn't release a GPS system in the Iphone that at least auto-updates itself turn-by-turn (would make it much more user friendly). But the new satelite feature is pretty hot

What you mean is that it doesn't have turn-by-turn navigation system ;o GPS doesn't equal navigation system, it simply gives you your position on earth from satellites. The navigation system is software, GPS is hardware.

[archibaldcrane]

Yeah, I'm still not sure if people are saying Apple straight-up lies when Apple says it uses GPS satellites as part of it's GPS system.
Also this:

as for the iphone not running multiple programs, this has its advantages. one, it protects apples software from things like jailbreak. 3rd party tools can have a huge impact on your product, and its good to protect them.

is retarded. I don't want a company protecting me from myself, especially when it severely limits the capabilities of something I use every day.

[Churchill]

Hai, however 3g =/= GPS. Whether or not the iPhone has GPS is one thing, how 2g, 3g works to locate your position is entirely different and is not GPS. You are talking about two different pieces of hardware.

3g is defined by speed and technology, right now, the technology is not up to the "required" speeds set forth by the governing boards for this shit, however it is damned close in areas where you get excellent 2g reception.

[Churchill]

Yeah, I'm still not sure if people are saying Apple straight-up lies when Apple says it uses GPS satellites as part of it's GPS system.

unless there is hardware in the phone that connects to GPS satellites, which honestly, i don't know, then they are straight up lying. What they give you however is pretty close, it just doesn't use satellites.

[archibaldcrane]

Right, that's what I'm saying. They say, straight up, in the quote from their website, that they use the GPS satellites in orbit to determine position, and that it falls back on wi-fi and towers if it can't reach one (because it can't get a signal into the sky).

Do you have any reason to believe that it doesn't have the capability in the phone that connects to GPS satellites? You sounded so sure about your "facts" earlier.

This article, for example:

Citing national security concerncs, Egypt required that Apple cripple the iPhone 3G’s GPS feature in order to sell the handset in Egypt. Turns out, Egyptian iPhone 3Gs still pack GPS hardware within, just waiting for someone to bring it back to life.

would suggest that it does have GPS hardware inside.

[Churchill]

My facts are only related to any phone claiming to have GPS that doesn't actually have GPS hardware, and also that 3g =/= GPS which is what a lot of people think. Hell, a lot of people think their phones somehow use satellites to communicate anyway.

You can test it out though, take your phone somewhere that you get shitty reception but that wouldn't generally be out of a satellites range. If you're GPS is off by over 100m then you'll know it's not really GPS.

[octopus]

Dude, this took 5 sec to google:

iPhone 3G Chip Teardown: Broadcom (BRCM) Not Totally Snubbed For GPS (AAPL)

Edit: a couple more links

http://gpsobsessed.com/3g-iphone-tea...-not-broadcom/
http://www.mobiletopsoft.com/board/1...erhead-ii.html

[archibaldcrane]

Dude, this took 5 sec to google:

iPhone 3G Chip Teardown: Broadcom (BRCM) Not Totally Snubbed For GPS (AAPL)

Thanks.

Churchill, it's GPS. Satellite-based, hardware supported GPS. Deal with it.

[Katlan]

What you mean is that it doesn't have turn-by-turn navigation system ;o GPS doesn't equal navigation system, it simply gives you your position on earth from satellites. The navigation system is software, GPS is hardware.

What Octopus said.. but if it's software, gimme my update plz ; ;

[Tyche]

My blackberry has real GPS and turn-by-turn!

[Boyiee]

People think 3g stands for gps? lol really?

[Churchill]

Thanks.

Churchill, it's GPS. Satellite-based, hardware supported GPS. Deal with it.

I don't see what I'm supposed to deal with...I don't really care. I just can't stand people who think that their google earth and "GPS" on their 3g phones is really GPS and will argue constantly over the fact that it has satellites telling the phone what's up.

So as you confirmed, it's hardware in the iPhone, not CDMA intersection.

[octopus]

Well, you came to the thread and put out a blanket statement saying "None of these phones offers actual GPS, none of them are actual 3g", without knowing the facts (about the iphone 3g at least)...

I don't know about the G1 or the Blackberry Storm, but I suspect that since they were labelled "iphone killers", they probably do have real GPS as well.

[fren.]

Christ I suck at this.

I followed the guide posted above, was a success to get it jailbroken. Got Cydia/Installer on the iphone, opened up QuickPwn and followed the directions (by holding the power/hold button for 30ish seconds or so) in the command prompt.

My phone restarted and now it's stuck at the black screen with the pineapple logo on it. What the shit just happened?

[Khamsin]

Christ I suck at this.

I followed the guide posted above, was a success to get it jailbroken. Got Cydia/Installer on the iphone, opened up QuickPwn and followed the directions (by holding the power/hold button for 30ish seconds or so) in the command prompt.

My phone restarted and now it's stuck at the black screen with the pineapple logo on it. What the shit just happened?

You'll shit iphones when you figure it out.

[fren.]

Edit: Holding the home button while connected to the laptop allowed for me to restore it.

Back to regular old iphone for me.

[BarthelloSylph]

I don't see what I'm supposed to deal with...I don't really care. I just can't stand people who think that their google earth and "GPS" on their 3g phones is really GPS and will argue constantly over the fact that it has satellites telling the phone what's up.

So as you confirmed, it's hardware in the iPhone, not CDMA intersection.

You need to deal with your huge boner for bashing iPhone's supposed lack of a GPS chip.