Smartphones

[Okan]

So here is a quick back story. I was with Cingular a long time ago. They got purchased by AT&T. I didn't jump ship. Regretting that now. Anyway... Yesterday they suspended me for being 1 day over-due. Literally 1 day. I couldn't call, text, or anything. I pay just about $75 a month for around 400 minutes and unlimited texting, but zero data plan. I have a Pantech Matrix and I pretty much hate it now. I want a smart phone, but with the saturation of the market, not sure which one to get.

Monitoring the market, I originally wanted an iPhone and still mostly do. I have two problems. First is AT&T. I want off. Rumor has it Verizon is getting it beginning of '10. Should I wait? Secondly is how quickly Apple will remove/deny certain apps (Google Voice for example). At least they don't go pulling Amazon fun with removing said app from your device as long as you had it before it's pulled from the app store.

Looked in to the G1 and G2. Slightly concerned with G2 being all touchscreen and no hardware keys. (iPhone has proven itself here. G2 hasn't just yet). Android though. Seems more open for developers to create whatever apps they want. And while the iPhone has tons of apps, 92% of them are a lighter, flashlight, or fart app.. Or a combination of the three. It's just the OS seems to have more possibilities.

Anyone else have any input? I know about the Pre, but Sprint hasn't faired well recently and Pre has a nice list of concerns... Especially the oreo effect that concerns me.

[jmc]

SLight de-rail for a sec.... but oreo efffect on pre? Care to explain?


I'm gonna say it depends on the are you live in.

For where I live Sprint/Verizon are the best service hands down.

I had verizon with a PPC-6700/6800 smartphone running windows mobile 6.1... was a nice phone, but big compared to modern market smart phones. You could do pretty much anything on it, because its a windows OS.

I then switched to AT&T to get the iPhone. Loved the phone, but 3G service seems to be a weakspot for AT&T because they are still upgrading thier towers for 3G and seem to be behind the rest of the competition. I also don't see the iPhone going to verizon.... they had their chance, and blew it.

I now have sprint, and the palm pre. Great phone and great service so far (esp. when hooked up with the femcell tower). The apps for the pre are nothing compared to the itunes apps, but its easy to get custom homebrew apps running on the pre. So no complaints.

[Okan]

DIY Fixes for the Palm Pre's Unfortunate "Oreo" Effect - Palm pre oreo fix - Gizmodo
Screen Twisting Like An Oreo = Normal? - PreCentral Forums

There just seems to be a good bit of Pre issues that are keeping me at bay at the moment. Mostly hardware related which I am sure could be fixed in another month or two.

[jmc]

Oh,

My sister also has a HTC Touch... its a pretty good phone, running windows mobile 6.1..... i'd highly look into a HTC phone as ive only heard good things about them.

[Tyche]

I find it hard to believe they suspended your service after 1 day unless you're a habitual late-payer. I've been with cingular/AT&T for almost 10 years and never had an issue. I've paid the bill online late on several occassions (Big red letters, "Your bill is past due"). AT&T is actually one of the more pleasant companies I deal with.

More on topic though, I've read that AT&T is preparing to lose the apple exclusivity by bringing in an HTC android based smart-phone.

[ClassicRed]

I chose G1 after posting a topic here asking for feed back on it~ And was sent to this topic [ http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/72747-t-mobile-g1.html ]
(and here's my topic http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/77056-tmobile-g1-g2.html )

Am <3 my new G1! I decided against the new My Touch 3G Tmobile came out with for probably the same reasons ur not to sure about it. Its new...new things have glitches to fix and yada...

G1 is amazingly easy to work, tons of apps to choose from, instant GPS( I recommend the free app 1Touch GPS w/ TTS app) while traveling and so forth. Some people complain about the battery life but I havent had any issues after reading a few help articles. It seriously recommends only charging your phone after it reaches below 15% battery life and thats what I do and it lasts 2 days usually sometimes almost 3 depending on talk/internet usage. (Im a texter, I rather text than talk on phone)
After about 2 weeks I got the notification to update to CupCake which allows touch screen keypad (and a few other addons)which I love and have no issues with.

I recommend this phone 100%~ Any other questions ask away!

[SephYuyX]

HTC, Palm or iPhone, rest are trash. G2 has potential though.

[Okan]

@Tyche I'm not really habitually late, though it has happened. I've had cases where it went 3 months and never as much got a phone call. And it was paid before they called or suspended my account. This all started happening upwards to 6 months ago when I wanted to get rid of my razr and switched to this Pantech phone. I'd get phone calls telling me my bill was due (wasn't late), daily texts... You'd think with me having been with them since the Cingular merge they'd be a little more lenient as I've never truly missed a payment. Honestly, this is something I've been working on recently as my bills are scattered throughout the months. Car on the 3rd, credit card on the 12th, insurance on the 15th, gym membership on the 21st, phone on the 27th. I had 99% of them set up on auto-pay for awhile, but my card expired and I never set it back up... Talking with some friends from other companies though, it's more of a "We need to get as much as we can as soon as we can" type deal. So many people due to job loss or what-have-you haven't paid certain bills in so long that companies aren't playing so friendly anymore. (Also AT&T actually does have pretty bad coverage down here in Tampa. 3G at least)

@Classicred I am really considering the G1 actually. I spend a lot of my time texting/twittering that I really think I'd appreciate the hardware keyboard. I just need to plan a budget so that bills do get paid before I make a switch so I wanted to get some opinions and do some research to make sure I was getting one that I'd be really happy with.

[Rafbacca]

I've recently got a Blackberry Tour and am impressed. Plus google develops their apps for the blackberry as well.

Your main consideration for getting the phone should be the reliability of the network you're on first. I used to have T-Mobile here in NYC and it sucked balls. Coudln't make calls from within my own house. So far Verizon has worked literally eveywhere I've gone. Except for one recent location... The Grand Canyon West... "the network" failed me.

Your second consideration is what will you use it for most? text fiend? websurfing? emails? twittering? gps?

do you require a hardware keyboard on your device? or can you make do with a touch screen?

I've used my sisters iPhone and my iopd Touch and can honestly say it is horrible for me to type on that software keyboard.

So far the Crackberry does all that I need it to do.

[Okan]

I thought about all that. The two (three'ish) big things that I am personally concerned about is network (Coverage and monthly pricing) and apps for the respective phone. I lean towards Android OS because it's covered on multiple phones whereas iPhone OS and Palm WebOS are pretty much set to their respective device (iPhone and Pre respectively.)

At the moment, I only text on mine and I really feel like I am getting ripped off. As I said, it's $75 a month and there is NO data plan and I have very few minutes per month (400'ish). With a data plan, I could cover a lot of what I'd like to use it for instead of my twitter texts.

[antihero]

would fuck my iphone if it had an orifice big enough

[volcanicweather]

would fuck my iphone

There's an app for that

iVag

[Okan]

There are two reasons I've hesitated in to getting the 3GS. First, and foremost, is AT&T. Maybe I've just been a little juvenile recently and should sit down at their center and redo my contract. It is pretty crappy to pay so much for so little. Hell, it would probably cost me almost as much to just cancel the whole account and rebuild fresh with the contract/phone discount than it would to just buy the phone at full price.

The second reason is Apple and their anti-competitive nature -- suchas removing Google Voice apps or anything like that. And I love my MacBook Pro. As I said, I follow all the news doing research and even read an interesting article about the EFF filiing for jailbreaking of iPhone's to be legalized and Apple stating that doing so will be dangerous. While what they stated seems to have some bits of truth, the fact of it is that legalizing jailbreaking isn't going to allow this to happen as any hacker with the motivation already could go and do it now.

Couple of sources of that:
Slashdot Apple Story | Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers
iPhone Jailbreaking Is Dangerous, Apple Says - Hackers would be able to flood the carrier's network - Softpedia
Macsimum News - Apple: jailbreaking an iPhone is dangerous business
MacNN | Apple: Legal iPhone jailbreaks may be 'catastrophic'

[volcanicweather]

As much as I like my iphone, it will be the first and last apple product I will ever buy. I simply cannot stand their business model and will not support them again in the future.

[ertyu]

Why don't you get a t-mobile plan, get an iphone, jailbreak + unlock it and use it on t-mobile? Just get a cheap data phone when you go since you wont be using it + you need the sim card. More expensive route but you get the best of both worlds (for what you want, I personally like AT&T)

[volcanicweather]

Why don't you get a t-mobile plan, get an iphone, jailbreak + unlock it and use it on t-mobile? Just get a cheap data phone when you go since you wont be using it + you need the sim card. More expensive route but you get the best of both worlds (for what you want, I personally like AT&T)

I like AT&T as well... never had a problem with them, their employees are also knowledgeable / helpful at their downtown location, and they have the best coverage in Minneapolis. My phone is also already jailbroken / unlocked. It's more the Apple brand and how restrictive they are with their products because they want you to buy everything from their app store.

[Hellfury]

I use HTC Touch Pro 2, and I love it, (has pullout(?) keyboard that works very well, regarding your uncertainty on the touch screen issue.)

The more important question is: Do you really want to spend excessive amounts of money on the incredibly overhyped thing that is iPhone?
(Gotta give them this; their marketing team is brilliant. "shortage of units", yeah right )
added below:
The camera isn't the best, but it's intended more in the business segment than the flashy segment

reviews:
http://pocketnow.com/review/htc-touch-pro2
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news...uch-pro-2.html
http://www.mobilityminded.com/1458/h...h-pro-2-review

[Phraust]

Might want to hold out for the Xperia X2's due out soon-ish. The X1's are really nice(Solid Stainless steel and Glass, the damn thing will save your life someday stopping a stray bullet), but pricey, and all the flaws (albeit few) are solved in the new X2)Bigger screen, Windows Moble 6.5, better memory). They are also releasing(supposedly) an X5 too for the Google/Android market, if you're into that.