Phone Bleg
My LG is on it’s last legs. I’m eligible for a new phone with my provider (Verizon). Should I just go ahead and get me and the Mrs. iPhones?
Note: I swore I’d never have an iPhone but Chris changed my mind from Hell No to Hmmm, maybe.
How’s AT&T service in East TN?
Update: In a bit of irony, it seems AT&T’s webpage only supports Internet Exploder. Yes, AT&T sole provider of Apple’s iPhone will only let you use a Microsoft product to check service.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:45 am
My AT&T Razr works fine there and I have a Knoxville number on it too. Works fine in Arlington, VA, when I am not underground or in a large office building.
Still hate hate hate the iPhone.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:54 am
The iPhone just got cheaper, but the service is more. It is still overpriced… I love my Blackberry Pearl, and it does everything I’d ever want including (*gasp*) making phone calls. I got it for $50 on an AT&T plan.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:08 am
When I’ve been East on business I’ve rarely had trouble (AT&T plan, 6-year-old phone), other than now & then in Vonore or down around Roan Mountain; tower location, I’d guess. I’m sticking with them.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Get the Voyager from Verizon, it’s better than the iPhone.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I thought about the iPhone, but I rely on my phone as an e-mail gadget and just can’t see the glass screen being a great way to type. I’m sticking with my Blackberry World Edition for now. It really doesn’t everything I want it to, with an emphasis on working e-mail and calling.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:24 am
My son got a high-end iphone recently…feature rich.
It is the most amazing device. You’ve got to actually check one out up close and personal to make a choice cuz they’re expensive. Good service here in the great state and criminal enterprise of NJ.
But Wow.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:44 am
User Agent Switcher 0.6.11
I use this extension all the time to fool sites into thinking I’m using IE on XP. I also import the file on this page here, so I have all kinds of choices in regards to what user agent I want to use. (I still haven’t figured out why or what advantage you might get out of spoofing a Googlebot search engine crawler, but it’s in there if you need it 😉
June 13th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Don’t get either, get the new Instinct from Sprint. I can hook you up with a pretty damn good deal once it launches. Shoot me an email.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:49 am
can’t do sprint. it doesn’t work in my house, which is why dropped them in the first place.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am
You know, the true H4X0R method would be to get a handheld wireless device and use a freebie VOIP thingie.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:22 am
i have this one. if you want durability instead of features, it’s the way to go.
http://www.casiogzone.com/type_s/
June 13th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Keep in mind that the iPhone isn’t really a phone; it’s a mobile computing platform, in the truest sense of the term. I can’t emphasize enough that comparing it to another phone, or a Blackberry, is shortsighted; it’s just in a different class.
That being said, some background: My wife and I have had cel phone service continuously since bag phones were state of the art. We’ve literally had multiple dozens of phones between us – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Thus I have actual experience to declare that, just considering the cel phone part of the device, it is the only phone we’ve ever owned that doesn’t suck.
Drop into an Apple store, and try one out. You’ll find it is a) is just a joy to handle, and b) is so well designed that you can actually use every single feature. (In fact, it’s the first phone we’ve ever owned that we never – not once – needed a manual to figure out how to use.)
We’re 9 months into ownership, and the iPhone still makes me smile whenever I use it. There are precious few products of any description that elicit such a response from me.
Now to the rest of the device. Take a look at this week’s WWDC keynote:
Jump ahead to the 21 minute mark, where they show actual third-party applications that will be available in just a few weeks when the AppStore launches. (The MIMVista demo is a must-see for technogeeks.) They will give you a better perspective on just what the thing is capable of doing and where it’s going.
Regarding AT&T: we were long-time Verizon customers, and swore up and down that we’d never change. We believed that Verizon was the best, based on what others told us about their carriers. Guess what we discovered? AT&T is no better or worse than Verizon. There is zero difference in terms of quality or service; they both have dead spots, and both customer service departments are equally incompetent. Our experience suggests that any difference exists solely in one’s imagination.
-=[ Grant ]=-
June 13th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Wow, how’d that gigantic link happen? Apparently the link inserter doesn’t properly close the function….
Sorry ’bout that, Chief!
-=[ Grant ]=-
June 13th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Yes, yes! Join the cult.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I’ve always gotten service in Knoxville with my Cingular/AT+T phone – however weird things happen in the mountains around Johnson City and south, just passed the I24 Interchange – where my Cingular/AT+T phones go to roam and wont take calls or allow voice mail access.
My blackberry is on Verizon. Have never had problems with Verizon service. However, my old blackberry died a week ago (button in the scroll wheel gave out) and the replacement phone they sent me is a Pearl. I’ve used it for 3 days and absolutely hate it. Its a poor subsittiute for the full keyboard that blackberry is famous for (I send a frightening amount of long emails every day) and I find my ability to surf the web, open attachments, or even to access information on it pales in comparison to my old traditional blackberry. Sure, its got a camera and a video camera – but I need it for email, a task my job depends on and which the Pearl is incapable of performing in any serious fashion.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
If you want to use your phone as just a phone and nothing else, get a free phone. If you already carry an iPod around, you are halfway to an iPhone. If you need to carry a device like a blackberry to check email, just go ahead and get an iPhone.
(I have had an iPhone since the release date, BTW.)
June 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
A few years ago, I owned no Apple product. Since then, i first purchased an Ipod, then a Macbook and recently a Time Capsule. In August, when my contract is up on my Treo with Verizon, I plan to get an Iphone along with MobileMe. I’ve fully embraced the cult of Apple (it probably helps that I have a couple of friends who work there and can get me discounts, but I digress). Definitely play with one first..I would definitely wait it out a bit as I’m sure a lot of other phones are suddenly going to come down in price to compete with the $200 iphone.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
can’t do sprint. it doesn’t work in my house, which is why dropped them in the first place.”
Yep. Sprint in Murvill is teh suxxor. Oddly, it works fine in Louisville. They must have a bunch of towers because of the airport.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I got one last June. First and only product I have ever waited in line for. I have had a cell phone constantly since 1994 and this is the first phone I am actually satisfied with. I used to change phones like socks… I have had every vendor’s phone except for a crackberry (I don’t want to be that reachable. ie I don’t want corporate email on my phone.)
The only thing that sucks is that you have to get a data plan for each phone, as I let the wife use mine, she had to have one also.
Google maps with the live traffic is a godsend around the capital beltway. I use that feature every time I get in my car up here.
You won’t be sorry about getting one.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I have a Pocket PC and like it really well. My provider is AT&T. For the areas that I travel in they have the best coverage.
Having a keyboard and corporate email/calendar plus (a stripped down version) of Office is so nice. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be getting the Tilt. Refurbished it’s about $150. With the built in GPS, touch screen, and other features it will enable a really cool application I want to write for long range shooting (think Modern Ballistics for the field).
Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft. I write applications for MS mobile devices as part of my job. This makes me biased. It also gives me insight into what is “coming soon”.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Oh, Live Search for mobile is the competitor to Google Maps on mobile devices. Both work on my current Pocket PC and will work on the Tilt. Being able to see your current position and where you are going in map or aerial view is very cool.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Meh, I use my phone as a phone. Because of that, I bought a pre-paid one through Tracfone, and I’m more than happy with it. It’s cheap, I don’t need to pay for more minutes than I use, and it doesn’t have anything I don’t need.
It’s also small and lightweight, so if I don’t need my MP3 player with me, I can leave it, and take only the phone.
This all coming from a guy working in the computer industry, so I’m not a luddite, I just don’t need anything else.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Oh yeah, it’s also possible that AT&T’s site sees that you have Windows, and says that you have to use IE, but if you were using a Mac, then Firefox would be fine. Some places are weird like that.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I’m on a Mac, and I use AT&T’s website with Safari just fine.
In any case, I started out my mobile life with Sprint in 1998 and had Nokia, Sanyo and Samsung phones. I had a bunch of issues with the service, but the phones always worked fine.
Then I switched to T-Mobile and got a Sidekick. That was fun. Broke that and got a Palm Treo 680. Liked that a lot, but it froze often. T-mobile’s service was spotty.
Treo got stolen, so I switched to AT&T and got the iPhone (earlier than I intended, I was going to wait until a new one came out but the theft forced my hand). I have had no problems with AT&T so far, get great reception everywhere, and the iPhone is hands down the best phone I’ve ever had—phonewise. It’s loud enough, visual voicemail is a godsend, and since I am on a Mac, syncing my address book and calendar was seemless.
And then in addition to the fact that it’s a phone, it has all that other shit on it that is great. And now it’s faster, has more features, and is only TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?
Amazing. Seriously.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I’ll chime in with a bump for the iPhone. I got mine the day they came out last June and like Kirk said above, it’s the first phone I’ve been happy with EVER. And I’ve had a cell phone of one kind or another since 1991, changing them out once or twice a year.
I have no immediate plans to upgrade to the new phone because all I’d get are 3G and GPS neither of which I need at the moment in a phone. However, I will upgrade when a model with more memory comes out. 32Gigs would be OK, but 64Gigs would be perfect.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Don’t even consider Sprint. You wouldn’t buy a gun from a company that lobbies against your right to own a cell phone, would you?
June 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Worked with many iPhones. They are very good.
Still waiting for the 16GB model.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
In Knoxville, AT&T’s coverage is freakin’ awesome. There were only a few places (whether or not I was in a building) where I had shoddy service.
Now I wish their coverage was just as good here in McMinnville “We’re Not A Large Enough Market for Decent Coverage”, TN.
June 15th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I’ve been on Verizon twice, Nextel once, and am currently back with T-Mobile for the second time. I have no plans to ever go to AT&T, and I’ve been using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile since November. It’s the best phone I’ve ever had, Blackberries included.
I was in Knoxville a couple months ago and T-Mobile apparently has native coverage there now that they bought SunCom. Since the acquisition was so recent, I could still switch between that and AT&T’s network freely to try them both. AT&T had decent coverage there, but so did T-Mobile.
Now for the bad news: the new iPhone 3G will not work with T-Mobile’s 3G data network that was recently turned up — they use a completely different frequency for that side of the network. While the iPhone 3G will be subsidized by $200 compared to the first generation version, the data plan you’re required to get will cost $10/month more than the old one, and it will not include any text messages (the old iPhone plan included 200). If you don’t live in an area with 3G coverage, you’re paying more for less. I’m pretty sure Knoxville’s got 3G coverage, but this still seems to me like AT&T getting greedy.
And there was one thing that made buying the original iPhone more enjoyable, even if you weren’t going to unlock it: not having to spend time in the store signing contracts and putting up with some kid’s attempts at upsell. Go in, buy the phone, take it home and activate it whenever you want. I was in the store for all of five minutes. With the new one, they will not let you take it out of the store without signing a two year contract.
At a minimum, you’re going to be paying about $70/month before taxes and fees with no included messaging. By contrast, my T-Mobile Blackberry plan includes 1000 minutes (no free nights or weekends, unfortunately), unlimited data, unlimited text messages, and no extra charges for roaming or long distance for about $64.50/month after taxes and fees.