Phone Favorites?

[custom Lftback]

which phone do you prefer??

[custom Lftback]

I have an old generation Iphone and love it!

[jclo3313]

Never owned one

[custom Lftback]

you can still vote on which one you like more

[eTiMaGo]

gotta say the G1, it's ugly, it's quirky, but the integration with Google's online services (which i use pretty heavily) is awesome... but iPhone hands down for looks and ergonomics.

[custom Lftback]

yeah, I've yet to play on one of those G1's, but I applaud google for coming up with something to really battle Iphone's. Because G1 has it's own version of the App Store right?

[TLyttle]

Gee, I just recently replaced my rotary with a pushbutton...

[custom Lftback]

Originally Posted by PK198105

man you lucky SOB we're still on smoke signal system here

[BailOut]

How do I cover this topic without writing a novel...

I work in the computer world in a fashion that I must retain lots of information and be on-call basically 24/7. I have been trying to consolidate my 3 devices - cell phone, laptop, PDA - for a decade. I have had a Visor with a cell phone module that was too large to fit in a pocket, cell phones with flip out QWERTY keyboards that were ahead of their time, etc. and it just never worked well. I always ended up with 3 devices again.

A year ago my company wanted to get me an iPhone so that I can perform network administration from just about anywhere. I have no love for Apple and even less for AT&T so I asked them to hold off until the G1 came out and I would get one of those instead. I was already a T-Mobile customer with my personal phone so this would have been a smooth transition.

But then the G1 released and I immediately noticed 5 issues:

1) T-Mobile has no 3G network in the Reno/Tahoe area and has no plans for one. Ever tried tailing a large log file over GPRS?!

2) The pricing on the G1 is outrageous, as is T-Mobile's format of letting new lines get deep discounts but not letting current customers upgrade to a G1 at the lower price, even with a contract renewal.

3) Google did not release the SDK for Android until mere days before the G1 released so, as of today, there is a dearth of applications available for it. As such the few core tools I need for remote administration do not exist yet.

4) The inability to put the screen in landscape mode without having the screen flipped out to expose the keyboard is ridiculous.

5) There is no way to manually turn on a backlight for the keyboard. Even my old Nokia 6800 had this ability 6 years ago. Heck, even my last laptop had a little LED above the screen that you could turn on to help in low lighting. With the G1 you have to brush your finger over the mouse button to get the keyboard to light up (and hope you don't click on anything in the process) but even as you type the backlight times out and turns off after 5 seconds. This gets frustrating rather quickly.


It was after I discovered the first issue I mentioned that I realized the G1 was not an option for me. It simply cannot do what I need, and even if the software was there the faster data network is not. So I asked my company to go ahead and get me an iPhone, but on their account.

They got me an 8GB 3G. I quickly found that the only way to sync it with Linux, which is all I use, was to jailbreak it to put an OpenSSH server on there. Once that was done a whole world of applications and utilities that one will never see in the App Store was open to me, and I dove in. I got what I needed to remotely administrate our networks and then a lot more.

The iPhone is far from perfect but it is by far the largest step in the right direction I have encountered in my 10 years of searching. Not only did it allow me to consolidate my phone and PDA into one device, but it has also replaced the need for a laptop, which I have been lugging around everywhere for years. It does not have the ability to copy & paste nor to edit office documents so it is not a true laptop replacement, but on the rare occasion I need to do that I have a desktop both at work and at home that can get it done. For the occasions where I need to hook to a device in a network closet with a serial cable I just grab a laptop from the loaner pool at work.

I say again that the iPhone is far from perfect but you can do some truly neat stuff with it. In the last 2 weeks there were 3 times that the iPhone came to the rescue:

1) There was a progressive attack on my Production network while I was doing volunteer work at a bike recycling operation. In the past this would have meant leaving the shop early, getting home in about 25 minutes, booting up my laptop and then remotely hooking some firewalls. Instead I washed my hands and then used my iPhone to get into the firewalls. Resolution time from text message to correction was about 6 minutes... a vast improvement.

2) While getting in a few snowboard runs on the way to work one of my coworkers texted to let me know he could not stay on our VPN for more than 10 minutes at a time. In the past this would have meant cutting my session short, taking the time to get my boots off, driving the final 15 minutes to the office and then getting on the issue. Instead I used my iPhone to hook the concentrator and troubleshoot his issue while on the lift. It was a slow lift and by the time I reached the exit ramp his issue was fixed, I had texted him a "good to go" and had the phone back in my waterproof pocket.

3) While sleeping at 0300 one of the primary application severs in my Production environment started throwing errors. In the past this would have meant crawling out of bed, getting dressed in something warm while my laptop boots up, etc. Instead I stayed snuggled up in bed and used the iPhone to troubleshoot. 4 minutes later I was asleep again, having never left the bed.

There are times that it has helped outside of work, too. Having a GPS unit backed up by Google Maps and Google Search is a true boon. Having an accelerometer allows for so many things (like measuring the slope of ski runs, leveling pictures, playing tilt games, etc.) that it makes your head spin. Other little touches are so helpful, like the way the phone hyperlinks anything that looks like a phone number in web pages, emails, etc., providing the opportunity to tap the number to initiate a phone call to it.

While it is slower than any handheld I have ever had, the 3G radio eats the battery for breakfast any time it is enabled, the lack of Flash means half the Web is missing and the lack of copy & paste is truly maddening I still must say that this is the single most useful device I have ever had, and it is the benchmark by which the next generation of smart phones will be judged. Devices like the Blackberry aren't even in the same class, and the G1 is an infant by comparison.

The monthly cost for an iPhone is so high that I would not recommend it for everyone (even with the smaller voice package the MRC on my phone is $115). However, if you are a professional that requires this level of connectivity it is worthwhile, and if you are consolidating devices and services in your personal life (dropping your home phone and a PDA/laptop, etc.) it may be worth it.

[*MAD DOG*]

None of the above listed phones.

[Rain]

I'd rather have a nokia phone

[NonStopTuning]

This is the phone I have been using for the past year or so...



http://www.pradaphonebylg.com

[Kioshi]

Neither of the ones in the poll. I've been using Fin by Helio. Top notch customer service for resetting your device incase a glitch occurs (had that happen w/ my Drift). 3G connections in every corner of the U.S. from California, Texas, to Maryland. GPS has saved me the embarrassment of not arriving late to friends' birthday parties and design conventions.

Never bought into the touch-generation aside from the Nintendo DS..and never will. Keepin it simple and clean~

[id3379]

iPhone rules everything..didnt you guys know its taking over the world ?