iPhone syndrome

I've tried at least 6 times now and no luck. I'll just have to wait and try again later.
 
None of that made a difference. It was the servers being too consumed. It's now working without me needing to do any weird song and dance tricks. I'm upgraded to the new iOS on my 3GS.
 
I should have known something like a new release had happened when I had 13 app updates waiting to be installed. :) Looks like I'm getting a new OS today.
 
I must obtain a smartphone very soon. What is the best option for NMT $250 for the device and ~$75 per month service. Mainly I will be using it for the e-mail and only occasionally for the web and telephone.
 
I'd probably go with Verizon and the LG Revolution if I couldn't afford the Droid Bionic. I would also max the data plan, enable tethering, and then get what I could afford for voice and text.

That is what I would want to get at least. The lack of ANT+ support on any Android devices would probably send me over to the dark side.
 
The best phone for email is still a Blackberry, particularly if you plan to use it in other countries - data roaming costs for other phones can be horrendous.

If that's not an issue, then get the phone with the biggest screen. Personally, I think the combination of screen quality, responsiveness, battery life and light weight makes it hard to go past the Samsung Galaxy IIs.
 
time said:
The best phone for email is still a Blackberry, particularly if you plan to use it in other countries - data roaming costs for other phones can be horrendous.

If that's not an issue, then get the phone with the biggest screen. Personally, I think the combination of screen quality, responsiveness, battery life and light weight makes it hard to go past the Samsung Galaxy IIs.
Click to expand...

My first rule of phones is do not buy a blackberry. My second rule of phones is DO NOT BUY A BLACKBERRY! These days BBs are strictly for teenagers and American business men. And with all the cheap, reasonably spec'ed, Android device being released recently I don't think they'll hang on to the teenager market much longer.

Apparently the latest BB OS is noticeably better than the old one but still no where near IOS and Android in terms of usability and it's kind of a one off since the next generation of BBs with have a QNX based OS which will be entirely different. Email and messaging seems to be the only thing BBs do tolerably well, except when they don't do them at all. (E.g most of this week)

I think, now, WiFi is sufficiently available to replace roaming for most people, if not get a local pay as you go data only sim (The iPad has had at least one positive affect) and you're good to go.

With that budget Lunar, I'd go for a Galaxy S II (Or actually I'd halve my budget and then get one but I live in a country with slightly less abusive telcos so YMMV).
 
No, I won't get a BlackBerry. I want a decent-sized screen to go online if necessary. How much data is 2GB equivalent to on the monthly basis? Can I go on the internet for 5 min./day and receive 75 e-mails/day?
 
ddrueding said:
I'd probably go with Verizon and the LG Revolution if I couldn't afford the Droid Bionic. I would also max the data plan, enable tethering, and then get what I could afford for voice and text.

That is what I would want to get at least. The lack of ANT+ support on any Android devices would probably send me over to the dark side.
Click to expand...

I don't like LG. We've had many problems with their products. :bsmurf: I want to get by with the minimum useful data plan and minimum phone plan, since the devices are too bulky/blocky to use for anything but brief conversations. Is the 4G necessary?
 
AFAIK, 4G doesn't have enough coverage to be useful. In the sort of built-up areas where you're likely to find it, you're probably also able to access WiFi.

For light usage as you describe, I feel 10MB per day should cover it, provided you're not downloading large email attachments. If you can access WiFi regularly, you can use it to download software and updates, and probably use less than 5MB per day.
 
time said:
AFAIK, 4G doesn't have enough coverage to be useful. In the sort of built-up areas where you're likely to find it, you're probably also able to access WiFi.

For light usage as you describe, I feel 10MB per day should cover it, provided you're not downloading large email attachments. If you can access WiFi regularly, you can use it to download software and updates, and probably use less than 5MB per day.
Click to expand...

No, I would not have WI-FI coverage and rarely 4G. I'm not sure how the e-mails work. Can you set them not to download the large attachments (e.g., 10MB) unless opened?
 
time said:
The standard Android email client won't download attachments unless you explicitly touch them.
Click to expand...

The iPhone is also the same. There will be a button at the bottom of the email asking if you want to download the attachment and it shows you how large it is.
 
The new 4g iPhone sucks, on sprint...

New roomie is a mac guy, sort of. He bought Sprint, 80 bucks a month, 2 year contract, minus taxes, and a 4G iPhone, S.

It gets a whopping 1.6 MBPS, and that's on my WIFI network, which does 50 MBPS on my laptop, with an ancient Linksys PCI card.

On the 3G network, about the same as my Nokia, 460 KBPS.

DD: Does your station thingy do about the same? Cost?

It doesn't do flash, which sucks. It' doesn't tether easily, either.

It isn't fast. It looks like another Apple charge a lot, give you terrible, low standard hardware that barely runs the software.

Combine that with AT&T, and you are truly damned.

Sony looks like God with those two working together.

Another weird thing is that with the T Mobile-AT&T merger, it seems TMobile must be loosing a lot of business, since they are offering unlimted Text, data, and phon[-=]
Sorry, that was Jumpster, working on her typing skills., for 50 bucks a month.

I'm going to look into this, and see what happens.
 
Santilli said:
New roomie is a mac guy, sort of. He bought Sprint, 80 bucks a month, 2 year contract, minus taxes, and a 4G iPhone, S.

It gets a whopping 1.6 MBPS, and that's on my WIFI network, which does 50 MBPS on my laptop, with an ancient Linksys PCI card.

On the 3G network, about the same as my Nokia, 460 KBPS.

DD: Does your station thingy do about the same? Cost?

It doesn't do flash, which sucks. It' doesn't tether easily, either.

It isn't fast. It looks like another Apple charge a lot, give you terrible, low standard hardware that barely runs the software.

Combine that with AT&T, and you are truly damned.

Sony looks like God with those two working together.

Another weird thing is that with the T Mobile-AT&T merger, it seems TMobile must be loosing a lot of business, since they are offering unlimted Text, data, and phon[-=]
Sorry, that was Jumpster, working on her typing skills., for 50 bucks a month.

I'm going to look into this, and see what happens.
Click to expand...


There have been plenty of documented complaints with Sprint and their poor performance now that the iPhone is on their network. Some suggest it may have been Sprint capping customers because they can't handle the demand, or they simply can't handle the demand. It's not the iPhone, it's Sprint. I suggest people avoid Sprint, especially with an iPhone.

The only way to get faster than average internet performance with an iPhone would be to have the 4S on AT&T and live in a small select area that supports the HSPA+. Everyone else is still on 3G service or slower. This is nothing new.

I've been able to get 12-15 Mb/sec over WiFi on my 3GS on my home network, so I have no idea why your roomie is only seeing 1.6. Maybe something is wrong with your WiFi router.

Flash is not a big deal on an iPhone...it'll likely never be an option and I'm actually OK with that. Flash can go away as far as I'm concerned. I'd be fine if it was gone as a plug-in for PCs in general.

You're clearly not informed about the Apple iPhone if you think it's a low standard device. The hardware is actually fairly top-end and the iOS platform is probably the most refined of any of them out there. The hardware is more than capable of running the software, so I have no idea where you got that impression from. If you spend even a moderate amount of time reading reviews, you won't find the conclusion you've come to regarding the quality of hardware.

I would suggest that the combination of the iPhone on Sprint is the better of being damned, not AT&T. AT&T has learned how to deal with the mass amount of people on a network unlike Sprint (which is clearly showing it can't handle them). Verizon just costs a fortune and you lose the ability to talk and use the internet which is a deal breaker for me. Maybe some day when LTE chipsets are improved and more efficient, you'll likely see them in an iPhone with proper battery life. I've been an AT&T customer for a while now and if I truly hated it so much, I'd have no problem bashing them and complaining and then switching to another network. I would be agreeing with what you see in the media all the time and we've all be singing chants together. Truthfully that's not been my experience. No chants.

My buddy who lives a couple towns over has reported to Apple that he's seen decrease in battery life on his iPhone 4 (with Verizon) after upgrading to iOS 5. They called him on the phone and setup diagnostics on his phone to learn more about the problem. They've now gone so far to schedule time to come out to his location and meet him in person to take measurements from the cellular towers. That's pretty impressive they would dedicate resources to learn more about why this problem is occurring. Say what you want about Apple, in in many cases I agree, but I think they take their mobile phone product serious and they do offer a well-refined product. Android still has a ways to go to get to their level, and I'm not arguing the walled garden vs the undefined garden here. After spending the past few weeks exploring Android options, there just doesn't seem to be the right combination hardware and software that does what I want. I've been drawn back to the iPhone 4S for my next phone.
 
I'll just put this right over here:

iPhoneAndroid.png
 
I see they conviently left out the Verizon iPhones but included android phone released after. Fishy. Still, an interesting picture.
 
I only pointed out my observations, on my home network. So, we now have Sprint, the only truly 'unlimited' data plan, not being so, since it can't handle the load.

The iphone on my home network has never been a problem with his earlier model. Now the new one, it is.

He's paying a lot of money for that setup, and, he also said something about not being able to use both 3g and 4g at the same time, as he used to before.

Can either of the iphones tether to laptops, without being hacked?
 
My shopping list:
Runs flash
tethers to laptops
works with google calendar, and google apps
Would be nice to use my google contacts on my phone
decent battery life
excellent music player, supporting 32 gig or bigger cards for storage.
Is a chip based phone, allowing upgrading phones or switching phones, T mobile
AT&T and who else?
Plays streaming video on www.surfline.com

I'm working on more stuff as I go.
 
Handurin:

Maybe user error, or something, keeping the phone from connecting to my rather fast router correctly under WIFI, or, perhaps the hardware is defective.
 
Santilli said:
Handurin:

Maybe user error, or something, keeping the phone from connecting to my rather fast router correctly under WIFI, or, perhaps the hardware is defective.
Click to expand...

Perhaps so. The review over at AnadTech suggests the iPhone 4S WiFi performance was #1 among all the phones they tested. Besting both the previous two iPhones by a decent amount.
 
Santilli said:
I only pointed out my observations, on my home network. So, we now have Sprint, the only truly 'unlimited' data plan, not being so, since it can't handle the load.

The iphone on my home network has never been a problem with his earlier model. Now the new one, it is.

He's paying a lot of money for that setup, and, he also said something about not being able to use both 3g and 4g at the same time, as he used to before.

Can either of the iphones tether to laptops, without being hacked?
Click to expand...

There is no 4G service on an iPhone, so it was not possible for your friend to use them at the same time.

No, the iPhone tether is a paid feature. Yes, it can become a mobile hotspot, but only if you pay for the option. The tethering is done via bluetooth or USB cable connection. There are hacks available, but my limited research suggests they don't work well and the service providers catch on quick.
 
Santilli said:
My shopping list:
Runs flash
tethers to laptops
works with google calendar, and google apps
Would be nice to use my google contacts on my phone
decent battery life
excellent music player, supporting 32 gig or bigger cards for storage.
Is a chip based phone, allowing upgrading phones or switching phones, T mobile
AT&T and who else?
Plays streaming video on www.surfline.com

I'm working on more stuff as I go.
Click to expand...

The iPhone will do all of that except running flash. I cannot say if it will work with streaming videos from surfline. You can get iPhones up to 64BG in storage, but they do not support removable media. Several new Android phones also do not support removable media either. If you want flash, you'll need to look into an Android phone and possibly a windows mobile platform, though I don't even know if the windows phones support flash, I'm making an assumption. I believe the chip-based you're referring to is a SIM card? The iPhone uses a SIM card as do many other phones.
 
Went down to the TMobile store in South San Francisco.

The HTC phones they had are priarily 8 megapixel cameras, or camcorders. The Amaze, Sensation, T Mobile MyTouch.

Also, it's really annoying the way Tmobile markets stuff.

"Two ways to go. One way you keep your current plan(which they don't offer anymore)
and buy the phone

The other is to make the down payment listed on the add card, 199.00, and pay 15.00 a month, for 20 months, for unlimited, blah, blah. Then, when you've paid the phone off, at a premium price, you have the phone and the plan reverts to it's cost of 60.00.

Also, 'unlimited data' means you get 2 GB of data at 3G speeds, and after that, at crawling 2G speeds. That's per month, I think.

It's really clear they are pushing Samsungs, which after my highlight, I want nothing to do with. Only thing good about that phone was the color, and that it held resale value.

You can't use any of the HTC phones. Only the Samsung are hooked up and working.

As for planes, here are the tmobile classic plans:
Select a new plan:

CLASSIC UNLIMITED PLANS FOR INDIVIDUALS
Classic Unlimited™—Talk + Text

Unlimited Minutes + Unlimited Text
$59.99 per month
Add to cart

More details

CLASSIC MINUTE PLANS FOR INDIVIDUALS
Classic 1000 Minute—Talk

1000 Minutes
$49.99 per month
Add to cart

More details

Classic 500 Minute—Talk

500 Minutes
$39.99 per month
Add to cart


Now for services:
Your Current Data Service

Unlimited Web for phones
This service is recommended for frequent Internet users who regularly access the mobile Web to browse their favorite Websites, search for music and videos, etc. And your first month of service is free!
$10.00
per month

You currently pay this amount for data.

Other available data services

Unlimited - Premium
Unlimited data for sharing video and streaming entertainment (up to 5 GB of high-speed data included)
More details
$30.00
per month

Unlimited - Plus
Unlimited data for social networking and navigating (up to 2 GB of high-speed data included)
Recommended for your selected device.
More details
$20.00
per month

Simple
200 MB of high-speed data for emailing, checking news and weather
More details
$10.00
per month

Pay Per Megabyte
Get all the benefits of the mobile web on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no monthly commitment.
More details
$0.00
per month

Tethering with T-Mobile is now 15.00 a month. I also suspect that if you want to add or drop a feature they change the start date on the plan to the day the changes are made.

Or, maybe this is the way to go:

UNLIMITED VALUE PLANS FOR INDIVIDUALS
Unlimited Value™—Talk + Text

Unlimited Minutes + Unlimited Text
$49.99 per month
Add to cart

More details

MINUTE VALUE PLANS FOR INDIVIDUALS
1000 Minute Value™—Talk

1000 Minutes
$44.99 per month
Add to cart

More details

500 Minute Value™—Talk

500 Minutes
$34.99 per month
Add to cart

More details

I could go with the 500 minutes for 35.00. with Taxes, that would make the total about 40. That's 50 % less then I'm paying now. I do use the net a little, but not much.

Whatever. Another thing to figure out, make a decision, and end up with the wrong one.
 
Go look at what Virgin or Cricket are offering. I believe they're both pay as you go and reselling Sprint, but last time I looked, they're the cheapest way to get a smartphone and a data plan without getting in on something like the deal I have.
 
They both just resell Sprint. Which should be OK. That means they'll roam on Verizon towers. That's not a bad thing.
 
Problem seems to be finding a phone that works with their setups that I would like.
Also, no tethering, apparently, at least not with Cricket.
 
I heard today that the iphone 4S is still 3G hardware, which would certainly explain the results I got. Also, our area isn't 4G, at least according to the local phone guy.

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