The Watering Hole

I just talked to Dave, and his phone sounded good.  Of course, so did mine, and it was an iPhone on AT&T...  I am good friends with one of the product managers from the iPhone who went to Palm and product-managed on the Pre... he talked my ear off about how great it was, and I demoed it a number of times... very, very nice features on that thing.  If Palm had launched the Pre on Verizon, I think it would have been massive.  

Does the Palm Pre have Windows mobile 6.5? Honestly curious....as we have several new phones with the new windows mobile 6.5. HUGE improvement over windows mobile 6.1. Windows got serious and totally redesigned the software. HTC has jumped all over this and produced several really nice new 6.5 windows devices that are pretty impressive. Samsung has just launched one as well.
I'm with Charger tho....Verizon could have done well with the Palm Pre. Palm builds solid phones. Yet right now we have no Palm phones. I hope that gets fixed :)

Regarding Sprint.....they have had some tough times over the last 2 years. Lost more customers than they have gained. In the industry we call that 'bleeding'. But I have to say, their leadership is solid. They have been working on getting better devices, and at the same time offering pretty much the best rates in the industry. Dave's case in point.

And because of that I think Sprint will bounce back. I have to respect them as a company and a competitor for doing what they are doing. And getting signals in a submarine??? That needs to be in a commercial. Seriously.

But back to the iphone thingy.....I'm curious as to how you talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time?? Do you really do that? The recent AT&T adds have pushed that. But I myself have never tried that. Nor have I ever had a reason to try that. So I'm trying to understand why they are pushing that so hard. I talk on my phone. Then I use my phone to gather info. Then I text or email whatever. or call back. And that is in the 1 in 6 month case where I need to actually do all of that.
I'm curious.....so I'm gonna try out the Droid doing this tomorrow. The phone does everything I've tried so far, so I'll get back to you guys to see how it fares with this excercise.

Wow, you mean you've never been on the phone with someone who says something like "Yeah, well Ohio State gained 609 yards against Notre Dame!" so, you call bullshit and need a browser to Google to proove them wrong?

Honestly...no. Don't give a shit about Notre Dame or Ohio State ;D  But I do get your point...and that could be useful for on the spot info. I myself do a LOT of texting and emailing. Much more so than calling. So I myself wouldn't gain much from being able to do that.
If you have peeps that you have to call out...then there ya go  :P

watch that kind of talk!   ;D

Johnny — Dec 05, 2009But back to the iphone thingy.....I'm curious as to how you talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time?? Do you really do that? The recent AT&T adds have pushed that. But I myself have never tried that. Nor have I ever had a reason to try that. So I'm trying to understand why they are pushing that so hard. I talk on my phone. Then I use my phone to gather info. Then I text or email whatever. or call back. And that is in the 1 in 6 month case where I need to actually do all of that.
I'm curious.....so I'm gonna try out the Droid doing this tomorrow. The phone does everything I've tried so far, so I'll get back to you guys to see how it fares with this excercise.

It's actually a limitation of the Verizon network, CDMA, vs. GSM for most other networks, so no phone on Verizon is going to do it.

I actually use it all the time... I read and reply to emails while I am on a conference call.  If I'm talking on the phone, I will open my calendar to look something up, look up a restaurant, or open maps and tell someone how to get somewhere.  I can send a text message at the same time I am talking, so if someone asks me to send them a photo of something we're talking about, I can do that either with a text or with en email.  I guess when I got the iPhone I just thought that was the way all smartphones worked, since it was my first smartphone.

Charger is correct. But...this will work with Wifi capable phones. We have the Blackberry Tour and Storm2, the Droid, and the Omnia2  that all have wifi capability. Hook up to internet on Wifi, and talk on the cdma line.

Yes it's a work-around. But it does work if you need it.

Just learned of this little tidbit today...kinda cool;;
http://www.mobilemag.com/2009/12/09/motorola-droid-wins-time-magazine-gadget-of-the-year/

Didn't know this till now....

http://www.mobilemag.com/2009/11/11/motorola-droid-does-qik-at-720x480-resolution/

Johnny — Dec 10, 2009Charger is correct. But...this will work with Wifi capable phones. We have the Blackberry Tour and Storm2, the Droid, and the Omnia2  that all have wifi capability. Hook up to internet on Wifi, and talk on the cdma line.

Yes it's a work-around. But it does work if you need it.

Only if you happen to be stationary on a wifi network.  That's me when I'm at home, at work, or at a coffee shop that has wifi.  95% of the time when I'm on my phone and want to use an app, I am not in any of those places or on wifi.  The whole point of the phone is that you can do shit on the phone connection--otherwise getting a call anywhere becomes less relevant.  At least to those who use it for apps and mail and such.

Good point! For the type of user that Charger just pointed out (himself in that case), the iPhone is the best choice. Like I said before, I myself have an iPod touch and love it.

There are advantages to GSM and there advantages to CDMA. GSM allows the phone to web surf and take calls. CDMA makes 'soft' handoffs when switching between towers. Meaning...3 towers have your cell phone. One you are on, one in transition, and one you are traveling toward. When the signal is lost from the one you were on, you are still attached to 2 towers. Then the one (for lack of a better term) in the middle hands the signal off to the tower you are traveling toward.
GSM is a 'hard' handoff. Meaning it just switches from one tower to another. And is the proven factoid reason thingy why calls get dropped for folks on GSM towers WAY more than folks on CDMA towers.

You guys had some good questions, so I spent some time with our regional Data guru. Who...BTW....came to us from AT&T. So what I just said came from a guy who worked for AT&T for 12 years. If you want to debate him I'll get you his email address.

Long story short...Verizon is going for solid connection. They spend 6 Billion dollars per year alone on the network. True story. And we do sell Mifi cards to iPhone users. Another true factoid. So iPhone users can get 3G service where AT&T does not. It is in a regionally weekly report we get. Numbers do not lie. Even Charger can appreciate that :)

And then there is the Droid. Apple no longer makes the only phone that does everything.... :)

I am not questioning the solidity of Verizon's network.  I meet people all the time who swear by it.  And yes, there is a hard handoff between cell towers on GSM--however, GSM is the cell system used by the majority of the world's cell phones, and it seems to work fine.  I drive 30+ miles on my commute over a mountain road from the coast to the silicon valley, and I have never lost a call since I've had the iphone.

I am not arguing who has better coverage.  Just stating what I've observed, and that for what I use my phone for, I am totally happy with AT&T and the iphone.

I'm very happy with the Iphone. However, AT@T, doesn't come close to Verizon as far as coverage goes with consideration to dropped calls. I should know, I travel 7 southern states. Maybe it's better futher north, I have no idea.