The Watering Hole

I have been a Blackberry user for a long time.  It has served me pretty well for the last 2-3 years now.  It is time to get a newer version though as this is pretty dated.  I am thinking that I may go with the Motorola Droid X or the iPhone (4G?) maybe.  I tend to like the X feature set (memory, net, video and camera) but our iTunes account seems more user friendly to the iPhone.  Does anyone know if the iTunes account can work with the X?

iPhone.  They are great devices, and great phones.  I still love my 3G and I've been using it for almost three years.

I do like that it is more fully integrated with several aspects of our life already (like iTunes).  The issue is that iTunes does not integrate well with other things.  But my wife is very committed to her iPod so that is not going to change.  

We're all going towards Droid X's or Incredibles.  Mechanical and Electrical Engineers don't use any of the artsy-fartsy features that make the iPhone special (applies to ALL Apple stuff).  Of course, artistic and design people wouldn't want to be seen with a non-Apple device so it all works out in the end.

[Edited to narrow things down - apparently there are SOME type of engineers or people that call themselves such that have iPhones.]

I don't know, we've got at least 20 engineers in my office who use iPhones, and well over a hundred in the company, last time I checked the list.  That's kind of a ridiculous blanket statement.

The iphone is artsy fartsy :)

The only thing I don't like about the iphone is the authoritarian closed box proprietary nature of it

e.g. it will not play adobe flash which screws viewing content on news sites on the run or play ogg files.

charger — Feb 24, 2011I don't know, we've got at least 20 engineers in my office who use iPhones, and well over a hundred in the company, last time I checked the list.  That's kind of a ridiculous blanket statement.

Um, NOT.  Though I did edit my post to qualify things better.

I've also learned that ANYTHING that happens in California should not be considered indicative of the rest of the world.

Hehe - you just gave me a flashback - I remember the North West states vs California thing in Seattle.

Half the US people I worked with seemed to be ex californian or east coast origin though.

There was this western staged advert on tv which involved a cowboy posse intercepting a stage coach full of californians.
Good advert - old west meets valley girl.

Well, I did not catch the web browser limits in the iPhone.  The non-flash part is a deal killer for me (iPhone).  I also really like HDMI out to play the video of the X on the home system pretty easily.  I may have to just live without iTunes!

My business partner plays tunes on his HTC Incredible - just not using iTunes.  I'm STILL using my six-year old flip-phone so I can't say much about the Droid X until I have one.

CraigBert — Feb 24, 2011[quote author=charger link=1298568706/0#4 date=1298583883]I don't know, we've got at least 20 engineers in my office who use iPhones, and well over a hundred in the company, last time I checked the list.  That's kind of a ridiculous blanket statement.

Um, NOT.  Though I did edit my post to qualify things better.

I've also learned that ANYTHING that happens in California should not be considered indicative of the rest of the world.

The vast majority of my company's employees are in Seattle.  I think that's in your state.

Your blanket statement is still ridiculous.  How many electrical and mechanical engineers do you work with?  You have your finger on the pulse of that entire community?  Amazing.  I guess you'll be my go-to guy for questions about what mechanical engineers and electrical engineers are thinking.  

Flash on Android, in my experience, sucks ass.   When I was developing my help for Android 2.2 I noticed it was a serious suckfest.  This video seems to verify that experience.

http://gigaom.com/video/video-flash-on-android-is-startlingly-bad/

My cell phone only does Voice phone to phone, I have everything else turned off, no texting, no internet. Voice mail and call waiting arwe the only other features I have on it. It is a simple flip phone. The battery last 5 to 6 days on all the time and if I talk am lot on it it still lasts 3 days. I like it.

My friend has a Samsung Epic 4G from Sprint and it's a pretty awesome piece of machinery - phones shouldn't download things that quickly... ;)

Since you're used to BlackBerry, why not try the Torch? I have a few friends who have them and really love them.

I have an iPhone 4 and I really like it. It just works...which is always appreciated. I had an iPhone 3G for a few years and loved it.

I'm not an engineer, though...I'm more of an artsy-fartsy creative type (radio production director - just changed jobs)
Tripper

I did not think I would like the BB when I picked one up.  I had killed my more traditional phone, and the cost for hte special they were running on the BB was cheaper then other options.  Once I started using it I began to like it.  Web is OK, but not very good in general.  My university has made a conscious decision to not support BB.  Why?  Just because as near as I can tell.  The GPS is nice at times when I am traveling. This means web based access to the U email which does not work at all on the BB browser and only OK with an older version of Opra mini.  I like the portable camera as well. The X video and camera (once settings are tweaked) are pretty decent (for a phone).  There a number of nice apps and GPS has more options than BB with my carrier.  The iPhone has some nice guitar player styled apps and integrates pretty seamless with iTunes. I have used Pandora for a while now with the BB and while not personal is decent.  I  I do not think the iPhone deals well with PDF's if I follow that discussion correctly, and does not deal as well with the web.  The OS for the X (droids) to 2.2 is due in a few months and is supposed to improve the web more. The iPhone is not supposed to change in that regard in the foreseeable future. The things I use ...

Web
email access
Camera
Video
GPS
Accessing MS Office files (Excel and Word mainly)
music player
BN nook reader/account

Things I would more if I found them of interest ...

Games (to kill time waiting - keep kids busy when waiting)
Apps for guitar

Web
email access
Camera
Video
GPS
Accessing MS Office files (Excel and Word mainly)
music player
BN nook reader/account

Things I would more if I found them of interest ...

Games (to kill time waiting - keep kids busy when waiting)
Apps for guitar

All things the iPhone does brilliantly... the camera on the iPhone 4, in particular, is brilliant. I read ms office files, pdf files, etc, no problem. I am not sure about the bn nook reader... I use ibooks and the Kindle app, but both work well.  And the games are awesome.

For guitar, I have a good stereo recorder and a blue mikey microphone that work really well.  I use the iPhone now as my primary tuner. On the iPad, i've got the RealBook app, which is killer.  And I;ve got some other nice apps for guitar... I find it pretty much indispensable on gigs.

Android 2.2 is out now... I've been developing documentation for some apps that use it.  2.3 is coming, but supposedly Google have targeted 2.3 as a bunch of minor fixes and decided to focus on 2.4, down the road. Android is a decent OS, but there are certain things about Android in general that I can not get past.  I think the most brilliant move apple made was to completely forgo all buttons except one... by limiting themselves in that way, they made the device far more usable and forced people to think about usability and integrate it...  As far as what is coming in iOS, Apple never tells much of anything so it's not surprising that you haven't hard anything about it.  I jam weekly with a project manager on the iPhone team, and he never tells me shit.

doc — Feb 26, 2011Web

With the exception of no Flash support, the browser on the iPhone is fantastic. LOVE the web on iOS.

email access

Has really gotten better with every new update to iOS. It's quick and works great for my purposes. Not sure what you need to do with it, but it's easy to set up accounts and it's compatible with pretty much everything (including Microsoft Exchange)

Camera

Works great on iPhone 4. Older cameras were not as good. Camera on my buddy's Epic 4G is awesome, too.

Video

IPhone 4 takes great video.

GPS

Built-in Google Maps app is awesome. MANY GPS apps available for it. Android phones have apps like this, too.

Accessing MS Office files (Excel and Word mainly)

So far I haven't had to do this. No comment. :)

music player

iPhone 4 is best in the biz, IMO. It's an iPod. Plus you can join Rhapsody for $10/month and download anything in their library directly to your phone and listen to it even when you can't stream it. You don't even have to buy it. Has other great apps for music/radio stuff like Pandora and iHeartRadio, too.

BN nook reader/account

Don't know that it's supported...but it might be. You can probably get an app that will do it.

Things I would more if I found them of interest ...

Games (to kill time waiting - keep kids busy when waiting)

A RIDICULOUS amount of games are available in the App store, most really cheap, many absolutely free!

Apps for guitar

Like Charger, my iPhone has become my tuner - I have the TC Electronic PolyTune app on there. Works great! Plenty of other awesome apps for music stuff, too. No other mobile platform can compete with iOS on this right now, actually.

Tripper

IP4 is best in the world at playing music? Really? Sound quality wise?

Everything Ipod I've read is negative on sound quality. The one thing that matters about a player. I have the 3gs phone with ipod, I returned a ipod about a year ago..what's the deal? Do you really think they sound good? With headphones or through a sound system of some sort?

From listening to Bose headphones, for example, I can see why a typical consumer would like them. But if you compare the Bose to say, a Grado sr80i, would that consumer feel the same? Probable not. Especially since the headphone is half the price AND sounds better.

IMO, the best an Ipod can sound is with a pair of Bose OE headphones on the treble booster eq setting. That isn't saying much.

It appears that my struggle to decide is a common one!  :-/  These things are getting better overall and the competition appears tight.  It is good to know really as it means that both are pretty comparable and I will not make a terrible decision no matter what.  This is somewhat comforting.  :)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-iphone-ipod-touch/379002320/

Easy to answer.  My guess is that most apps are available on the iPhone, if they are available on other platforms.  I use PoilyTune too... every time I pull out my iPhone and start tuning all 6 strings (or 4 for bass) at once, everyone who hasn't seen the app flips out.

I just don't think you can beat an iphone. Very easy layout and really easy to use. It's actually user friendly, believe it or not. Just don't get at@t. Unless you don't travel and have a full signal in your town. The amount of dropped calls will make you pissed as hell. Or it does me, anyway.

I am a love-hate VZ user.  They have the iPhone 4 now.  It is about the same price as the X.  I am not finding much on what is available on the iPhone 4 for GPS systems though.  The voice kind, providing the "turn right at exit 84" sorta thing - not maps.