[ThaMaestro]

Opinions are like assholes, we all have one and they usually stink.

Looking to buy a new TV for your man cave...

Somehow got a virus on your porn computer...

PC or MAC...

Batman or Spiderman...

Does size really matter....... tires... we're talking tires here.


Get all the answers you're looking for from your fellow forumites and even a splash of reality and the female perspective from some of our testosterone challenged members would be appreciated.

[ThaMaestro]

I just bought an Iphone yesterday. I wanted a cool new toy so I could be down with everyone else.

My wife and I went to three different places and at first we settled on getting crackberries and then we went to the At&t store and played with the IPhone and all the cool little apps and stuff you can do with it. We got suckered in by the apple sexiness and got the phones. Take them home and start playing with them and realize that we can't send or receive picture messages. This really sucks! I have a phone through work that I'm fortunate I don't have to pay for, but it's just a phone. I hated all these new fangled phones at first with their cameras and MP3 players and such. I thought it was ridiculous. Then I started to get jealous of everyone who had all this cool stuff they could do with their phones and all the sudden wanted one.

I also felt left out when the funny pictures were being sent to everyone but me. There would be times where I'd see something and want to take a picture and send it to people. When playing with the IPhone in the store I just assumed that it did all that. I knew it didn't have video capabilities, but the salesman told me there was going to be an upgrade in a few months that would include the video capabilities, so I was sold.

After finding out about not be able to send and receive multimedia messages I've been considering taking the IPhone back and going with the blackberry curve (which isn't a 3G phone). Blackberry has an apps store now, but it's doesn't have anywhere near the apps that you can get with the IPhone. The IPhone seems like it's a great time killer, which is kinda one of the reasons I wanted one of these cool phones, but the lack of MMS is almost a deal breaker. There are apps that you can get to help, but it's still a bit of a pain.

So what's better IPhone or crackberries?

[Medz]

Wait for the Palm Pre coming in about a month, if you can switch over to Sprint. That phone is the sexiness. I've stayed away from the iPhone because I need a physical keyboard, and Blackberry is a little too business-oriented. Palm Pre is the perfect mix.

[Medz]

Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery

[hack]

I think, properly, it is ``le sexiness''.

[ThaMaestro]

My wife's phone is currently through Sprint with a month left on the contract. That's why we started shopping. We were going to get the blackberries through Sprint, but the IPhones package was about very close to the same amount with better service.

The lack of a keyboard was one of the reasons we shied away from the IPhone at first, but to be honest you get it down pretty fast. I'm sacred of the touch screen not holding up, though.

I like the size and shape of the Pre much more than the IPhone, which is very awkward.

Thanks Medz, I'm going to have to look into the Pre more.

[Medz]

The coolest function of the Pre is the webOS "synergy" interface. All the data for each contact is compiled on one "card" - and anytime that contact updates their data (via Facebook, Myspace, MSN, etc) it all gets updated over the web. No syncing required.

Another cool feature is that all your messages to that person - whether it's SMS, Email, IM, Facebook message - are stored together. You don't have to search through a hundred different programs to find the message you're looking for.

The biggest upgrade over the iPhone (besides the keyboard and screen resolution) is the fact that it can multitask applications. I rely on that a lot on my Windows Mobile phone, but that interface is slow and buggy. Palm Pre is supposed to be very quick and responsive. Everyone who has used one so far seems to love the phone.

I'm sure whoDean will disagree.

[Dave Bing]

My BlackBerry is El Macho Sensualidad.

[whoDean]

By the time the Pre comes out iPhone OS 3.0 will make it that much better. Palm's last gasp.

Maes, you can always just email photos you take on the iphone very easily for now, but the MMS capability is coming soon.

Medz you at least are off the Windoze mobile kick, so babysets my short legged friend.

[RugbyPike#11]

I have a Palm Centro and I fricking hate it. That being said, it runs the ancient Palm OS that's been around since punch cards. I'm very curious to check out the new phone. My contract with Sprint runs out at the end of the year and I'm definitely switching services. I get horrible reception in my condo in Florida.

[ThaMaestro]

Who are you sure that MMS is coming? Are you going to be able to send to people on any network?

The little bit of research (google search) I did on it was mostly from 2 years ago.

Yeah, I found a\out about the e-mail thing, but it seems like it's a bit of a pain. I think the wife is leaning towards the blackberry and upgrading to the Palm Pre on down the road.

[whoDean]

Cut and paste, MMS highlight iPhone 3.0 improvements | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld

Speaking of that messaging client, its name changes from SMS to Messages with iPhone 3.0. The name change is more than just cosmetic: it signals the arrival of support for MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service. This enables you to send and receive photos, contact information (using the vCard standard, which will automatically add it to your Contact list), audio files, and locations. The new Messages application not only supports MMS, but it can also forward and delete multiple messages as well as individual ones.

[King Mob]

I walked in to buy an Iphone last year and walked back out again. Primarily because I didn't want to pay $30+ a month for a plan that had fewer features than what I had with Sprint, but also because of the shortcomings of the phone itself.

The Pre looks amazing. Now I know what Apple fanboys must have felt waiting on the Iphone, because I'm on the net everyday looking for info on its release. Whodean, I'm curious to get you opinion on the actual phone and how it compares to the iphone.

Maes, I definitely recommend you guys checking out the Pre, if for no other reason than because your service will be cheaper than going with AT&T. That phone is teh sex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnlzbuLRwM

[King Mob]

If you've got 26 minutes to kill.

[whoDean]

Naw, the Pre looks OK, but the iPhone has the App Store behind it, there are so many awsesome applications and with the new OS 3.0 developers will be able to build even more amazing programs.

I do wish the iPhone apps worked in the background like the Pre's will be that will be a huge battery hog.

Plus, Sprint really really really sucks.

[King Mob]

I think Sprint's suckiness is vastly overrated, the plans are cheap and the service is good. I think they're fumbling this launch though, this thing should have been out already.

[whoDean]

The plans are cheap because they had to drop their prices, they have lost millions of subscribers over bad tech and bad cust. service.

[whoDean]

As far as Macs go, Consumer Reports recommended the Macbooks across the board, best of breed. Unheard of.

Consumer Reports Takes a Shine to Apple - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com

[RugbyPike#11]

Originally Posted by King Mob

I think Sprint's suckiness is vastly overrated, the plans are cheap and the service is good. I think they're fumbling this launch though, this thing should have been out already.

I don't have a land-line and my phone constantly drops calls in my house. I live in downtown Gainesville so it's not like I'm out in the sticks. I tried to get out of my plan because of this (as other providers will let you if you don't get service in your home) and they suggested I buy their device for $99 that allows me to make phone calls though my broadband, and then I would only need to pay $5 a month for this service. I told them to go f*** themselves, I still can't believe they wanted me to pay extra to have decent service in my own house.

[JMab]

I've got an iPhone (for home) and a Blackberry (for work). The iPhone is just better... by a long shot. It's got usability up the wazoo. The BlackBerry grimly lets you view emails and your calendar by cutting all the pizazz.

[hack]

What fucking bullshit, $100 to make calls on broadband? Use skype!

[Dave Bing]

Originally Posted by JMab

I've got an iPhone (for home) and a Blackberry (for work). The iPhone is just better... by a long shot. It's got usability up the wazoo. The BlackBerry grimly lets you view emails and your calendar by cutting all the pizazz.

Exactly, pretty boy. I realize that in your colorless outback, anything with blinking lights is a revelation. I saw the Gods Must be Crazy. That's you with an iPhone. BB is about function. Maybe when you guys have an industry other than manufacturing shark-tooth necklaces, you will understand.

[JMab]

Gods Must Be Crazy - that made me laugh. That movie is a classic.

Hackster, yes it is expensive, but when you've downloaded your 1000th free (as in piece of shit) app, you figure it's paid for itself.

Bing, here's one legitimate gripe with the BB. You ever open a spreadsheet on it? You ever tried to tab to another worksheet? I DON'T THINK YOU CAN DO IT! You can on the iPhone. Steve Jobs 1, Faceless Blackberry CEO 0.

[Dave Bing]

I hire people to look at spreadsheets.

[JMab]

Bourgeois capitalist pig

[Dave Bing]

I guess that I can't really call the iPhone expensive if I have to factor in hiring some ex-Chrysler exec to read my spreadsheets for me.

[Medz]

Bing, here's one legitimate gripe with the BB. You ever open a spreadsheet on it? You ever tried to tab to another worksheet? I DON'T THINK YOU CAN DO IT! You can on the iPhone. Steve Jobs 1, Faceless Blackberry CEO 0.

Have you ever tried opening more than one program on the iPhone? Oh wait - you CAN'T. How "smart" is your phone if you can't multitask? The iPhone is like a one handed juggler. Palm Pre is like Stephen Hawking compared to the iPhone's Paris Hiltonesque singlemindedness. And it has a nicer screen, so it's like Stephen Hawking's mind in Megan Fox's body. Now THAT'S a sextastic phone.

Steve Jobs 0, whoDean -1, Palm's testicularly fortified execs 1

[Dave Bing]

1994... the future seemed so bright. Watch through until the end and see if you can figure out what is going on.

[hack]

I like how the blackberry puts one's daily sked on the default screen. do the others do that?

[whoDean]

What apps do you want to run at the same time Medzie?

Multitasking sounds great but in theory very few would use it on a phone anyway and it would just kill battery life.

Push notifications coming to iphone OS 3 is a more practical solution.

http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50005512.html

[Medz]

This morning for example, on my lowly Touch Pro, I was running Pandora in the background for music, Excel to work on a spreadsheet I needed to finish before I got to work, and an IM client to communicate with people already in the office. That was on a 45 minute train commute, and I still have 95% battery life. I never drop below 20%, and that's if I don't plug in the phone until I get home at night, which is rarely the case.

Just because the functionality doesn't exist on the iPhone, you don't have to act like it's not important. It's ok to admit the phone has a few flaws. Set yourself free from the bonds of conformity, whodini.

[Dave Bing]

yeah... I never search the net, edit a document and call someone at the same time. who would ever need such a thing. But check out the i applications! Look! Kitties!

[King Mob]

Can the IPhone really not do two things at once? The only comment I've read about that was someone complaining that they couldn't listen to Pandora while the surfed the web. Let's say you're using the GPS directions and an email comes in. Would you have to quit out of navigation to read it?

[Medz]

The iPhone can only multitask its own programs. If it's Apple software, you can multitask - but if it's 3rd party, as soon as you exit out of the program it's shut down completely.

[King Mob]

I also read the Pre will have visual voicemail.

[King Mob]

Medz are you testing Windows 7, by the way? I'm putting it on my laptop now. Thoughts?

[Medz]

I only tested it for a while as a partition on my HTPC, but I really like what I see so far. It has all the functionality of Vista without the bloat. I've always stacked the PC's I build with RAM so the Vista issues haven't been as pronounced in my experience, but no OS should be taking up that much Virtual memory. Windows 7 is leaner, looks better, and it seems like they learned from the mistakes they made with Vista. Much less buggy, and that's without much support in terms of drivers yet. I've tended to stick with XP, but 7 might get me to make the jump - it's the real deal.

I'm interested to see how graphics cards will run once updated drivers are released specifically for 7. I think we'll see a pretty substantial boost in performance.

[ThaMaestro]

I think we are going to stick with the iphones. The biggest reason, because it's the easiest thing to do. The Pre looks awesome, but it doesn't seem like to much better than the IPhone once the new upgrade kicks in. We figured we'd wait to see how the Pre does and let them work out the bugs. plus, it's going to come out pretty pricey.

The family deal with the IPhone is much cheaper than I thought and was right in the same area as the Sprint blackberry plan we looked at.

The apps store helped put the IPhone over the top, too. Make fun of them all you want, there are some cool apps.

[hack]

battery power is a big consideration too. I have a purposefully small screen now, and I don't even travel with a charger. Every little piece out of the luggage helps. I guess I'm ready to sacrifice that for a little more functionality, but I still don't want to be charging the damn thing every other day.

[whoDean]

Rumor has it the next iteration of the iphone coming this summer will have an OLED screen, saving much battery juice, along with Apple's new battery tech should make for a nice bump in usable time before charging.

[hack]

durability is a big consideration too. I have a purposefully old phone now, and I don't even care if it drops. Goin on three years with this little tank-like Nokia. I guess I'm ready to sacrifice it for more functionality, but I still don't want to be worrying about it dropping.

[ThaMaestro]

Originally Posted by hack

durability is a big consideration too. I have a purposefully old phone now, and I don't even care if it drops. Goin on three years with this little tank-like Nokia. I guess I'm ready to sacrifice it for more functionality, but I still don't want to be worrying about it dropping.

That is big fear of mine. The IPhone seems very delicate. They have some covers you can get to protect it, but that only makes a big phone that much bigger. Apple doesn't allow you to buy insurance on your IPhone.

[Whisper]

Kwame should definitely stick with the Nokia.

[whoDean]

Originally Posted by ThaMaestro

That is big fear of mine. The IPhone seems very delicate. They have some covers you can get to protect it, but that only makes a big phone that much bigger. Apple doesn't allow you to buy insurance on your IPhone.

They might get dinged up but the screen especially is very hard and durable, you'll have a hard time doing any actual damage to it.

[hack]

Are you sure it's not very, very hard and very, very durable?

[whoDean]

I am sure you are very very annoying.

Maes, I don't even use a case, the chrome bezel catches dings pretty easily but otherwise the phone isn't very fragile.

[ThaMaestro]

It doesn't feel all that formidable. My mortorola I670 I drop all the time and have no fear if any damage. I'm nervous to set the IPhone down to hard.

It's a pretty badass phone, though.

[whoDean]

Maes, Here are some apps I use all the time and recommend.

Easy Relax plays soothing nature sounds
Remote lets you control iTunes on your computer over the WiFi network
Simplify Media lets you stream your iTunes library to your phone, anywhere, it gives me access to my entire 100GB+ library on the road or in the office.
MLB At Bat for baseball gamecasts and streamed live audio of the games
Evernote lets you keep notes on the phone that sync with the desktop version of Evernote
Pandora for music
Facebook
1Password keeps all of my passwords up to date
Weather Channel
Sportacular is a good program for sports scores and news
Bloomberg app has the best financial/business news and market updates
Yelp and Urbanspoon are good for restaurant reviews
OpenTable-you can make restaurant reservations right on the phone
Google-there is voice reconigition for web searches
Wikipanion is a great Wiki app for reference
Air Sharing lets you send files to the iPhone from a windows or mac machine
Google Reader for my RSS feeds
Wolfgang's vault has recordings of historic live shows that stream to the phone
Yodlee for personal finance
Delta airlines app lets you book and make changes to your itineraries
IMDB for IMDB lookups
Food network for recipes
Dog Whistle
Fandango for buying movie tickets
i.TV is like a TV guide and it also has some streaming TV shows to watch
Kindle for eBook reading
last.fm for music
linked in has an app
Wall Street Journal for news
Paypal has an app
RepairPal has a searchable database for auto repair
Shazam-you hold your phone up to some music that is playing and shazam tells you who the singer and song is
Taxi Magic-you can book a taxi but it also shows you GPS right from the cab so you know when your ride will reach you
Skype for internet phone calls over wifi
iBird-I'm a little bit of a birdwatcher-this app identifies birds and can also play their song
twitterFon is the best twitter client

On and on, there are so many awesome apps.

[ThaMaestro]

Thanks! The apps are a bit overwhelming to search through.

[JMab]

I'll concede the battery life problem with the iPhone, it is truly atrocious compared to other 3G phones.

I've had the phone about 8 months now and the glass on the front is getting a bit scratched, but it's still OK. I couldn't be bothered getting a cover.