[dbutenhof]

Verizon is definitely king in our area; yet there are still plenty of places where I get better reception on my iPhone than with our previous Verizon phones. Of course there are all sorts of factors; clearly the iPhone has better reception than the cheap and simple Samsung I unfortunately chose for my wife when I switched to AT&T. It may well also have better reception than the Verizon Treo I'd used previously, which would inevitably skew any real comparison.
Still, I've been places where I'm happily doing web searches on my iPhone while a number of Verizon customers on a variety of phones are racing around trying to find a single bar for a voice connection. I get a better connection, with fewer bars, on my iPhone than on my Treo; for example in common problem areas like the back of large stores where I frequently shop... and that makes a real difference to me. I've never had the iPhone drop a call on me -- something that happened frequently on the Treo. (Not to mention that the Treo crashed trying to answer calls fairly often; and judging from what I've heard I had one of the good ones.)
None of this is a scientific sample or proof of anything... any more than the frequent and loud opposite opinions we see expressed. It's all going to depend on where you are, and against what you're making comparisons. If something else works better for you, great; don't move or switch phones. But don't try to pass off your subjective experiences as objective and universal fact, either... you should know better.

[wase]

good points here..

I REALLY wanted to love my Iphone, and for 8 months put up with the horrible phone issues in the SW suburbs of Chicago...

And, Even though I like my BB Storm alot, since I am an all Mac Household, it is pretty incredible how there is absolutely no support for mac from RIM in any way, shape, or form...The missing sync works ok, most of the time, but its hard to believe that RIM doesn't have a REAL Desktop Manager for Mac...

I borrowed my sisters Laptop today, so I could install some better firmware on My Verizon Storm, since they do not offer any way to update firmware via a software program, except OTA, and, their "latest" firmware is about 100 versions BEHIND what is available out on the web..

The rest of the world is so far ahead of us in the wireless arena, its not even funny..

Here's hoping the IPhone gets another vendor soon besides ATT in America!!!

[techwild2008]

As far as Mac sync is concerned, BlackBerry does offer a solution if you know where to look. Head over to this link from RIM. or drop by PocketMac itself--it's free. Granted, it's not insanely great stuff, but it is usable stuff. I'd much rather have it than mess with Palm's horrendously out-of-date software.

[neil74]

With the exception of web browsing I can do everything on my bold quicker, it will be intersting to see how well Iphone 3 works.

The BB OS is not perfect but as I said no way I'd swap my bold for the iphone.

Oh and pocketmac syncs just fine on mac, it's free and works well for me.

[metalhaze]

I don't feel that YOU HAVE adequately investigated the iPhone.

I bought the phone on DAY ONE and paid 600 dollars for it. So when I talk, you should listen. Because I actually know what I am talking about.

1. If you can't get more than a day and a half of battery life with your iPhone, then I feel sorry for you. You are obviously horrible at managing your battery life. If you are so concerned about battery life, you think you would have researched how to improve it. 1. Shut off Wi-Fi (stop being so damn lazy. Wi-Fi is the biggest battery suck on the phone) 2. Shut off Bluetooth if you don't need it 3. Change the sleep timer for your screen to a much shorter time so that if you forget to put it in sleep, the screen doesn't sit there for 5 minutes killing battery life. With light usage I have gone as long as a week (5 days) on one charge. I chalk up your results to user error and lack of understanding.

2. There were also a TON more features of the iPhone that weren't mentioned. But we all have lives and don't want to be reading a 100 page blog article for an hour about meaningless crap no one cares about. The reviewer chose the biggest features and focused on them

3. Google Maps with a trackball is horrible. Are you serious? And unlike the Blackberry, the iPhone comes out of the box WITH A GOOGLE MAPS APP PRE-INSTALLED. Which makes it native software. You can't compare that to opening shitty IE and navigating to Google Maps. While you are loading up IE, I am already getting directions....

4. I don't even know what a dropped call is. Never had one. And I have been in the middle of nowhere on a lake while on vacation in Maine and I was the only person of the 15 people i was with that had reception. And all those people had VZ.

5. Email search capabilities are coming to the new iPhone firmware 3.0 that is being released in a couple of weeks. Which makes your argument null and void.

[wase]

I would pay money to see you get 5 days out of one charge on an iphone...

and, what good is having features like wifi and bluetooth if you have to TURN THEM OFF so you can get more than 8 hours use on your phone?

who buys a device to have "light useage"? if you have to utilize "light useage" to get more than a day out of the battery, then why bother spending 600 bucks on something like that?

Glad you have never had a dropped call, and as has been well documented ALL OVER the internet, ATT wireless service ranges from good to miserable, and, in several major metro areas, it just totally sucks. Not that Verizon is the best of the best, but I guess depending on where you live, you will soon find out what carrier delivers the best service for you.

As far as the 3.0 firmware being the answer to all the Iphone shortcomings, time will tell, but version 2.0 or 2.1 or 2.2 didn't fix alot of the Iphones problems, so the jury is still out on 3.0

Maybe one of their "new" phones will fix alot of the miserable problems that many many Iphone users have had to endure...

Just remember, there is till NO PERFECT hand held device in the marketplace, so the one you end up choosing probably has the least amount of things that annoy YOU; every person cares about different things, when it comes to these devices..

[Mach1_8]

A ton more features? Like MMS, video recording, stereo bluetooth, task management (that syncs with iCal) and cut and paste? The iPhone is very nice in many areas, but basic smartphone (or any phone for that matter!) features is not one of them. And please...Google Maps as a native app versus having to be installed? Come on...you're going to have to do better than that.

[wase]

I LOVE my Stereo Bluetooth, MMS, and Video Recording on my BB Storm..Oh, yeah, and did I mention cut and paste EVERYWHERE?

And, I didn't even have to Jailbreak it to get it to do all that!

[metalhaze]

Please read this and come back to me when you are done:

http://gizmodo.com/5...e-30-beta-3-now

Pretty much everything you are complaining about is being fixed. Just a couple more weeks now....

Also, keep in mind the lifespan of RIM in the cellphone industry and Apple's lifespan. You better damn well hope Blackberry has all these features with the amount of time they been making phones.

I am sure apple wanted to perfect their own versions of these features but what was more important was getting their phone on their market. So they chose timing and making money over putting in a bunch of features. Because guess what? They can just add them later! Which is what they are doing.

[metalhaze]

Dammit wrong link....let me find the right one...

[metalhaze]

Here is the correct link.

Go through this article:

http://i.gizmodo.com...ou-need-to-know

[wase]

thanks for the gizmodo link; I have read that article before..

Listen, I loved my Iphone, and my wife, who doesn't care about how the PHONE part of it works, loves hers..

But, I need a business tool first and foremost, and dropping calls on ATT's lousy network in Chicagoland, and having to jailbreak my phone to get alot of the features important to me to "sort of" work, was the final straw..
REAL PUSH EMAIL on every email account on my BB Storm is important to me as well....my email comes to my BB before I get it on my computer, and my computer is set to check email every minute!!

I hope the new phones and firmware actually do everything they promise, but, I need REAL FEATURES NOW...and, I am not convinced that any firmware or hardware fixes will make the ATT wireless network as good as Verizons, at least in chicagoland..

[metalhaze]

Yah haven't really been pushed to use the iPhone as a business phone as my job doesn't required me to travel or do work through my cellphone

I am sure if I was met with the challenges of using the phone from a strictly business perspective, I would agree with you that iPhone fails in some areas.

Which is why you mentioned earlier (let me horribly paraphrase) "what works for you is the phone you should get"

And the iPhone works for me and does everything I need it to. It sounds like the same can't be said for what you use the phone for.

All I am saying is, don't completely discount a phone based on missing features it's going to have in a couple weeks. I agree, you do need those features NOW....and I can honestly say there were some things I HATED when I first got the iPhone. You are spoiled if you have only had the iPhone for 6 months! Oh the torture I have been through as an early adopter...

There are alot of features on the phone now that were never there and it pains me to say it, but the iPhone was really horribly gimped when it first came out. But the things it DID DO it did them beautifully. Hell, visual voicemail is almost enough reason for me to justify the purchase (well that and the amazing web browser)

But I saw it as an investment. I knew how the OS worked and how it was easily upgradable through firmware updates. So I stuck with it. It keeps getting better and better as time goes on. The phone has more value than the day that I bought it. You can't say that about alot of technology you buy nowadays.

[ulfoaf]

The big complaints on using the iPhone for business situations is:

Can't search email

Can't attach files

No cut and paste!

Can't send out meeting invitations

No general file storage area. This can be worked around with Mobile Me or similar services .. there are several.

The first 3 are very legitimate complaints. They will be fixed soon, but they ain't here yet. I'm not too sure about the last, as I don't use mine for business. My boss does, and was very dissappointed with these limitations.