Brilliant! Just what I needed, thanks! If I'm wedded to anything in the
apple world, its unix and programming and command line. iTunes is just a
fairly reasonable interface to manage phone/pad/pod. I don't need it for
music/video/books etc, there are fine alternatives. Quite willing to give
it up and start really using my google ecology: calendar, mail, contacts
etc.
We have Vzn & TMo near to each other so I'm going to eliminate ATT, and
focus my Android attention on TMo as a carrier, and iPhone via Vzn with
their world-phone iPhone. I'd like to wait for a larger screen iPhone but
as for my 2G, Its Dead Jim! No worries. Glad to see we agree on TMo.
Damn I wish they had not gone the AWS route.
-- Owen
On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Chris Feola <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Owen,
>
> Glad to help. Short answer: Buy an iPhone.
>
> Longer answer: When people ask me what phone to buy, I ask one simple
> question: Are you married to iTunes? Do you have a playlist for every mood?
> Have you spent years getting it to work just right?
>
> If so, buy an iPhone. You will be massively unhappy otherwise. To a
> lesser extent, if you are married to the Apple ecosystem -- iCal and such
> -- this also applies. Modern smartphones are becoming the sharp point of
> your digital life; one that doesn't fit will drive you mad.
>
> If you are not married to the Apple ecosystem, then try out a few phones
> side by side and see what you like. Frankly, they are all "good enough." I
> find the current real differentiator to be the screens. Here, Android has
> the lead, and it is widening. (Sorry for the pun!) State of the art here is
> the new -- and for the moment, insane appearing -- Galaxy Nexus Prime, with
> a full HD 720 screen -- !! -- that's just over 4.6 inches. What appears to
> be happening here, btb, is that Apple is betting heavily on larger tablets,
> and Google is trying to find out if a phone can have a screen big enough --
> while the device remains small enough -- that you don't want a tablet.
>
> So, specific advice. It sounds like you are in the Apple eco-system. If
> so, buy an iPhone. If your 2 is dead dead, buy a 4s; its a very nice
> device. If your 2 can be coaxed through another year, wait for the iPhone
> 5. Rumor has it that this will be the last Jobs designed phone, and that it
> will finally have a bigger screen.
>
> If you are not married into the Apple eco-system, I would definitely
> give the dual core Android phones a look. My advice is to focus on either
> the HTC phones, or the Google Nexus line. The Nexus line are "Google
> Experience" phones; they get every Android release first. HTC is also good
> about this, and makes solid equipment. Take a look at the Sensation if for
> nothing else than the manufacturing: instead of a battery cover, the entire
> back is a single milled piece -- aluminum, IIRC -- that pops off the
> screen. You could drive nails with the thing, and its beautiful. (To be
> clear, Do Not Drive Nails With Your Phone.)
>
> Carriers:
> Verizon-Stupid expensive. Good service and coverage.
> ATT-Stupid expensive. Bad service and coverage
> Sprint-They suck so bad we won't use them
> T-Mobile-Great plans! We have multi-line T-Mobile plans that cost less
> than single lines on ATT and Verizon. Good data tiers. Great Android phone
> selection. Pretty easy to get the phones unlocked to swap out SIMs for
> international roaming. Alas, no iPhone.
>
> Hope I haven't overexplained as usual...
>
> cjf
> ------------------------------
> *From:* [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf
> of Owen Densmore [[email protected]]
> *Sent:* Monday, October 31, 2011 7:18 PM
>
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] [SUSPICIOUS EMAIL] Re: Android Choice
>
> Please keep firing questions as you think of them!
>
>
> God, what an offer! Thanks!
>
> History: I bought the initial iPhone 2G, first by trying ATT, which
> failed due to lack of coverage (and poor service reports) so I bought one
> on-line and use pwnage tool to jailbreak/unlock for TMo and european
> travel. It just died (after 4 years!). I rather like the iDevice ecology,
> having macbooks, macmini, ipad, ipod etc, and have an app that is not yet
> on android but has a poor replacement on android. I like that the apps
> span ipad/pod/phone too. I'm not a power user, but use phone, web, mail,
> music, apps, maps, angry birds, ... at least once a day, no more than an
> hour, I'd say.
>
> I like TMo quite a bit, but am willing to try Vzn, less so ATT .. they
> still have poor coverage where I live (Santa Fe). I find that the plans my
> friends have are impossibly expensive, > $90/mo, .. while I pay $58/mo.
> There are some interesting alternatives such as buy unlocked and use
> prepaid plans, but this mainly makes sense on GSM, which here means TMo.
> Even with Vzn, I would prefer a "world phone", thus GSM (Italy 1-2
> months/yr). Main negative for TMo is AWS rather than the more standard 3G
> etc, and would eliminate iPhone unless Edge was good enough, which I
> haven't found to be the case. I've looked at a lot of alternatives: MVNOs,
> WiFi "carriers", prepaid, Senior plans (I'm 69) and even cheaper phones +
> iPod.
>
> If I had my choice, I'd buy an unlocked iPhone, 4 or 4s, and use it on
> ... hmm, ATT, no, lousy coverage, TMo, no, uses non-compatible broadband.
> Well what's left?
>
> 1 - See if the Vzn iPhone 4s is OK, get the european SIM unlock, and see
> if I can avoid $90/mo bills.
>
> 2 - Suck it up, embrace android, and go with TMo. They seem to have OK
> phones. They have brilliant plans, both contract and pre-payed. And are
> way less than $90/mo. They've saved my skin more than once with problems
> traveling.
>
> 3 - Buy a prepaid GoPhone ATT SIM and try it on unlocked phone to see if
> coverage has improved. Then try ATT + iPhone and see if I can avoid $90/mo
> bills. I also prefer their more standard broadband, but not a big deal.
>
> That sounds like Pogue's great "I Want An IPhone" video, but I really am
> open to change. The difficulty is the "gotchas": plans that are really
> expensive, having duplicate apps for android and iOS (pad/pod/phone),
> phones that I don't trust (yet), mobility (I really find it hard to
> understand folks leaving europe out of their plans, but then...), batteries
> that die if I forget to turn off x,y,z and kill app a,b,c ... and billions
> of cellular issues that I don't really understand as well as I'd like (TMo
> about to die? Why do plans cost so much?, WTF w/ AWS?)
>
> So that's it! And I really thank you for your clear explanation of some
> of the android world that I didn't "get".
>
> -- Owen
>
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 4:12 PM, Chris Feola <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Hi Owen,
>>
>> Yes, Android phones are open. There are two paths for this:
>>
>> 1. Download updates yourself. Lots of places to do this, the best of
>> which is generally regarded to be CyanogenMod http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
>> 2. Wait for your manufacturer to stream you updates.
>> Plenty of good reasons to do both. The best manufacturers -- I like HTC
>> -- are consistently tweaking and adding features. CyanogenMod tends to be
>> faster to the big updates. Use what you like.
>> There has been some controversy about locked bootloaders, but everyone
>> has pretty much backed off of that now.
>>
>> As to battery life, I'm sorry if I was unclear. The Sensation is as
>> good or better for battery life when you use it the same way. But you
>> won't. If you keep that quarterHD screen lit for four hours non-stop
>> reading Heinlein on your Kindle app while streaming Pandora...yeah, you're
>> going to need to recharge. If you only flick the screen on when you hear a
>> text come in, not so much.
>>
>> Please keep firing questions as you think of them!
>>
>> cjf
>>
>
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