Just came across TryPhone a site that offers web based interactive interfaces for a wide range of mobile phones. Seems a great way to see the features.
And in the spirit of good embed-ness, you can put any of this in a web page. So before I do this, my own backl story. I have always been years behind in the latest phone tech. I use mine mainly for… calls, plus some photo/upload to flickr and a few posts to twitter. I am definitely a phone lagger.
But believe me, after trying an iphone in the Apple Store last August in Chicago, the tempation has been hard to ignore. You want one, admit it. I want one, I admit it.
So with some shame I mus admit that when offered to get a work paid iphone… I actually turned it down (for now). Why? Well, my previous one just died, and to get something new, I got sucked into the scam US providers do (lock us in) to a new 2 year contract for a new Razr phone (which I like, BTW). But I would have coughed up the surrender fee in a heartbeat if it were not for…. AT&T.
As a sole provider, you have no choice but cover your distaste and smile when you sign on their dotted line. But because I spend a lot of time in the Rim country north of Phoenix, access is key. And AT&T’s coverage sucks royally up there. The best signal we can get is by going outside to the end of the driveway and leaning to the south east. For a bar or two. My phone from Alltel comes in with a strong signal anywhere in town up there. And my new wireless mobile card from Alltel provides back up internet.
So I am opting to wait for the iPhone. Some to see if the choices for provider change or if AT&T actually does something to boost their signals. Heck, I know where on top of the rim the towers are. I can see them line of sight from my house. But I also think it might be wise to wait for a next-er version, one that may be 3G?
So until then, for my, TryPhone provides my own iPhone to play with and lust over.
Yes. AT&T’s coverage sucks, and not just in rural or mountainous areas. When they were my cell provider, I could not keep enough bars to prevent a call from dropping in my own home, at 7th Street and Camelback – about as urban a spot as you can get. I also couldn’t get good signal on the Phoenix College campus downtown, or the Scottsdale Community College campus. Not to mention at my mom’s rural home in central Arizona. And my experience dealing with AT&T’s customer service? Not good. Essentially I needed to look up my issues on the web and see how many other people were having them so that I’d have ammo in the form of links and information when they tried to tell me no one else had the same problem.
As much as I want an iPhone, it needs two more things before I’ll plunk down that kind of money: a video recording feature, and either better coverage or a different provider.
I recently got an iPod Touch. There are some.. err.. tweaks you can do to them (so I’ve heard) so that they funtion just like an iPhone without the phone part. I’ve umm.. heard .. that they’re really neat and that it’s really easy to do.
I like the wifi capability of the Touch. I didn’t think I”d actually use it that much, but now I can sit anywhere in my house and spend hours on YouTube because it’s built in. I had never spent hours on YouTube before.
Actually one of the neatest things I found with it was using Orb and some other program so that I can listen to Sirius satellite radio over the wifi on the iPod. I pay for a subscription, and lugging the radio around the house was bothersome.
Amen to that. I want an iPhone so bad I can taste it. However, in the mountainous areas where I live and travel (Mountain Laurels don’t do so well in flat areas), AT&T is roaming when it comes in at all.
I’d join you in asking Apple to allow different options. AT&T is a deal-breaker for me.
I’d get an iPhone — if it wasn’t with AT&T. Up here, in the mountains, AT&T sucks. Verizon is really the only service that works well up here. So that’s who I go with.