Smartphone suggestions

My wife loves her Blackberry. Atleast until she gets work e-mails at 10:00 or 11:00 at night.

 

Honestly, I think there are only 2 choices. BlackBerry or iPhone.

I used to work in User Interface Design, hence when I pick gadgets or cell phones, I evaluate them on usability first, and practicality second. Hence I am on my second BlackBerry in several years. The only reason I got the second one was because I was changing networks.

I had several friends and CWs who had the treos and I would always make fun of how difficult it was to do things with that "phone".

I am also a Mac user (when I am not forced by work to use UNIX or Windows), and I like what I see with the new iPhone. I think I'll get one when my current contract runs out in about a year.

The cool thing about BlackBerry is that I can do most things with one hand, and they are all very intuitive. I have the older 9300 models but I am sure you can find a model that will fit your needs.

 

I have been using Blackberries for many, many years and I think they are great devices. None of the ones I have owned have ever had a camera. I used to use the Cingular/AT&T network and over the past 2 years or so have been using the Sprint (which now own Nextel) network. The Sprint data network is the best I have used with their EVDO technology. Verizon uses the same technology so theirs should be the same speed, although I have heard issues with their definition of the term "Unlimited" as it relates to their data plan. They seem to have set some limit on how much data you can send/receive. Using applications like google maps, the web, email attachments, etc. on a Blackberry can consume some bandwidth. Sprint doesn't seem to have an internal definition of what "unlimited data" means. The coverage has also been much better than ATT/Cingular.

On the other side of the coin my wife just switched from a TMobile Sidekick to an iPhone. This is a completely different beast than a Blackberry, a really nice consumer device, decent phone, great voicemail, great ipod, great video, great internet, crappy keyboard until you get used to it. She really likes it and it has some wow factor. You cannot email while you drive as there are no "real" buttons. The network is much better than the TMobile network but AT&T Edge isn't nearly as fast as EVDO on Sprint. But when you are near WiFi you can use that and get way faster than any cell network. Very nice device which I am sure will get better with software updates.

 

Did y'all hear about the iPhone hacks?

There's some serious security issues there. Like total compromise and control of the device issues.

 

They are proof of concept, nothing in the wild. I am sure there will be a patch soon. Sounds fairly minor:

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According to the site, in their proof of concept, the exploit can read the log of SMS messages, address book, call history, voicemail data and transmit it to the malicious site.

The principal security analyst admits "It's not the end of the world; it's not the end of the iPhone" and it appears it hasn't changed their enjoyment of the iPhone itself. Even the security firm's founder states that while he may more cautious about using a random public WiFi network, "you'd have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get [the iPhone] away from me."
--------End quoted text---------------

Funny how this gets so much press when I go to work on my friends Windows XP box that he hasn't updated in a while and the first batch of critical updates is 75 files, then after that loads I have to do 15 more and then there were a few in a third round. Windows has multiple critical holes every month and it doesn't make the news. But create a new product and release a 1.0 version and find a vulnerability and it is like the world ended. If a device is a computer and it is connected to a network then there is a vulnerability. When Bluetooth came out people could grab your address book and other things from over 100 yards away, still didn't make Fox News like the iphone did today.

 

Had real good luck with an E815

 

So, I assume you never use a Windows PC? Cause you know that's an on going issue with millions of them being remotely used to relay spam or denial of service attacks without the owners even knowing about it.

When I read the iPhone hack articles, I was thinking "Fear Mongoring" and "Hype journalism" the whole time. It sells stories, but that's all it does.

 

It also provides FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) so people may hold off and purchase something else.

 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

All I want now in a cell phone is the one with BIG buttons. I am feeling RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRealy old now.
We need an emoticon with a cane........................

 

My PC is secured.

Just because some Windows computers (and guns) are used irresponsibly and unsecured, does not mean that my PC (or my gun) are used in such a manner.

 

+1

 

Re: WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the phone for you http://jitterbug.com/[/url]

 

Re: WOW!!!!!!!!!!

You should have seen the look on our IT departments face when I told them I had to have another computer because I couldn't find the geriatric font in the font menu.

 

I use the Cingular 8525 and I'm quite happy.

 

Not sure about smartphones, but for PDAs, you can't go wrong here:

 

Well, your first problem is you got a 700W.

Windoze has problems on real computers...I'd never trust it on a phone.

I have the Treo 700p, which is the Palm version of the phone, and love it. Never had a single problem yet.

 

That's exactly what I hate about Verizon. The customer service sucks. They made me miss T-Mobile's customer service.