George & His iPhone 3G

My buddy George is a real Apple fanboy. He talked me into buying a Macbook Pro a while back and now he just can't stop talking about his new iPhone 3G. So, I figured "what the heck", let's throw him on camera and let him tell you all about it. Hey, better you than me...

Touch This! The HTC Touch Pro Review

If you're in the market for a new smartphone, you might want to take a hard look at the HTC Touch Pro.  It runs Windows Mobile Pro 6.1 OS with HTC's TouchFLO 3D interface layered on top of that.  It has a full QWERTY keyboard, so if a viryual keyboard has been keeping you down, this is the solution you've been looking for... check it out!

The Lesser of Two Evils? Or Three?

My cellular phone contract is just about up.  Soon.  so, I have to make a decision regarding my carrier.  Currently I have AT&T and except for the frequent dropped calls and excessive rates, I'm pretty happy with them (this is sarcasm for those of you not familiar with it).  So, that leaves me with a few other choices.  T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint are the only companies worth considering in my opinion given their size and coverage.  However, each has it's drawbacks.  

T-Mobile doesn't have any phones that particularly "trip" my trigger, nor do their plans excite me.  Verizon has great phones, comprehensive plans and a great reputation for customer satisfaction..but their rates are sky high.  Which leaves me with Sprint... good old Sprint.  Sprint has good coverage, cheap all-inclusive plans and great phones.  But, their reputation for customer service and satisfaction is in the toilet.  People are leaving them at a phenomenal clip, but the iPhone might've had something to do with that.  Still, I could save $80/month going with them.  Although their top executives are among the most over compensated of any U.S. company, still, if they can save me money, what do I care?

Decisions, decisions... do I choose bad or worse?  

Follow Your Instinct!

Have you seen the Samsung Instinct cell phone yet?  It is one sweet looking phone and something of an homage to the iPhone.  It has a haptic touch screen (it vibrates when you choose an icon), a really cool UI and a built in GPS, that actually works.  The best thing about it is that it's on the Sprint network using their EVDO REV-A, which offers faster speeds than AT&T's 3G AND has more reasonable data plans. In fact, Sprint is known for their Everything plans, which give you unlimited data and messaging with generous voice time.  

I like this phone, A LOT.  Having played with it in the store and read extensively in the user forums, I think it's a great alternative to the iPhone. Sure, it's not perfect.  The browser is not as elegant as Apple's, but compared to most other cell phones it's above average.  Plus, the GPS works with voice commands.  You can say "pizza" and it'll take you to the nearest pizzeria.  OR, what if you want to find the cheapest gas in your area?  It can take you there too.  Plus is give you verbal directions while you're driving... or walking for that matter.  How much would I have loved that last year when I walked around San Francisco for an hour looking for a particular Dim Sum restaurant.

For me though, the deal breaker with the phone is the fact that it won't sync with Outlook calendar and it won't sync with a Mac at all.  So, while it's a killer phone, it might not qualify as a SmartPhone for the business user.

A Mac, a Mac, my Kingdom for a Mac!

According to UPS tracking, my new MacBook Pro should be here tomorrow morning. From what I've been reading, I'm one of the lucky ones.

Apparently, the feeding frenzy caused by the iPhone 3G launch had an adverse effect on those wanting to stroll into an Apple store and buy a Mac, as in they couldn't get into the store. In fact, even today in some areas there was still a line for those wanting to buy a 3G (which makes sense) and another for those who wanted to do other Mac stuff like buy a computer (which makes no sense). Even worse, some AT&T stores actually made ALL of their customers wait in line last weekend, regardless of whether they were in line to get an iPhone or pay their bill. Ouch.

Over One Million Served...Um, Sold!

Wow, have you seen the stats on the sales of the iPhone 3G?!? After three days they did what it took McDonalds years to accomplish...over one million sold. By comparison, last year when they introduced the original iPhone (which BTW, was updated to software version 2.0 as well) it took them 75 days to sell that many units, so it looks like all off the hype worked!

Now, the last thing I want to do is too turn this into an iPhone blog (I'm no Apple fanboy...yet), but hey, it is the hottest thing out there right now. Sure there have been some issues with the supply meeting the demand and LENGTHY activations, but even if the darn thing was a brick right out of the box, you have to admire the marketing machine that made it all possible.