According to Yahoo finance there is a few shortcomings with new iPhone 4. I think that iPhone 4 is the best one in his category. Go Apple!!!

 

Bah! Five weak reasons, really.

In my area, Verizon stinks, so I've had Cellular One, bought by Cingular, bought by AT&T for 12 years. All cellphone cameras, no matter the number of megapixels, are weak cameras due to lens size. They're essentially digital pinhole cameras. You simply won't get great photos from them as a rule because you don't have shutter and f-stop settings. I ordered one 2 days after they were available for pre-order, and it will take about a month to get here. Big deal, I'm a patient person. What the heck is Swype? My current iPhone (3G) has predictive-input typing. I don't use it. I'd rather type things out in full myself--I don't do the text-speak garbage that teens use. Much of the iPhone market is in the U.S.--where video calls over the cellular network pretty much don't happen (yet) due to too much government regulation of the airwaves.

Jason

 

I have a 3Gs.
AT&T's monopoly and contract means that even with an unlimited data plan I cannot tether or Skype, I must pay for text's (which is nothing more than a tiny bit of data) and I'd have to pay a subscription fee to have voice GPS.
I am locked into Apples idea of which apps I can run.

There will be a jailbreak for the 4G in the very near future.

 

I'm a verizon man myself...Got the droid and never looked back....It's got a regular QWERTY keyboard too if you don't like the touch screen. The browser is lightning fast, and I've only run into connection issues up in the mountains (NC) where NO one has coverage....

Jason, one thing I've NEVER heard is complaint about verizon coverage....Oh well...you must be in a hole somewhere.....

I suppose I just have a problem with the 'fanboy' base at apple with their phones. I mean, these 'adults' lining up and camping out for the privelege of purchasing the FIRST of Steve Jobs overhyped smart phones? Enough is enough. Every time Jobs trots out a new product, here comes the horde begging to buy the damned thing (that'll be passe' within a year) and droning 'I must buy....I must buy...'....

Regarding the camera function....Not too important to me. To ME, the camera function on the phone is most important for that spur-of-the-moment, must-take photo that a digital camera just can't match. Why? Because EVERYONE carries their damned phone with them everywhere.....Not so a digital camera, although you can carry the slim cameras in a pants (or shirt) pocket......

But for dedicated shutter-bugging...a smart phone will NEVER match the quality and function of the digital camera.

I love technology.....

 

Steve, This would be the FOURTH of Jobs' overpriced phones...

 

The 'first' meaning the first off of the assembly line of whatever generation of iphones Jobs is peddling.......

In other words, in THIS generation of iphones.....guys like Rush Limbaugh got first crack.....and at stores all over the country stocking maybe 20 or 30 phones at a time....you might have 200 fans camping out and lining up to get the 'first' of these phones......

 

Rush is on crack now?

 

Hey, Jim--"Text Free Unlimited". It's a texting app. The only downside is that people who can't e-mail from their phones can't text you unless they're replying to one you send them, but I think they've recently rolled out getting a phone number so that it's like a "traditional" text. I don't have texting as part of my plan, so this works great for me, and most people know not to text me, so I don't worry about having to pay $1 or less for the 3-5 messages a month I do get. BTW, iPhone 4 is NOT "4G"--that's the next level of cell technology that only Sprint has for now.

Steve- I guess Verizon has gotten better around here, but I used to always have trouble talking to people who had it (I could tell by their cell# before porting was available). I knew a lot of people who ended up switching to AT&T for the better local coverage. Besides, Verizon 3G doesn't allow talk and data at the same time.

I'm only getting one right now because my wife needs a new phone. She's getting my old iPhone, and I'm getting the new one. Although, I just heard that Radio Shack is giving $100 off a new iPhone if you bring in an older model of iPhone, so she may end up with a new one as well. I'm also going to put us both on the first-tier data plan ($15/mo for 200MB), so there's no extra monthly cost over my current $30/mo for unlimited data (I've very rarely gone over 200MB). I don't know whether I'll jailbreak the iPhone 4 yet--I'll have to see if there are features I want that only jailbreaking offers--I suspect there are.

Jason

 

Jason,

I'll do text through email when I go back to maillists from forums like this.

You're right 4G is a misnomer re: the iPhone.
But I can't imagine AT&T is going to ask its data customers to buy a new phone when (and if) they roll out their advanced LTE in 2011.
Meanwhile Sprint's WiMAX is available in this metro area and actually meets the IMT-Advanced standard.

I would have bought an EVO if AT&T's sales rep had been honest about their plans and terms of service, and Sprint had been willing to cut the right deal.

You can buy a 3Gs refurb outright for under $150.

"We become what we hate the most" --> Apple really is the Orwellian nightmare portrayed in it's '80's ads.

 

I sometimes wonder.....

I'm sure he can afford the highest quality crack......as well as the first iphones when they roll out.....

 

Jim--the texting app looks a lot like the built-in (Apple) text app. From your end it works totally like texting--you text to the person's phone number. It's the other end that's a little different. The recipient can reply to the text for a short time (a few hours, I think--they get a weird number as the sender). Otherwise, if they want to initiate a text to you, they have to use an e-mail address that you set up, i.e., mine is *****@textfree.us However, I think they have rolled out the ability to get another phone number that allows primitive (non-e-mail-capable) texters to text to a phone number assigned to you. Once you have it set up, it's really not all that complicated. Like I said, I just don't text enough to justify the extra $5-10/mo for a texting plan. Maybe in a few years when my kids will likely have phones, too, I'll end up getting something like that, if it's even still necessary.

Jason

 

The bottom line is that if you're someone that wants one, you will get one, regardless of what anyone else has to say.

In Chicago metro, I must say I had better call coverage with Verizon, but the data speed was pathetic, and the bill for my Blackberry was absurd. I picked up an iPhone 3G refurb with a new 2-year and I've been very happy with it.

Yhea, I'll lose signal in my basement, where Verizon would give me a couple of bars, but overall I haven't run into any issues where I don't have coverage. AT&T's data hasn't seemed to miss a beat. People complain about how slow it can be, but the backbone of the network is carrying SO many people since the iPhone basically changed how people view mobiles. People say they drop calls and have slow speed, but people tend to thing that wireless internet should behave like the cable or DSL they have running at home. I'm sure AT&T wasn't prepared for the sheer volume of data traffic, but if the contact had been awarded to Verizon instead, I honestly bet we'd be reading stories of people hating on them instead.

AT&T's unlimited data (and Verizon's, I checked) are capped at 4Gb, which is almost impossible to hit for most users without tethering. AT&T cut out the unlimited plan and now offer two cheaper plans for people that don't need a 4 gig cap.

A lot of the complaints about AT&T's network are related to the hardware of the phone itself, and it's form over function design. The iPhone4 is supposed to make a bit of a difference, as the case is now part of the antenna design. The same reason AT&T was chosen by Apple (largest, highest capacity, fastest backbone) is the reason Verizon doesn't have an iPhone yet. Verizon offers superior voice connections in most cases because of it's older, slower and outdated, but more reliable network structure. You don't see iPhones hacked onto Verizon networks because iPhones lack the hardware needed to interface with that network. For now, anyway.

I'll probably pick one up down the road, just because my 3G is showing its age, now that iOS4 seems to have sucked some pep out of it. I'm sure as hell not going to stand in line for one, though.

 

The only reason AT&T has the iPhone is because it was the only carrier who would carry it back in 2007 when the other carriers wouldn't. Also Verizon doesnt have the iPhone right now because it's locked up by AT&T until 2012. I bet VZW and T-Mobile are kicking themselves now.

I had all three generations of the iPhone until I couldn't stand AT&Ts network anymore. It was good in the bigger cities around my area and they actually have 3G in Chicago and Grand Rapids but not around the area I frequent. I finally decided to switch to VZW and have 4-5 bars usually everywhere I go. It's not as fast as AT&T, I just did speedtest on my phone and it was 2.2mbps down and 800k up. If VZW got the iPhone 4 I'd probably get it but luckily I'll have at least a year and a half to decide.