You also have another choice: You can get a mac. I know, I know, there are tons of reasons not to get one (especially the cost - have you seen how much more they cost?), but at least they don't come with all that crap on them:)
Also, if you can find a computer manufacturer that gives you an OS disk instead of a "restore disk," you can just format the thing when you first get it and install the OS from scratch.
and I don't think you can customize searches anymore.
You can... with Google custom search. Once you set up the basics through the wizard, go into the configuration page.
I have mine set up so it searches the whole internet, but promotes certain sites (like stackoverflow, superuser, wikipedia, etc) to the top for more relevant results. It also excludes anything from experts-exchange.com.
Lots of sites did the whole "app-in-browser" thing when the iPhone first came out, because you couldn't download applications to it. And a lot of them were pretty damn good because the browser lets you do things that really make them feel very close to applications running natively. They're a little laggy and don't have quite the same feel to them, but very close.
This includes things nice GUI effects (things sliding around, the screen "flipping" to go to the settings page, etc).
I'm hoping that the offline stuff gets off the ground.
I think different people define "good experience" differently. For the general crowd here on/., I'd expect "good experience" to mean "I can tinker with it," or "it's FLOSS," etc. And that's fine. People need to buy the devices that will give them the experience that they want.
Hell, a member of my family recently switched from his iPhone to a BlackBerry Torch. He likes it better. Personally I'm no longer a big fan of BlackBerry, but to each is own.
(Disclaimer: I use an iPhone and believe it gives me a "good experience" - but I'm not married to it).
That's something that I just don't understand (from a psychological standpoint, I guess). I use an iPhone, and I like it a lot. But when it comes time to get a new phone, I'm not just going to automatically get the then-current iPhone model. Every time I've gotten a new phone, I evaluated every carrier available to me and many of the phones available. You've got to make an informed decision.
Last April when I got this phone and decided to stick with AT&T, I decided it was the best carrier and device to meet my needs at that time. Who knows, maybe next time it will be another iPhone - or maybe not. (And if you look through my previous posts before last April, you'll see that I was a big BlackBerry fan, and somewhat against the iPhone - because at that time, the iPhone was not the right device for me. It couldn't even do copy and paste).
Anyway, I don't identify myself by my phone, and I find fanboys to be really annoying. It's a phone, FFS. Oh, speaking of which, the iPhone isn't all that great at being a phone. My last phone was a BlackBerry Bold (3G, AT&T), and it dropped far fewer calls than this iPhone does. People like to blame AT&T for it, but my usage patterns haven't really changed, so my guess is that it's the phone.
Phones are quickly becoming our primary computing device, or at least the centerpiece of our electronic lives.
Have you seen the Motorola Atrix (I think they showed it at CES)?
This thing has a laptop dock. That's not a dock that you can connect to your laptop, it's an actual laptop, made for the phone - the phone docks in the back and is the computer. It basically is a big keyboard and screen for the phone.
I'm not saying that it's a good or bad thing, but it certainly is interesting. Who knows if the rest of the industry will follow suit.
I'm a paid google apps user. Their search is lightning quick, of course. Although I've been playing with the latest Thunderbird as an IMAP client for it lately.
It's too bad Mulberry isn't under development anymore.
Now... I used to work in a department that wasn't IT, but worked very closely with IT all the time... and they had some pretty sweet management tools for their firewall. Not just on the configuration side, but on the logging and reporting side.
I'd bet that one of the major differences is that things are *easier* and *faster* to do on these firewalls.
Also, I think if you're handling a very large network, the hardware is optimized for routing/firewalling, as opposed to being a general purpose computer like an x86 or x64 system would be.
I'm not a security expert, and I'm not trying to be a jerk, but couldn't a properly-configured Linux or BSD box make a good firewall? Seems like it might take more time to configure and secure, as they're general purpose OSes... Maybe I'm not sure what a real actual good enterprise-class firewall does these days?
BTW, you can also hold the mute button (the one on the top of the phone) down for 2 seconds and it puts it in standby... the newer blackberrys have a dedicated lock button on the top of the phone.
I'll agree with you on the physical keyboard issue - I don't know if it's 100% necessary, but it's way better for speedy and accurate typing (at least, for me it is).
But my iPhone supports multitasking (well, I can seamlessly switch between applications, even if it's not true multitasking). I'm not sure what you mean by "universal generic cut & paste," but I've been able to copy something from one place and paste it into another and it's always worked... there are lots of SIP applications, but they don't have it built-in. Tethering is available, but they sure took their damn time with it. And exchange support is excellent, in fact it works as well as any BlackBerry I've ever had (and I've had 4).
Also, I think I did see an application that can print things like PDFs to WiFi printers, I think it supports IPP and LPR.
The iPhone makes a decent business phone. Yeah, not as good as BlackBerry for the core functionality that BlackBerry has always done best, that's for damn sure. But it's pretty competent.
The biggest thing I miss about my old BlackBerry was the physical keyboard. The Bold 9000, IMO, had an awesome keyboard. Oh, and I miss almost never dropping calls. I don't drop many more calls with the iPhone... but it's definitely more.
I don't miss that f*cking hourglass that used to appear every time you tried to go to a non-mobile web site. I don't miss memory leaks that would make the device lock up if I didn't pull the battery every few days.
I'm really rooting for RIM with OS6 though... It'll be nice to see a BlackBerry with a WebKit-based browser.
I switched from a BlackBerry Bold (9000) to the iPhone 3GS. The BlackBerry was better with not dropping calls, and it was better with e-mail. The screen was sharper (because it's the same resolution as the iPhone but half the size). But web browsing was just a terrible experience, and I must say, it's good having a decent web browser that doesn't sit at an hour glass for (sometimes) minutes at a time, making the device unusable until it's done working. That's really what ended up being the last straw.
The lack of available memory for third-party apps was awful. I think my Bold had 128MB or 192MB which is shared between the OS, user data (like e-mail), and applications (can't store anything other than media on the memory card). It ran out of memory all the time, you had to do a battery pull every few days to prevent it. I think there was a memory leak.
Oh. And the physical keyboard - boy do I miss that keyboard. The Bold had the best mobile keyboard I've ever used. I've gotten pretty good with the touch screen... but nothing beats that keyboard.
I'm really looking forward to seeing OS6, which is supposed to include a WebKit-based browser.
Your assumption would be right. I went from a BlackBerry Bold (on AT&T 3G) to an iPhone 3GS. I didn't change any habits, and I drop more calls on the iPhone. Not a lot more, but I almost never dropped calls on the BlackBerry.
If call reliability were my highest priority, I would have returned the iPhone.
Honestly... my old Nokia 6200 had killer reception. Probably the best reception I have had with AT&T (or Cingular, or whatever their name was that day).
Your curve uses their 2G network - which is far more reliable (from my limited anecdotal evidence) than their 3G network. My Bold dropped a few more calls than my Curve... and my iPhone drops more calls than my Bold. Going backwards, I suppose.
I read in a comment on one of these threads that the cheapo flip phones are the most reliable, in terms of call drop percentage. Go figure.
I recently switch from a BlackBerry Bold on AT&T to my 3GS, and the reception on the 3GS is noticeably worse, and it drops calls more. In the same places. Not many more, but enough for me to notice.
The worst part is, it's the iPhone itself. My BlackBerrys didn't even come close to dropping the number of calls that my iPhone (3GS) now drops. It's not a huge number, but it is certainly more noticeable. It's not like any of my habits have changed either. People blame it on AT&T... I blame it on the phone.
Don't forget folks - if you have a Verizon BlackBerry, the deal isn't the same. When you make a call through Skype over 3G, it uses minutes from your voice plan. See their website [WARNING: There's Flash on that page]. You get free Skype-to-Skype calls, and international calling goes against your Skype credits. So it is still beneficial to have it, but not for making calls to domestic US phone numbers. Now - I don't know how the technology works - if Skype is actually routing through the voice network or data network for domestic calls - but either way, they'll charge you just the same.
I wouldn't put it past AT&T and Skype to work out a deal like this.
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You also have another choice: You can get a mac. I know, I know, there are tons of reasons not to get one (especially the cost - have you seen how much more they cost?), but at least they don't come with all that crap on them :)
Also, if you can find a computer manufacturer that gives you an OS disk instead of a "restore disk," you can just format the thing when you first get it and install the OS from scratch.
and I don't think you can customize searches anymore.
You can... with Google custom search. Once you set up the basics through the wizard, go into the configuration page.
I have mine set up so it searches the whole internet, but promotes certain sites (like stackoverflow, superuser, wikipedia, etc) to the top for more relevant results. It also excludes anything from experts-exchange.com.
I'd also like to know which competitor.
Lots of sites did the whole "app-in-browser" thing when the iPhone first came out, because you couldn't download applications to it. And a lot of them were pretty damn good because the browser lets you do things that really make them feel very close to applications running natively. They're a little laggy and don't have quite the same feel to them, but very close.
This includes things nice GUI effects (things sliding around, the screen "flipping" to go to the settings page, etc).
I'm hoping that the offline stuff gets off the ground.
I think different people define "good experience" differently. For the general crowd here on /., I'd expect "good experience" to mean "I can tinker with it," or "it's FLOSS," etc. And that's fine. People need to buy the devices that will give them the experience that they want.
Hell, a member of my family recently switched from his iPhone to a BlackBerry Torch. He likes it better. Personally I'm no longer a big fan of BlackBerry, but to each is own.
(Disclaimer: I use an iPhone and believe it gives me a "good experience" - but I'm not married to it).
That's something that I just don't understand (from a psychological standpoint, I guess). I use an iPhone, and I like it a lot. But when it comes time to get a new phone, I'm not just going to automatically get the then-current iPhone model. Every time I've gotten a new phone, I evaluated every carrier available to me and many of the phones available. You've got to make an informed decision.
Last April when I got this phone and decided to stick with AT&T, I decided it was the best carrier and device to meet my needs at that time. Who knows, maybe next time it will be another iPhone - or maybe not. (And if you look through my previous posts before last April, you'll see that I was a big BlackBerry fan, and somewhat against the iPhone - because at that time, the iPhone was not the right device for me. It couldn't even do copy and paste).
Anyway, I don't identify myself by my phone, and I find fanboys to be really annoying. It's a phone, FFS. Oh, speaking of which, the iPhone isn't all that great at being a phone. My last phone was a BlackBerry Bold (3G, AT&T), and it dropped far fewer calls than this iPhone does. People like to blame AT&T for it, but my usage patterns haven't really changed, so my guess is that it's the phone.
Phones are quickly becoming our primary computing device, or at least the centerpiece of our electronic lives.
Have you seen the Motorola Atrix (I think they showed it at CES)?
This thing has a laptop dock. That's not a dock that you can connect to your laptop, it's an actual laptop, made for the phone - the phone docks in the back and is the computer. It basically is a big keyboard and screen for the phone.
I'm not saying that it's a good or bad thing, but it certainly is interesting. Who knows if the rest of the industry will follow suit.
I'm a paid google apps user. Their search is lightning quick, of course. Although I've been playing with the latest Thunderbird as an IMAP client for it lately.
It's too bad Mulberry isn't under development anymore.
What client are you using that's so fast? (Seriously, I'm interested)
Now... I used to work in a department that wasn't IT, but worked very closely with IT all the time... and they had some pretty sweet management tools for their firewall. Not just on the configuration side, but on the logging and reporting side.
I'd bet that one of the major differences is that things are *easier* and *faster* to do on these firewalls.
Also, I think if you're handling a very large network, the hardware is optimized for routing/firewalling, as opposed to being a general purpose computer like an x86 or x64 system would be.
My current browser of choice is Netscape Gold 3 on OS/2 Warp. It renders animated "under construction" GIFs with utmost speed!
I'm not a security expert, and I'm not trying to be a jerk, but couldn't a properly-configured Linux or BSD box make a good firewall? Seems like it might take more time to configure and secure, as they're general purpose OSes... Maybe I'm not sure what a real actual good enterprise-class firewall does these days?
It's easier to just remotely change the password on the blackberry, and make sure your IT policy encrypts the contents (which you ought to do anyway).
Of course... if you were an asshole, and your IT department did that, just enter the wrong password ten times and let it wipe itself ;)
Seriously? Where are you using it? I have a 3GS and it drops more calls than my BlackBerry did. Not very many more... but definitely more.
BTW, you can also hold the mute button (the one on the top of the phone) down for 2 seconds and it puts it in standby... the newer blackberrys have a dedicated lock button on the top of the phone.
I'll agree with you on the physical keyboard issue - I don't know if it's 100% necessary, but it's way better for speedy and accurate typing (at least, for me it is).
But my iPhone supports multitasking (well, I can seamlessly switch between applications, even if it's not true multitasking). I'm not sure what you mean by "universal generic cut & paste," but I've been able to copy something from one place and paste it into another and it's always worked... there are lots of SIP applications, but they don't have it built-in. Tethering is available, but they sure took their damn time with it. And exchange support is excellent, in fact it works as well as any BlackBerry I've ever had (and I've had 4).
Also, I think I did see an application that can print things like PDFs to WiFi printers, I think it supports IPP and LPR.
The iPhone makes a decent business phone. Yeah, not as good as BlackBerry for the core functionality that BlackBerry has always done best, that's for damn sure. But it's pretty competent.
The biggest thing I miss about my old BlackBerry was the physical keyboard. The Bold 9000, IMO, had an awesome keyboard. Oh, and I miss almost never dropping calls. I don't drop many more calls with the iPhone... but it's definitely more.
I don't miss that f*cking hourglass that used to appear every time you tried to go to a non-mobile web site. I don't miss memory leaks that would make the device lock up if I didn't pull the battery every few days.
I'm really rooting for RIM with OS6 though... It'll be nice to see a BlackBerry with a WebKit-based browser.
I switched from a BlackBerry Bold (9000) to the iPhone 3GS. The BlackBerry was better with not dropping calls, and it was better with e-mail. The screen was sharper (because it's the same resolution as the iPhone but half the size). But web browsing was just a terrible experience, and I must say, it's good having a decent web browser that doesn't sit at an hour glass for (sometimes) minutes at a time, making the device unusable until it's done working. That's really what ended up being the last straw.
The lack of available memory for third-party apps was awful. I think my Bold had 128MB or 192MB which is shared between the OS, user data (like e-mail), and applications (can't store anything other than media on the memory card). It ran out of memory all the time, you had to do a battery pull every few days to prevent it. I think there was a memory leak.
Oh. And the physical keyboard - boy do I miss that keyboard. The Bold had the best mobile keyboard I've ever used. I've gotten pretty good with the touch screen... but nothing beats that keyboard.
I'm really looking forward to seeing OS6, which is supposed to include a WebKit-based browser.
Your assumption would be right. I went from a BlackBerry Bold (on AT&T 3G) to an iPhone 3GS. I didn't change any habits, and I drop more calls on the iPhone. Not a lot more, but I almost never dropped calls on the BlackBerry.
If call reliability were my highest priority, I would have returned the iPhone.
Honestly... my old Nokia 6200 had killer reception. Probably the best reception I have had with AT&T (or Cingular, or whatever their name was that day).
Your curve uses their 2G network - which is far more reliable (from my limited anecdotal evidence) than their 3G network. My Bold dropped a few more calls than my Curve... and my iPhone drops more calls than my Bold. Going backwards, I suppose.
I read in a comment on one of these threads that the cheapo flip phones are the most reliable, in terms of call drop percentage. Go figure.
I recently switch from a BlackBerry Bold on AT&T to my 3GS, and the reception on the 3GS is noticeably worse, and it drops calls more. In the same places. Not many more, but enough for me to notice.
The worst part is, it's the iPhone itself. My BlackBerrys didn't even come close to dropping the number of calls that my iPhone (3GS) now drops. It's not a huge number, but it is certainly more noticeable. It's not like any of my habits have changed either. People blame it on AT&T... I blame it on the phone.
... but - are we starting to see fanboyism in the Android realm?
Don't forget folks - if you have a Verizon BlackBerry, the deal isn't the same. When you make a call through Skype over 3G, it uses minutes from your voice plan. See their website [WARNING: There's Flash on that page]. You get free Skype-to-Skype calls, and international calling goes against your Skype credits. So it is still beneficial to have it, but not for making calls to domestic US phone numbers. Now - I don't know how the technology works - if Skype is actually routing through the voice network or data network for domestic calls - but either way, they'll charge you just the same.
I wouldn't put it past AT&T and Skype to work out a deal like this.