I'm growing very weary of The Usual Suspects berating EDGE's data rate. It's so en vogue to bash the network technology now, even people who who think GSM is sms shorthand for "orgasm" are into it. It's right behind bashing Bill Gates and George W. Bush. 4sure.
Let's cut the crap, tweakers; yes, we've all been to the speed tests at dslreports.com. We've seen the numbers. But how does the EXPERIENCE FEEL? One of the lamest comparisons I've read was over at the Huffington Post. Some amateur analyst compared putting EDGE on the iPhone to building a Corvette that can only go 35MPh. I guarantee you two things: he's never owned a vette, and he hasn't used an iPhone.
Just for fun, I shut off 3G functionality on my Samsung Blackjack for several weeks using the engineering configuration menu (*#1546792*#). This puts the phone in EDGE (big "E" at the top of the WM screen) mode. What I experienced was a connection drastically slower than 3G, but by no means a throwback to the days of Prodigy at 2400 baud everyone would have you believe it is. The caveat: Cingular's network in South Florida has been top-drawer for the past three years. Your milage may vary.
I spent the entire day with several iPhones yesterday. The surfing, email, and widget performance was twice as comfortable than on my Blackjack on the same network. (Yes, I was sure to turn WiFi off.) No, download times were nowhere near my Comcast connection at home. But when you don't expect 6MB/s from a darn portable communications device, you are pleasantly surprised with what you do get. And I was.
The moral of the story: 35MPh in a Corvette doesn't feel so bad when you're used to 5MPh in a Toyota Tercel, which is a great analogy (if I do say so myself) when you consider most of you iPhoners are upgrading from plastic toys with microbrowers and amd sjitty crmpedf keyboasrtdds.
As for me, I'm waiting -- not for 3G, but 30Gigs ... of iPod storage space. (Notice anything interesting about flash memory prices lately?) But that's another post.
P.S. Three years from now, you're going to be so in love with Apple + AT&T being in bed together.
Let's cut the crap, tweakers; yes, we've all been to the speed tests at dslreports.com. We've seen the numbers. But how does the EXPERIENCE FEEL? One of the lamest comparisons I've read was over at the Huffington Post. Some amateur analyst compared putting EDGE on the iPhone to building a Corvette that can only go 35MPh. I guarantee you two things: he's never owned a vette, and he hasn't used an iPhone.
Just for fun, I shut off 3G functionality on my Samsung Blackjack for several weeks using the engineering configuration menu (*#1546792*#). This puts the phone in EDGE (big "E" at the top of the WM screen) mode. What I experienced was a connection drastically slower than 3G, but by no means a throwback to the days of Prodigy at 2400 baud everyone would have you believe it is. The caveat: Cingular's network in South Florida has been top-drawer for the past three years. Your milage may vary.
I spent the entire day with several iPhones yesterday. The surfing, email, and widget performance was twice as comfortable than on my Blackjack on the same network. (Yes, I was sure to turn WiFi off.) No, download times were nowhere near my Comcast connection at home. But when you don't expect 6MB/s from a darn portable communications device, you are pleasantly surprised with what you do get. And I was.
The moral of the story: 35MPh in a Corvette doesn't feel so bad when you're used to 5MPh in a Toyota Tercel, which is a great analogy (if I do say so myself) when you consider most of you iPhoners are upgrading from plastic toys with microbrowers and amd sjitty crmpedf keyboasrtdds.
As for me, I'm waiting -- not for 3G, but 30Gigs ... of iPod storage space. (Notice anything interesting about flash memory prices lately?) But that's another post.
P.S. Three years from now, you're going to be so in love with Apple + AT&T being in bed together.
