Okay, so all iPhones now will pretty much come out the gate strapped up with data plans. Everyone's gonna have one. And, EDGE isn't all that useful, it's barely faster than dialup internet if at all. Or is it?
Let's think about where you're going to use EDGE. When you are "on the go" that is where you are least likely to have wifi coverage. The movie theater, a restaurant, a train station perhaps. Now these are places you spend short amounts of time, relatively speaking. Where you spend most of your day is at home (where there is wifi) and at work or school (where there is probably wifi). Now, what sort of tasks are you going to do on the go? The stock ticker and weather widgets, and surely a widget for movie times, and such use a few kilobytes of data at a time, hardly a challenge for using EDGE. You may pop your mail, which would probably yank in a few dozen messages per minute, as mail messages without attachments are a reasonable size - and then you can type and send your replies. If you are truly on the go and not at work or home, you are doing something serious, you are in motion. You probably are not in the middle of nowhere looking for a long browsing experience or long-term entertainment via the internet (that's what your preloaded music and video are for, which you can listen to as you enjoy the pain of the slow internet). Because when you're truly bored but away from wifi, you are probably not waiting a very long time (unless you're in an airport, which has wifi). So in other words you are not up for serious browsing anyway if you are actually away from your protective net of wifi coverage. In sum, EDGE will get you by as it is appropriate for the sort of usage you might do when you are away from the wifi blanket. EDGE may be very slow for the maps situation, though. This may not be that useful for driving around in your car unless you have the patience to wait for the map to download. But your best bet is to save your important routes beforehand and call them up later, and use the internet feature to keep up to date on the traffic situation.
Am I an Apple apologist? Well, not that many cities have 3G yet, it isn't quite time. If the iPhone was 3G, those without 3G coverage would be the sad ones. And I am only thinking out loud about whether the EDGE data situation is going to be a big hassle for me or not. And I think I'll get by. At least it's $20 and not $40 and truly unlimited.
Let's think about where you're going to use EDGE. When you are "on the go" that is where you are least likely to have wifi coverage. The movie theater, a restaurant, a train station perhaps. Now these are places you spend short amounts of time, relatively speaking. Where you spend most of your day is at home (where there is wifi) and at work or school (where there is probably wifi). Now, what sort of tasks are you going to do on the go? The stock ticker and weather widgets, and surely a widget for movie times, and such use a few kilobytes of data at a time, hardly a challenge for using EDGE. You may pop your mail, which would probably yank in a few dozen messages per minute, as mail messages without attachments are a reasonable size - and then you can type and send your replies. If you are truly on the go and not at work or home, you are doing something serious, you are in motion. You probably are not in the middle of nowhere looking for a long browsing experience or long-term entertainment via the internet (that's what your preloaded music and video are for, which you can listen to as you enjoy the pain of the slow internet). Because when you're truly bored but away from wifi, you are probably not waiting a very long time (unless you're in an airport, which has wifi). So in other words you are not up for serious browsing anyway if you are actually away from your protective net of wifi coverage. In sum, EDGE will get you by as it is appropriate for the sort of usage you might do when you are away from the wifi blanket. EDGE may be very slow for the maps situation, though. This may not be that useful for driving around in your car unless you have the patience to wait for the map to download. But your best bet is to save your important routes beforehand and call them up later, and use the internet feature to keep up to date on the traffic situation.
Am I an Apple apologist? Well, not that many cities have 3G yet, it isn't quite time. If the iPhone was 3G, those without 3G coverage would be the sad ones. And I am only thinking out loud about whether the EDGE data situation is going to be a big hassle for me or not. And I think I'll get by. At least it's $20 and not $40 and truly unlimited.
