YAN Switch frmo VZW question list

[ProfLonghair]

OK, first off, I'm not concerned about price. I've done the looking, and am fortunate enough to have the cash on hand (actually, a bunch of Best buy gift cards, but whatever) and get an ATT discount thru my wife's work. Here is my question list:

1) How is it as a phone? I've had smartphones in the past, and they really seemed like a PDA that occasionaly worked as a bad phone. I live in Columbus OH and travel to Toledo frequently (against my wishes, but the family refuses to move, what can I do?). VZW gets great reception and phone quality on my Voyager. I've heard that this iPhone/AT&T are not as good. Does anyone have any experience, especially in my area, that acn compare the two?

2) One of the big reasons I want the iPhone is the FULL convergance. Right now, I have a Voyager, and an 80GB Zune (please, no fanboy flames. When I got the Zune, iPod Touch didn't have the storage to meet my needs). I have about 24GB of music, and with a 32GB iPhone, how much of the OS is taken up? How big are typical apps? I'm most interested in Google Voice apps, and email would be good too, but if it doesn't work 100% with GMail, I don't mind actually going to the web and doing it (still via the iPhone), like I do now with my Voyager.

3) Is MMS enabled yet? I see a bunch of month or two old articles saying "late summer". Well, like the Doors song, Summers Almost Gone. I can live without it, but would rather not.

4) How is iTunes? I have had really bad experiences with it. Tried it r the other day, and it decided to move around and rename my 4000 song, meticulously named and tagged collection. It took about 10 minutes to find the check box to make it stop, and even then, I still can't find a setting to let me choose the file format. Previously, we had an iPod (3 years or so ago), and when I installed it, it asked "Would you like iTunes to be your default media player?". I selected No, and it installed, and essentially decided "Muhahaha, I'm your default media player now!". That makes it 0-2. The interface is pretty slick, but if it ignores your desperate pleas, that is a big negative.

5) What is the battery life, realistcally? Right now, I play ~4 hours of music per day @ work, and spend up to an hour texting and web browsing on my phone. With my previous smartphones, after < a year, I had to keep it plugged in constantly, which was one of the biggest reasons I went back to a regular phone.

I think I have more questions, too, but this took me about 20 minutes to write up @ work, and I probably should get back to some semblance of productivity.

 

[Runt888]

1) How is it as a phone? I've had smartphones in the past, and they really seemed like a PDA that occasionaly worked as a bad phone. I live in Columbus OH and travel to Toledo frequently (against my wishes, but the family refuses to move, what can I do?). VZW gets great reception and phone quality on my Voyager. I've heard that this iPhone/AT&T are not as good. Does anyone have any experience, especially in my area, that acn compare the two?

It's the best phone I've ever used. As for reception, AT&T has a coverage map on their website.

2) One of the big reasons I want the iPhone is the FULL convergance. Right now, I have a Voyager, and an 80GB Zune (please, no fanboy flames. When I got the Zune, iPod Touch didn't have the storage to meet my needs). I have about 24GB of music, and with a 32GB iPhone, how much of the OS is taken up? How big are typical apps? I'm most interested in Google Voice apps, and email would be good too, but if it doesn't work 100% with GMail, I don't mind actually going to the web and doing it (still via the iPhone), like I do now with my Voyager.

I have a little over 30 GB on mine when it's empty. I have 20 or so apps, they only take up about 200MB. It really does depend on the app, but most of them are fairly small.

3) Is MMS enabled yet? I see a bunch of month or two old articles saying "late summer". Well, like the Doors song, Summers Almost Gone. I can live without it, but would rather not.

It's not enabled yet. Rumors put it anywhere from tomorrow to September.

4) How is iTunes? I have had really bad experiences with it. Tried it r the other day, and it decided to move around and rename my 4000 song, meticulously named and tagged collection. It took about 10 minutes to find the check box to make it stop, and even then, I still can't find a setting to let me choose the file format. Previously, we had an iPod (3 years or so ago), and when I installed it, it asked "Would you like iTunes to be your default media player?". I selected No, and it installed, and essentially decided "Muhahaha, I'm your default media player now!". That makes it 0-2. The interface is pretty slick, but if it ignores your desperate pleas, that is a big negative.

I love iTunes - especially how it keeps all of my songs organized on disk based on album and song title. There is a setting to not have it move your songs around - Preferences --> Advanced -->Keep iTunes music folder organized. You can also change the import file format under Preferences --> General --> Import Settings. As for being your default media player, I always had problems with default programs under Windows - thankfully I don't have to worry about that anymore on my Mac!

5) What is the battery life, realistcally? Right now, I play ~4 hours of music per day @ work, and spend up to an hour texting and web browsing on my phone. With my previous smartphones, after < a year, I had to keep it plugged in constantly, which was one of the biggest reasons I went back to a regular phone.

I charge mine every night, but I rarely get below 50% under normal usage. Yesterday I listened to music for 3.5 hours, and it was still at 82%. It all depends on several factors, such as usage and signal strength.

Kelly

 

[AbSoluTc]

OK, first off, I'm not concerned about price. I've done the looking, and am fortunate enough to have the cash on hand (actually, a bunch of Best buy gift cards, but whatever) and get an ATT discount thru my wife's work. Here is my question list:

1) How is it as a phone? I've had smartphones in the past, and they really seemed like a PDA that occasionaly worked as a bad phone. I live in Columbus OH and travel to Toledo frequently (against my wishes, but the family refuses to move, what can I do?). VZW gets great reception and phone quality on my Voyager. I've heard that this iPhone/AT&T are not as good. Does anyone have any experience, especially in my area, that acn compare the two?

2) One of the big reasons I want the iPhone is the FULL convergance. Right now, I have a Voyager, and an 80GB Zune (please, no fanboy flames. When I got the Zune, iPod Touch didn't have the storage to meet my needs). I have about 24GB of music, and with a 32GB iPhone, how much of the OS is taken up? How big are typical apps? I'm most interested in Google Voice apps, and email would be good too, but if it doesn't work 100% with GMail, I don't mind actually going to the web and doing it (still via the iPhone), like I do now with my Voyager.

3) Is MMS enabled yet? I see a bunch of month or two old articles saying "late summer". Well, like the Doors song, Summers Almost Gone. I can live without it, but would rather not.

4) How is iTunes? I have had really bad experiences with it. Tried it r the other day, and it decided to move around and rename my 4000 song, meticulously named and tagged collection. It took about 10 minutes to find the check box to make it stop, and even then, I still can't find a setting to let me choose the file format. Previously, we had an iPod (3 years or so ago), and when I installed it, it asked "Would you like iTunes to be your default media player?". I selected No, and it installed, and essentially decided "Muhahaha, I'm your default media player now!". That makes it 0-2. The interface is pretty slick, but if it ignores your desperate pleas, that is a big negative.

5) What is the battery life, realistcally? Right now, I play ~4 hours of music per day @ work, and spend up to an hour texting and web browsing on my phone. With my previous smartphones, after < a year, I had to keep it plugged in constantly, which was one of the biggest reasons I went back to a regular phone.

I think I have more questions, too, but this took me about 20 minutes to write up @ work, and I probably should get back to some semblance of productivity.

1- Each locale has different reception. You have 30 days to try it out without getting charged. Nobody can answer that question.

2- iPhone is an excellent phone for gmail and other apps. Typical app size varies greatly from 10 meg up to 400 meg. Depending on what the app is. Out of the gate, the 32 has 29GB free space. Roughly.

3- MMS is not enabled yet. It's "coming soon" supposedly.

4- iTunes is fine. You just need to take the time and familiarize yourself with it's offerings and settings. Just jumping in and expecting this or that is a bad thing. Just do some basic research and play with it. Import only a couple of files and see how it goes. Not your entire collection. iTunes can be setup to copy files over or leave them in their current location. It also organizes the files itself inside the program As for the file type, I believe it does mp3 as well.

5- Battery life is subjective. You need to remember this thing is not only a phone, but a browser, mp3 player, video player, email device - it's an everything - thing. You can only expect so much. If your a heavy user, expect 5-6 hours of use and maybe 10 standby. If you a modest user, expect 2 days standby and about 3-4 hours of use. It depends greatly on your usage and signal you get.

Only YOU can decide what is right for you and what suites your needs. People here can give you opinions of their experiences, however take them with a grain of salt in regards to basing your decision. People are biased and some are influenced by others. Take all the information and go from there. Get the phone and try it out. Come to your own conclusions. Just don't take posts here to heart.


FYI - I used to despise Apple. I don't know why. Many years it lasted until August of last year I decided to check out the iPhone 3G. I was amazed at the quality, interface, sleekness and ease of use. I bought it instantly. I have no regrets and would do it again. Actually, I did do it again. Sold the 3G two weeks before the 3GS came out. I have had AT&T for little over a year and could not be happier. I came from Verizon. Verizon has amazing coverage - yes. However, customer service and phone selection are crap. We could not deal with it anymore. AT&T's customer service is excellent. I have been very impressed. Coverage is good. Only "issue" we have is at home inside. Signal is not so great, however it does work. Beyond that, 3G all the way. Even out in the boonies where I have gone a few times, signal was great. I have dropped a few calls - again - I had the same issue with Verizon. I have actually had less dropped calls on AT&T than Verizon. Go figure. I got my brother an iPhone. He loves it. He came from a BB Storm.

As long as Apple keeps updating the iPhone and making it better, I will always have one. It's simple to use, sleek, fast and it's awesome. Hope this post helps. Good luck in whatever you decide!

 

[SFStateStudent]

Here is my question list:

AT&T Fan Discount = 15%-25% off account, no discount on iPhone or accessories.

1) How is it as a phone? It's an awesome phone in any area where there is coverage. It all depends on how many bars you have available. Not sure where your area is, but you can go to AT&T's coverage map.

2) Nice touch with Apple's 3GS 32GB iPhone, difficult to determine how much space your 24GB of music and apps will take, but I'm enjoying setting up Playlists and rotating my music and videos on a regular basis. Email and Gmail is fast and with IMAP it's up to speed v. POP.

3) Is MMS enabled yet? I've been using the benm hack for MMS and it's working just fine. Same with tethering; hopefully by "late summer" we'll have both 24/7.

4) How is iTunes? I've not had that problem with iTunes and my wife had no idea what iTunes was about, so I sent her to the Apple Store for the iPhone workshop and iTunes workshop, so now she's teaching me new tricks.

5) What is the battery life, realistically? On average, my 3GS 32GB iPhone uses about 10% of the battery per hour. I'm listening to music, watching a video, surfing the web, emails and making phone calls. It doesn't hurt to have a charger close by or a backup battery pack.

Most of these answers are my experience...

 

[ProfLonghair]

Thanks for the quick response.

It's the best phone I've ever used. As for reception, AT&T has a coverage map on their website.

So do all carriers I guess I more meant, when it says you should have coverage, do you have good coverage, or does it get weak? Things like that. But, otherwise, if it were just a phone, no music, apps, etc, you would still say it is good as far as reception/sound/etc?

I have a little over 30 GB on mine when it's empty. I have 20 or so apps, they only take up about 200MB. It really does depend on the app, but most of them are fairly small.

Good. One less worry. Check.

It's not enabled yet. Rumors put it anywhere from tomorrow to September.

SOON. Got it

I love iTunes - especially how it keeps all of my songs organized on disk based on album and song title. There is a setting to not have it move your songs around - Preferences --> Advanced -->Keep iTunes music folder organized. You can also change the import file format under Preferences --> General --> Import Settings. As for being your default media player, I always had problems with default programs under Windows - thankfully I don't have to worry about that anymore on my Mac!

I'll have to look for that when I get home. I agree with the windows default programs as a rule thing, but it does seem to be getting better.

I charge mine every night, but I rarely get below 50% under normal usage. Yesterday I listened to music for 3.5 hours, and it was still at 82%. It all depends on several factors, such as usage and signal strength.

Kelly

Another good. Thanks a lot.

Anyone ever change out a battery in one of these, most likely a previous version? I'm not shy about popping things open; I currently have 3 'spare parts' machines, and some car parts waiting on me getting time, on my table at home. I see to recall having seen some people buying batteries @ Radio Shack and shoving them inside, but I'd have to re-look for those.


More questions I've thought of:

6) How easily responsive/accurate is it, tactily? My Voyager, and my previous smartphones, were batting between .500 and .750 in terms of accuracy. Clicking on links on the Voyager is an especially tricky endeavor.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Anyone ever change out a battery in one of these, most likely a previous version?

Never switched out a battery on the iPhone only b/c I've never needed to perform that task. There's two screws at the bottom; unscrew them and you're in...

 

[ProfLonghair]

1- Each locale has different reception. You have 30 days to try it out without getting charged. Nobody can answer that question.

1) How is it as a phone? It's an awesome phone in any area where there is coverage. It all depends on how many bars you have available. Not sure where your area is, but you can go to AT&T's coverage map.

5- Battery life is subjective. You need to remember this thing is not only a phone, but a browser, mp3 player, video player, email device - it's an everything - thing. You can only expect so much. If your a heavy user, expect 5-6 hours of use and maybe 10 standby. If you a modest user, expect 2 days standby and about 3-4 hours of use. It depends greatly on your usage and signal you get.

5) What is the battery life, realistically? On average, my 3GS 32GB iPhone uses about 10% of the battery per hour. I'm listening to music, watching a video, surfing the web, emails and making phone calls. It doesn't hurt to have a charger close by or a backup battery pack.

Right, unless you live in my house or work at my work, and use it exactly the way I do, it's going to vary. I'm still about a month away from switching, but I'm trying to do as much looking as I can. I was just wondering for other peoples comparisons. I didn't think about the 30 day thing. Not sure how that would work transfering my # from VZW if I decide I don't like it.

2- iPhone is an excellent phone for gmail and other apps. Typical app size varies greatly from 10 meg up to 400 meg. Depending on what the app is. Out of the gate, the 32 has 29GB free space. Roughly.

400MB?! 10 seems reasonable.

4- iTunes is fine. You just need to take the time and familiarize yourself with it's offerings and settings. Just jumping in and expecting this or that is a bad thing. Just do some basic research and play with it. Import only a couple of files and see how it goes. Not your entire collection. iTunes can be setup to copy files over or leave them in their current location. It also organizes the files itself inside the program As for the file type, I believe it does mp3 as well.

4) How is iTunes? I've not had that problem with iTunes and my wife had no idea what iTunes was about, so I sent her to the Apple Store for the iPhone workshop and iTunes workshop, so now she's teaching me new tricks.

Granted, my most recent f up was when I was tryign to get thigns on a new Shuffle 10 minutes before a road trip. I should have known better. I do like the 'Genius' playlist feature. I jsut wish Apple in general wasn't quite so pretentious with names, like the Genius Bar, and so on. Urgh. Still, it's a personality thing, and I can certainly live with it.

Only YOU can decide what is right for you and what suites your needs. People here can give you opinions of their experiences, however take them with a grain of salt in regards to basing your decision. People are biased and some are influenced by others. Take all the information and go from there. Get the phone and try it out. Come to your own conclusions. Just don't take posts here to heart.

that is exactly what I plan on doing.

FYI - I used to despise Apple. I don't know why. Many years it lasted until August of last year I decided to check out the iPhone 3G. I was amazed at the quality, interface, sleekness and ease of use. I bought it instantly. I have no regrets and would do it again. Actually, I did do it again. Sold the 3G two weeks before the 3GS came out. I have had AT&T for little over a year and could not be happier. I came from Verizon. Verizon has amazing coverage - yes. However, customer service and phone selection are crap. We could not deal with it anymore. AT&T's customer service is excellent. I have been very impressed. Coverage is good. Only "issue" we have is at home inside. Signal is not so great, however it does work. Beyond that, 3G all the way. Even out in the boonies where I have gone a few times, signal was great. I have dropped a few calls - again - I had the same issue with Verizon. I have actually had less dropped calls on AT&T than Verizon. Go figure. I got my brother an iPhone. He loves it. He came from a BB Storm.

As long as Apple keeps updating the iPhone and making it better, I will always have one. It's simple to use, sleek, fast and it's awesome. Hope this post helps. Good luck in whatever you decide!

I just want whatever is the best. I'm not a fanboy of anything, but it's good to see a bunch of people who don't just worship at anythign Steve Jobs/Bill Gates does.

AT&T Fan Discount = 15%-25% off account, no discount on iPhone or accessories.

What is the fan discount? Or did you mean fam? I priced it out using the link provided, and saw the hardware was not discounted, but the service was. Got alll the way to their checkout screen, and compared, and it would be about $5 more per month to go with the iPhone vs my current setup.

2) Nice touch with Apple's 3GS 32GB iPhone, difficult to determine how much space your 24GB of music and apps will take, but I'm enjoying setting up Playlists and rotating my music and videos on a regular basis. Email and Gmail is fast and with IMAP it's up to speed v. POP.



Most of these answers are my experience...

Good to know

 

[Runt888]

So do all carriers I guess I more meant, when it says you should have coverage, do you have good coverage, or does it get weak? Things like that. But, otherwise, if it were just a phone, no music, apps, etc, you would still say it is good as far as reception/sound/etc?

So you want to know how reception is compared to other phones? I would say it's middle of the road - not horrible, but not the best either.

Anyone ever change out a battery in one of these, most likely a previous version? I'm not shy about popping things open; I currently have 3 'spare parts' machines, and some car parts waiting on me getting time, on my table at home. I see to recall having seen some people buying batteries @ Radio Shack and shoving them inside, but I'd have to re-look for those.

I wouldn't suggest replacing the battery on your own unless you have some experience - it would be very easy to break the components. I had my old 2G phone for two years and never had any problems with the battery life.

6) How easily responsive/accurate is it, tactily? My Voyager, and my previous smartphones, were batting between .500 and .750 in terms of accuracy. Clicking on links on the Voyager is an especially tricky endeavor.

The screen is very responsive and accurate - now that I'm used to it I'm able to type faster on the virtual keyboard than I ever could on my old phone with a full keyboard.

 

[ProfLonghair]

The screen is very responsive and accurate - now that I'm used to it I'm able to type faster on the virtual keyboard than I ever could on my old phone with a full keyboard.

I'm very surprised to hear that about the keyboard. I've tried similar things on other smartphones, and had limited success at best. I'll definetly check that out personally before buying.

 

[Runt888]

I'm very surprised to hear that about the keyboard. I've tried similar things on other smartphones, and had limited success at best. I'll definetly check that out personally before buying.

Yeah, a lot of people disagree, but I love the virtual keyboard. It's definitely something you need to get used to though.

 

[AbSoluTc]

The virtual keyboard is very nice. I type nice and fast on it. Something I never did on a keypad phone. I despised texting and other stuff because of T9. I thought that was the dumbest thing ever.