There’s a rumor that’s just hit the net that talks about a new iPhone in the works. I’ll let you read…
“The rumor mill is gradually picking up in activity when it comes to the next gen iPhone. Backing information GeekSmack got from its sources regarding the next-gen iPhone, it appears that a new report has surfaced citing sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain stating that Apple has contracted to produce a UMTS/CDMA hybrid iPhone, allowing Apple to sell a single handset to carriers worldwide—most notably Verizon Wireless.”
Hmm… If this ends up being true, this could be one of the biggest steps Apple could be taking for the iPhone. Imagine how brilliant that would be… Create a new model 3GS (with some small improvements I assume) that can be sold to AT&T, as well as Verizon. But it doesn’t stop there, it could also be sold to Sprint or even T-mobile. That’s doubtful because Apple would probably only partner with Verizon and AT&T. But owners of this new phone could then choose whatever carrier they wanted to jump to, T-mobile or Sprint. The way the Internet networks work, though, you wouldn’t be able to access 3G when switching networks from Verizon to Sprint I assume, just like you can’t access T-mobile’s 3G network from AT&T.
This doesn’t have an impact on the world market, although, because the entire world runs on GSM only now (AT&T & T-mobile), and only Sprint and Verizon run CDMA here in America (CDMA is antiquated technology). But Apple making their next iPhone contain a hybrid chip to sell as their new model would benefit everyone, as people who buy their phone from Verizon could then sell it online and people from other countries could buy it and use it on their GSM network.
This is just a rumor, but I think this is the next best thing Apple could do for it’s lineup.
Gee… this sorta’ feels like deja-vu. Seems, not too long ago, I was talkin’ about the “iPhone Killer” Palm Pre. We all know how that turned out. But tonight, curiosity got the best of me and I headed down to the mall to the Verizon Wireless store to check out the Motorola Droid myself. I wanted to check it out also because it had the new Android OS on it.
Let me start out by saying I wasn’t impressed… not at least compared to any version iPhone, including the 2G. Let’s start by talkin’ about what it’s got. It’s got a 550 MHz something processor, not too impressive compared to the iPhone 3GS’s 600 MHz, but I still think 550 MHz is fast. It comes with a microSD 16GB card for it’s hard drive space, which considering it’s being sold for the same price as the iPhone 3GS 16GB, that’s not bad. You can swap the 16GB microSD card for a 32GB microSD card, which outta’ run you about $100, so you can in a sense turn it into a 32GB phone for about $300 total, the price of an iPhone 3GS 32GB. So although I hate messing with “removable storage” in smartphones (all those days with Pocket PC SD cards), this is ok for the Droid. Another good thing is the screen, it’s nice and big and doesn’t contain too much crap on the front of it.
Everything else about it falls short compared to iPhones, for two reasons… the phone (hardware) itself and the OS (software) itself. The phone… I like the screen size of it, it makes pretty good use of real estate, and doesn’t look too ugly, but you realize that everything goes down-hill from there, compared to an iPhone. It has pointed corners, so it don’t feel right in your hand. Fact, I’m positive you’d stab it into your skin by accident a few times and would curse the **** thing. It don’t feel anywhere as cheap as the Google G1, but it does feel cheap… the Palm Pre feels more solid if that tells you anything (and I thought the Palm Pre felt cheap compared to iPhones).
They were smart by hiding those stupid “D pads” that are found on all Google Android phones in the actual slide out keyboard, but that’s another problem with the device… the keyboard. Well the fact that is has a keyboard is a problem. The fact that the keyboard slides out via landscape mode makes typing on it a lot easier than a Palm Pre or Blackberry, but it’s still a slow pain. But the fact that it’s a landscape keyboard, where the phone’s screen normally is portrait is a problem right there. When your doing things on your phone, in portrait mode (like you do on an iPhone, Palm Pre, Blackberry, ect), and you need to type in an address, because you slide out the keyboard from the side, you have to then use the phone in landscape mode in order to type **** in. Then, when you close up the keyboard, you gotta’ rotate it to use it back in portrait. Although the keyboard is easier to use than the Palm Pre, I’d rather have a Palm Pre style keyboard that slides down and out from the bottom.
I can’t stress how much of a horrible solution that is. I mean, why would you want to use a device with your only form of entry, the keyboard (yes, there is no on screen keyboard) hidden from you? I mean, I can pretty much tell you mostly everyone will use the phone with the keyboard out, in landscape mode, the entire time. That’s a horrible solution because you can then no longer use it with one hand.
Other issues with hardware… the “d pad” was really hard to use, and I tried repeatedly. Problem was that you can push in the center as an action, like “clicking” for a link, or move it down to navigate down. But it’s so flat that you have to focus really hard on not clicking center when you want to move up, or not clicking down when you want to click center. It’s a horrible experience and a horrible little pad. But, Motorola was smart because the Google Android OS seems to require all phones to have a d pad, so Motorola said (I assume) “Fine, we’ll put in on the keyboard and make it as minimal as possible”. So that’s why it works so horrible, because it’s really thrown in there and not meant to be used.
The device has buttons placed all over the device in a stupid, “customer must have buttons” method… but that seems to be required for all Google Android phones (****, all phones in general, besides iPhone). So as far as buttons, it’s the best Google Android phone I’ve seen so far to minimize button placement.
Software now… the new Android OS. Let me just tell you… for being two years old and with clear inspiration on how to do an OS right (the iPhone OS), the Android OS is a real piece of crap. I mean it. How is it that this Motorola Droid phone has more memory and CPU power than the original iPhone 2G and have a new refined OS and still have horrible scrolling visual effects? I mean, this phone has close to the power of the iPhone 3GS but doesn’t have a smooth frame rate between “swapping” through home screens? You swap the home screen, similar to the iPhone in visual effect (the page moves left or right) and it’s choppy. All this processing and visual power and you can’t even get something as smooth as the first generation iPhone 2G, running the first iPhone OS 1.0 version? I expected that from the Google G1 (the first Google Android phone) and the Android OS, when it was at version 1.0, but not this… I can’t stress enough of much of a failure that is in my books.
The OS itself just feels like junk. It feels like a Pocket PC’s OS. The way you open apps is also bad. I mean, it’s like the Google G1, not much as changed… and that’s the problem, not much as changed. I like the Palm Pre OS much better for handling opening and managing apps (of course, nether can hold a candle to the iPhone OS). The Palm Pre OS, although not as good as the iPhone, was enjoyable to use. The new Android OS isn’t enjoyable. As you see from one of the screen shots below, I loaded up theneocell.com. Funny how the browser is loading the theme reserved only for mobile Safari. Browsing web sites and interacting with links was a joke. The Palm Pre even handled loading sites much better.
Just to show the quality of the apps, from both Google and Motorola… the music player, included in a screen shot below, doesn’t even have a way (I checked) to play by genre. Are you kidding me?? That’s the only way I play my music is by genre, so they clearly don’t care about us, the consumer… they simply care about getting people’s money.
In all, I was really disappointed in the “Droid”. I ain’t gonna’ look down on anybody who gets a Droid, if I were on Verizon, the Droid would be my choice of phone… and I’d choose it over any Blackberry on the market, and I’d choose it over any phone offered by T-Mobile… so in short, the two best phones besides iPhones would be the Palm Pre and Motorola Droid
Would I rather have the Motorola Droid or Palm Pre? Well the Android market has a measely 10,000 apps compared to iTunes 100,000 apps… but Android’s 10,000 apps is so much larger than Palm’s App Catalog of only 300 (all these numbers are current by the way). The Palm Pre is a much more solid device, more solid OS, but it’s hardware specs (CPU, RAM, hard drive) are much weaker than the Droid and without those apps… if I had to choose the Pre or Droid, my choice would be for the Droid.
What are my thoughts on Droid’s impact? I think it’s horrible compared to the iPhone in every way, but I think the Droid’s gonna’ be a hit. Verizon’s network doesn’t suffer the amount of data AT&T suffers from all the iPhone users (us iPhone users are bogging down all of AT&T’s network, causing dropped calls and slow 3G connections for all customers, especially in metropolitan areas such as Tampa, Fl.). So, people are gonna’ see “great” reviews for the Motorola Droid and even greater review’s for Verizon’s network (which has virtually no one on it to bog it down). So I have a feeling, unlike any other “iPhone Killers” of the past, that this device will be different. I think, although it’s clearly inferior to any iPhone, a large number of people will flawk to it… until, however, a new iPhone is released next year that regains that attention and sets the record straight of just how far ahead iPhones are from any other phones.
But I’d love to end up wrong and have this be just another over-hyped “iPhone Killer”. We’ll have to see.
Check it out, I found a way to enable internet tethering for OS 3.1.2 for AT&T. This isn’t some crappy third-party app or half-baked hack that promises to work but doesn’t… If your jailbroken running OS 3.1.2, it enables the stock tethering feature of internet tethering from Apple. Best of all, you can install it all from Safari without anything extra.
Now go to Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering
And that’s it. You now got internet tethering. And yes, I’ve tried it on both the Neocell 3GS and my girl’s iPhone 3G and it works on both. Pretty bad ***, huh?
