It seems my brothers, sisters, cousins, neices and nephews have one thing in common: they all want smart phones for Christmas!!
Being the chief geek in the tribe I decided to pick up an iPhone when they first came out, then purchased the iPhone 3GS later on (although I do miss my iMetal friend–I hope ___ _____ is enjoying it).
Most of them are on Verizon (which I left) so I don’t have to worry about picking up an iPhone for them (even though they want one really bad).
Unfortunately many of them want the next best thing, and since most of Verizon’s phones are ugly (Moterola Droid included–at least that is what my sister said) they are all looking for the next best thing.
Since I don’t feel like paying $200/person per phone (and will not either by the way), I am going to have to hunt for some awesome deals at WalMart, Bestbuy, eBay and Amazon.
Thus far I’m heavily looking at the Droid Eris, which has a nice user interface that actually rivals the iPhone (a first in my honest opinion).
The phone is decent, and inexpensive (at least at WalMart).
I missed the $30 Eris Droid sale on Black Friday (Grrrrrrr!!!!) but hopefully it’s still cheap enough for me to purchase a few for the extended family (although they’ll have to pay for Verizon’s draconian service plan themselves). I might also consider a Blackberry Storm 2–depending on the deals they have. (hint, hint!)
What I really want to do is send them all an I.O.U. for Christmas and wait until they mysterious Google Phone appears (which according to rumors is similar to the HTC Passion).
The phone is coming out next year, and I know they will enjoy it tremendously (not to mention save me some cash!!).
So I can either get them an inexpensive gift this year (say a DVD) until the killer phone launches (just in time for birthdays) or attempt to buy them a smart phone which will become obsolete next year.
Either way, I need to make a decision–soon!! (as Christmas is next week!)
I love Google! I really do! Never has one company had so much impact upon my life (for the positive) and I doubt I’ll find another that will.
So why am I migrating away?
Answer: it isn’t wise for me to put all of my eggs in one basket.
On the rare occasions when Google was down/inaccessable, 90% of my geek life suffered sending me into nerd panic mode.
After much internal debate I have been slowly moving my life off of Google’s servers & choosing alternatives.
Here is my list thus far (with reasons to boot):
Blogger.com –> WordPress (self hosted)
• Reason: wanted anti-spam comment protection minus the word puzzles. Also plugins & pages were a plus.
Picasa Web Albums –> Facebook
• Reason: Much more interaction with friends, plus the fact that Facebook is much more mobile friendly (at least for the iPhone, Blackberry & Palm Pre).
Google Voice –> Skype
• Reason: Skype is an actual stand alone phone service, where Google Voice just rediects. Both are cool though!
Google Checkout –> PayPal
• Reason: PayPal is a lot more flexible. & I like their guarentees better.
That is it thus far, but I am going to be seeking out more alternatives (as the competition has drastically improved in the last few years).
Other Google services I’ll probably never leave (like YouTube, Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Reader, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Analytics, AdSense, Google News, etc.) while others I might consider (replacing Google Docs with Zoho, & Google Search with Bing).
And for you Android fans out there, I’m probably not going to use those phones (& before you whine about openess, the iPhone is only a jailbreak away).
If anyone has other suggestions for Google alternatives, feel free to let me know in the comment section below.
Update: Changed permalink as posting via YouTube simply left a weird number. Ghetto! (Hat Tip: Engadget)
So if you haven’t already seen the anti-iPhone Verizon ad, here it is in all its glory.
Here are the the points it lists, which I’ll update later on why its flawed.
iDon’t have a real keyboard
iDon’t run simultaneous apps
iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures
iDon’t customize
iDon’t run widgets
iDon’t allow open development
iDon’t take pictures in the dark
iDon’t have interchangeable batteries
Everything iDon’t
More later (as I’m posting this via YouTube).
Here we go!
iDon’t have a real keyboard
When Apple launched the iPhone a few years ago, Steve Jobs explained why they didn’t include a physical keyboard.
iDon’t run simultaneous apps
This has probably been one of the biggest gripes about the iPhone in general, as many of us have longed to run apps in the background.
In fact the only way to enable this was to jailbreak your iPhone via QuickPWN. With many angry users at their throats, Apple explained why they went with push notifications instead:
iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures
The iPhone 3GS (which I have) has a 3-megapixel camera. While not perfect, I have yet to find a camera that is easier to use than the iPhone.
In fact, the iPhone is sooo popular that it has dominated Flickr as the camera of choice–despite superior digital camera’s out there.
(LA Times) Here’s a tidbit that’s sure to irk Flickr’s elitist photographers: The iPhone has just topped Canon’s high-performance Digital Rebel XTi as the most popular camera on Yahoo’s popular image-sharing site.
The iPhone, with its bare-bones, two-megapixel camera, has been battling for the No. 2 spot for months in a tight race with two other Canon cameras and the Nikon D80, according to a graph plotting the overall user percentages of each model on Flickr’s Camera Finder.
While the iPhone is not the best camera at taking images (and yes, this iUser will admit there are a ton of smart phones with better camera’s), it is the easiest to use–hence the reason people use it more often.
iDon’t customize
Apple currently does not allow users to customize the iPhone (i.e. having a real wall paper). So Verizon is dead on about this issue.
iDon’t run widgets
Verizon is right about this one as well. Unless one jailbreaks their iPhone, they can not run awesome widgets like these.
iDon’t allow open development
Apple allows developers to build anything. The only catch is that they have to approve the apps that come through the gate.
While Verizon may boast about Android’s open approach to their SDK, the fact is they have two problems the worry about, the first being “splintering.”
(TechCrunch) Android, an open source operating system, must avoid the fate of J2ME, an open source mobile applications platform. Open source is great, until everyone splinters off into their own world. That’s what happened to J2ME, and a number of frustrated Android developers are now saying that there is a risk Android will follow the same path. [...]
We’ve spoken with a number of high profile Android application developers. All of them, without exception, have told me they are extremely frustrated with Android right now. For the iPhone, they build once and maintain the code base. On Android, they built once for v.1.5, but are getting far less installs than the iPhone.
And now they’re faced with a landslide of new handsets, some running v.1.6 and some courageous souls even running android v.2.0. All those manufacturers/carriers are racing to release their phones by the 2009 holiday season, and want to ensure the hot applications will work on their phones. And here’s the problem – in almost every case, we hear, there are bugs and more serious problems with the apps.
The second major issue is that Verizon has to worry about hackers, who may build an app that hijacks a person’s android phone.
While Google does have a kill switch, it may not be too little, too late, especially if a hacker is able to use his Android app to hijack and steal personal info.
iPhone users do not have to worry about that (as Apple approves what goes in, and has a kill switch just in case anything gets by).
iDon’t take pictures in the dark
Since I have a FastMac battery extender with a built in flash light, this point doesn’t matter to me.
But for those of you who do not, I’d recommend buying one–you can purchase one over here.
iDon’t have interchangeable batteries
This might look like a major issue, but in reality its not. One only has to look at the Macbook to see why they didn’t allow interchangeable batteries.
Everything iDon’t
There will always be a better phone out there, as there is always engineers creating breakthrough technology.
While I do not have any hate against Android or Verizon (which are both excellent products/services), they need to let other people praise their products, as well as tear down their rivals as well (Apple included).
Verizon seems to be following the footsteps of Sprint, whose Instinct didn’t do to well afterwards (and if you were wondering what happened to that “iPhone Killer,” I am asking the same question and getting blank stares).
While I am glad that Verizon is finally embracing a decent phone (so now my extended family can stop drooling over my iPhone), they need to stop focusing on “the iDevice,” and instead focus on promoting their phones/services.
When did life ever get so busy? Between tweeting, friendfeeding, texting, facebooking, blogging &YouTubing, I’ve found that living in the era of life streaming (which for you non-geeks means posting frquent updates about life online) to become a bit overwhelming.
While a large part of this is due to my iPhone (which makes is easy to tweet, Friendfeed, etc. more often), much of the blame rests with me and my desire to digitalize my life in cyber space for future generations to explore over.
So for the next 24 plus hours I’m going to tune out all social networks and refrain from texting.
Yes, even texting her.
This includes email as well (and I’m turning off push updates so my iPhone won’t alert me of the 100 plus messages that come through daily).
What will I do in the meantime? I’ll probably read a book or three (as I have dozens on my iPhone that are feeling neglected) or even go see a movie tomorrow (G-force, Harry Potter or the horrendous GI Joe).
So until Sunday, good night all! And don’t forget to get some exercise in the sunshine or catch a flick at the movie theatre).
Unless you are apart of the alternate reality know as the geek-a-sphere, then you probably have not heard about the upcoming Palm Pre, exclusive to Sprint.
While this device rivals the iPhone in several ways (one of them being multitasking), this device is doomed to fail–although through no fault of it’s own (with one exception).
Dude, where’s my App?
After being inspired by jailbreaking hackers, Apple launched an app store which everyone from Google Android to Blackberry copied.
To my knowledge, Apple has over 30,000 apps while Android has a few thousand (note: I have no clue what Blackberry’s numbers are).
If Palm Pre launches without some App momentum behind them, they may not attract many users because their too busy coveting Stanza, Ocarina or Joost which are on the iPhone (but may not be elsewhere).
Solution: Palm Pre needs to entice the iPhone developer community in order to attract the masses by the thousands.
With many iDevelopers in an uproar against Apple over a delay of payment, now would be the perfect time to “steal away” developers from Steve Jobs.
My suggestion? Offer the first 10,000 developers 100% commission for the first month of operation, and extend that offer for another month for those who end up in the top 10.
Compare yourself, with thyself
When Sprint launched the Instinct, one of their first mistakes was comparing themselves against the iPhone. Not only did Apple receive free advertising, but it showed just how clear the screen was.
Palm (and Sprint) should let the pundits compare and contrast the phones, and not marketing execs (unless they want a public backlash).
Palm and Sprint are doing a great job of this this far, although I fear desperation for attention might kick in ruining everything (especially with WWDC rolling around in June).
Solution: Highlight your phone, wait for the Apple mania to pass (give it two weeks) before proceeding to the next idea below.
Palm Pre What?
While many people have heard of Palm–at least in the corporate world–very few in the mainstream have heard of Palm Pre.
Let’s face it, everyone has heard about the iPhone. I know plenty of kids (8 years or younger) who know exactly what an iPhone is and (sadly) think nothing can compare to it.
Suggestion: Since neither Palm or Sprint can match Apple’s market share (at least immediately), my suggestion is they introduce the world to the Palm Pre via talk shows like Oprah and Ellen.
They should focus on why the Palm Pre is “Oprah/Ellen friendly,” and then give one to every member of the audience (with 6 months free service).
This would generate headlines beyond the realm of geek, and help establish Palm as a serious iConpetitor.
Conclusion: You are probaly wondering why I, an iFanatic would seek Palm and Sprint’s success, instead of their demise.
Truth be told while I probably would never exchange my iPhone for a Palm Pre (at least without seriously testing the Pre), I do want a strong rival to appear against Apple, instead of these half baked attempts by the Blackberry Storm (who needs a UI design for their phone) and Google Android (who has a software hardware dissconnect on the HTC).
Palm is currently my best hope that a serious iRival will emerge which will not only save both companies from financial ruin (that would be Palm and Sprint), but it would spare me the agony of hearing “Hi, I’m an iPhone–and hi, I’m an Android Phone” in the not so distant future.
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