Maybe that's true, but both revisions of iPhone do interfere with audio equipment, and I do hear GSM sputtering in the headphones. My CDMA phones have not exhibited the problems you stated.
That's an old, minor annoyance, which I sometimes view as an advantage, because it alerts me to the transmission of data. It's not anywhere in the league of not being able to distinguish brief drop-outs from periods when the other party isn't talking or not being able to accurately understand the other party.
Meanwhile, Steve can claim day and night that he's pushing for DRM-free music on iTunes, but until I see equally-priced (or cheaper) DRM-free tunes, I refuse to believe he means it. iTunes is the #1 or #2 music retailer - whichever - which means APPLE HAS THE POWER TO PRESSURE RECORD LABELS.
Clive-
There is no premium for the DRM-free iTunes Plus songs. All basic track offerings on iTunes cost 99 cent price whether or not they are protected by DRM.
I am not sure what leverage you think Apple has over the record labels. Don't forget that this is an industry whose history is rife with stories of payola and bullying small merchants and they seem about as stupid as they are not easily intimidated. Jobs made his case for DRM-free music (regardless if there were additional motives) and only EMI signed on. The other labels, in response to Apple's "heresy", seem to have chosen an "anyone but Apple" approach to providing unprotected music online. Out of their blind fear, they seem unwilling to risk that Apple (or, likely, anyone else) might further control distribution of their product.
I think it would be far more fruitful for those opposed to DRM to make the record labels feel their wrath directly. Maybe buy an DRM-free song on iTunes and send a copy of the receipt to another label explaining that you have chosen this item over one of theirs because it was both DRM-free and available at your preferred retailer. If everyone did this for a few months, I think the record labels night relent. This is the kind of effort the FSF should be spearheading.
Verizon's continuing downplay of the iPhone is a little short on credibility-I mean really-they claim that iPhone sales are pushing their own smart phone sales
I mean really d00d!!11!! Can I please have an LG DARE Phone?!?11!! (which incidentally costs as much as an iPhone but has kewl "angled" icons) that is so tightly locked-up I can't even add my own ring tones? And that runs some proprietary version of some software (not even Windows Mobile, which isn't very good in itself) WOW! I can run an HTML browser on my kewl gnu phone man
Verizon's problem is that they are the opposite of open source-you can't even sneeze around your phone without a charge. I don't think much of AT&T either-but there is no way I would trade my iPhone 3G for ANYTHING in Verizon's arsenal-especially with their $2.99 ring tones that only last 6 months and their legendarily bad customer service-it is at least as bad as AT&Ts, only without a phone worth owning.
I think perhaps you haven't gone into a Verizon store in about three years. I own a ton of Macs but in the area I live, there is only one choice for great reception and that is Verizon.
First one success can indeed drive another. Why do you think Lowes just happens to build down the street from Home Depot, etc.
Finally Verizon used to lock their phones up tight but somebody slapped them with a smart stick and they unlocked everything. I own the Dare and you can have the icons come in at the angle or follow the grid with a different theme. You message a ringtone to yourself and just save as a ringtone. My wife has around 50 ringtones on her ENV2. You simply sideload whatever you want. I have an 8 gig card and have movies, music, whatever I want on it. I also enjoy unlimited data for $15 a month
I think perhaps you haven't gone into a Verizon store in about three years. I own a ton of Macs but in the area I live, there is only one choice for great reception and that is Verizon.
First one success can indeed drive another. Why do you think Lowes just happens to build down the street from Home Depot, etc.
Finally Verizon used to lock their phones up tight but somebody slapped them with a smart stick and they unlocked everything. I own the Dare and you can have the icons come in at the angle or follow the grid with a different theme. You message a ringtone to yourself and just save as a ringtone. My wife has around 50 ringtones on her ENV2. You simply sideload whatever you want. I have an 8 gig card and have movies, music, whatever I want on it. I also enjoy unlimited data for $15 a month
I have not seriously considered Verizon for several years, but do have friends that still use them and my evidence is anecdotal to be sure, but their complaints are the same that I discovered years ago. When they FINALLY released a CDMA version of the RAZR, I had a tonne of cool ring sounds on my T-Mobile RAZR that my friend wanted.
Even using Motorola Phone Tools-we COULD NOT get the ring tones installed on his phone-I guess technically they were installed on the phone, but there was no way to use them. Verizon had its list of approved ring tones included and in order to get a custom one, he had to download it from Verizon-which added the tone to a protected and inaccessible folder in the phone. And then he told me that if he bought a ring tone it cost $3(!) and lasted only 6 months.
As for customer service, I guess theirs isn't any worse than AT&T (which DOES SUCK in this area). But the ENVY's operating system surely isn't OS-X for iPhone...
PS-I don't mean to slam anyone's choice of wireless carriers-AT&T has a HUGE LONG list of issues-if I had my way, iPhone would be a T-Mobile device. That being said-Verizon's CEO sure sounds like sour grapes-very unprofessional-and again, my evidence is anecdotal, but approximately 1/2 of the people I talked to while in line to get the iPhone were coming from Verizon-and they all HATED Verizon-except for their coverage which is arguably the most complete in the states. Good luck taking it over seas though...
I have not seriously considered Verizon for several years, but do have friends that still use them and my evidence is anecdotal to be sure, but their complaints are the same that I discovered years ago. When they FINALLY released a CDMA version of the RAZR, I had a tonne of cool ring sounds on my T-Mobile RAZR that my friend wanted.
Yep, I had the Razr as well and when it first came out, Verizon had it, and all their phones locked up tight as a drum. Subsequent firmware updates opened everything up though. I'm not sure if they ever got around to opening up the ringtones on the Razr, but I do know that I have up and downloaded everything else via bluetooth or sideloaded it.
I do know that both of our current phones, Dare and ENV2, allow us to save audio messages as ringtones. So my wife just emails herself the ringtones and saves them to her phone. I'm not big enough on ringtones to care, but I know she is huge on them.
Quote:
As for customer service, I guess theirs isn't any worse than AT&T (which DOES SUCK in this area). But the ENVY's operating system surely isn't OS-X for iPhone...
I don't even think the Dare is as good as the iPhone at most things. it has a great camera, is fantastic for messaging and calling and has insane battery life. I send my pics straight to Flickr and video straight to YouTube. The camera is just insanely nice. It is perfect for what I do but most of all, the network is just the best.
It is very hard to lower the bar in area once you have grown used to it. You might be able to raise the bar in other areas but you don't want to lower them in any. I think Verizon has been smart here because their network is just tops. If I could get the iPhone on it, I would in a minute. However I cannot downgrade networks just to get the iPhone. My friend tried it and the voice quality and reception were just terrible. My other friend and a couple family members own iPhones and the experience is pretty uniform for So Cal. The phone is great. The network is terrible.
Quote:
PS-I don't mean to slam anyone's choice of wireless carriers-AT&T has a HUGE LONG list of issues-if I had my way, iPhone would be a T-Mobile device. That being said-Verizon's CEO sure sounds like sour grapes-very unprofessional-and again, my evidence is anecdotal, but approximately 1/2 of the people I talked to while in line to get the iPhone were coming from Verizon-and they all HATED Verizon-except for their coverage which is arguably the most complete in the states. Good luck taking it over seas though...
I think if I were to go overseas, I would just get a prepaid phone. I'll gladly admit that it is harder to find middle ground at Verizon. You can go cheap and you can do well if you go all in for services. It is sort of like the perpetual xMac debate. There is no Verizon "mini-tower" plan and I'll gladly admit that.
Comments
Maybe that's true, but both revisions of iPhone do interfere with audio equipment, and I do hear GSM sputtering in the headphones. My CDMA phones have not exhibited the problems you stated.
That's an old, minor annoyance, which I sometimes view as an advantage, because it alerts me to the transmission of data. It's not anywhere in the league of not being able to distinguish brief drop-outs from periods when the other party isn't talking or not being able to accurately understand the other party.
Meanwhile, Steve can claim day and night that he's pushing for DRM-free music on iTunes, but until I see equally-priced (or cheaper) DRM-free tunes, I refuse to believe he means it. iTunes is the #1 or #2 music retailer - whichever - which means APPLE HAS THE POWER TO PRESSURE RECORD LABELS.
Clive-
There is no premium for the DRM-free iTunes Plus songs. All basic track offerings on iTunes cost 99 cent price whether or not they are protected by DRM.
I am not sure what leverage you think Apple has over the record labels. Don't forget that this is an industry whose history is rife with stories of payola and bullying small merchants and they seem about as stupid as they are not easily intimidated. Jobs made his case for DRM-free music (regardless if there were additional motives) and only EMI signed on. The other labels, in response to Apple's "heresy", seem to have chosen an "anyone but Apple" approach to providing unprotected music online. Out of their blind fear, they seem unwilling to risk that Apple (or, likely, anyone else) might further control distribution of their product.
I think it would be far more fruitful for those opposed to DRM to make the record labels feel their wrath directly. Maybe buy an DRM-free song on iTunes and send a copy of the receipt to another label explaining that you have chosen this item over one of theirs because it was both DRM-free and available at your preferred retailer. If everyone did this for a few months, I think the record labels night relent. This is the kind of effort the FSF should be spearheading.
Verizon's continuing downplay of the iPhone is a little short on credibility-I mean really-they claim that iPhone sales are pushing their own smart phone sales
I mean really d00d!!11!! Can I please have an LG DARE Phone?!?11!! (which incidentally costs as much as an iPhone but has kewl "angled" icons) that is so tightly locked-up I can't even add my own ring tones? And that runs some proprietary version of some software (not even Windows Mobile, which isn't very good in itself) WOW! I can run an HTML browser on my kewl gnu phone man
Verizon's problem is that they are the opposite of open source-you can't even sneeze around your phone without a charge. I don't think much of AT&T either-but there is no way I would trade my iPhone 3G for ANYTHING in Verizon's arsenal-especially with their $2.99 ring tones that only last 6 months and their legendarily bad customer service-it is at least as bad as AT&Ts, only without a phone worth owning.
I think perhaps you haven't gone into a Verizon store in about three years. I own a ton of Macs but in the area I live, there is only one choice for great reception and that is Verizon.
First one success can indeed drive another. Why do you think Lowes just happens to build down the street from Home Depot, etc.
Finally Verizon used to lock their phones up tight but somebody slapped them with a smart stick and they unlocked everything. I own the Dare and you can have the icons come in at the angle or follow the grid with a different theme. You message a ringtone to yourself and just save as a ringtone. My wife has around 50 ringtones on her ENV2. You simply sideload whatever you want. I have an 8 gig card and have movies, music, whatever I want on it. I also enjoy unlimited data for $15 a month
I think perhaps you haven't gone into a Verizon store in about three years. I own a ton of Macs but in the area I live, there is only one choice for great reception and that is Verizon.
First one success can indeed drive another. Why do you think Lowes just happens to build down the street from Home Depot, etc.
Finally Verizon used to lock their phones up tight but somebody slapped them with a smart stick and they unlocked everything. I own the Dare and you can have the icons come in at the angle or follow the grid with a different theme. You message a ringtone to yourself and just save as a ringtone. My wife has around 50 ringtones on her ENV2. You simply sideload whatever you want. I have an 8 gig card and have movies, music, whatever I want on it. I also enjoy unlimited data for $15 a month
I have not seriously considered Verizon for several years, but do have friends that still use them and my evidence is anecdotal to be sure, but their complaints are the same that I discovered years ago. When they FINALLY released a CDMA version of the RAZR, I had a tonne of cool ring sounds on my T-Mobile RAZR that my friend wanted.
Even using Motorola Phone Tools-we COULD NOT get the ring tones installed on his phone-I guess technically they were installed on the phone, but there was no way to use them. Verizon had its list of approved ring tones included and in order to get a custom one, he had to download it from Verizon-which added the tone to a protected and inaccessible folder in the phone. And then he told me that if he bought a ring tone it cost $3(!) and lasted only 6 months.
As for customer service, I guess theirs isn't any worse than AT&T (which DOES SUCK in this area). But the ENVY's operating system surely isn't OS-X for iPhone...
PS-I don't mean to slam anyone's choice of wireless carriers-AT&T has a HUGE LONG list of issues-if I had my way, iPhone would be a T-Mobile device. That being said-Verizon's CEO sure sounds like sour grapes-very unprofessional-and again, my evidence is anecdotal, but approximately 1/2 of the people I talked to while in line to get the iPhone were coming from Verizon-and they all HATED Verizon-except for their coverage which is arguably the most complete in the states. Good luck taking it over seas though...
I have not seriously considered Verizon for several years, but do have friends that still use them and my evidence is anecdotal to be sure, but their complaints are the same that I discovered years ago. When they FINALLY released a CDMA version of the RAZR, I had a tonne of cool ring sounds on my T-Mobile RAZR that my friend wanted.
Yep, I had the Razr as well and when it first came out, Verizon had it, and all their phones locked up tight as a drum. Subsequent firmware updates opened everything up though. I'm not sure if they ever got around to opening up the ringtones on the Razr, but I do know that I have up and downloaded everything else via bluetooth or sideloaded it.
I do know that both of our current phones, Dare and ENV2, allow us to save audio messages as ringtones. So my wife just emails herself the ringtones and saves them to her phone. I'm not big enough on ringtones to care, but I know she is huge on them.
As for customer service, I guess theirs isn't any worse than AT&T (which DOES SUCK in this area). But the ENVY's operating system surely isn't OS-X for iPhone...
I don't even think the Dare is as good as the iPhone at most things. it has a great camera, is fantastic for messaging and calling and has insane battery life. I send my pics straight to Flickr and video straight to YouTube. The camera is just insanely nice. It is perfect for what I do but most of all, the network is just the best.
It is very hard to lower the bar in area once you have grown used to it. You might be able to raise the bar in other areas but you don't want to lower them in any. I think Verizon has been smart here because their network is just tops. If I could get the iPhone on it, I would in a minute. However I cannot downgrade networks just to get the iPhone. My friend tried it and the voice quality and reception were just terrible. My other friend and a couple family members own iPhones and the experience is pretty uniform for So Cal. The phone is great. The network is terrible.
PS-I don't mean to slam anyone's choice of wireless carriers-AT&T has a HUGE LONG list of issues-if I had my way, iPhone would be a T-Mobile device. That being said-Verizon's CEO sure sounds like sour grapes-very unprofessional-and again, my evidence is anecdotal, but approximately 1/2 of the people I talked to while in line to get the iPhone were coming from Verizon-and they all HATED Verizon-except for their coverage which is arguably the most complete in the states. Good luck taking it over seas though...
I think if I were to go overseas, I would just get a prepaid phone. I'll gladly admit that it is harder to find middle ground at Verizon. You can go cheap and you can do well if you go all in for services. It is sort of like the perpetual xMac debate. There is no Verizon "mini-tower" plan and I'll gladly admit that.
What's worse than calling for a moronic DDOS attack on a company?
When your own supporters tell you to talk you the hand.