Wow that’s great. I don’t have an iPhone at present for the reason I would have to get AT&T to use it legitimately (i.e. without hacking) but otherwise would be excited to use GMail IMAP on the iPhone.

I just had a question Mike — by the way I made another few posts in the Apple vs. Microsoft article you had published over the last few days (which of course you haven’t responded to yet but understand your too busy to respond to them very often and would need more time) I also heard that XBox 360s in addition to that Red Ring of Death issue you said has now been overly exaggerated (which I had compared to Windows Blue Screen of Death earlier) has been having disc scratching issues when you turn the 360 around from the vertical to horizontal direction — this could happen by accident at any time someone might forget there is a disc in the drive and move the system — then would need to replace the disc and that’s a drag.

I just don’t buy into the Games for Windows and Games for Windows Live or XBox Live stuff Micro$oft tries to sell. That’s right by the way instead of Microsoft I wrote Micro$oft with the dollar sign indicating Microsoft’s greed and desire to control every market they enter. Just as I’d replace the capital S in Sony with a dollar sign to indicate their own greed like this $ony.

Well, most any smartphone will have IMAP support. And as I say, due to the iPhone only having “move to folder” and no “copy to folder” it makes things a little difficult.

A friend of mine prefers the Gmail interface on his Nokia N95, but it doesn’t have an option to poll periodically for new mail. He doesn’t mind that but I don’t want to have to check myself to see if there is new mail. It should do that for me. As always, there are no perfect solutions and each person has his or her own preferences and priorities.

I am not a big fan of AT&T either. For many reasons. I’ll be glad when their contract with Apple expires and the phones can be legitimately opened up for any carrier.

-Mike

I doubt Apple would even after the contract with AT&T expires over iPhone automatically let consumers choose their own carrier for iPhone. Either they will renew the contract with AT&T which OF COURSE I STRONGLY HOPE THEY DON’T DO! Or they will sign an exclusive agreement with another carrier like Verizon and they can share in the carrier’s monthly revenues — the revenues iPhone owners would pay for service. If Apple let consumers choose any service while ideal they might lose revenue they could get from exclusive agreements.

I hope a day will come though when any phone can be opened up to work with any carrier — not just the iPhone but all cellular phones in general — of course the iPhone would be included as well.

I hear Google is rolling out its own plans for mobile phones — I think they are taking an approach similar to Microsoft’s with Windows Mobile to put Google software on as many phones as possible so it will not be tied down to a specific set of hardware it can work with all devices or handsets and work with phones connected to different carriers so they are not exclusive to anyone carrier but make their software available for phones using different carriers. I like Google’s approach in a way and I think it was the smart one. They don’t want to make their own handset if that means it would have be to locked to a specific carrier.

They want wireless freedom and the best way for them to achieve that is to just make the software for different phones.

There’s rumor Microsoft may even make a Zune phone but it is as of yet unconfirmed and Microsoft refuses yet to make any comment on it. Were they to do so they would further alienate their partners — not just partners on Plays for sure but their Windows Mobile partners as well.

Reasons though I don’t like AT&T:

1) It was and now is again a monopoly (remember it was the Ma Bell Telephone Monopoly in the 1980s) and now has re-merged in recent years since being broken up.

2) Poor customer service!

3) False Advertising — they state on TV commercials mentioning their merger with Cingular that they are the network with the fewest dropped calls I highly doubt that claim is 95% or even 100% accurate. Immediately after the merger with Cingular I had problems with the service - that didn’t exist earlier. That isn’t to say they didn’t have problems earlier but the problems got worse since these mergers took place with Cingular then SBC Communications and now BellSouth.

4) Censorship of text messages, emails etc — they censored a Pearl Jam music concert’s webcast and later apologized for it but it shouldn’t have been possible for them to do in the first place. They oppose Net Neutrality!

5) They say AT&T is Your World Delivered! Its really their world delivered to their customers on AT&T’s own terms. They should change that statement to Your World Delivered To The NSA! I am angry at them over the illegal — warrantless wiretapping they have been doing. I’m glad I’m not on AT&T right now!

They could also call it Our World Delivered To You On Our Terms Like It or Not!

Well, technically they’re not a monopoly in the cell game, since there are others out there (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.). But all of those companies make the barrier to switching so severe that they may as well all have a monopoly.

And I agree with you on the customer service. I think T-Mobile is the best in that arena, which isn’t to say that they’re good, just better than the others.

I think Apple would love to get the iPhone on other carriers. Sure, I doubt they’ll just open it up, but once the contract with AT&T is up, I’m sure they’ll sign similar contracts with other providers.

The iPhone isn’t as ubiquitous as Apple had hoped, so maybe they’ll have to reverse the flow of money to keep the phones moving in the market.

-Mike

I heard T Mobile has its own share of problems. I know someone who works in Somerton AZ and whenever they try to call a Yuma AZ phone number from a cellular phone receiving T-Mobile service the call would be directed to an international phone operator in Mexico because apparently T-Mobile does not provide proper service in Yuma — they consider it an international call to Mexico.

When I quit AT&T about 3 years back (I had a 2 year contract and could not cancel early without paying termination fees so I waited out the contract and then switched to Sprint but they are just as bad — Sprint is no good and I’ve been with Sprint for 1 year and have 2 be with them 1 more year before switching providers again without paying an early termination fee — termination fees should be illegal — it is unfair to charge users for ending service early.

I could cancel my cable or satellite television service at any time and switch to another available provider without paying early termination fees — one should only have to pay your last month’s bill before ending service to fulfill all payments — all reasonable fees should be paid but charging for early termination is ludicrous.

Wholesale open access would be wonderful for consumers being able to choose their phone and provider — if I change my carrier why should I have to change my cell phone? If I want to its okay but I shouldn’t be compelled to do so. Also the termination fees should not be an option for the companies to leverage.

You should be able to change your service plan at any time without extending your contract.

I heard Verizon was originally to be the provider of iPhone but didn’t like Apple’s terms that they wanted iPhones to be activated via iTunes itself and not via the carrier.

Carriers usually prefer to have more control of the phones than the phone maker and the software for mobile web browsing is never written very well on most phones — Apple sought to rectify this on iPhone by making very good software for the phone. They already knew Safari was a good web browser and they used their browser for iPhone and now iPod Touch.

Problem with iPhone in mobile web browsing is the reverse — the software is good but there is a slow data network — AT&T’s EDGE has slow connection — the speed is not that good. If this issue could also be ironed out the iPhone’s web browsing would be even better.

Also when I refer to AT&T being a monopoly again I mean that they are in a monopoly again today in general when you take AT&T, Cingular, SBC Communications and BellSouth and merge them into one company you get the largest telecommunications behemoth — a giant corporation that has too much control — the AT&T Monopoly of today is an ISP, a long distance phone company, a cellular phone company etc all rolled into one.

Yeah the other cellular phone companies can also be considered monopolies with the exception of Alltel which is a relatively new company and is trying to appeal to customers wanting more freedom in choosing plans for their phone service. Alltel is more open apparently than the other carriers.

Also when I left AT&T at the time I vowed to never go back and I intend to stick to that promise I made myself even if means being unable to use iPhone. That’s just a compromise I’ll have to make. As much as I like iPhone I don’t like AT&T.

Until a day comes when I somehow change my mind and unless I thought there was probable cause for me to buy an iPhone even if it meant using AT&T — that it wouldn’t be so bad to use it — in which case I felt so strongly I wanted an iPhone legitimately and didn’t care if I had to use AT&T — if I didn’t care about it I would go and buy one as soon as my Sprint contract ends and switch back to AT&T but I’m not willing to make that trade-off getting an iPhone at least for me is not worth switching to AT&T.

Originally I didn’t like iPhone because price tag was too high and the AT&T service. Now I think I’d just get iPod Touch and not have to worry about the phone part.

I have an iPhone and love it. But honestly, I would say wait, if you’re thinking about getting one. There are rumors of an iPhone version 2. As well, it remains to be seen what the 3rd party app space is going to be like. My guess is that all apps will be sold through the iTMS, like iPod games, and will be certified by Apple. As such, 3rd party apps will be available at the behest of Apple, not the community at large. So there may not be that many apps available, and they may mostly be silly.

In any case, right now, the phone is great for some things, but lacking in other ways. It’s a great phone, decent for email, about a 2 out of 10 for SMS, so-so for browsing the web, and a flat zero on cool expansionist apps (like GPS, etc.). So, depending on what you wish to do with your phone, it may or may not be the right decision to make.

-Mike

Does the iPhone work with voice calls or have speed dial? When and if it does get those features I’d find it even more useful. Like I said the AT&T requirement is what holds me back. I wish they used Verizon — I don’t mind the fact it has an exclusive carrier I just don’t like the carrier they selected.

Ummmm, are you asking if the iPhone works with voice calls? It is, after all, a cellphone. So yeah, it works with voice calls. Did you mean something different?

There is no speed dial, per se. So you can’t assign phone numbers to the keypad numbers (pressing and holding 1 will dial voicemail, though), but there is a favorites list that you can set up. So it’s almost speed dialing.

Verizon, to me, is the worst carrier of them all. Sure, the iPhone may be crippled in functionality somewhat. But every Verizon phone is crippled. Bluetooth is locked down, for instance. I’ve never been with Verizon, but from what I’ve heard, if you like to do wild things with your phone (like connect to GPS devices or install 3rd party software), then Verizon isn’t the right carrier for you.

-Mike

Yeah I meant making voice calls like when you use a voice tag — by voice calls you say the name of the person your calling and it automatically finds the number of the person in your phone’s address book and automatically starts calling the number associated with the voice tag for the person’s phone in your address book.

So if I take my cell phone and choose to make a voice call — and the call is to my home phone number while I’m away from home but I know a relative is at my home I would just say home and assuming there are no problems with the voice call — it doesn’t have trouble recognizing the call — this sometimes happens — but assuming its fine it will locate my home phone number as soon as I say the word home and my phone will automatically start dialing my home phone number.

Usually before making a voice call you have to press and hold a button called talk or call etc — on my Sprint phone which has a plastic keyboard there are 2 buttons for this speaker and talk. Pressing speaker once while I have an existing call will put the speaker on when not in a call if I press and hold speaker it will ask to record a voice tag entry for making voice calls and will associate the call with the number in your address book of your choice. I press and hold down the speaker button to create new voice tags — it usually has a limit to how many you can create for me and after that point if you try to make a voice tag you’ll get an error that no more can be saved.

When I meant making voice calls I referred to assigning phone numbers to keypad associated numbers (pressing and holding a button) I know its touch screen but when in the phone mode — where the keys for the phone feature are available there could be a feature to push one of the keys and hold it down to register voice calls. If a voice dial feature is almost there that might be almost good enough — it approaches providing that functionality but not completely hopefully a future software update for current iPhones could add complete functionality for voice dialing and future models of iPhone would ship with such functionality completed.

When I said I thought Verizon was a better service its just that I have heard they have the best customer service — lots of people use Verizon — I haven’t personally used it before but from what I heard the service is good.

I don’t know that much about the limitations — all carriers place some limitations — I don’t normally do wild things with my phone — you said if I do such things Verizon wouldn’t be for me so maybe Verizon would still be fine for me then. Only if I did such things like connecting GPS devices or installing 3rd party software would the idea of Verizon not being for me be more credible since you have stated under those circumstances its not advisable. Unless outside those areas its also not advisable I would think if those things didn’t matter.

As for speed dial I mean pushing a 1 digit number (using numbers 2 thru 9) which are linked to numbers in your phone’s address book — numbers 1 and 0 being reserved for voicemail and the operator for the carrier of your phone service.

Oh! LOL! Sorry.

No, the iPhone currently doesn’t have voice dialing. But it may get that functionality once the 3rd party apps start rolling in. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

Yeah, most phones that have that make you record the name you want to call for each entry. And then Bluetooth earpieces will let you use that functionality. For some reason, my car doesn’t. I have to record new names to voice dial specifically for my car. But I digress…

But the Blackberry Pearl does voice recognition, so you don’t have to record the names. It just figures them out by the spelling. I think that’s very cool. If that’s an important feature for you, then you might want to check out that handset.

Yeah, I knew what you meant by speed dial. As I said, the iPhone doesn’t have that either, but it has a favorites list, which is basically the same thing. I like it even better because you’re not limited to the 2-9 keys; you can have many more in the favorites list. I also like it better because you don’t have to remember who goes with which number. Generally, the easiest way to call people is either with the favorites list or just tapping the name on the call log. After all, chances are anyone you’ll call will have either called you or you have called them recently. Either way.

Yeah, the iPhone is far from perfect. But I like it. I use TiVo-to-Go to download and re-encode my television and then I put it on my phone. I keep 3-4 hours of TV on me at all times that I can watch when I have some down time. It’s just nice to have my iPod with me at all times without having to carry a second device.

-Mike

The favorites list idea is good for speed dialing the idea of being limited to numbers 2-9 for me is also kind of frustrating I would rather have that feature if possible but without that limitation of 2-9 keys.

Those alternatives you mention seem very similar although not exactly the same as what I described but still cool.

I once read a piece (don’t know how its related but your mentioning TiVo-to-Go made me think of it) at DefectiveByDesign.org a website by the Free Software Foundation to boycott DRM about DRM ruining the TiVo-to-Go Star this piece is now probably a few months old and may still be on the site but archived among all the entries on the site by date with newest at the top on first page and then oldest when you click to other pages.

Well, once the TiVo shows are downloaded and converted, there’s no DRM on them.

-Mike