Saturday, February 9, 2013

a tale of two iphones

originally posted on the posterous site. july 31, 2010 at 05:49:00pm

while i was in san francisco, i returned my iphone 4. why on earth did you do that, especially since you got it on release day after waiting four hours, you ask? the reason was because i don’t have reception (for the most part) when i am home, and more precisely in the man-cave. what did i get instead?

i got the htc evo on sprint. welcome to the world of big screens, 4g service and cheaper bills. for what it is, and for it’s targeted users, it’s a great piece of equipment. while i was in san francisco it worked perfectly – got email, internet access, text messages, and reception…the iphone got great reception there too, surprisingly enough. but…there is always a but isn’t there?

this monday afternoon though, my love affair with the evo began to quickly deteriorate. i’m a digital marketer by profession, and as such i need to be able to see html emails – you know the pretty ones – on my mobile device so that i know that they are readable on mobile devices. the htc evo, and what appears to be most android devices are not able to get html emails via exchange 2003; exchange 2007 and 2010 work flawlessly, but no matter the app or the setting I was unable to get them. strike one.

strike two came in the form of the maps application. while driving, I discovered the maps don’t scroll in the direction that you’re driving – they are all oriented north; the locator arrow points in the direction your are going. i personally find it difficult to navigate like this, i have actually ended up walking the wrong direction waiting for phone to catch the gps signal and that’s when i know I have gone the wrong direction. i have a good sense of direction until you start telling me north, south, east and west…then i’m directionally challenged.

strike three, came in the form of just general disappointment about android and what i can only describe as an operating system that isn’t polished. i found interfaces looked fuzzy and graphically speaking, user interfaces for applications just seemed to look less than professional -- like the developers rushed it to market, knowing that the community of users would fix it. i honestly don’t care if this thing could actually print money and turn into a private plane to take me to private island, without html email, i’m carrying a brick in my pocket.

oh and guess what, no reception on the evo in the man-cave…david says that is due to all the coke zero i drink…

that said, i have returned the evo and gone back to the iphone 4 (sans bumper). now, as much as i hate uncle steve telling me what i can and can not have on my phone, i have come to the conclusion that i am not an open source kinda guy and have come to (over) appreciate the retina-display and the simple interfaces of iphone apps and as you the reader is my witness, as soon as the jailbreak is released for this sucker, it’s on like donkey kong – is there an app for donkey kong?

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