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Updating the System …

Posted by Joseph Riggio on Tuesday, December 04, 2007

A Question Answered ... An Insanely Great Product Review

Howdy folks,

It seems I've made a false promise yesterday. In a response to a comment on Sunday's blog post I promised to get a another post up for tomorrow ... and yet I didn't make it. I was going to, I really was ... but around 9PM last night some malevolent force took over my wireless system and Internet connection and knocked all the computers in my home off-line. I even tried to reset the settings on my Airport but I couldn't get to it via the wireless connection. Then even when the system showed as being connected the connection failed on my browser when I tried to actually get to a website.

FWIW this isn't the first time this has happened either. I'd say that this is a reoccurring issue about every other week. Sometimes for an hour or two, sometimes for the entire evening. But last night was the most consistent and interruptive occurrence to date. Truly a ghost in the machine, and by no means an innocent or benevolent one at that.

Anyway, here I am this morning getting a post up as promised, albeit a day later than expected.

[BTW just as mysteriously as it cutout last night my connection was operating perfectly this morning, with no changes on my end to the system. In fact I'd even say this morning's connection was robust. I think I may have a neighbor who is either a CIA operative or an alien using a powerful wireless disruptor that interferes with my wireless system whenever they turn it on ... which of course happened again around 9PM last night.]

On the theme of technology there was a question posted as a comment to my blog posting of 11 Oct 2007 On The Road. The question was "Why a Blackberry and not an iPhone?" The answer at that time was that I was (and still am) a T-Mobile user and they didn't offer the iPhone. In addition my favorite phone was my Blackberry Pearl, which I still love, but which unfortunately died one month after the warranty ended!!! So I decided that the few things that I didn't love about the Pearl, i.e.: wireless Internet access, a bigger screen for viewing, I'd get in my next phone. For those reasons I decided on the Blackberry Curve, which I think is a great phone (maybe better all around than the iPhone, which I now have ... but that's for a later part of this story). The only issue was the Blackberry Curve was completely unable to sync with my Mac, making all but useless to me for a significant part of it's function to me!!!

So, moving on ... I got an iPhone and signed an agreement with AT&T to activate it. The iPhone is a very cool, very elegant device. And with that said I still think overall for what I do with it the Blackberry Curve may have served me better. Here are my points of comparision:

First, the Blackberry Curve:

  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet
  • It has a great wireless interface and decent browser capabilities
  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet
  • I found the keyboard interface easy to use and navigate
  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet
  • There are dozens of great third-party/aftermarket programs for the Blackberry
  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet
  • You can make calls and access the device features by voice recognition
  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet
  • The wireless function works for calling using T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service ... a super cool feature for VOIP, especially when you're traveling overseas and it makes calling free
    • ... and of course there's always the fact that,
  • By far the Blackberry is the best wireless email device on the planet


    • Next the iPhone:

  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date
  • The touch screen works perfectly and is a super cool user interface
  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date
  • Safari works as perfectly on the iPhone as it does on my Mac, 10 out of 10
  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date
  • Widgets technology integration, like Weather and Maps, is brilliant
  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date
  • Syncing the iPhone with the Mac is effortless and seamless ... perfect together
  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date
  • In addition to everything else it's a widescreen video iPod ... AWESOME!!!
    • ... and of course there's always the fact that,
  • The iPhone may be the world's most elegant piece of technology to date

    • So you can see that it comes down to whether you most value the addition of a portable email device or elegant technology as far as I'm concerned. Each have their unique value and place.

    Since for me my mobile phone has to be first and foremost a great international mobile phone, then a great email device and finally a great PDA ... in that order ... the Blackberry Curve is a world-class mobile device for my needs. Just the phone issue alone could put it over the top ... generally speaking the phone just works ... I love the VOIP feature (in fact I kept my T-Mobile account just to use that feature with an inexpensive Nokia phone from them for just that purpose), the built in speaker is well designed and works well, voice recognition calls add another great feature that rounds out an all around well designed phone.

    On top of being a great phone the Blackberry Curve also provides a great email service that is unmatched by any other I've tried or used ... it just works ... transparently. Then there are the PDA features that while world-class unto themselves are worthless if you can't sync up your computer to your phone ... and ultimately that issue alone killed the Blackberry Curve for me.

    On the other hand the iPhone truly is an elegant piece of technology. It's literally a sensuous piece of equipment in every way ... beautiful to look at, perfect video and sound quality, the tactile quality of the phone in use is absolutely intuitive ... I don't know if there's a user's manual but there's no need for one regardless of whether or not it exists. For example you connect the iPhone to a Mac, iTunes opens and the iPhone syncs (you can decide what information you want or don't want to sync, beyond that the process is fully automatic). I bought the compatible Apple Bluetooth earpiece and when you turn on the earpiece with the phone they are synced ... like many things Mac it too just works.

    Where the iPhone excels however is not as phone, which it does admirably, e.g.: visual voice mail BRILLIANT!!!. It's not the widescreen iPod function with an automatically adjusting screen that shifts from a portrait to a landscape format automatically when you turn the phone on its side or upright ... although that's quite a clever piece of techno-gadgetry of its own. It's really the Internet function where the iPhone stands alone. The fully functional Safari browser, not a "mobile device browser," really stands out and shines. It's fast, it easy to use, companies like Amazon.com have even built unique, custom website for the iPhone Safari browser.

    The single place I think the iPhone misses the mark in comparison with the Blackberry Curve is on the issue of email. Another possible "win" for the Blackberry Curve might be IMing, although there a nice widget webapp for the iPhone that flattens the field on this issue for me. And the iPhone's SMS feature blows away anything available on any other phone I've seen to date.

    So it comes down to this ... Do you value the email or Internet experience more? If you answer that question you could in my opinion resolve the choice on that alone. However, if you like me are working in the Mac environment than the choice becomes easily and highly weighted to favor the iPhone ... and that's where i am today.

    So a bit of a diversion for you today ... but one that surely can be argued to speak to the issues I regularly address on BlogNostra ... the essential nature of insanely great performance.

    Until next time ... thanks for the question Michael, and I hope the wait was worth it ...

    Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist
    New York, NY

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