Best Carrier for Cell Phone Coverage?

[brownhornet]

Actually my phone didn't cost anything at all. Plus what makes windows mobile better is the fact that you can change pretty much everything about the phone to suit your liking unlike android and iphone. There are a million custom roms out there which not only allow you to change the operating system, but you can also make registry edits and there are several people that even have android running on their device as a backup platform.. meaning they can use windows mobile AND android.

The G1 is ok as I've actually had and sold one but again the phone is more limited. Roms and changes are unlimited on the pro and I can do pretty much anything to it.

Plus with t mobile the G1 has 3G capabilities but t mobile 3G coverage is shaky at best and most places only get EDGE speeds... which is the speed I get only when there is no EVDO coverage... which is pretty much never.

And I don't even use internet explorer. Again the flexibility allows me to use opera mini, opera 9.7, skyfire (which have full flash unlike safari on the Iphone or android) or 3 or 4 other browsers all of which I have installed on the touch pro 2 rom... oh yea you can also port operating roms from other phones.

Im not going to debate about it im simply saying all the hype around the Iphone I just can't understand. The G1 is cool also but trust... when it comes to functions and flexibility there really is no comparison. Im sure at some point android will reach its full potential but that's definitely not now. Their phones are still pretty limited and that's why I still prefer windows mobile. Plus with sprint tv and unlimited data... with tv out jacks allows me to watch cable on tv through my phone... and I can use it to tether to my laptop and still get 3G download speeds. With the t mobile I had I couldn't even get service inside my apartment so that wasn't even an option for me. Plus I hated the look of the G1.. the Iphone does at least look good.

[StPaulEastSider]

Brownhornet:

Uh huh... the reason you don't care for your lady friend's I-phone, I suspect, is because she probably isn't too keen on the idea of you doing a jailbreak on it so that you can hack it and customize it to your heart's desire. Geeks are hacking and customizing the I-phone, just as they hack everything else they lay their hands on - they even crack open the I-phone case to remove the battery. ;-) It took less than 2 weeks to jailbreak the latest I-phone to hit the streets.

The G1/Android can be rooted and then tethered for modem use, at least a couple dozen Android ROMS are available for Android, it's got the potential to be more flexible and functional than the WinMo because it is opensource. I am following a guy at Google Hdqtrs on Twitter who is in charge of releasing Android's open source code. At the end of the day I'd rather have clean, tight, elegant and functional code... registry keys, blah! Don't get me wrong, I am all for tweaking and customizing, and I did some of that withh my PPC PDA, although never to the extent of flashing the ROM with anything other than the device manufacture's ROM update. No matter how much you tweak and hack Windows & Apple, at the end of the day you are still playing in, as Betty put it, somebody elses' sandbox.

Being the crazy idealist geek that I am, I have an utopian love affair going on with everything open source. I also have a fear Google will one day lock the entire world into their sandbox - aaargh! Microsoft is the corporate giant, and Apple caters to the elite and priviliged.... linux, android and open source are the computing platform for the people. Nobody is sure how Google's new OS is going to fit into this picture, they say it's going to be open source. I have a love 'em but keepin' my eye on 'em attitdude going on with Google...I don't quite know when or if we ought start fearing 'em.

I love the thought of linux, and now android, being used to bridge the digital divide and wage war on global poverty, educate the masses and facilitate freedom of speech, and democracy. The entreprenuerial spirit in me is challenged by the idea of how to make money with open source....No end to the intrigue and fascination of open source - at least not for me.

BTW, I don't hate corporate America, nor the elite & priviliged, but they have people watching out for their interests, they are already 'in the game' so to speak. I just want everyone to have access to the tools they need to play the game of life in today's world.

I am actually fixin' to root my G1, I'll probably do it when the kids are gone next week, I so fear getting interrupted, skipping a step and pucking it up (moderators: that is Puck, as in hockey puck.) I made a laptop into a doorstop whilst flashing the ROM not too long ago, fortunately it was a P3, so no real harm.

A big reason why geeks jailbreak the I-phone is to gain the ability to use the phone on a network other than AT&T. Tmo's coverage is good in the Twin Cities, but I am worried about coverage in ATL, I guess we'll get a better idea for how well that may work out in October when we are in town on a scouting trip for our move next year.

The g1 is kinda nerdy looking, and the I-phone is sexy... but your phone ain't all that, it is rather large chunky... still, I take any device with a real keyboard and not the uber-tiny blackberry and palm pre keyboards, thank you very much. I managed fairly well with Calligrapher for the PPC on my Axim, or the softkeyboard (I used an upgrade by Resco) but I still prefer real, physical keys. So if physical keys = chunky = not sexy, so be it. I actually miss the stylus, styluses don't work on the G1 touch screen due to how they are optimized for finger use.

Oh ya, and did you get your phone for free as a corporate perk? Your phone usually sells for $250 when signing a 2-yr contract with Sprint, that's the assumption I was basing my statements upon.

For now WinMo probably does have more to offer... but the price point is the breaking point. At least for me it was the breaking point. At Tmo I could not get comparable WinMo hardware, at any price. I-Phone is selling for $99 with a contract! THAT is the answer to your question. It was not to long ago that smartphone were only something corporate elites slurged on, and then came blackberries at that was primarily for corporate types. Entry-level BBs are now affordable with upgrades and plans and the IPhone....that's also just cool like the mac & ipod... marketing touchdown!

To sum up everything... looking to the future I think Android will topple WinMo. But as long as there is still money to be made it will continue to be out there in the marketplace, and Microsoft certainly has the deep pockets to give it life support for many, many years.

Competition is good! I'd prefer to see at least 3-5 viable platforms in the marketplace at all times.

[StPaulEastSider]

In my ramblings above I neglected to say, yes, I do agree the WinMo phone does AT THIS TIME offer the most in terms of applications and ... there are things I could do on my Axim PPC PDA which I still cannot do on my G1, not yet.

OTOH, there are things I could do out of the box with my G1 that I had to jump through hoops to get working on my PDA.... or I had to purchase an extra app to accomplish, such as home screen and UI enhancements.

When I went to Tmo I really thought it would be best to get a WinMo, but the phones offered by Tmo did not wow me... they were both at least 2 year old model. I knew whatever I picked out would likely be it for the next two years, choicing a model already two years old meant it would be four-year old hardware by the end of the contract. I couldn't stomach that thought.

I never really played with a Blackberry, again Tmo didn't have the BB model I was interested [something with a decent-sized screen]...

So I moved onto the display for the G1...

But yeah, if I had decent hardware choses I may have stuck with WinMo FOR NOW becausee the pragmatic in me was saying "which is the best for 'getting things done' TODAY?"... Knowing Android was still in it's infancy, I was hesitant. But now I'm glad an early adaptor, and when I din't have to configure ANYTHING to get my gmail, calendar and contacts to automatically and instantly sync to the web - wow!