[geeks] a cell phone that doesn't suck

[Phil Stracchino]

James Fogg wrote:
>> I seem to have lost my cell phone and need to get another one
>> to replace it.
> 
> 
> I find Motorola still makes the best phones. For the first time in my
> life I'm not on a Motorola, but as Samsung clamshell that opens in both
> portrait and landscape modes and has a full qwerty keyboard. I wanted
> something small and RAZR-like that had a keyboard.
> 
> I like a lot of what Verizon is offering, and I find their coverage to
> be way better than the GSM providers (Sprint, AT&T). You won't find a
> phone-only model, but many models, especially the Motorola's, keep the
> toys in the background. They even have a nearly pure phone hardened,
> waterproof, shock-resistant model for people like construction workers.

Verizon's superior coverage in New Hampshire does tempt me.  I'm using a
Cingular phone currently, because Cymru's job gave her a Cingular phone
and we get free in-network calling.  Unfortunately, Cingular/AT&T's
network coverage isn't the best, and up here in Gilford it's more miss
than hit.  But every time I think about Verizon's superior coverage, I'm
reminded that they intentionally cripple all their phones with a
lowest-common-denominator one-size-fits-all interface that prevents the
owner using the device as the manufacturer intended -- and frequently so
that the bastards can screw you out of another buck.

(Example - as far as I know, every camera phone that Verizon offers,
they disable the ability to upload photos from the phone directly to
your computer in order to force you to use their photo-email service to
send the photos to yourself at, if memory serves, a buck and a quarter
per photo.)

I went with Cingular/AT&T partly because we get free in-network calls,
and partly because Cingular doesn't cripple the phones.  If Verizon
would stop crippling their phones, I might well reconsider, especially now.


-- 
 Phil Stracchino, CDK#2         ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
 Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net   alaric at caerllewys.net
         It's not the years, it's the mileage.