Flutterby™! : a post iPhone world

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a post iPhone world

2010-09-28 21:02:51.075226+00 by Dan Lyke 13 comments

This morning my iPhone wasn't charging. Two trips to the Apple store later it still wasn't working, they offered to replace it for $200, or upgrade me to a 4 and extend my contract for two years for $260 or so.

So I went to the fly-by-night kiosk in the middle of the mall and bought a prepaid regular cell phone, and with some chicanery involving SIM cards I ended up with a basic LG phone again.

If, in 3 or 4 months, I decide I really can't live without a smartphone, I will have broken even, and I can research better options in the intervening time.

Should I get another smartphone, this one will have:

  • a straight USB connector, none of this freaky proprietary crap
  • a cap for that connector, even if it's just a rubber plug
  • a plastic screen, even if that means resistive and not capacitive multi-touch
  • probably a physical keyboard
  • a corporate attitude that's less content restrictive
  • no iTunes, preferably it'll just mount as a drive on my Linux computer for getting photos and media on and off of it
  • it should work as a phone

I need to see how that Nokia N900 stacks up in this.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Wireless Open Source iPhone ]

comments in descending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2010-10-01 19:52:55.387226+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think that what's interesting is what I can make those notes do when I feed them into things, and the paper and blue lines have a secondary step in there.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-10-01 15:55:47.547226+00 by: petronius

Maybe you should buy a little notebook....... you know, one with paper and blue lines.....

#Comment Re: made: 2010-10-01 14:59:45.959226+00 by: Dan Lyke

Ya know what the most amazing thing is? This is the third day since my new (to me) phone has seen a charger, and it just lost a bar of battery.

Third day. Not third hour. Man, this post-iPhone world is hard to get used to.

I am finding I'm missing a few things, mostly the notion of logging stuff I'm doing. I'm torn between thinking about a "smart phone", or just getting a sharism.cc Ben NanoNote and writing a little Python. Yeah, it won't log things wherever I am, and unless I spend another $80 on a WiFi Micro SD Card I'll have to plug it in at night to sync updates and such, but I think that'd be a large portion of what I miss.

Of course as soon as I say "$99 for the hardware, and $80 for the WiFi" I start to talk myself into spitting distance of an N900, so I'm gonna continue to hold off for a while...

#Comment Re: made: 2010-10-01 14:32:04.671226+00 by: ebradway

From what I hear, the iPhone barely even works as a phone. It's a good thing it's not "just a phone"!

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-30 21:14:23.883226+00 by: Dan Lyke

Well, it's also a camera and MP3 player, 'cause it was more expensive to buy the one that was just a phone.

Of course the iPhone doesn't just work as a phone, so...

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-30 18:36:57.007226+00 by: petronius

Just work as a phone? Do they make those anymore?

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-30 13:40:55.119226+00 by: ebradway

That episode is online now.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-30 03:32:13.115226+00 by: Dan Lyke

Just listened to that episode. Heck, if he had gone all postal on an Apple store, who'd vote to convict?

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-30 00:40:44.315226+00 by: andylyke [edit history]

This American Life sometime in the past month or so had a show on the theme of "you have the right to remain silent". The opening story was a hilarious if scary one of a fellow who got frustrated with his Iphone and wound up visited by homeland security. It's available, unfortunately as a podcast.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-29 18:05:25.291226+00 by: Dan Lyke

Yep. Canceled the data plan.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-29 16:37:27.619226+00 by: TheSHAD0W

You're still paying for the data plan though, unless you've canceled that...

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-29 13:24:49.419226+00 by: ebradway

The BlackBerry fits about 70% of what you want. But even that it's a little weak. At least, my 8830 has:

Oh yeah, the BB is available from most carriers. I'm on Verizon, which isn't the greatest in the Colorado Front Range but it only rarely has let me down. I also get tethering for $10/month.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-28 23:10:50.955226+00 by: meuon

I'm still liking my N900. I'm not as picky about some things as you are, but it blows my older iPhone away, and from what I can tell, Android as well. It's just better integrated all around: GSM/SIP/Skype all working all the time.