What a month it's been huh?  June 24, 2010: Judgment Day.  Steve Jobs released upon this world a redesigned iPhone, very different than the familiar 3G and 3GS form factor.  Little did he know, the flood gates to Antennagate were about to blow open and drown out the wondrous magical device that Jobsy promised.

I'm usually not an early adopter, I typically like to wait a bit after a major phone release before deciding on which to choose.  I know we wanted iPhones, and the iPhone product has been rock steady pretty much since it's inception in 2007.  I also was drawn to the new design of the iPhone 4, the curvy nonsense on the 3G and 3GS wasn't attractive to me at all.  So I took the plunge and pre-ordered for launch day.  My phone came (not without many billing fiascoes with AT&T, but that's a different story) and I've been using it as my primary mobile device since then.  Here's my take on my first month with my first iOS device.

Point 1: AT&T's service

OK, so the first complaint EVERYONE IN THE US has with the iPhone is AT&T.  I've seen the speedtest results from the major metros (SF, NY, etc.).  I understand that people can be frustrated with dropped calls and slow data in highly populated areas and somehow this gets blanketed to the 97% of the country that AT&T covers.  Maybe Raleigh/Durham just has a very strong AT&T infrastructure.  I can say this, while in my home area, I have yet to drop a call throughout this month.  Additionally, I have not experienced any data slowdowns and have had 3G coverage everywhere I've gone.  Granted I don't go to a lot of places outside the Triangle, but for what I use the phone for I'm completely satisfied.  My recent trip to Las Vegas did have some severe data slowdown issues in certain parts of The Strip, and I certainly made use of the "Mark the Spot" app.  I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but as far as my daily use goes there has been no difference between AT&T and Verizon's service.

Point 2: Death Grip

The iPhone 4 has a signal attenuation issue, it's been confirmed by various outlets and even Apple itself.  Am I aware of how I hold the phone when I'm using it?  Yes.  Does it ruin the experience for me and render the phone unusable?  No.  People made a mountain out of a molehill and got their free case/bumper out of it (I'll be getting one too, not sure if I'll use it however).  This is not a dealbreaker for me and again has not really affected the way I use it.

Point 3: iOS and it's "apps"

I'm digging iOS.  Much more than Windows Mobile, though I haven't used Android in order to compare.  I appreciate the attention to detail that was put into it (i.e. the .com button on the Safari keyboard) and it's extremely user friendly.  I'm finding that I'm not really using a large variety of apps and the app store seems to be full of garbage apps.  It's nice to say that you have 100,000 apps but if 60% are garbage it loses it's value.  The iPod app is absolutely excellent, a pleasure to use.  I can't wait to see iOS on other types of devices because it would certainly fit. 

Point 4: Camera

I took all my photos and video from my trip last week to Vegas on my iPhone.  Some came out really great, some not so great.  After all, it is a phone and not a point-and-shoot or DSLR replacement.  Here's some samples:

Bottom Line:

The iPhone 4 is the best phone I've used.  The form factor, the aesthetics, the display, the responsiveness of the touchscreen, everything.  Even if Consumer Reports won't recommend a buy, I will. 

I've got a full week under my belt with Apple's newest iDevice.  News broke today that the first (emphasis added) class action lawsuit is being brought against Apple in regards to the "death grip" antenna issues.  From the KCR website (http://www.kcrlegal.com/iPhone-reception-problems.aspx):>

Meanwhile, since we posted our inquiry on Monday, June 28, over 1250 people have responded. The overwhelming majority are experiencing problems with their iPhones and agree that Apple should be held accountable.

So let me get this straight.  Over 1250 people are saying their reception isn't so great with the iPhone 4.  Apple sold 1.7 million devices in the first weekend it was available.  The percentage of respondents is so low I can't even copy it from Windows Calculator (I mean I can, it's 7.352941176470588e-4, but who wants to see that?).  Why are people bothering with this frivolousness?  I'd even venture to say there's more actually defective units that were sold than the amount of people that are complaining about their signal loss.

Apple is a big company, people think that it's going to just roll over to a few squeaky wheels.  To say that the iPhone 4 is completely unusable as it was released is absurd.  I'm finding more and more places just in my daily use where I have more bars with AT&T than I did with Verizon, including inside buildings.  This kind of nonsense just appears to be the same Apple hate that happens every go around, it's always going to be something critically and traumatically wrong with anything that is released.

Don't get me wrong, if I cover the left side black band with my thumb my bars start to drop.  In my apartment.  Around town I don't have that issue and I can freely hold the phone however I wish without dropping calls or paralyzing my data connection.  I'm not going to put a bumper on my phone and I'm not putting a case on it.  I'm not dissatisfied with the service or the hardware.  I have my gripes about some minor things with iOS but I'll get used to it.

It's genuinely shocking to me the amount of fervor over "low signal strength."  Hasn't that been the major complaint of AT&T for years now?  It's no different now than it was when you bought your 3GS last year, and your 3G the year before, and your 2G the year before that.  AT&T and Apple both have a 30 day return policy, if it doesn't fit your needs, then return it.  I'd be interested to go into a few AT&T and Apple stores to see how many phones have been returned to date.  My guess is very very very few.

The Apple vs. the Internet soap opera continues......

Let's see if AT&T lives up to their reputation and if ol' Jobsy can impress me. Today I hopefully fought my last billing battle and have the iPhone 4 in my grubby mitts.

Sent from my iPhone

Welcome to my inaugural posterous post. 

I decided to make the switch to AT&T mostly because of the hardware provided by Apple.  In a world of Incredibles, Droids and EVOs mobile hardware is advancing at a cheetah's pace.  When Gizmodo broke the iPhone 4 leak a couple months ago, the iPhone started to look viable for me.  Without even knowing the internal hardware, the design caught my eye more than any other iPhone to date.  Glass on front and back, the metal rim, the individual volume buttons.  It was something that was an iPhone but it wasn't.

Fast forward to pre-order day.  We all know what happened during the WWDC keynote so I won't rehash.  Starting early this morning on AT&T's website the pre-order process would hit different milestones and error out.  Our situation was more complex as we were porting in 2 numbers from Verizon on a new AT&T family plan.  Regardless, after a few failed attempts I gave up and went to the local AT&T store.

While there were a fair amount of people in the store, it wasn't overrun or shut down as earlier Internet reports stated.  The representative taking my order was friendly and all, but really didn't inform me exactly what was going on during each step.  Because of this, he ported my number instead of Karen's to the 16GB 3GS that she bought today.  This lead to an hour long call with AT&T and Verizon's provisioning groups to get my number back in Big Red's hands and off AT&T's network so I can continue to have service until my new iPhone 4 comes in.

Both parties were extremely nice and helpful.  The Verizon guy even gave the AT&T guy some guff over the new data plan set up and tried to tout the Incredible, which I felt was a bit unprofessional, but allowed a comedic break to the monotonous waiting.  When all was said and done, I got my number back, we walked away missing 2 hours of our life but got free activation on both phones.

Clearly AT&T was not prepared for the volume, either that or the volume was so high that it broke everything.  Being that they are already pushing back the delivery for my pre-order (to June 25-July 5), it's apparent no amount of preparation could have saved today's online disaster.  The store's computer system was spotty at best, ending up at the end of our visit being completely down and unable to process Karen's port.  Our representative called us back and set up the port once their systems came back up nearly 2 hours after we left the store.

Overall AT&T was very helpful on the customer service side, though it's frustrating to know that one simple question (Which number?) could've saved us an hour and a potential billing nightmare with Verizon.  I understand that this was likely his 130891374135780th order today but still, it's the simple things that can save all the time in the world.