Tom, so what are you leaning towards? As a SW developer I wish I had an Android based phone but I have no complaints thus far with the iPhone. Just installed a screen protector and rubber case to protect this turkey.

The upcoming Windows Mobile (WM7?) smart-phones are supposed to be pretty sweet. Totally revamped OS, and features/content that the others still can't run, or have trouble with (flash, silverlight, etc.). Very attractive for .net developers.

The best root and overclocking is "Sholes Mod" It may even be in the paid apps under your market folder. Mine was. If not google that and git-er-done.

WAAAAAAy better and much faster. No negative results. I caution not to select the absolute max overclock...................there have been some reported problems. Select the speed below.

Hi David - My wife and I have been away for a few days celebrating our Golden Anniversary. Neither of us use a cellphone because they never became a necessity in our lives, but we both have one that we keep in our cars for emergencies, AAA and such. About a year ago, we both got iTouch iPods, based on a friends recommendation. I am really impressed with all the features and programs! So, last December, we both switched from PC to Mac (1 PC, 1 Laptop). We are really enjoying Apple, without becoming cultish about it.We are paying about $35 a month for both our cell phones. I would like to have the email, internet access with googling, and the map feature of the iTouch, in a cell phone but the iphone runs about $100/ month each. So what I am leaning toward is an iPhone for less than $100/month, and then drop the other cellphones. Possible? Or just wishful geezer-thinking.

Thanks!
Tom

Check out the ATT family plan with 2 iPhones.

You have to purchase 2 data plans (internet and email) for about $30 each, say no to the texting plans and then you can buy the lowest minute package which is shared between the (2) phones.

You can get (2) iPhones for about $130 a month- total- as long as you don't use the cell phone portion all that much. Any calls to and from any other ATT customer (land, cell or office) do not count towards your minutes and ATT rolls over your unused minutes every month.

Downside is that the (2) iPhones - 3GS 16g - will run you 4 bills.

Don't get the 3G even though it is cheaper. The 3GS is worth the extra hundred bucks due to having twice as much ram. Everything runs faster on the 'S'.

I have a Blackberry Bold and my wife a 3GS on the AT&T family plan. We have the texting and lowest minute plan and the bill is around $130 a month. I don't really need more minutes that that, since we build up a lot of rollover minutes that cover us in the heavy months. And if I think it's gonna go over that, I'll use my work Blackberry.

Thanks Randy and Rick. That is food for thought.

Tom

I got 4 ATT phones that share a 700 minute family plan + unlimited text - one iPhone 3gs and 3 Samsung Solstice phones. Total bill is $130/mo and all phones minus my iPhone are excluded from web access. Sadly that disables games on the Solstice phones...but hey are damn nice for texting which my wife and kids are dedicated to.

Now of course fate would have it that I CANNOT jailbreak my latest 3gs iPhone running 3.1.3...waiting for the smurfs to figure that one out...

JB for 3.13 will most likely not happen.

Exploit will be saved for 4.0 in June - at least that what the rumors mill says.
I know that Geohot is not working on one and I believe the Devteam is holding off as well.

Thanks Randy. So educate me on iPhone biz... when 4.0 comes out will iTunes prompt me to upgrade? BTW - how hard would it be to 'downgrade' my 3.1.3 iPhone to a Jailbreak happy 3.1.2 or is that just crazy talk? I'm guessing ATT frowns on all of this yes?

Itunes will prompt you to upgrade. As a rule, never upgrade unless the Dev Team says its all good. Apple uses its upgrades to fix very minor issues and of course to close up the exploits and kill jailbreaks.

3.13 is a JB killer masked as a battery meter improvement.

Downgrading to 3.12, assuming you were never JB on 3.12, is not possible as far as I know.
If you JB on 3.12 and had your hashes saved on Cydia's server, then you have options.

Check out the following sites for lots of info.

Dev-Team Blog

iPhone Modifications

Bottom line is you're probably out of luck.

Roger that. So it sounds like my only option is to wait until 4.0 rolls out and the more forward thinking folks in cyberspace find a way to JB it...

And folks wonder why I don't 'love' Apple products...

Yes you will. On Pt Loma in San Diego, about 20 miles from the Mexican border, I picked up a Telcel signal. If I had used the phone, it would have been as though I was in TJ.

When driving into El Paso, it is very common to pickup Movistar.

I'm switching my phone to AT&T and leaving the wife on T-Mobile until November. Her phone works for her (flip Blackberry), but I want 3G for my Treo Pro.

I'm coming up on 2 years with the Treo Pro, getting time to find a replacement. I think it will be the the HP Glisten and I expect it will be free or nearly free as I switch.

Ha ha,

You guys all owe George Lucas $100 each :p

"Glisten"? Really? Who are the ad wizards who came up with that one? :eek:

On second thought, having a cellphone whose name conjures mental images of wet naked women might not be so bad.

My "rooted" G1 did what I needed it to do for several months. It was very stable and had the extra features that I wanted that I could only get by rooting. I was running a version of software based on the 1.6 software. Last Fri I checked around and decided to try one of the new versions of software that was out. I'm now running a version that's based on the 2.1 software (1 rev down from the latest and greatest, but they'll have that out before too long too, I'm sure).

Wow, not only is the GUI much, much improved, but so is the speed. Wow, can you imagine that, after several software upgrades the stuff actually speeds up rather than slowing down (USING THE SAME HARDWARE no less).

I love this phone and Android!

I work with several iphone folks. One in particular is a major Apple Gadget Freak. He got an ipad right away and has a new iPhone 4 to replace his 3GS. He handed me his iPhone 4 today with "It's much thinner than the old one!" What? Seriously, that's what they're going on about. Personally, I prefer the shape/feel of the old smoothly curved iPhone to the new square edged iPhone. Still, I do like Apple stuff, I think they do a good job on the hardware and the UI. I don't feel the need to get an iPhone, but I would really like an iPad.

It'd be nice if someone came out with an iPad competitor based on Android software, but I think that if someone does, the hardware will be inferior. But hey, you never know.

I ended up with the HD2, btw.

Dell is selling a 5" and 10" Android based iPad-like tablet in Europe now. These should be available in the States in 2 to 4 months.

RPKESQ, I'd heard that. Have you gotten your hands on one so you can give us a review?

How do you like it? I'm still using my CLIQ. Waiting patiently for the upgrade to 2.1 (or 2.2, or whatever-the-hell they upgrade it to).

My biggest complaint about it is having to hit "ALT" to enter numbers on the hardware keyboard. But I try to avoid doing any spreadsheet work on my phone. ;)