I currently use a Blackberry 8707 - it's old and slow and doesn't have a camera. My requirements for a new phone include a camera, and GPS would be nice but not essential. I would also like a qwerty keyboard, as I've gotten quite attached to that over the past four and a half years. And it needs to be able to use my current email address (not a telco address) and be able to backup any mail I send on it (the Optus BIS service will let you forward all outbound emails to a nominated address).
So what to get?
I originally would have thought there'd be no other choice than another Blackberry. It's got the keyboard and interface I like, but the new ones don't have a scroll wheel (I find the ball annoying). And the web browser sucks donkey balls. Or at least current versions do, I haven't seen the lastest version.
Now something I hadn't considered really until today was an iPhone. Now I generally am anti any i-anything, for no logical reason other than the i-bandwagon that everyone was jumping on (much of the reason why I refuse to use things like MySpace and Facebook, but I suppose that could go against me since I do use Twitter).
So I am prepared to be convinced. Sell it to me :) Can an iPhone do what I want? Any pitfalls or gotchas? If there's convincing enough arguments I'll seriously consider it.
(and if there's any Blackberry users out there, same goes for you :) )
David Johnson
The iphone qwerty keyboard is very easy to use. Even if you touch the wrong key, most of the time it recognises what you were trying to press and auto corrects. The iphone has excellent seamless data connections, and benefits from very cheap applications that can do almost anything. It automatically joins known wifi zones and integrates perfectly with google mail servers. It also integrates with google calendar.
Kazza the Blank One
The Blackberry will do Gmail as a separate application to my personal email which I kinda like, although it's very clunky/slow on my current handset. It will also sync with my Google calendar - *but* - only the main calendar entries - it doesn't sync any of my "sub" calendars. Does the iPhone sync with those?
Kazza the Blank One
oh that's another thing.. can you use any provider with an iPhone? Having to go with Telstra would be a dealbreaker..
Dave2
The only criteria for a new mobile should be "Can it run the Ask Dave! app?" What else do you really need?
The best way to see if iPhone is for you is to go to a local shop and try one. Might try one of the new "Droid" phones as well, as it's pretty nifty. I'd take either over Blackberry, which I gave up on years ago.
Kazza the Blank One
The thing that's put me off the Androids is the hardware. Stu has a HTC TyTN II and as a phone it's *crap* - half the time when Stu's talking to me, if he's talking a little too quietly, it just cuts the sound off completely and I can't hear anything. That and it's big and fat and chunky.
I'm still not being convinced here :)