phatj wrote:The Motorola Atrix 4G

Part smartphone, part multimedia server, part desktop PC?

i think i'm going to wait for this phone to come out. only bad thing...it's ATT. I wanted to get away from them...

So we're ditching Blackberry at my company. We're with AT&T. I can move the company to Android or iPhone (seems likely to be the latter). I'm torn whether or not to ditch AT&T. We have have lots of problems with them. The same kinds problems we had with the former carrier, Sprint, though I will say things were much better in '07 when we first switched to AT&T. I can't get past a feeling that opinion on mobile phone carriers ultimately boils down to one massive "grass is greener" debate. The iPhone and iPad are legitimately identified as causing AT&T's problems, in fact, I've had AT&T reps says as much. Here's the thing though - why is everyone so certain that Verizon isn't going to suffer the same fate? Word is that the Verizon iPhone isn't even going to be LTE, so it's saturating the same network as all the rest.

A final consideration is the fact that we're on the old $40 a month for unlimited data with AT&T, a rate that will carry over unchanged if we go iPhone and stay with AT&T. I'm seeing really high limited and unlimited rates from AT&T and other carriers. I just don't know what to do.

tmobile's plans are really good

Can you get them without using T-Mobile?

Verizon is also pretty stingy with the bandwidth. Their "unlimited" data plan is for unlimited email and web browsing. Streaming and high bandwidth stuff like that is prohibited under the TOS. In reality, if you go over 2GB a month they assume you are doing unallowed things and cancel your contract.

VoxOrion wrote:Can you get them without using T-Mobile?

what's wrong with T-mobile?

Purely practical. If we have dropped/missed support call problems and the carrier is one of the big three and the device is recognized as a decent one, my professional judgement won't be questioned. If I answer T-Mobile I'll look like a bafoon, even if there's "nothing wrong" with T-Mobile. I also have a wide coverage area to support - Cecil Co. MD, for example, where AT&T barely gets one bar, and boon-dock South Jersey, where Verizon barely gets a bar. I'm concerned that if either of the "big two" can't cover, I don't see how T-Mobile is going to.

Bucky wrote:Verizon is also pretty stingy with the bandwidth. Their "unlimited" data plan is for unlimited email and web browsing. Streaming and high bandwidth stuff like that is prohibited under the TOS. In reality, if you go over 2GB a month they assume you are doing unallowed things and cancel your contract.

From the standpoint that these are business phones, I'm fine with limiting bandwidth like that. I can see from our current reports on the bberries that only a couple of people use ridiculous bandwidth, and I know at least one of them is streaming Pandora or Sirius constantly (so all I'd have to do is ask them to stop and they would willingly). Having the contract dropped, however, would be a problem.

VoxOrion wrote:Purely practical. If we have dropped/missed support call problems and the carrier is one of the big three and the device is recognized as a decent one, my professional judgement won't be questioned. If I answer T-Mobile I'll look like a bafoon, even if there's "nothing wrong" with T-Mobile. I also have a wide coverage area to support - Cecil Co. MD, for example, where AT&T barely gets one bar, and boon-dock South Jersey, where Verizon barely gets a bar.

FWIW, I've travelled a ton over the last 4 years with T-mobile and have had great support and never had a problem with reception (even in Lima, OH). I don't get 3g everywhere obviously, but none of those areas have it

I think that alot of this also depends on the device. When I was working, I had a nextel phone where I had to stand in the backyard to get a signal. On the same carrier, I got four bars inside the house with my Nokia.

Here's a question--I have been teaching an on-line course for the last two summers, and a big limitation has been getting comments on student assignments (generally, but not always submitted in MS Word). I find opening a document in Word and commenting using the word processor awkward. What would be ideal is to have the document on a touch screen device where I can use a stylus to make comments and then send back to the student. I'm guessing that an Ipad would be ideal for this, but maybe there's a superior device out there--a tablet pc perhaps? Does anyone know if there's a blackboard app for the ipad? Will it have USB capabilities in its next version?

I really don't care about 3g/4g or that ATT sucks as the University will buy the device, but probably won't pay for a data plan, and most anywhere I could conceivably use the device will have wifi anyway.

The USB is unlikely any time soon.

TenuredVulture wrote:Here's a question--I have been teaching an on-line course for the last two summers, and a big limitation has been getting comments on student assignments (generally, but not always submitted in MS Word). I find opening a document in Word and commenting using the word processor awkward. What would be ideal is to have the document on a touch screen device where I can use a stylus to make comments and then send back to the student. I'm guessing that an Ipad would be ideal for this, but maybe there's a superior device out there--a tablet pc perhaps? Does anyone know if there's a blackboard app for the ipad? Will it have USB capabilities in its next version?

I really don't care about 3g/4g or that ATT sucks as the University will buy the device, but probably won't pay for a data plan, and most anywhere I could conceivably use the device will have wifi anyway.

There isn't a Blackboard app that I know of, but I can say blackboard works just fine via Safari on the iPad. Though I was annoyed that I couldn't put the iPads on the company data plan, in the end I find it's pretty practical the way AT&T does it (you "charge" the thing with your credit card, reup once you've used up the MB you paid for). Because of the prevalence of WiFi and the fact that I am conscientious not to leave the AT&T signal on except when I need it - it really isn't that bad cost-wise. I still haven't used up the 20MB I bought back in early December.

They make stylus' for the iPad but they aren't great on reviews. It's just designed to be used with fingers. I'm not sure you could do the kind of markup you describe without hunting for apps. I use QuickOffice connect, maybe Pages (the Word equiv) would let you - or even Google Docs, which is both free and fully supported on the iPad now.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:The USB is unlikely any time soon.

Why ever not?

TenuredVulture wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:The USB is unlikely any time soon.

Why ever not?

I'm not sure. My theory is that they do not want to have the possibility of portable storage devices being used, since increased RAM is one of the biggest sellers for new generation devices like this. They might also be waiting for the IPad to stop selling so well, since pretty much anyone that bought it without the USB will probably upgrade when it becomes available.

This is all speculation though, I do not think Steve Jobs or anyone at Apple has actually justified the absence of a USB port yet.

There's a more practical and less sinister reason: Apple has a high reputation when it comes to application and hardware compatibility. It achieves this by controlling the interior parts of it's laptops and desktops in terms of hardware, and via it's various app stores for software. Adding a USB port exposes them to the perception that their devices "don't work" and adds the overhead of them having to support God knows what devices people plug into it. I know that frustrates a lot of consumers but if you look at it from their side, it's pretty strong and so far successful brand protection. It's a bit easier for them on the desktop/laptop side to support whatever nonsense people plug into the computer (say infinite brands of portable hard drives and cameras) but that has to be a lot harder for the IOS platform.

That all makes sense, but do I like my RAM idea too.

are you talking about external hard drives?

The Dude wrote:are you talking about external hard drives?

Yeah, a flash drive would be the most practical for an ipad.

ok, i thought there some new way to add ram with usb