What's So Great About This iPhone Thing?

[upworlder]

I have had my iPhone 4 for a couple months now because my Blackberry died and I needed a replacement phone, the Thunderbolt was not yet released, and I was thoroughly unimpressed with the selection of Android phone at the time (with the exception of the Incredible which I knew was soon to be EOL). I went with the iPhone knowing that if I did not end up liking it, I could always sell it and make a decent return on my investment since there seem to be so many people taken with the mystique of this thing, haha.

Only two months later, I am already bored with this thing! I had it jailbroken within hours of purchase and almost all of the themes that I have found are frankly hideous. I detest itunes, and my extensive collection of .mkv videos is now useless for taking on the road, leaving them stuck on my media server and laptop, not to mention my .flac music library must be re-encoded in Apple's proprietary .alac codec. As a gmail user, if I want to get any of the lovely gmail functionality which makes me love the service, I am restricted to a web app.

I have seen many people on this forum switch from Android phones to the iPhone and I suppose I just have to ask why. You are chained to iTunes, there is no removable/upgradable storage, the brilliant android notification system blows iOS's violent and in-your-face notifications out of the water, and well iOS is really pretty ugly and cluttered. Sure the screen is beautiful, but what is the point if what is on the screen looks so jumbled.

At this point, I am seriously just considering biting the bullet and picking up a mediocre LTE phone just so I can hop on a 4G plan before they introduce a tiered pricing system even though I really do not like the Thunderbolt, Charge, or Revolution. So, Android switchers, why did you switch?? What am I missing from this thing that makes all this hassle worth it to so many people?

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

For me: Because I like Apple's hardware and products. The iPhone can be used by any moron such as myself the minute it's taken out of the box.

I was a BB person for 3 years. Had my stints with Android.

Bottom line, it's just not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[PsYcHoNeWb]

I have had my iPhone 4 for a couple months now because my Blackberry died and I needed a replacement phone, the Thunderbolt was not yet released, and I was thoroughly unimpressed with the selection of Android phone at the time (with the exception of the Incredible which I knew was soon to be EOL). I went with the iPhone knowing that if I did not end up liking it, I could always sell it and make a decent return on my investment since there seem to be so many people taken with the mystique of this thing, haha.

Only two months later, I am already bored with this thing! I had it jailbroken within hours of purchase and almost all of the themes that I have found are frankly hideous. I detest itunes, and my extensive collection of .mkv videos is now useless for taking on the road, leaving them stuck on my media server and laptop, not to mention my .flac music library must be re-encoded in Apple's proprietary .alac codec. As a gmail user, if I want to get any of the lovely gmail functionality which makes me love the service, I am restricted to a web app.

I have seen many people on this forum switch from Android phones to the iPhone and I suppose I just have to ask why. You are chained to iTunes, there is no removable/upgradable storage, the brilliant android notification system blows iOS's violent and in-your-face notifications out of the water, and well iOS is really pretty ugly and cluttered. Sure the screen is beautiful, but what is the point if what is on the screen looks so jumbled.

At this point, I am seriously just considering biting the bullet and picking up a mediocre LTE phone just so I can hop on a 4G plan before they introduce a tiered pricing system even though I really do not like the Thunderbolt, Charge, or Revolution. So, Android switchers, why did you switch?? What am I missing from this thing that makes all this hassle worth it to so many people?

I switched from the Thunderbolt and here is what I have to say.

1. Battery life on ANY 4G phone will last your 7 hours if you are lucky. Average users are getting 5-6 hours if you use your phone like any normal person would. On my Thunderbolt, I would get 6 hours of battery life... same usage on iPhone I get a full day and I still have 20% before going to sleep.

2. Operating system is much more streamlined and efficient. I thought I would never say that being a big Android fan but I must say Apple has made the iOS so easy to use and set up. Android takes some time to learn the ins and outs even if you are good with tech stuff.

3. I have no issues with Gmail at all. I use the standard mail app, and set up my gmail through it and it works fine. In iTunes I changed my contact source to Gmail and in the calendar app I use Gmail for calendar syncing. There is no lack of Gmail integration at all if you ask me.

4. Device build is 10x better than any Android. I have had the OG Droid, Droid Inc., Fascinate, DroidX, and Thunderbolt and all of them, ALL OF THEM, had some form on build fault. OG Droid slider started to creek, Droid Inc. back panel was flimsy, DroidX felt like a brick with an ugly camera part, Fascinate was plastic, and Thunderbolt kickstand peels after a while. The build quality of the iPhone seems to be much better and seems that more care was put into the device.

5. Updates will come when needed and wanted. I got rid of my Fascinate because they were stuck on OS 2.1 (even though I had 2.2 on there). Every other Android phone must wait for the manufacturer to make it for the specific phone model because there are 100+ Android devices that takes time. How many iPhone 4s are there?... 4... and when you take into account color doesn't matter... 2 AT&T and Verizon. Therefore, updates will come a lot easier and from the same place the phone was produced.

6. Better warranty service. When your Droid breaks, you call Verizon or AT&T to get a refurb one and usually they are no were near good quality like the claim to be. When you iPhone has a problem or breaks, go to the Apple store and if they can fix it, then you get the refurb. There is one more option to try before you need to switch your device.

7. iTunes. I am on the same boat as you, I do not like iTunes. However, the implementation of the iPhone with iTunes and the online marketplace cannot be beat by anything else. Yes Android has Amazon, but they are no where near the same level of seamless integration than iTunes and iPhones are.

Overall this is my opinion about the Android vs. iPhone debate. iPhones are amazing devices out of the box from the start and only get better once you improve or even jailbreak. Personally I reverted mine back to stock after I jailbroke because I really didn't need everything jailbreaking had to offer. I like my iPhone out of the box which is the point. Android now a days almost NEED to be rooted and have custom ROMs put on them to make them work the way that you want. Both are excellent to choose from, and its all going to come down to personal preference. Myself, I was tired of always trying to work at making my Android work the way I wanted and that why I got my iPhone. Now I am happy with my phone out of the box and probably wont look back.

 

[Sketso]

I typed a whole list of reasons, but then I thought about it a bit. You already listed why you hate the iPhone/iTunes/iPod Apple beast, so there's no reason at all to convince you otherwise. You like what you like, and personal preference is what drives the free market and "consumerism." Go buy, and enjoy, whichever Android you like...

and smile.

 

[anon4705295]

Psychonewb pretty much summed it up. To address you issues with the appearance, yes, most of the featured themes in the Cydia store are ugly, but that is a small portion of what is available. I can't understand how you think the OS is ugly lol... Especially compared to Android. That I won't understand. But, try http://digitalvanity.me to see what is possible with designs on the iPhone.

 

[thinkTwice]

Several years ago, it was just iPhone and BB. There are so many platforms out there now, that I think you should go with something else. These things cost money, and you better be damn happy with what you have.

The thunderbolt sucks, but now there are new Android LTE phones out. There are great Android phones out as well. I'd even look at Windows Mobile 7- you may scoff at the idea of windows mobile anything, yes their old products were crap- but I have been impressed with their new OS. Hardware-wise- I love the Nokia E7... just sexy. You put WM7 on the E7, and hell I'd switch to try it out.

Anyways, the mobile industry is fast moving and constantly evolving- go experiment with other platforms until you find something you love. There is no reason to be unhappy with your current platform.

 

[roll-tide]

from a thread i started a few days ago....

a little background....had the DX1, sold it and got the iPhone when it came out...had an upgrade on my account so I got the Fascinate, returned it and went back to the iPhone...got the Incredible2 when it came out, returned it and went back to the iPhone...got the DX2 yesterday, returned it and went back to the iPhone...

DX1 - sent sms messages to the wrong contacts (not acceptable)
Fascinate - not bad, just wasn't worth wasting an upgrade on
Incredible2 - loved it, until the ear-piece speaker blew and sounded like crap (quality?)
DX2 - choppy when scrolling, ghosting effect with icons when sliding screens, various other small things that added up to me just not liking it at all

bottom line is I like android and have had many many android phones (more than what is listed here)...but after having the iPhone and iOS, android still feels like it's in beta testing and not quite finished or ready for public use. I am not an apple "fanboy" by any means...you can see I've tried going back to android and honestly it feels like an inferior product to me now.

 

[upworlder]

Thanks for the theme tip. The concept of page after page of app icons is (IMO) boring and obscures whatever wallpaper you select. Without jailbreaking you cannot resize these icons or even make it so that they are not at the top of the homescreen. The result is that you get homescreen pages with a cluttered view but no real information displayed. From a design standpoint it feels cluttered and from a practical standpoint it is inefficient. If you want to talk pragmatically, even the Windows Phone 7 UI design wins over iOS in that a glance/scroll can tell you the time, number of unread emails, number of unread messages, facebook notifications, and even weather.

Concerning mail, I am one of those people who uses gmail obsessively, having nearly all of my mail filtered and labeled as it is delivered and color coded for ease of sorting and reading. In the default mail app, labels/filters are not listed, not are color codings, nor are stars for flagging important messages. There is no easy way to choose between archival and deletion. Most importantly, there is no priority inbox to let me know which messages I should address first after having spent so long training my inbox to recognize them for me.

Concerning signal strength, I know the signal-killing death grip was wildly exaggerated, but the simple fact is that voice quality on this thing is pretty thoroughly mediocre and network speeds are incredibly even slower than they were on my Bberry Tour. Only about 1 in 5 of my MMS messages will even send if I am in an area of 3 or less bars. Isn't this thing supposed to be a phone first and a toy second?

Maybe I'm a bit hard on this little guy (not physically, I baby my phones and keep them wrapped in cases) but am I wrong for wanting basic functionality out of a phone that has been touted as quite possibly the only phone on the market that "just works"? I could pick up a Droid X2 or even an LG Revolution and within minutes my gmail, phone, and facebook contacts would all be synchronized and I would be ready to go. Sure I might want to replace the keyboard or even the messaging app, but at least I have to option to do that. Messaging on this phone was unbearable until I installed biteSMS and started receiving notifications for my messages that would sit in the status bar.

Eh, oh well, I guess I will have to deal with it and learn to be happy or move on. Just a little bummed that I dropped so much money on this thing and cannot stand it, haha. I really am trying though

 

[korp#IM]

I have had my iPhone 4 for a couple months now because my Blackberry died and I needed a replacement phone, the Thunderbolt was not yet released, and I was thoroughly unimpressed with the selection of Android phone at the time (with the exception of the Incredible which I knew was soon to be EOL). I went with the iPhone knowing that if I did not end up liking it, I could always sell it and make a decent return on my investment since there seem to be so many people taken with the mystique of this thing, haha.

Only two months later, I am already bored with this thing! I had it jailbroken within hours of purchase and almost all of the themes that I have found are frankly hideous. I detest itunes, and my extensive collection of .mkv videos is now useless for taking on the road, leaving them stuck on my media server and laptop, not to mention my .flac music library must be re-encoded in Apple's proprietary .alac codec. As a gmail user, if I want to get any of the lovely gmail functionality which makes me love the service, I am restricted to a web app.

I have seen many people on this forum switch from Android phones to the iPhone and I suppose I just have to ask why. You are chained to iTunes, there is no removable/upgradable storage, the brilliant android notification system blows iOS's violent and in-your-face notifications out of the water, and well iOS is really pretty ugly and cluttered. Sure the screen is beautiful, but what is the point if what is on the screen looks so jumbled.

At this point, I am seriously just considering biting the bullet and picking up a mediocre LTE phone just so I can hop on a 4G plan before they introduce a tiered pricing system even though I really do not like the Thunderbolt, Charge, or Revolution. So, Android switchers, why did you switch?? What am I missing from this thing that makes all this hassle worth it to so many people?

Sounds like you are never going to be happy.

The iPhone OS is very clean compared to Android, not cluttered, use folders. Not to mention it is very smooth when performing anything.

Why did you encode your media files like that? I would say that is your fault because most music users find iTunes a very easy program and is compatible with pretty much all music devices.

It really doesn't sound like you even gave it a fair try, you were just bitter the whole time.

 

[roll-tide]

Also, to clean up the screen so you can see your wallpaper just move the first page of icons over a page so that the actual home screen is nice and clean.

 

[upworlder]

I use folders (and the must-have Cydia app FolderEnhancer) but then you have homescreens full of folders instead of app icons and you add another "tap" to the process of accessing your information.

I had my media encoded like that since mkv is an emerging standard container (like avi) that allows for great compression and flac is essentially the same as alac except it is not proprietary and the codec is free and well maintained across the Win, Mac and Linux platforms (all of which I use regularly). iTunes 11 proved to be a fantastic update in that it was basically a rewrite of the program that cut out a lot of the fat code while increasing stability, but it is still rather bloated on the whole. It is not compatible with nearly all music devices, but only Apple devices. (Devices that offer relatively mediocre sound quality and that are light on codec support). It does not manage music well in an organized file tree even when you have it automatically consolidate and organize your files. For example, anything that you classify as a "compilation" (sometimes necessary to get multi-disc albums organized together properly) then in the file tree those albums are not listed by album artist, but under the "compilation" folder. Not a huge thing, but for someone who maintains a massive media server, it can be somewhat annoying to have to manually correct minor issues.

Don't get me wrong, I do not hate Apple. I am writing this from my Macbook Pro that I love and cherish, and if I did not want to give the iPhone an honest shot then I would never have picked one up in the first place. The only times I became bitter were when I encountered issues with the phone (as with the notification system) that should not exist on a phone that is so polished in so many respects.

 

[anon4705295]

Thanks for the theme tip. The concept of page after page of app icons is (IMO) boring and obscures whatever wallpaper you select. Without jailbreaking you cannot resize these icons or even make it so that they are not at the top of the homescreen. The result is that you get homescreen pages with a cluttered view but no real information displayed. From a design standpoint it feels cluttered and from a practical standpoint it is inefficient. If you want to talk pragmatically, even the Windows Phone 7 UI design wins over iOS in that a glance/scroll can tell you the time, number of unread emails, number of unread messages, facebook notifications, and even weather.

Concerning mail, I am one of those people who uses gmail obsessively, having nearly all of my mail filtered and labeled as it is delivered and color coded for ease of sorting and reading. In the default mail app, labels/filters are not listed, not are color codings, nor are stars for flagging important messages. There is no easy way to choose between archival and deletion. Most importantly, there is no priority inbox to let me know which messages I should address first after having spent so long training my inbox to recognize them for me.

Concerning signal strength, I know the signal-killing death grip was wildly exaggerated, but the simple fact is that voice quality on this thing is pretty thoroughly mediocre and network speeds are incredibly even slower than they were on my Bberry Tour. Only about 1 in 5 of my MMS messages will even send if I am in an area of 3 or less bars. Isn't this thing supposed to be a phone first and a toy second?

Maybe I'm a bit hard on this little guy (not physically, I baby my phones and keep them wrapped in cases) but am I wrong for wanting basic functionality out of a phone that has been touted as quite possibly the only phone on the market that "just works"? I could pick up a Droid X2 or even an LG Revolution and within minutes my gmail, phone, and facebook contacts would all be synchronized and I would be ready to go. Sure I might want to replace the keyboard or even the messaging app, but at least I have to option to do that. Messaging on this phone was unbearable until I installed biteSMS and started receiving notifications for my messages that would sit in the status bar.

Eh, oh well, I guess I will have to deal with it and learn to be happy or move on. Just a little bummed that I dropped so much money on this thing and cannot stand it, haha. I really am trying though

I can understand what you mean about information displayed, haha. That will be changing with iOS 5, from what we've heard through the rumor mill. Supposedly better notifications and widgets are coming, which will be nice. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest you jailbreak - at least give it a shot Try Notified Pro or MobileNotifier Beta 5... they greatly improve the iOS notifications (even giving it the pull-down android method if you wish).

I can also understand what you mean with Gmail. I think Apple doesn't let you do the conversations, color-code, etc. because for a lot of users that could be confusing. The iphone is meant to be easy and simple, and this kind of goes against that, even though it really is pretty simple. No other emails really tag, so it would make Gmail different. That's why I think Apple nixed that... but hopefully it appears in the future!

You should not be having mms sending issues. If you are, I would update your roaming stuff and if that doesn't fix it, visit your provider's store for help. I never have a problem, and my MMS send in less than ten seconds when I have around 3 bars. I came from a Tour, too, and this thing runs laps around what my Tour did. If yours is doing the opposite, your iPhone is broken LOL. That should definitely not be the case. Voice quality should also be pretty dang good. Voice on my Tour sucked, and sometimes when I'm talking on my iPhone I have to ask if the other person is still there because there's no static, no background noise. It's crystal clear. Again, if you're having probs with this, get your phone checked out. It should not be like that at all.

I highly suggest you jailbreak. TiPB has a ton of resources in the jailbreak forum to help you out and get you what you might like... you can simplify the apps on the homescreen, shrink them to take up less space, change the layout, add date/time/weather widgets... there is SO MUCH jailbreaking has to offer. Before you return the phone, I suggest you try it out. If it still isn't your cup of tea, then that's okay, and you should not force yourself to be stuck with something you do not like. Get what you want

 

[roll-tide]

I can understand what you mean about information displayed, haha. That will be changing with iOS 5, from what we've heard through the rumor mill. Supposedly better notifications and widgets are coming, which will be nice. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest you jailbreak - at least give it a shot Try Notified Pro or MobileNotifier Beta 5... they greatly improve the iOS notifications (even giving it the pull-down android method if you wish).

I can also understand what you mean with Gmail. I think Apple doesn't let you do the conversations, color-code, etc. because for a lot of users that could be confusing. The iphone is meant to be easy and simple, and this kind of goes against that, even though it really is pretty simple. No other emails really tag, so it would make Gmail different. That's why I think Apple nixed that... but hopefully it appears in the future!

You should not be having mms sending issues. If you are, I would update your roaming stuff and if that doesn't fix it, visit your provider's store for help. I never have a problem, and my MMS send in less than ten seconds when I have around 3 bars. I came from a Tour, too, and this thing runs laps around what my Tour did. If yours is doing the opposite, your iPhone is broken LOL. That should definitely not be the case. Voice quality should also be pretty dang good. Voice on my Tour sucked, and sometimes when I'm talking on my iPhone I have to ask if the other person is still there because there's no static, no background noise. It's crystal clear. Again, if you're having probs with this, get your phone checked out. It should not be like that at all.

I highly suggest you jailbreak. TiPB has a ton of resources in the jailbreak forum to help you out and get you what you might like... you can simplify the apps on the homescreen, shrink them to take up less space, change the layout, add date/time/weather widgets... there is SO MUCH jailbreaking has to offer. Before you return the phone, I suggest you try it out. If it still isn't your cup of tea, then that's okay, and you should not force yourself to be stuck with something you do not like. Get what you want

As he mentioned, he did jailbreak...

 

[anon4705295]

As he mentioned, he did jailbreak...

Oh yeah, oops, I forgot haha. Well, then delve further into the jailbreak LOL. Because you can definitely fix like, everything you complained about

 

[oNly1pHone]

So u basically don't care for Apple & hate iTunes!! Good idea to get an iPhone, that was well thought out!!

 

[Mella]

Well, I still remember this thread: http://forum.tipb.com/other-smartph...0-things-iphone-does-better-than-android.html
As one of my friend debate with me Android is better than iPHone, I read this thread, and then my friend completely accept these point! Overall, if you deeply use it, and explore it, then you'll totally love it!

 

[upworlder]

Chirmer: Just wish that iOS 5 would hurry up so that we know what is and is not coming, haha. With my current setup I use biteSMS and strip out most of the extraneous functionality like quick compose and the 8,000 other buttons to do varios things upon receiving a text message and keep essentially the same iOS messaging app experience but with the option for quick reply upon receiving a message (so that I do not have to completely switch apps if in the middle of something else), an icon that sits in my status bar whenever I receive a message and dismiss the notification but do not mark as read, and timestamps for all messages. Do not know how there is a messaging application out there in the universe that does not automatically include timestamps for all messages but it drove me up the wall that the iOS app did not, lol. I might give MobileNotifier a try though since I ave been hearing some pretty good things. All in all, rather well versed in the jailbreak scene, but still missing things like secure ssh tunneling. Also, might have a solution with the MMS issue- a bug having to do with the "3G" switch in SBSettings. Have been tinkering with a few things and think I have it solved now.

oNly1pHone: As I said before, I love Apple and Mac OS and my favorite computer for more than a year now has been my MacBook Pro. (Impressive considering I use 4 regularly, all running different platforms). I was thoroughly impressed by the progress that Apple had made with iTunes 11, but work seems to have stagnated as we have not heard much in terms of iTunes development recently.

Mella: I direct you to a recent Lifehacker article entitled "Top 10 Awesome Android Features that the iPhone Doesn?t Have" just because I feel the need to play devil's advocate

I am probably not going to jump ship any time soon. Although it is fun to walk into the Verizon store and test drive phones with more power and bigger screens that do many of the things that I would like my iPhone to do, the iPhone build quality is superb, the battery life is excellent, and the keyboard is fantastic except for its inability to learn that yes, I do mean "hell" and not "he'll", haha. I have yet to see anything that really has grabbed my eye, but I do feel like I am just waiting for something to do so. So for now I am trying to jump deeper into the iPhone and push it past what it was intended to do in order to get some real functionality while accepting that somethings simply are not possible. Perhaps that's just the tinkerer in me. However, if I ever happen to see something in a svelte unibody chassis with a 4" sAMOLED+ screen sporting qHD resolution, at least 768mb DDR2 RAM, at least two cores, and vanilla ICS Android, well then you can bet there will be an ebay auction posted before the ink is dry on the sales flyers, haha. (Yes, sadly I am a spec whore)

Thank you all for your understanding, your advice, and for putting up with me. Although I have been largely a lurker on these pages so far, I look forward to possibly seeing more of all of you in the days, weeks, and months to come.

 

[anon4705295]

WWDC is coming up, and there will most likely be a LOT of info released about iOS 5 - let's hope so! I'm looking forward to the new notifications system we BETTER BE GETTING.... ahem...

And yeah, I ran into some probs with SBSettings, so I stopped using it. Sucks, but I'd rather have a few more steps than a few more bugs :S

 

[sting7k]

Chirmer: Just wish that iOS 5 would hurry up so that we know what is and is not coming, haha. With my current setup I use biteSMS and strip out most of the extraneous functionality like quick compose and the 8,000 other buttons to do varios things upon receiving a text message and keep essentially the same iOS messaging app experience but with the option for quick reply upon receiving a message (so that I do not have to completely switch apps if in the middle of something else), an icon that sits in my status bar whenever I receive a message and dismiss the notification but do not mark as read, and timestamps for all messages. Do not know how there is a messaging application out there in the universe that does not automatically include timestamps for all messages but it drove me up the wall that the iOS app did not, lol. I might give MobileNotifier a try though since I ave been hearing some pretty good things. All in all, rather well versed in the jailbreak scene, but still missing things like secure ssh tunneling. Also, might have a solution with the MMS issue- a bug having to do with the "3G" switch in SBSettings. Have been tinkering with a few things and think I have it solved now.

oNly1pHone: As I said before, I love Apple and Mac OS and my favorite computer for more than a year now has been my MacBook Pro. (Impressive considering I use 4 regularly, all running different platforms). I was thoroughly impressed by the progress that Apple had made with iTunes 11, but work seems to have stagnated as we have not heard much in terms of iTunes development recently.

Mella: I direct you to a recent Lifehacker article entitled "Top 10 Awesome Android Features that the iPhone Doesn?t Have" just because I feel the need to play devil's advocate

I am probably not going to jump ship any time soon. Although it is fun to walk into the Verizon store and test drive phones with more power and bigger screens that do many of the things that I would like my iPhone to do, the iPhone build quality is superb, the battery life is excellent, and the keyboard is fantastic except for its inability to learn that yes, I do mean "hell" and not "he'll", haha. I have yet to see anything that really has grabbed my eye, but I do feel like I am just waiting for something to do so. So for now I am trying to jump deeper into the iPhone and push it past what it was intended to do in order to get some real functionality while accepting that somethings simply are not possible. Perhaps that's just the tinkerer in me. However, if I ever happen to see something in a svelte unibody chassis with a 4" sAMOLED+ screen sporting qHD resolution, at least 768mb DDR2 RAM, at least two cores, and vanilla ICS Android, well then you can bet there will be an ebay auction posted before the ink is dry on the sales flyers, haha. (Yes, sadly I am a spec whore)

Thank you all for your understanding, your advice, and for putting up with me. Although I have been largely a lurker on these pages so far, I look forward to possibly seeing more of all of you in the days, weeks, and months to come.

You can teach your iPhone to swear. Add an international keyboard and then you can add custom words to the dictionary. For some reason since iOS 3 the iPhone is very slow to naturally "learn" new words like it used too.

 

[mi_canuck#IM]

i've had iphones since the first gen in 2007, and since then, have tried Androids (Nexus One) and Blackberries (9700, 9630) and always have returned to the iphone. you can get bored with any device, and frankly, I found I got bored more quickly with both Android and BB... i'm glad I'm back with iphone and for once, with reliable network service (thanks for the verizon iphone)...

and i find i'm no longer bored with iphone... every once in a while, get a new app... new game... but overall, reason why i have stuck with iphone/iOS... it just WORKS... doesn't crash, get regular updates from Apple, especially when there is a security bug/hole... tight exchange integration... still the best screen on the market by far... i use itunes for music and movies, so love in the integration for that... and with iOS5 and iCloud coming in a week (at least announcement, from WWDC), Apple will be making another leap and leaving the competition in its wake...