iPhone 3G Questions.

[Jonishush]

Don't tell Crackberry that I'm here. *Ninja*

First time tiPB Poster!

I was pretty set on the Blackberry Bold, being jealous that the iPhone would never come to canada. Well.. It did. =P

I was set to go sit infront of my Local Rogers (Think AT&T, but with inflated pricing and terrible plans) at 5:30-6 AM, for an iPhone. Well, I slapped myself, as at that point I would of done anything for a phone, (I had a Samsung SPH-M610, I believe, it died.) as I was phoneless for 5 months plus.

Well, with the aftermath, and a few reviews (Mainly from BG.) I'm questioning my need for the BB Bold.

I'm a 18 Year Old Computer Techie, working at a Computer Repair Store (PC.. Yes, I know.) A co-worker has a BB Curve, and after playing with it, I enjoyed it. With my phone being gone, (R.I.P) and getting into the "phone" world on the internet, discovering all these phone blogs, HowardForums etc. , I wasn't sure what to pick.

Well.. I had found the BB Bold Rumors at the time, and after my good experience with the curve, fell in.

Fast forward to about.. a month ago. The iPhone 3G was announced, and it was comming to Canada. I was still in a BB Bold stun, and didn't really take care to the announcement, passing it off. a week or so later, BGR had reviewed the BB Bold, with mainly good points, a few bad (Scratch Prone Plastic Screen, Cheap plastic "chrome" border etc.) I started slowly slipping from the BB Bold craze, (That, and the fact it wasn't released.. AND STILL ISN'T.) and starting thinking..

Do I really need an BB?

BB's are a business phone. Great for appointments, calendars, all that fun stuff. And.. i'm sure I'd make a good use of them.. not to their full potential, but kinda close.

Now.. I mentioned scratches with the BB. Maybe I'm weird (probably) but scratches, and fingerprints tend to make me go crazy. Now, assuming which phone I do get, I'd either a case of a silicone Skin.. so scratches probably won't be much of an issue, and I could deal with the fingerprints.

I've gone rambling on, so I'll get to the chase. I have some questions..

A) Although getting email on my phone isn't critical, It's important. Would getting my GMail onto my phone, require the use (and therefore, subscription) of MobileMe? I thought I'd read somewhere that it did not, but I'm not sure.

B) When recieving e-mail on my iPhone (through MobileMe, or without.. if that's possible.. Question A) Is there a way to place filters for Junk on it? My Gmail does filter most spam, but am I able to configure it on my Phone to filter more?

C) MSN on the iPhone. Does it exist? Will it ever exist? I have contacts on AIM, but mostly MSN.

D) A Family Member of Mine works with Fords, and therefore I'm allowed to sign under their Corporate Account. Does the iPhone have Corporate Pricing yet? If thats based on the carrier, then.. does anyone know if Rogers has it yet?

Sorry for the long post, but I'm a needy Man.

Thanks!

 

[Muero]

A) Gmail is one of the default e-mail options. When adding an e-mail account, the iPhone offers these options: Microsoft Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, and Other. You don't have to enter any account settings other than your username and password (no port numbers or anything complicated). As of now, Gmail doesn't do push e-mail, but you can set the iPhone to automatically fetch every 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, or only manually. Gmail uses IMAP, which works great.

B) There's no spam filter in the iPhone software. Gmail blocks almost all spam, but if you do get spam, just move it to the Spam IMAP folder, and it will have the same result as the "Report Spam" button in Gmail, removing it from your Inbox and reporting the e-mail to Google.

C) There are Web apps that can use MSN instant messaging (like Meebo), but as of now there are no native apps for MSN messaging.

D) In the US, business/school discounts can be applied to iPhone plans (the university I attend has an agreement with AT&T, so I do get a discount). I'm not sure about Rogers.

 

[supermum]

I was in the same boat as you (I found about the Bold before the iPhone 3g) and was using the Crackberry forum. I used a different user name on this board to escape...

The answers above me are spot on. Just to note, I have a Yahoo email account and all my SPAM stays in the Junk Mail folder (there are the occasional few that slip through of course) but the Junk Mail folder stays separate from the inbox on the iPhone just as it does on the web.... don't worry, you won't be wading through Nigerian emails.

 

[iphonemilk]

Allow me to answer these questions for you as truthfully and non Bias'd as i can.

you see. I'm a a 2 year in a row iPhone owner, however i have had 100's of cel phones before this, when i got the iphone it became the LONGEST phone i've ever owned, ever.

1. First off, your 18? Ok.. so this is pretty easy. you love to text?, Like music? Movies? games?
This is all the iPhone brother. the blackberry CAN NOT COMPARE nor will it ever compare for a long time.
the iPhone still remains the better texting device, better for music, gaming, and movies. (wait till you see some of the new games coming out =) )

That aside, iphone software platform is way way better then the blackberry's yes 2.0 has bugs right now. But hey? it's new and guess what that's the beauty of the iPhone rolling out new updates is as easy as pushing it to your itunes users. =)

Let's move on to pictures and social networking.

Once again, your 18, So i already know this thing is profiled for you.
Honestly blackberry's are for work junkies who don't spend time with their kids and wives.

The things you can do with pictures and the new social networking applications will keep you busy for EVER.... =)

take my advice get an iPhone.

i'm not a fanboy either, i just recognize the superior device and technology.

4-5 years from now iPhones will be even better, and nobody will even be having this comparison, it will be an even quicker choice.

 

[ktm97]

Jonisush, If you are out clubbin, and pull out a BB what is the coolness factor compared to the Iphone?

 

[WilliamC]

I have used both and BB Curve and an Iphone 3G. Each device has its ups and its downs.

BB Curve has messenger which is truly an awesome app. I wish apple would have something like this currently in the Iphone but they do not. (iChat soon, maybe, possible?!!?! Please!) Push on the Curve worked with all e-mail services as opposed to the Iphone which only allows Exchange and MobileMe. However, while you do get the e-mails asap you get plain text e-mail and if by any chance you happen to get an e-mail that includes HTML it'll look like garbage because you'll have to scroll through the mess of HTML code to find your e-mail. Even if you purchase a program like Empower, which I had, you still have the same thing happen. With Empower its a little better but HTML e-mails aren't rendered properly.
The BB to me seems more like a corporate, i have no life other than work, phone. It's focus is one thing... business and stay connected to your work. It has no entertainment value at all. Yes, you can load MP3's on it, videos and what not but its not the same. Oh... one more thing for those that fault apple for a lack of MMS support. Full MMS support is not in the BB either. Yes, you have an MMS app and you can send picture messages and little animated gifs, but try to recieve a video. It truncates your video into an animated gif. The OS doesn't know how to handle the video and if you try to save it, it won't save as a video.

I work in IT as a systems coordinator and I had the Curve because I honestly loathe windows mobile devices, I think they are crap, so I had to tolerate the short comings of the BB. Some of the phone features were awesome, like I said I love BB messenger. Overall however, I was left with a feeling like too much was missing. Also add to the fact that at work we do not support the BB because it just isn't cost effective to support it and maintain BES.

Now here are my Iphone impressions... it's not perfect, but its pretty much the best phone around for me. It's got full HTML e-mail, it can read most attacthments, and it can sync with my work e-mail (if I wanted it too). Mind you, you can view the attachtments, but you can not edit them. Thats something I wish the phone had.
The phone also has an amazing browser, it renders pages as it should. I do have one gripe or two though. I can't save supported file formats to my phone. If I find a ringtone I like thats in the proper format, I can't save it at all even though the phone has ample storage. I can understand not being able to save unsupported formats, but supported formats should be allowed.
Calender also has one shortcoming, you can't send invites. This feature may seem like nothing to you, but to some of us it would be a great benefit. These are just some of the gripes I have with the phone, but it has so much to offer. It really isn't a phone to be honest, if you look at it from an OS and hardware standpoint you'll see its a mobile computer with a phone app. You also have the app store which I think is what will push the Iphone forward. Third party software support is always what makes or breaks a product.
Now if only quicken would release an Iphone app.

 

[iphonemilk]

Another thing people EASILY forget with the iPhone when comparing to other devices is this.

What are all of the things you are comparing that we are lacking?

Most of them are all software things. THIS IS GOOD... it just simply means that we will have it someday.. Maybe not now.. but we will soon enough.

Why do i say this? Any First gen Day one iPhone owner knows what kind of changes we went through the first months, and even 1st and 2nd half of the year. We went through ALOT of changes, and got alot of cool new things.

This will always be the case, you can expect to see changes new patches and new cool stuff.

I have NEVER had a phone before that was like this. Constant new stuff coming out for it.,

Normally when you buy a phone, You buy it, and what you see is what you get.

With the iPhone? Nope. What is SEE is what you get for a Little bit, then you get more. and it keeps on coming.

Remember that.

 

[Jonishush]

Well, I've decided I'll be going with the iPhone. It just makes sense.

Although, all of the Rogers Carriers around here are out of the 16GB Black, only have the 16GB white, and 8GB Black and White.

I was looking at iTunes, and I have 1.64Gb of songs, music etc. So, I believe an 8GB will be fine. I'll probably go pick it up tomorrow.. need to order a Case and screen protector from Apple.

[URL="https://www.apple.com/ca/search/Power-Support-Crystal-Film-Set-for-iPhone-3G#mn_p]Screen Protector[/URL]

[URL="https://www.apple.com/ca/search/Griffin-Elan-Form-iPhone-3G-Black#mn_p]Case[/URL]

The case looks great.

My goal is to avoid fingerprints and scratches, should accomplish that. =P

 

[joesant324]

Is there a way you can either delete or hide the default iphone apps? I have no use for most of them (like stocks)? Can you do it without jailbreaking? I am still waiting for the 3.1 jailbreak for PCs to come out.

 

[Ipheuria]

No you can't get rid of them without JBing. You could however put them on the very last page of your screens?

 

[joesant324]

yep, did that. I guess I'll keep patiently waiting for the jailbreak to come out for windows for 3.1

 

[jhamilton3]

Jonisush, If you are out clubbin, and pull out a BB what is the coolness factor compared to the Iphone?

LOL .. sorry couldn't help it

 

[txtAgif]

There's a free app called txtAgif that allows you to easily find animated pictures from a big collection of free pictures on txtagif.com. Once you choose a picture, you just need to tap a button to start a new MMS and then paste the animated GIF into your MMS. You might find this useful if you like to send funny animations to your friends. Search for "txtagif" in App Store. Have fun!

 

[Cnfdrtrebel]

I've had a couple of blackberry phones, now 3gs. The 3gs is more durable and more versatile. BB,s are fine, but iPhone is better.