3G, 4G. I just want to make a call.

[CoolBreeze]

As far as I can tell, I'll never own any phone that does more than make a phone call. Hell, I've have a cell phone for 5 years ... pay as you go! Works for me.

I have a friend in Estonia who is now working on the 4G project which will be available in the very near future. Here in America, It appears that we're not offering complete coverage for 3G yet, so how will 4G change things?

Hell... I dont even know the difference between 3g and 4G.

[AmpedNow]

Huge speed increases, for one. Not a bad thing by any means...

While 3G is pretty much a mainstream term now, it's the old standard...even though many in WV still can't even get 3G. In the rest of civilization, 4G is the new battleground.

Sprint has already rolled out Wimax in select markets. Verizon and AT&T are going with the LTE standard, and will be starting service in some major markets later this year. Even the next-gen iPhone is rumored to be 4G capable. So, it's coming, and fast...

Unfortunately for WV and other rural markets, 3G never made it here before the 4G competition began. Now that it's taking all of the attention of the major carriers, there is not as much incentive for further 3G expansion in the short term.

The good news is that all the major carriers are fully committed to rolling out 4G at a pretty fast pace. It will be almost everywhere, including WV, within the next 3-4 years... The bad news is that many areas will have to wait it out on EDGE and 1X until the expansions come. Hopefully by then, 3G will be the "fallback" networks, while the older ones are phased out completely.

As for voice only, it's all becoming data -- which means that everyone will eventually have to have data plans with their cell phones, no matter how "dumb" they are. Verizon is already beginning to do this.

[The Interpreter]

...As for voice only, it's all becoming data -- which means that everyone will eventually have to have data plans with their cell phones, no matter how "dumb" they are...

Were you referring to the users or to their cellphones?

Terpy, who just HAD to

[Hoosier Daddy]

...As for voice only, it's all becoming data -- which means that everyone will eventually have to have data plans with their cell phones, no matter how "dumb" they are...

Were you referring to the users or to their cellphones?

Terpy, who just HAD to

[Mike]

iphones rock.

Except with your company pays for it and expects you to answer it 24/7/365. As it is with mine.

Still though you can surf porn in the bathtub if you want.

[ashton]

I'm on my 3rd iphone. I can't see going back to a Windows phone like I used in the past.

1st one (mudding incident - replaced the battery, but the camera never came back) became the donor screen for my wife's (she dropped it hard on the concrete), which gave me an excuse to get a 3gs.

Mike,
Don't drop it while you are in the bath, or atleast put it in a ziplok. Replacing the battery can be a task, and that seems to be the most sensitive component to water. I've replaced a few for friends (and one for me after an ill fated mudding incident). The digitizer is a much easier operation IMO.

[cgarison]

I was going to go with an iPhone, but the unlocked Google Nexus 1 for AT&T and Rogers was released yesterday caught my eye and I had to break out my credit card. I really like the iPhone, but it is really too locked down for my tastes. Android just seems to be the right choice as a replacement for my crappy WinMo device (AT&T Tilt) which has been a pain to use for the last two years. I can't wait to program it to run MEdia Net and surf the Android Marketplace.

[AmpedNow]

After a couple months with an iPhone, I must say that it's the best device I've ever owned.

With that said, I really like most of the HTC phones. An HTC/Android phone on Verizon is what I would've likely got, if Verizon wasn't so slow with its network expansion in WV...

AT&T is pretty good so far, though. Big WV 3G expansion on the way later this year, too.

[cgarison]

An HTC/Android phone on Verizon is what I would've likely got, if Verizon wasn't so slow with its network expansion in WV...

I love looking at the Verizon 3G map and see that hole that is the shape of WV.

[Jay Nunley]

What if you attach an Illidium Q36 explosive space modulator to your phone? That is bound to help.

[daveinthemorning]

Guess I'm the only one that agrees with The Breeze. I have no other use for a phone than to make a call. Besides, my wife tells me everything I need to know.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Guess I'm the only one that agrees with The Breeze.

Nope. Count me in, too.

[David Paleg]

Me, three. Why type when you can just say it. What's next... Morse Code?

[The-Hammer]

That's because your brains are wired for old school electronic unitaskers (like wall-phones) and early multitaskers (like DVD players with a VCR built in). A DVD player with a VCR built in does two things, but really just one thing (plays video).

You see the electronic box, you see the telephone functionality and you see the text-messaging functionality and you think the two are closely related. But they’re not.

Instead of thinking of a text-message as “like a phone call… but it’s text instead of voice… why?” think of it as a “short, quick e-mail”.

Text-messages have several advantages over telephone calls: a-synchronicity, multicasting and discretion.

1) The biggest advantage is a-synchronicity. The person you’re messaging doesn’t have to respond instantly, they might not need to respond at all.

Psychologically, a ringing phone is almost impossible to ignore. Most people, whether they’re eating dinner, reading a good book, or taking a porcelain cruise will stop what they’re doing and answer the phone. They know that, by the fourth ring, the person on the other end is thinking to themselves “alllriiight, answer your #%^$ing phone @$$-hole!”

A text-message avoids all that. They can finish eating, finish their chapter or finish their cruise. They may be out of cell range: you send your message, when they get back in range, they’ll get it.* They don’t even need to be awake when you send your message.*

Furthermore, the content of the text-message may not require a response. It may be information that they need, but which doesn’t require discussion. If you are meeting a bunch of friends for dinner, they just need to know that you’ve arrived at the restaurant and have a table; it doesn’t require an entire conversation.

* Yeah, these things can also be handled by voice-mail, but voice-mail is TERRIBLE in these cases. Most voice-mail interfaces are quite kludgy. If the message contains any vital information I may have to sit and listen to the message three or more times. The voice-mail interface rarely provide easy transport controls so I have to sit a listen while the person drones on about the irrelevant crap and the ummss and uhhhs. A text-message I just have to tap one button to scroll and use my wonderful eyes to skip around on the message.

It gets worse if I actually have to respond to this person. Again, most voice-mail interfaces are terrible. They don’t provide an easy “respond” function. If I’m lucky the person included their phone number in their message, but I still have to fumble around for a pen and paper, copy their number down (and probably have to listen to the message twice because people talk much faster than people can write), then copy the number back into my phone. I can’t just listen and punch the number into my phone because hitting a button on the phone causes the playback of the voicemail to stop.

If I’m unlucky, I have to hang-up, redial my voice-mail, go to the “old messages” and listen while robot lady says “Voice… … call… … from… … three… … oh… … four… …”.

(Actually, come to think of it, voice-mail is almost never the answer).

2) Multi-casting. It’s really easy to send the same text-message to 2, 3 or a dozen people at once. Each additional recipient only costs a few extra seconds. I basically just have to tell my phone “send again | input new number | send”. If I want to use a telephone call to give several people the same information, the sequence goes something like:

::Dial first number::
::Wait while they answer::
Me: “Hey, person1, information.”
Person1: “Ok.”
Me: “Bye.”
::Hang Up::

::Dial second number::
::Wait while they answer::
Me: “Hey, person2, information.::
Person2: “Ok.”
Me: “Bye.”
::Hang Up::

Ad nauseum

3) Discretion. Some people may find some of the points under this heading disagreeable, but this is how things are.

Text-messages are a lot easier to send and receive discretely. Whether you’re in class, in a meeting, at a restaurant or on a porcelain cruise, you can have a text-message conversion without disturbing your neighbors.



Here’s a brief sampling of text-messages I’ve sent or received and why I used a text-message and not a phone call:

I sent a message to my brother, whom I was meeting for dinner, stating that I was running just a few minutes late, but that I was on my way. It didn’t require him to respond, there was really nothing for him to say other than “Ok.”.

I sent a message to two coworkers informing them that we had received the return-receipt for a package they had sent off. Again, nothing for them to say, and I can send it to both of them faster than I could phone one of them.

I was in NYC last march with some co-workers for a convention. One evening they went to a basketball game. Hating sports, I did other stuff, but we arranged to have a late dinner after the game. Around the time the game would have been ending, I sent them a text stating that I was on my way to meet them and that I was travelling by subway. The game was still going on, so there’s no way we could have had a telephone conversation without dragging someone away from the game and out into the concourse during the last few minutes of the game. After I got off the subway and returned to street level, there was a message waiting for me stating the restaurant at which they were located. They were able to send that message to me even though I had no cell service at that instant.


(I didn’t realize, when I started typing this, that I was going to go on for so long.)

[Clay JD Walker]

And here's some recent examples of Tiger's txts:

- OK, I would like to have a threesome with you and another girl you trust.
- I want to treat you rough, throw you around, spank and slap you
- Have you ever had a golden shower done to you? ... just morbid curiosity.

I like technology, but seriously, if you're trying to have a face-to-face conversation with me, please refrain from texting...if you're on the air, please turn your ringer off so the rest of the world doesn't have to hear your annoying 'new message' notification...and one last thing...text forwards piss me off way more than e-mail forwards.

Don't leave me a voice message, I never check them...and if you want a job or internship, please have common courtesy to e-mail me at my corporate e-mail, NOT Facebook.

Oh yeah, and Martinsville, VA does not have adequate T-Mobile coverage, but 4G is awesome on race weekend.

[AmpedNow]

Thanks, Hammer. You're so right.

I'd much rather text for casual chatter than use voice, for those reasons you listed. You can have multiple conversations with people and bail out at anytime if you need to, then just pick it back up whenever. I have on-off conversations that sometimes last for days. It's kinda like IM, only not so instant.

However, I am old school when it comes to important conversations. I'd rather speak to someone directly in those cases.

Also, in the event of an emergency that disrupts communications, texting will be one of the last things to go down, because of the minuscule bandwidth demand, even compared to voice calls. On a cell tower bandwidth hierarchy, it's like Morse code compared to HD-FM.

[Ace Purple]

I bought my Motorola Droid yesterday, and wow I love it. So far so good with it.

[AmpedNow]

An HTC/Android phone on Verizon is what I would've likely got, if Verizon wasn't so slow with its network expansion in WV...

I love looking at the Verizon 3G map and see that hole that is the shape of WV.

Quite sad, too. The only state east of the Mississippi with sub-par network coverage. Most of the state should have been blanketed by now.

Remember, they acquired WV Wireless in October 2006 -- nearly four years ago. Yet they still drag their feet on expansions in WV.

In that time, AT&T bought out Cellular One, converted and upgraded their network, and has larger overall coverage than Verizon with the exception of 3G. But even that is changing fast.

As for the Droid, it's an awesome phone, but quite useless in much of WV outside of the "big" cities.