At least they are honest. From the Yankee Group's Blog (linked in story above):

Its not like they are selling statistics.... oh, wait....

This is absolute crap argument, death grip does not cause iPhone to drop calls, it is fully capable of dropping calls without it.

Ok, never mind that the original video in the article was a joke making fun of apple - I mean they "tested" the death grip on jelly donut and on a banana, - but also I am guessing most of these videos are not real or serious either. I mean I watched one of them and it compares the iPhone in 3G mode to Nexus One in GPRS mode (strangely 3G is faster than non-3G). Interestingly enough though, if you take this video seriously and look at it as a relative drop, iPhone looses over 63% of the original speed in the test, while N1 looses less than 3%.

-Em

Google "touch screen film usb"

But even at $60 or $80, converting x86 netbook to touchscreen its far from impossible or even impractical

The funny thing though is that a basic touchscreen film for a netbook can be had for $20-$40 retail - sure it won't do multitouch, but most apps don't actually need that...

Erm, you can get many apps for blackberry that alter how it functions Not sure what you are trying to say.

Android... and Blackberry... and PalmOS... and Windows Mobile... and...well, there are plenty more.

I don't think I invented this definition - its been around for a long time, nor do I think you are "everyone".

-Em

I have no idea what you are struggling to say here.

Yes, a "smartphone" is a marketing term, not a literal word (much like "personal computer"). Yes, smartphones approach (and in some cases surpass) functionality in personal computers. And yes, if that is not what you want, you would be a fool to buy one. These things are

I know why *I* want one, I have no idea why would you.

-Em

I used to keep buying into the hype and rail against iPhone and for Android. Now having owned both, I recognize that the comparison itself is silly. Aside the "totalitarian regime" vs "pseudo-capitalism" difference in the platform philosophies, the products are like apples and oranges (pardon the pun). Its like comparing an old school word-processor and a computer(for fairness sake equally old-school) . This is not meant to belittle iPhone, but it is NOT a real smartphone. Its a really advanced feature phone.

The difference is that the "smart-phone" is like a computer, you can add/remove programs and alter how it functions so that it can be "smart" for your specific purposes - while the "feature-phone" is more like an appliance that offers certain features in a specific way. iPhone does have PIM capabilities that used to be primarely the domain of the smart-phones and even apps that make it seem like a smart-phone - but the capability of those apps is strictly as add-ons to the main appliance - not an extension/replacement of the OS. I mean, even 10 year old Motorola flip-phones - not smart-phones by any stretch of the imagination - had both PIM and apps capabilities.

Now, as far as features are concerned, iPhone is the best feature-phone by miles. Its amazing how much it can do and it keeps on stepping on the smart-phone territory more and more with new features in each release. Being a locked down feature-phone also enables it to have the best polished UI over the smart-phones - much easier to QA when. (Now, as an aside, I am not talking about jailbreaking, which does make iPhone more like a real smart-phone, albeit somewhat buggy as the developers have to constantly find hacks to insert functionality into existing code)

Android, on the other hand, is a whole other beast. It IS a smart-phone with all that it entails. You do not like how the on-screen keyboard works? You download one of the many other input methods (Swype rocks, BTW!!!). You do not like how SMS works? Go get a different SMS client. You do not like how mail works, there are many email clients to choose from. You want to have more than two sound profiles? Sure. You want to change the phone's configuration based on time, location, calendar, etc - no problem. You want to run something that will bring the phone to its knees and drain the battery in under 2 hours - of course you can get that too.

Does this make Android better than iPhone? Maybe - maybe not. It all depends on what YOU want. For me, I could not stand using the iPhone for all the restrictions on how to do things. But I thats why *I* want a smart-phone.

Still, I will admit that while there are many choices for certain functionality on Android, the iPhone's default, unchangable, functionality is very good, in some cases better than Android. Plus there is the "Windows" factor with iPhone being the defacto "Windows" standard of the apps market, there are more mature apps on iPhone platform than on Android (Hey, Amazon -- Summer is here, where is my Kindle App ????)

In short, if you are satisfied with what that iPhone offers - it may be the best thing out there for you. I highly recommend iPhone for older and less technical folk that don't demand much and just want something that works. If, on the other hand, you are more demanding and want something more than iPhone offers or more custom - iPhone is simply not good enough, and Android is your best bet by far.

As I mentioned there is also a philosophical issue of the tyrannical approach of "Big Brother Steve" vs free-for-all nature of Android development. This is not as clear cut as it appears, but more of an issue of personal philosophies thus the big debates on issues like government run health-care in the US. But it all boils down to - do you trust your dictator or does possibility(not existence) and freedom to create a better option outweigh a known entity you have no choice over. Like I said, its a personal decision and not as clear cut as it appears.

-Em

"haha, Its funny cuz its true"

That would be silly, there is no need for separate pants for each major customer.

But you do need a separate belt for each belt-clip on each phone... so each belt would need a separate pants.... oh, crap, I guess he does need separate pants ;-)

-Em

Actually I believe he called your IT stuff "F'd up sadistic morons" - they are the ones inflicting this onto you. You are a salesman, nobody here expects you to understand these things...

-Em

I get a sense the feeling would be mutual and appreciated.

I assume he does not have four separate computers to deal with four clients - so why does he have four phones? There is no reason one phone cannot get calls for four numbers, each with separate voice-mail or even with one voicemail box with separate greetings. I get a feeling the guy is such an ass to his IT guys, they are probably betting on how much torture they can put the poor idiot through ("I bet we can get him to carry three phone...." "NO, how about four Phones!!!")

Again, nothing that can't be handled easily with a single phone - ever hear of hold or conferencing? I think they had those back in the seventies... Perhaps you should make nice with your IT folks so that you can move into the current century.

Now, I totally appreciate a good sales person, I know a couple, but unfortunately they are such a tiny fraction of the sales force. Most of the sales are ignorant idiots with a god complex who think that four phones would make up for the fact that they are not actually paying attention to anyone around them including their clients (hint, it does not matter if you have a dedicated line for your client if you actually LISTEN to your client). And so what we deal with are sales people only think they are great, and have the need to actively put down everyone else so that they do not ruin their self-delusion. I mean, just because you close sales does not make you a good sales person - most companies who got my business, got it in spite of their sales staff -- not because of them. And thus the IT stuff makes them wear four phones and be happy with it and rest of the world makes fun of them.

In all fairness, there are plenty of idiots in IT too, so it could be that they don't know any better.

-Em

FYI, Most Lotto jackpots are dependent on the number of tickets sold, so "Estimated" numbers are used until ticket sales are stopped as they cannot know in advance number of tickets sold.

-Em

Erm, I was not paying attention in the store to brands, but quick Google search reveals some AT&T, GE, and Panasonic models.

-Em