I was happy. I was content. I had just won the Oak Island Council election and I was looking forward to taking office. My wife and I enjoyed being in the holiday parade and tossing out lots of candy. Business was good, and I was looking forward to a great holiday season and having the grandkids all to ourselves for almost a week.
But my nemesis returned - the one thing that I can't resolve, that I can't control - the cell phone blues had struck again! And what has caused me to fall into the depths of despair?
I have a very good friend. She is not a very technical person. She calls me to set up her new toys. So what was it this time?
My friend had bought an iPhone.
As my loyal readers may recall, I needed to get a new cell phone last summer. I looked at all the offerings, and just couldn't find "it". I couldn't find the phone I wanted, with the company I wanted (mostly because of signal coverage issues) at the price I wanted. The scariest part was being locked into a phone, which I would perhaps not like, for the two year contract period. I eventually gave up and kept my old phone - yes the screen sometimes cuts out and the sound stops, but it would always work again if I just turned it off and on. So I decided to wait and do nothing - until that fateful Thursday morning.
Before this time I had never spent much time with an iPhone. Yes, they have that great Apple user interface, but there were some serious technical issues, not to mention the cost. Well, the cost has come down, but the technical issues are still there - primary among them the slow Internet network access and the non-replaceable battery. I also needed a phone that would support Microsoft Word and Excel that I use for my business; this would allow me to replace two devices (my iPaq handheld PC and my cell phone) with one.
But now I got to spend a fair amount of time with the iPhone. It is just gorgeous - Apple hardware and software engineering is really pushing (and redefining) the state of the art. But it wasn't right for me (at least not yet) and so I went back into the lists to joust at getting a new phone. My target was an HTC (High Tech Computer Corp.) phone. HTC markets a number of smart phones to the various cell companies. They all are very high end, run the Windows Mobile operating system, and have slide out keyboards that are much bigger than the kind you see on a Blackberry. HTC is quietly taking over that segment of the market (excepting Apple, of course).
I was with Alltel and had been with them for many years. Last summer they finally got an HTC phone that I could use, but their bundled monthly service price left me gasping. The local ATMC store (an AT&T affiliate) had been kind enough to lend me their HTC phone of the time (the model 8525) but I experienced local Internet access problems and didn't purchase.
I went to the ATMC website and found that there was already a new HTC offering - the AT&T "Tilt" phone. Not only did the Tilt have the slide out keyboard, but when the keyboard is out you can also tilt the screen up so that it looks like a small PC instead of a flat phone. The reviews were excellent and the nice people at ATMC again let me try one out.
I was very impressed. Either the Tilt simply worked better than the 8525 on Internet access or the local cell network had been improved. Although the Internet performance was still the slower EDGE speed, it performed acceptably well. And since the Tilt does support the higher speed (i.e. 3G) networks it would work when I was in a more metropolitan area that did have the faster support.
I was sold and so I signed up with ATMC. I am very happy with the phone and its ton of features. I will do a more detailed review in a few weeks. You should realize that the Tilt is not for anyone; it is expensive (although less than the iPhone) and being not quite as slick as an iPhone it is harder to use. But for me it was the answer. My good friend is a bit disappointed that I didn't get an iPhone, but this was the right choice for me.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)