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Iphone and t-mobile web-n-walk
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chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“I have to take issue with that. I have been using an iPhone with both Orange and O2 for the last few months and the Edge support in my experience has been almost universal. I was worried about moving to O2 two weeks ago when I upgraded to an official iPhone because the word was that their Edge support is iffy. However, it has been nothing short of excellent for me. I travel a lot around the country and I have rarely not seen an Edge signal. As one example I drove on Thursday from Oxfordshire to Leeds. I did not see a loss of an Edge signal once, and that included a 2 hour diversion through Derbyshire because the M1 was congested. And as for the old chestnut of Edge vs 3G, again in my experience I can barely detect the difference. Quite often my browser on the iPhone feels snappier via Edge than it does sometimes on WiFi. Indeed I have stopped bothering to log in to WiFi hotspots such as BTOpenzone where I have free minutes since I can't be bothered as I can achieve equally well what I want with Edge. The exception to that is if I happen to be in a Cloud hotspot since the iPhone logs on automatically. I use the internet very very frequently now on the move, whereas I used to have a 3G phone (an SPV M3100) which I never used once in anger on the internet.”

To be fair the whole 30% of the uk is a blatant fallacy, apparently O2 have upgraded 90% of their network with Edge now, if you're on O2 you will get Edge pretty much everywhere you can get a signal.
tellytart1
25-11-2007
Nah, there are loads of places even in London where my Samsung D900 falls back from using Edge to standard GPRS. Edge works in Grays Inn Road, but as soon as you start travelling in a vehicle, it drops back to GPRS.

At home in Woolwich I can usually get Edge reception, but sometimes I can't get a signal and the phone drops back to GPRS.

I think O2 have a long way to go before they've got decent Edge coverage.
Ricardodaforce
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by chocolate_boy:
“To be fair the whole 30% of the uk is a blatant fallacy, apparently O2 have upgraded 90% of their network with Edge now, if you're on O2 you will get Edge pretty much everywhere you can get a signal.”


Seems you may say that, O2 say otherwise.
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Seems you may say that, O2 say otherwise.”

I was just going by another post on this forum that linked to this:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=364802

Seems like most of the network is done by now
davisa
25-11-2007
I'd say Edge coverage is poor. Far less than 3G coverage, at least in London.

I don't get Edge where I live (in London) or work (in London) or my Parents place (in London). Plenty of WiFI though.
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“1. Find a contact and dial the number
2. Go to a url in an email
3. Browse the web for some information
4. Send a long text message
5. Download the last five episodes of a podcast
6. Find a photo from 500 in a photo library without knowing it's name

I've not even included weather, stocks or Youtube (which are all functions I use) because that would be unfair on the N95 as the iPhone has those functions built right in to the home screen.

If that isn't functionality, then I don't know what is.

OK the iPhone doesn't do video, MMS, or GPS. The first two of those I never do with a phone, the last is admittedly one advantage of the N95 although with it's small screen I question the usefulness of GPS on it. I am happy in the meantime to wait for iPhone 3rd party apps and have a separate keyfob GPS.”

Having owned an N95 before my iPhone, when the N95 wasn't crashing (which it did with alarming regularity!) :

1. This is simple to do on the N95, press middle button type first few letters and it finds it, very quick, but the iPhones bigger screen means its simpler to see the contacts in a list, but I could find people slightly quicker on my N95, I'd like to see the same option on the iPhone. That is from the contacts screen, in the SMS or email app, the iPhone beats the N95 hands down, you just type the first letter or two and it drops the name straight into the send box without changing screens, very cool!

2. Agree iPhone is much more intuitive and faster.

3. The iPhone is so far ahead with webbrowsing than the N95 its probably an unfair comparison, the iPhone is the real internet experience, on the N95 yeah you can tell you're using it on a mobile-phone, I never wanted to unless it was urgent, it was to fiddly and small, plus Opera isn't as good as Safari.

4. Hmmn I don't know about this one, I am pretty quick on the iphone keypad now, and yes it is hard to use on your first day or two, but after a week you can fly on it, but I'm still not quite as quick as I am on real keys. If we were racing, I could do it quicker on the N95, but I prefer the SMS app in the iPhone, the message history is awesome.

5. Yes thanks to iTunes.

6. Completely, the iPhone gallery is in a different league to the N95, lightyears ahead.

This is not someone who has no clue either, I owned an N95 for 6 months (two actually, replacement after first one got the white screen of death), and now own an iPhone.
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by davisa:
“I'd say Edge coverage is poor. Far less than 3G coverage, at least in London.

I don't get Edge where I live (in London) or work (in London) or my Parents place (in London). Plenty of WiFI though.”

I get Edge great here out in the sticks of Wakefield, also great reception in Leeds, Hull, Manchester, etc. also fine in Scotland when I was there last week.
tdenson
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Ok, press contacts.
Tap the key with the first letter of the contacts name on it.
Tap the key with the second letter of the contacts name on it.
3 taps, no scrolling.
Now seeing as fast, intuitive access to your massive list of contacts is vital are you going to be buying a Blackberry seeing as it does it more efficiently than your iPhone?”

OK, fair enough, I'll call that one a draw How about selecting a photo from a gallery of 500 ?
tdenson
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by chocolate_boy:
“
1. This is simple to do on the N95, press middle button type first few letters and it finds it, very quick, but the iPhones bigger screen means its simpler to see the contacts in a list, but I could find people slightly quicker on my N95, I'd like to see the same option on the iPhone. That is from the contacts screen, in the SMS or email app, the iPhone beats the N95 hands down, you just type the first letter or two and it drops the name straight into the send box without changing screens, very cool!

.”

I agree. one of the glaring omissions on the iPhone at the moment is a proper search function. This will come, it's only software.
psionic
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by tellytart1:
“Nah, there are loads of places even in London where my Samsung D900 falls back from using Edge to standard GPRS. Edge works in Grays Inn Road, but as soon as you start travelling in a vehicle, it drops back to GPRS.

At home in Woolwich I can usually get Edge reception, but sometimes I can't get a signal and the phone drops back to GPRS.

I think O2 have a long way to go before they've got decent Edge coverage.”

I would agree - EDGE coverage is patchy even in some parts London. I queried this by email with O2 the other day and they maintain the 30% coverage figure which is apparently distributed across various cell sites. They do however say they are in the process of a rapid network upgrade to roll out EDGE in more places.There is no official coverage map provided by them yet - but if you email them your postcode they should be able to confirm if EDGE is available in that cell.
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by psionic:
“I would agree - EDGE coverage is patchy even in some parts London. I queried this by email with O2 the other day and they maintain the 30% coverage figure which is apparently distributed across various cell sites. They do however say they are in the process of a rapid network upgrade to roll out EDGE in more places.There is no official coverage map provided by them yet - but if you email them your postcode they should be able to confirm if EDGE is available in that cell.”

The link above shows the dates for all the transmitters, most of them have been done by now it seems:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=364802
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“I agree. one of the glaring omissions on the iPhone at the moment is a proper search function. This will come, it's only software.”

It's rumoured that apparently we're getting Spotlight in 1.1.3
davisa
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by chocolate_boy:
“I get Edge great here out in the sticks of Wakefield, also great reception in Leeds, Hull, Manchester, etc. also fine in Scotland when I was there last week.”

Believe me, I'd much rather be in Scotland than in London!

I've actually found GPRS quite fast enough for the sort of browsing I do on the move (!) - mostly news sites and forums. At home/work I have WiFi.
Dan Sette
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by wernroe:
“my work phone is the Vario 2 - better than the iPhone.”

I hate to throw someone's words back at them, but....

Ha ha ha hahahahahah ha ha ha


A Vario 2. I bought myself out of the T Mobile contract seven months early because of the heap of junk that was the Vario 2.

Constant crashes. Three replacements, tapping away with a toothpick to send a text.

Internet, managed it once, for about five minutes (unreadable miserable experience that was)

And the ability to sync only three email addresses.

The iPhone isn't perfect, but it knocks the Vario into a cocked hat.
Ricardodaforce
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by chocolate_boy:
“The link above shows the dates for all the transmitters, most of them have been done by now it seems:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=364802”

Seems like there are a number of posts in THAT thread where people are saying they don't get edge when that list would say they do.
chocolate_boy
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Seems like there are a number of posts in THAT thread where people are saying they don't get edge when that list would say they do. ”

Hmmn I counted 2 or 3. This post was very interesting and made a good point:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...2&postcount=40

"this is a fault of the whole mobile industry in the UK.

they wasted so much money on the 3G networks they purposely didn't develop EDGE as they knew it was about as fast as 3G (not HSDPA) and would undermine new phones.

now 3G has been a flop as its just a low latency battery guzzler (don't get me wrong, HSDPA is great for laptops, I have a tmobile modem....).

the other point to note is that EDGE is an extension of GPRS/GSM and all cell-stations being sold now have it built in. Therefore as cellstations are replaced from time to time eventually it is just whether the operators want to switch it on or not.

i find it faster then 3G as you don't have to switch on for data. Also EDGE uses the GSM bands of 1800 and 900. 900 has better penetration then 1800 and the 2100 used for UMTS.

So I for one are glad that O2 was forced to start turning on EDGE and I wasn't forced to use 3G on my mobile.

However, some kind of low power chipset for HSDPA is the way to go for the future..... I think Jobs said that this was what he was waiting for."
goomba
25-11-2007
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“I would gladly challenge any N95 user in a race to complete the following functions -

1. Find a contact and dial the number
2. Go to a url in an email
3. Browse the web for some information
4. Send a long text message
5. Download the last five episodes of a podcast
6. Find a photo from 500 in a photo library without knowing it's name”

I reckon I would have you licked on my SE.

1. One button press to access contacts, and a couple to get to correct letter.
2. One click on the URL in the POP3 email client. Not sure if the iPhone has one of those.
3. Chalk one to the iPhone. Opera Mini is great, but not a patch on mobile Safari.
4. Texting on a keypad I would have thought was quicker. I didn't think the iPhone could do long texts though? I thought you were limited to 160 characters?
5. No contest. Easy using the RSS reader built in with Podcast specific functions, and a lot quicker on HSDPA.
6. Guessing a draw on this one?
tdenson
26-11-2007
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Ok, press contacts.
Tap the key with the first letter of the contacts name on it.
Tap the key with the second letter of the contacts name on it.
3 taps, no scrolling.
?”

Actually, further to my previous reply to this posting I still take issue here. I have only just discovered the N95 doesn't do predictive text lookup on contacts in the way phones such as my SPV M3100 and C500 did. On those phones with my contacts database I find I typically need 2 or 3 letters to just get the contact into view, and then several more taps with the scroll keys to get to the desired one, hardly 2 taps. I fail to see how you can get to the contact in 2 taps with no predictive text (unless the latest N95 fixes that).
Another point I sometimes find that people overlook on the iPhone (and this may not be true of you) is the alphabetic list of letters down the right hand column of the contacts screen. I have seen supposedly knowledgeable articles on the iPhone explain how it takes an age to scroll through to a contact.
tdenson
26-11-2007
Originally Posted by goomba:
“I reckon I would have you licked on my SE.

1. One button press to access contacts, and a couple to get to correct letter.
2. One click on the URL in the POP3 email client. Not sure if the iPhone has one of those.
3. Chalk one to the iPhone. Opera Mini is great, but not a patch on mobile Safari.
4. Texting on a keypad I would have thought was quicker. I didn't think the iPhone could do long texts though? I thought you were limited to 160 characters?
5. No contest. Easy using the RSS reader built in with Podcast specific functions, and a lot quicker on HSDPA.
6. Guessing a draw on this one?”

1. So, slower than iPhone - one click, not "a couple", gets you to the correct letter
2. Yes it does, both POP and iMap
4. The iPhone keyboard is an acquired skill but IMO once you are used to it is is much faster than the tap tap tap of a conventional phone
5. Not sure what you mean by no contest. You don't actually have to do anything on the iPhone as it is seamlessly integrated with iTunes on the server, so I'm not sure how it could be any quicker than nothing. To be fair, you have to be comfortable operating in the iTunes world which at first I found very strange, but it's something that grows on you when you get used to the philosophy of letting iTunes manage everything.
6. I'd be very surprised if the KE could perform as well on finding photos. The iPhone displays 30 thumbnails per screen, but combined with the flicking function which makes it a few seconds to find the one you want I do not see how it could be done any faster. I've got 433 photos on mine, and I just timed flicking from one end to the other as 10 seconds, giving an average search time of 5 seconds.
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