Version 3.0? Are you kidding me. What did we get? Cut and Paste??? Big deal. Where’s the voice dial? Oh wait? They did release that, but I gotta upgrade and extend my frickin contract for another two years. Turn by turn navigation? Sure, you can have that, but it’s going to cost you ten bucks a month.

What I find interesting is that the fan boys are quick to defend their rock solid phone against the Palm menace. Seems to show a lack of confidence, in my opinion.

I had the opportunity to play with a pre at a local Sprint store and while it will take a little getting used to, it seemed to handle the web quite well (put my 3g to shame) and with the latest updates, should have no issues connecting to our exchange server from what I read. I was able to launch about 6 apps and switch between them with little effort – exactly what I need. Plus the unlimited plan will come out to be cheaper for me. I know it’s a first gen phone but I can live with that. I loved the iphone and still do for some things but honestly, the dazzling app-love and cool factor is wearing off. As my job gets more hectic and other options become more available, its shortcomings are becoming more apparent.

About the 3gs: yes it’s faster, has a better camera and switches between apps more seamlessly just from it’s raw power, but it’s still not true multitasking anyhow you look at it. I was able to play with one at the apple store a few days after its release and was left with a positive overall impression compared to my 3g. But….. I’m not elegible for an upgrade for another 6 months (they want $399) and I got spoiled by my Pre experience. Yeah with a little convincing I can probably have my 3g replaced, but I think I’m all iphoned-out and have been left with a slightly bad taste from the overall experience. So bye bye iphone (although I might just hold on it as an extra device for music).

Just the beginning of your comment made me laugh.. the fact that you think you own your car, or own your home.. John we never truly own anything.. if you don’t pay your taxes, you don’t own your home anymore.. if you don’t pay sticker costs on your car, you can’t drive it anymore.. Point is, we go with the best device for us.. yes, it would be nice if Apple would allow more on the iphone, but they don’t.. to me, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

I’ve used backgrounder on a jailbroken 3g (just got updated for 3.0 btw) which enables multitasking for all apps. I find that the only thing I ever use it for is Pandora and Stitcher. Both are streaming audio apps. I haven’t really noticed using it for any other applications on the phone, but it is nice.

Yeah anyways all you have to do is jailbreak and you have multitasking (although a little buggy, definately not quite as good as Pre multitasking) for whatever you need it for.

Well said.

I am very Interested in a point brought up in the comments of this article. How many 3GS’s were sold in the U.S. On launch weekend? Can anyone answer that?

It’s really annoying you typing up one sided fanboyish blogs. Stop it. I have an iPhone & I for one would love competition. Be it, ad wise or any other-wise. Next thing you’ll say is Canada has a more powerful army as compared to the US. it’s just annoying reading your blogs & noticing all the one sided cockamamy story that you type!

1. Stop making the iPhone killer! Just make a remarkable phone a that doesn’t try to be an iPhone clone and people will get it.
2. Stop trying to sell the service and hide the phone brand. Palm should fight to push their ne. For all I care sprint can kiss my ass.

For now i’m sticking to the original trendsetter until some other company makes something that makes a clear copy if it.

(sent from a 3gs)

I was thinking about something similar apple should do. They should have a SMS short cut app on top of the current app with a keyboard and window to type in. Then when were done , just send it off and return to the app.

Unlikely. AT&T has stated they are satisfied with their prices.

“Are you seriously trying to tell us that a Sprint plan is more expensive than the iPhones? Are you drunk? You can pay around $60 a month and get more out of your plan than with an iPhone. Sprint includes free roaming (Verizons network) and free GPS! if you want to equal all you get with a Pre don’t forget to add $120 a year to your bill to include that.”

Nope was just stating that the lowest plan on AT&T fro my 2G iPhone is less than the lowest similarly comparable Sprint plan. What I was trying to imply is that most people do not need an EVERYTHING plan and actually I bet a vast majority of the users have the lowest plan which is not that much more expensive than the similar Sprint plan. They only show the highest plans available on each network to sensationalize the value. TO me it is like when the Zune Marketplace had an ad saying it would cost $30,000 to fill an iPod when no one would ever do that. They advertise the biggest number to catch the uninformed person’s attention. This is also my problem with AT&T trying to push the 3G for $99 when it is no where near a good value compared to the $199 for a 3GS. Plus I have never seen my iPhone roam so can’t say that I see the need for a roaming option (or GPS Navigation for that matter). But when I was on Sprint prior to my iPhone I roamed quite often. Location dependent of course.

“I don’t think you know pricing at all it’s $5 for 200 texts on iPhones 3G and 3GS.”

Actually I know exactly the difference and to get the same value of data plan with the 3GS it is $15 more than my current 2G plan which is exactly why I am not upgrading yet. If you look at the way I wrote it, I only calculated it to be $5×12 = $60 more for a basic AT&T plan with minimal texts. I might be in the minority but I for one would love to have a less expensive data plan that was capped since I do not get near the correct value out of my $20 plan and can’t imagine how I would out of a $30=$5 plan on the 3GS.

“I’ve seen tons of Pre ads from Sprint all over the web.”

Exactly my point. Remember how many TV ads there were for the Instinct. That stupid little plot they cooked up to surround the phone. The TV ads for the Pre are all about the network and then at the end they flash a picture of the Pre but barely even mention what it is. Internet ads may be cheaper and reach a lot of techy people, but mainstram uptake needs TV advertising. iPhone is a household name, Blackberry is a household name, Pre is no where near that and might never be at this rate.

It’s part of Rene Ritchie’s daily routine. He isn’t really a journalist, more like a retail salesman under guise of reporter. He does it every day: bash every other phone that isn’t an Iphone.

to make yourself feel better about your purchase ?

With that said, if I were on Sprint’s network I would most definitely get the Pre but I’m more than thrilled with the functionality/usefulness my iPhone affords me and have no plans of switching anytime soon.

The hero does look sweet though.

Backgrounder for pausing/resuming games, tlert for answering texts while in applications. I could go on but don’t need to…

Try again “Killer”!

Yeah the Hero pretty much spanks every phone. It’s sick.

And about the speed. With all that speed you’d think the 3gs could do more than open and close one app at a time quicker.

And 3Gs is the best fastest phone ever!!!!

The 3gs isn’t really light years ahead of anything. HTC, Palm, and soon Blackberry are gaining ground especially with advancements in UI, feature set, hardware, and useability.

The Palm Pre and 3gs also share pretty similar hardware. If anything the Pre’s software is ahead of the Iphone 3.0 OS. UI wise the Pre is superior. As great as the Iphone is the UI feels really tired. I wish it had more of a Mac feel. Maybe one day.

Are you seriously trying to tell us that a Sprint plan is more expensive than the iPhones? Are you drunk? You can pay around $60 a month and get more out of your plan than with an iPhone. Sprint includes free roaming (Verizons network) and free GPS! if you want to equal all you get with a Pre don’t forget to add $120 a year to your bill to include that.

“To be fair, if I upgrade to the 3GS I would be spending $15 more a month to keep my 200 texts.”

I don’t think you know pricing at all it’s $5 for 200 texts on iPhones 3G and 3GS.

“I also think it is funny how little they have advertised the Pre versus the big ad campaign they had for the Instinct.”

I’ve seen tons of Pre ads from Sprint all over the web.

(I love OS 3.0! I debunked this guys post all with the help of copy/paste.)

That’s real nice that developers do that but it is not universal and you can’t be sure what games save data once you exit an app. A simpler solution would be to 1) allow you to swipe to another screen and answer the text message or 2) Have a quick reply feature to allow you to text as soon as you receive a message.

Finally someone gets it. I love my Iphone to death but lets not kid ourselves it does some things really well but it absolutely blows at others. The Iphone cannot multitask. Multitasking is more than just running first party applications in the background it is being able to switch easily between apps so please stop with the fanboyism. I swear it feels like Rene is trying to sell the Iphone. We get it the iphone is a great phone! Now stick to reporting on Iphone news not this “my balls are bigger than yours” crap

OK, I’ll bite…I’m bored. You do understand that the 3GS is the iPhone referred to here right???

So to fan the flames – I did just what you suggested.

I browsed fresh to http://www.detnews.com [clear history, cookies & cache], chose the FULL site – soon as I saw the bar move for page DL.

I then: – switched to Mail – composed two emails – replied to one of the composed above – saw that I forgot to disable auto BCC – went to settings and disabled auto BCC – went to Photos, found a pic – attached it to email – got MobileMe notifications of the emails above, while composing the last one. – opened up “After The Music Stops” by LeCrae in the iPod – finally went back to Safari

and my page was loaded. Done, already there…

Sure, the 1st Gen and 3G might have issues with what I did above. Sure, I’d like true multi-tasking/backgrounding/etc but let’s say on point – this is about 3GS and it doesn’t have the problems w/ not enough memory for what you outline.

Wait 2~3 weeks. You’ll see the new stuff on the 3G S. Devs need time.

In any case, in all the media i’ve seen, the Pre lags far behind the 3G S. So…

So for me (450min/200texts/unlimited data on a 2G iPhone) I would actually be spending $120 more a year for a comparable Sprint plan (save the unlimited texts). I also expect I am the more typical 2G iPhone user than someone that needs to have unlimited everything anyway!

To be fair, if I upgrade to the 3GS I would be spending $15 more a month to keep my 200 texts, so then I would be paying $60 more per year with AT&T than Sprint (again forget the unlimited texts) which is still a far cry from the $600 a year this ad tries to imply.

I also think it is funny how little they have advertised the Pre versus the big ad campaign they had for the Instinct.

obviously you don’t own a 3GS.

With the whole argument about ” deciding to end a game or reply to a text message “. There are ( a few ) games out there that lets you return back to your previous or save the session. The developer just has to write the game to that, not apple’s fault.

So that argument is a bust.

So, instead, you sit in Safari watching it take forever to load and render the page and, oops, Safari just crashed because it’s out of memory.

Let’s not let competitive rhetoric distort reality. The iPhone is good at many things. It sucks (to the point of near unusability) when it comes to multi-tasking anything other than background music, or checking your calendar while on a phone call.