On Wed, 23 Jul 2008, SMS posted:
> LOL, outside of Usenet, does anyone know that these fanboys exist?

The fanboys are in the Apple forums, which is unfortunate since Apple
strongly encourages users with support questions to go to the forums
rather than contacting Apple. This works when it's a relatively
straightforward newbie question.

It works less well when the user has a real bug ("Why isn't it loading my
contacts and calendar from Outlook"?, "Why am I getting unknown error ####
in upgrading my iPhone software, and what can I do to get it out of
restore mode?", etc.) or wants to do something outside of the walled
garden ("How do I get the modem to answer a data call; the normal UNIX
method of editing /etc/ttys to start a getty doesn't seem to work?").

The most obnoxious fanboys, however, are to be found where Apple's
competition lurks. These are the self-annointed prophets who go out to
convert the heathen. An outstanding example is Oxford, who relentlessly
posts iPhone advocacy in the Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. groups and has done
an excellent job in convincing people not to touch an iPhone with a 10
foot pole.

I happen to have active accounts with both Verizon and AT&T; use both
Windows and Mac; use iToy, Windows Mobile, and N800; etc. I'm pretty well
aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each of these platforms.
Fanboys of any stripe are particularly annoying to me, because (among
other damage) they tend to hamper fixes of bugs, misfeatures, and
omissions on a platform.

> This is true. The iPhone doesn't exist for me, because the AT&T coverage in
> both my home area, and the places I travel to most often, is sub-standard
> compared to Verizon coverage.

Yup; both call quality and coverage is much better with Big Red. AT&T's
3G network has comparable call quality, but it's only in the big cities.
Out in the boonies, you're stuck with GSM.

But AT&T has its uses. A 50MB data-only AT&T SIM is quite a bit cheaper
than adding tethering to Verizon, and I own property in ex-Dobson
territory that is not covered by Verizon.

Also, Verizon's world phones only have GSM, not 3G, on its world side.
So either you need a second (unlocked) 3G phone and do a SIM swap (and
yes, there is such a thing as a Verizon SIM) when going to 3G-only
countries such as Japan, or you have to go with AT&T for a GSM/3G phone
with 3G in the 2100 band.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.