Dont Trust This Guy why not take my word for it? A blog by Jim Jeffers

So I recently caved to the lower price point of the Apple iPhone and now I’ve put my self into a situation bound to be full of turbulence. Activating the phone tonight, a deceptively smooth process, abruptly came to a halt when the credit check failed. Knowing my credit score is high from quarterly credit reports Discover card sends me; I was genuinely surprised to find out my credit information was not good enough for AT&T’s standards. So I’m left here trying to rationalize the situation. I have a useless piece of expensive technology sitting next to my laptop as I type this. This is very disconcerting.

Further research on Apple’s discussion forums shows customers who have experienced similar problems. It seems like the use of any identity theft protection can cause AT&T’s credit run to fail. So even though I can get a credit card, bank account, auto loan, etc. all while having my identity theft service in action, I can’t get approved without going down to an AT&T wireless store in person. Oh what joyous time awaits me.

Update: I got the phone activated without a hitch after verifying my identity through identity theft protection. My phone number transferred in less than 15 minutes. The process is easy; so easy that I’m actually glad I have the theft protection in place. If not anyone with my social security number and street address could have activated an iPhone in 15 minutes or less and stolen my life! Oh the information age. So far I’m going ga ga ga ga for the iPhone. These things are worth the hype! I’m almost sorry I resisted for so long.

I mosied on over to the Apple store yesterday to get a glimpse at the much alluded iPhone. Some words to the wise: come the day after to avoid standing in ridiculous lines. The iPhone is surrounded by a lot of hype, which a lot of folks don’t think it can live it up to. I for one can see that it doesn’t but it does come close. When I first caught a glimpse of it in the store I saw about 6 different people surrounding the table with display models. The iPhone is spectacular to see in person. It’s probably the nicest, most intriguing little hand held gadget I’ve come across. The device is about the same size as a conventional iPod but so minimalist in design that it has a sort of mystique to it.

Don’t get me wrong, it is VERY cool. The product is amazing in many ways but at the same time it’s equally unimpressive in many ways. For instance, Safari on the iPhone, the best implementation of web browsing online in phone to date, is still not without it’s problems. Scrolling around pages was very laggy. The phone does not zoom in as fast as it does in the commercials. Zooming within the web browser is a bit of a test of patience. The animation is fluid but results in a blurry screen until the screen is redrawn. It’s a bit like zooming in and out in google maps. It’s just not conducive, but I suppose it’s better tha nothing. Additionally, developers such as Joe Hewitt are already facing problems experimenting with the iPhone. So software for the iPhone will be coming but it’s going to still be a while before we see polished products specifically for the iPhone that will ‘revolutionize’ how we do things.

Finally, the AT&T wireless plans are not that bad of a deal considering what you get. I think the price is a really good value when you consider you’re on AT&T’s Edge (premium data network) with unlimited data transfer included in every iPhone plan. Not ot mention rollover minutes. HOWEVER, AT&T’s Edge network blows. The US lacks a true 3G network and the closest carrier to providing anything comparable is Verizon. Edge currently maxes out at 80Kbps. Dialup is 56 Kbps. And while AT&T is investing in their infrastructure to increase the capabilities of Edge to hopefully achieve 200Kbps by next year, Verizon already achieves transfer rates higher than that on their own network right now.

So yeah, I’m a bit bummed but grateful at the same time. I would advise any smart consumer to hold off buying the iPhone unless you need it for testing. Let the silly early adopters spend their money on a device that is well polished for the most part but somewhat frivolous in our present day premature environment. I’m just glad Apple has done something which has put the wheels in motion to improve phones everywhere. And I am counting on it being successful, as you know, I would like to buy a second generation iPhone. One that corrects all of the mistakes from the initial product offering and has a healthy amount of web based productivity solutions and features to encourage the necessity of such a device.

I think the biggest advantage to using Apple has always been the fact that you have the hardware and software provider united as one. It gives them the control to create a more polished experience since the software can be more specialized and tailored to the hardware it runs on. In contrast, a conventional PC can run on multiple operating systems which is problematic for two reasons: 1.) the OS developer must make his software more versatile so that it can work with most hardware 2.) the hardware manufacturer must work within the operating systems limitations to create custom UI functions that integrate with their technology innovations. This is where Apple has always had a clear advantage: If they want the hardware to interact with their software in a special way they can just expand the limitations of the operating system. To my knowledge, it is a luxury no other computer manufacturer has.

But this is also a problem. Apple has been silently testing Rossetta the new version of OSX that could run off X86 processors for years. Of course they had to be tight lipped about it because they didn’t want the public to know about the possible switch; but this has come at a cost to the third party developer. The dilemma now is that major vendors such as Adobe, and even Microsoft are not prepared for the early transition to Intel. So the ETA for an Intel compatible version of Adobe CS is unknown. This holds true for pretty much all major software packages presently available on Mac.

Where does this leave you and me? Well, if you’re a pro working on a Mac there is no point in upgrading yet. The software you use isn’t ready yet. Sure you can run the PowerPC versions of these packages on the Intel based macs but the benefits of the additional processing power are diminished because the OS now needs to run an emulator to simulate power pc processes. It also means if you don’t have a mac but wanted to make a switch you don’t know what to buy. Intel macs aren’t widely supported yet. Power PC macs are on the way out.. The message to the consumer is they should hold off and delay their purchase. This is just a bad business scenario. I love Apple products and I am a huge advocate of the Apple brand.

I just hope they can remedy this scenario as soon as possible.