[kigs]

1) can the iphone do push email like blackberry? I know theres MS exchange but is it almost as good as BB for basic email accts like gmail, hotmail, etc? In other words, is it almost as good?

2) Have you ever returned it because of bad 3g service/problems with it?

3) How about background services like AIM? I love having AIM open while listerning to music AND surfing the web? I thought i read somewhere that the iphone limits background processes?

4) was the internet as fast as the verizon one? Pages seem to take forever sometimes and appear "choppy"..even as i write this, i see a vzw commercial touting its speed

5) for those in the NYC/NJ tristate area, how did you like atts 3g service? seems like a waste to me when i hear iphone users "turning off 3G" when they are paying for that luxury!

[ericbee]

As a former iphone user (gen 1 and 2) I can answer your questions and am happy to tr and contribute to this forum as I have taken so much from it..

The iphone cannot do push like the BB. I was often having to refresh my email in order to get email on my iphone, regardless of how often I set it to check automatically. In fact, I get my gmail on my BB faster than I do on my home MAC.

I eventually sold my iphone 3g because in NYC (for me) the dropped calls became so bad that I was afraid to talk on it for calls that lasted for more than 10 minutes. I cannot tell you how many times I was on hold with Time Warner cable only to be disconnected as soon as a rep picked up. I even used a BOLD on the AT&T 3g network and it too dropped calls like crazy.

I do not use AIM but, I can tell you that the iphone did not play nice when it came to doing multitasking and things simultaneously. On my STORM I can check email, surf the net or delete voicemails while carrying on a phone conversation.

Again, 3g for me was crap for me across the board. Voice was horrible, the 3g network was in and out and was slow as heck. Verizon is much more stable and as a result much faster for me. I couldnt tell you if a perfect signal ATT 3G would be faster than a perfect signal Verizon for data but, for me it is worlds faster.

As stated above, I was forced to disable my 3g in order to use ATT and the iphone. This stabilized the voice calls from dropping but, rendered the data useless as EDGE was beyond slow..like dial up slow.

Hope this helps.

[kigs]

thanks for the response

i work in midtown (45th st) and dropped calls in this day and age are unacceptable. I get 5 bars 1xEVDO rev a on my storm

silly question, but did you just pay the ETF to cancel from ATT? or how did you have both a storm and an iphone? Am I missing something?

[cray1000]

the iphone can do push with microsoft exchange.

[smatyas]

to answer the aim question: when you press the "home" button, it stops contacting the server for messages until you re-open the program. so you won't receive your new messages while you're surfing the web or doing something else on the phone. i got my storm on launch day and paid the ETF on AT&T and am staying as far from AT&T as possible forever i had to replace my iPhone twice (once for poor hardware, bezel wasn't even close to flush with the back, and once for the mute button falling off )

[korp#IM]

Can the 3G send mms? I don't remember.

[ericbee]

I also paid the ETF fee with ATT but, I made out in the end. I owned the iphone for $299 (16gb) and my ETF was $150. In case you didnt know, they credit you $5 per month for every month you maintain your contract so the ETF gets lower as the contract continues. 6 months credit is $30, 12 months is $60 etc..

In the end I paid $150 in ETF and $299 for the phone for a total of about $450. I sold the iphone on ebay for $565 so I walked away even or up a bit.

Same goes for the STORM. You paid $199 for the phone, even less with the rebates. If you terminate your contract with Verizon and pay $200 you can sell the STORM for $600 all day on ebay where they unlock it and pay a premium to NOT have a 2 year contract.