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Memo to Business & Personal Blackberry Owners: Get thee an iPhone with MobileMe

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Cannot believe how functional and cool MobileMe is for our new iPhones.

In the world of the PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) we've bought over the past ten years, from having-no-other-choice-back-then-but-endure three Palms, then one horrific nightmare of a Sony version of the Palm and then one superb HP PDA, we turned to the Blackberry and have been relatively unhappy with it, like 55% ok, 45% not ok.

We're now thrilled and amazed at the ease of the Apple iPhone 2's real-time synchronization through MobileMe - - - and the app certainly kicks all current Blackberries (have not yet tried the Bold) out of contention for business enterprise users.

Imagine this, my friends. You suddenly have to enter an appointment or a task or remember to do something at a date and time certain. No matter what computer you're on at the moment, you log on to your MobileMe web-based site, enter your new data and bam, it automatically adds it to your iPhone in real time - or vice versa, which also means that if you're out in the field and have only your iPhone, you enter your new data on that device and bam, it's automatically transferred to your desktop application, again, in real time.

No more docking and synching, no more trying to figure out which direction to choose for your update (the old Palm) or trying to remember whether you synched or when.

Boom, bam, it's all done for you through and thanks to Apple's MobileMe.

On the darker side, should your Blackberry need repair, for example, and last I checked a couple of months ago, Research in Motion (the Blackberry mfr) has not authorized anyone in the United States to repair a Blackberry, so you can't just drop it off somewhere close by and then pick it up later, fully repaired.

So what do you have to do?

For those of you unfamiliar with Blackberry repair, get this, kids, you have to mail your broken Blackberry to RIM in Canada.

But today I heard that AT&T now sends you a replacement until it's repaired, which was never shared with us back when one of our Blackberry Pearls needed a repair last year. AT&T clearly told us it was between us and Blackberry.

Hey, bottom line is that asking your customers to mail you their valuable telephone for any reason is an inefficient (and stupid) business model that only invites problems, promises to give nothing more than either inept Customer Service or falls intolerably short of reasonable - - - and where no amount of internal corporate reasoning is sufficient to justify the inconvenience and potential risk to/for your customers.

Most importantly, the Blackberry certainly cannot be considered a reasonable business enterprise solution to keep customers like us - - - especially after dealing with Apple.

With the Apple iPhone, you find your nearest Apple retailer, log-online for an appointment at the Genius Bar or do it in-store - - - and then just show up or wait your turn. If it's under warranty, they take it in, fix it and you're on your way. If it's not, they tell you your charges and you make your decision.

Apple's sales, retail and Customer Service paradigms are nonpareil, fancy French for something that has no equal, as in the best.

posted by Head Geek

Memo to Apple: we love our new iPhones, but dump thy partner called AT&T

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We braved the lines and we're glad we did . . . so far.

Yup, Mrs. Head Geek and I have been waiting for our respective PDA/Cell Phone needs to be met by a device - and the iPhone 2 seemed to fit the bill for both of us.

So with less than three months left on our Blackberry Pearl AT&T contracts, I studied the Nokia line and the Samsung which Sprint just introduced, neither of which could even come close to the physical or software-resident qualities of the iPhone - - - then we talked with a number of friends who are professionals with AT&T, others we knew in the cellular industry and then some friends at Apple - - - and a decision was made to take the time on Friday to go and buy ourselves a pair of iPhones.

Thankfully, my wife had worked for 10-days straight and despite the pressure she placed on me to be with her @ 8 a.m. yesterday, Friday, we decided (I insisted on) waiting until the afternoon to buy them directly from Apple and not from AT&T.

Needless to say, we're still with AT&T because we have to be, but we're unquestionably waiting for that day when Apple announces the end of their relationship with AT&T - along with the date certain when the iPhones will be permanently unlocked and sold through any carrier worldwide.

Well, that's it, nothing more to report other than finding some minor flaws while using some of Apple's Apps Store programs we downloaded - and my surprise that video streaming from YouTube and MLB.com looked much clearer on my WiFi signal than through the new 3G.

But we sure love our iPhones.

posted by Head Geek

Verizon CEO's FT interview: "Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances"

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Just came across this story with quotes from Verizon's CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, about the iPhone 3G and have to say I'm pretty surprised at how those quotes seem to come off so unprofessionally green-eyed jealous - along with one that seemed so gosh darn mean, especially when we remember that Verizon had first dibs on an original iPhone exclusive but turned it down.

You tell me how you read these comments.

From c/net News.com:

The head of the telecom giant seemed a bit irritated about Apple's march into the mobile phone industry when he answered a question posed by the Financial Times about Apple's chances of reaching the mass market with the iPhone 3G by saying, "There goes the conspiracy again. You're declaring them a winner before they've earned it on the field."

Seidenberg's main contention seems to be that the iPhone isn't a success because it has such a small share of the overall mobile phone market, which is sort of like arguing that GM is more successful than Ferrari because they sell more cars.

Now here comes the mean part, or at least what we feel is mean-spirited in the sense of, it's not what you say, but how you say it?

. . . In any event, the 61-year-old Verizon CEO's plan seems to involve waiting for Apple's 53-year-old CEO to retire.

"Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances," Seidenberg told the FT.

Dude, if you had done the math right when you first had the chance, you would also understand that you'll be "old" about 8 years ahead of Jobs - and some of us pray that his chances of living a long, healthy and productive life will be far better than Verizon's chances of ever having the class and pride that Jobs has brought Apple.

Can you hear me now?

Posted by Head Geek

With this MetroPCS lock-free decision, line 'em-up, sign 'em up

This is a very good news announcement for fellow consumers - and phone geeks.

From The Associated Press:

MetroPCS Communications Inc. has become the largest U.S. wireless carrier to say it will let customers bring cell phones from other carriers, which it will then reprogram for use on its own network.

. . . Carriers generally sell phones that are locked to their own service. This protects their business model, which is based on subsidizing the cost of the phone by hundreds of dollars, then making that money back on monthly service fees.

MetroPCS's move threatens these traditional rules. It allows customers with certain models of phones from Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp. and a few other carriers to bring their phones to MetroPCS stores, where they will be reprogrammed.

Kudos to MetroPCS for having the guts to break the costly (to us) monopoly these carriers have insisted on having - and for expecting the new business model to be effectively monetized as to hopefully entice other carriers to see the error of their past ways.

Their 4.4 million subscribers should also be very happy - and whose numbers growth will hopefully show that MetroPCS has hit the next mother lode of revenue streams that were once thought untenable.

Hey Boston, have you always had to put up with this?

First let me say that we've never had to endure even a lick of bad attitude from any AT&T store employees for the more than ten years we've been with them, that is, until we moved to Boston a few years ago.

And I've spent the past three hours writing the details of having to put up with this until I saw that it was almost 3:00 a.m. and I said forget it, I need the old beauty sleep.

But let me just say that what was so offensive tonight was that we were intending to spend over a grand to buy two brand new Blackberry 9000s, and they just didn't . . . care. We don't care whether you buy or not seemed to be the prevailing 'tude, a stunningly incomprehensible approach to doing business, but especially so in tough economic times.

Nevertheless, we'll try to buy this phone with AT&T one more time, this weekend, by going to Metro West and Cambridge. In the meantime, if any of you guys have a buddy, a relative or just an acquaintance who works for an AT&T cellular store somewhere around Boston that you would personally recommend and can sell 617 or 781 area codes, feel free to contact us at iwatchneonATgmail.com.

Too tired now, gotta get some sleep.