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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

iPhone2: 3G, push and GPS, will the next gen deliver . . . us?

Spent the late morning - and part of the early afternoon - watching LIVE blogging of the Apple announcement about the new iPhone 2, interspersed with trying to do some of the work that earns one's living.

Kudos, kudos, kudos to the folks at http://www.macrumorslive.com for doing such an outstanding job of LIVE blogging the WWDC 2008 event that included some terrific "continuous updating" technology that did not require us to "refresh" our browsers constantly while waiting for any updates.

They also gave us pics within seconds of having taken them, an always appreciated feat.

Even Mrs. Head Geek was trying to watch the events LIVE on macrumorLIVE, whilst trying to do her job. And when the announcement came, or, for us, the confirmation that the features we wanted to see on the new iPhone were indeed going to be, we actually reached one another on our respective BlackBerries within seconds of notifying the other.

How cute. (Then again, when you can finish one another's sentences, this ain't so special, I guess).

Anyway, this message is also for the good folks at Adobe - who, for whatever reason, never developed a "plug-in" for use on the last iPhone - to please be thoughtful this time to those of us who professionally and personally use Flash every day, and provide that necessary plug-in for this next gen iPhone! We want to be able to stream/record/play any video from any video hosting service that uses Flash, on our iPhones . . . and we need your program to do it.

And finally, to Al Gore, whom some have said was seen wandering the theatre, why aren't you here in Boston or New York City suffering these wickedly high, record-breaking Spring temperatures right along with us (obviously to stand-by your always-scientifically-challenged point) rather than adding to your carbon footprint by jet-setting to all of the cool events that have nothing to do with Global Warming?

Honestly, what some people won't do to get a little attention.

I know, Al, do as I say, not as I do.

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.

First Look: RIM's Blackberry 9000

Hot off the video presses, so to speak, is this video rundown of the soon-to-be-officially-announced availability of RIM's new Blackberry 9000, now set for this Monday, May 12th.

Personally speaking, we've been waiting for any new Blackberry model that has a useable PDA and Flash capabilities so we can visit video-based sites, including our own here on Typepad.

Since, once again, this is all brand new buzz on our favorite tech/geek blogs, the reviews are coming in stages and we have yet to learn whether the 9000 is the must-have for us.

Nevertheless and in the meantime, here's first look at one of the finest products on the telecom market: