The (Slight) Differences Between the Verizon and AT&T iPhones

The Verizon iPhone 4 is nearly identical to the one currently on offer from AT&T, but there are a few minor differences worth noting which may be decision makers or breakers for some. The biggest difference with the Verizon phone is a change of the internal antenna and cellular radio to ones that will play nicely with Verizon’s CDMA network. The advantage of this is that the phone will now run on Verizon’s much touted network, and many iPhone users should experience better signal and call quality in places where they found AT&T’s coverage lacking.

There are two disadvantages to the CDMA technology that Verizon uses however. One is that it is not as fast as AT&T’s HSPA network (should one have excellent reception and bandwidth). This means that, compared to places with great AT&T coverage where few people use their phones (if such places do indeed exist), users will find the Verizon iPhone slower.

The second disadvantage is that Verizon’s CDMA technology does not allow for simultaneous voice and data use. That means that it is impossible to, say, browse the internet while on a phone call. This is likely not something people do terribly often, but sometimes it can be invaluable to look something up in Wikipedia or refer to an email during a call.

There is one feature that may be an available only on Verizon however, and that is the ability to use the phone as a Wifi hotspot. This feature is already available on many phones Verizon sells, including most of their Droid lineup, and typically requires an additional monthly cost. What it allows you to do is turn your phone into a Wifi router that your computer can see and connect to, allowing you to access the internet on a computer or tablet (up to 5 devices at a time) using your phone’s cellular connection. The mobile hotspot feature could come to the AT&T iPhone at some point in the future (should AT&T choose to implement it), but there are no announced plans.

Price-wise the two phones cost exactly the same, but the monthly fees associated with them may be slightly different. Fifteen dollars a month buys you 150 megabytes of data on Verizon and 200 MB on AT&T. For $25 dollars a month, you can buy 2 gigabytes on AT&T and $30/month will get you unlimited data use on Verizon. This means that light data users (which is likely most people) are essentially paying the same on either network, medium data users (200 MB-2GB) can save $5 a month on AT&T, and heavy data users (>2GB) should choose Verizon.

Why you May Want to Wait to Buy a Verizon iPhone

All that being said, the best course may to be to wait a few months before buying any iPhone, and here’s why.

Apple has, like clockwork, been coming out with a new version of the iPhone once a year, always in late spring or early summer (June or early July). If you buy an iPhone now, you will be committing to a new two year contract and won’t be able to upgrade to whatever new phone Apple comes up with. Since the next iPhone is only 4 months away (assuming Apple keeps to its schedule), it makes sense to wait for the new model. You won’t want to miss out on whatever improvements Apple makes to the next iPhone.

It is also important to note that many people won’t be able to buy the new iPhone, at least not without paying additional amounts to their carrier. If you are currently on contract with a carrier that’s not Verizon, you will almost certainly have to pay some kind of early termination fee to cancel your plan. If you are on Verizon and you’re not eligible for a phone upgrade (which typically only happens when two years have elapsed and you need to renew your cellular contract), you will have to pay the unsubsidized price for your iPhone. Currently, the unsubsized prices for the iPhone are $599 and $699, adding $400 to the price of the phone.

I have no doubt that Apple has something exciting up its sleeve for the next version of the iPhone (they always do) and it makes sense to wait for it — it’s only 4 months away, and it might cost a lot of extra money to get the Verizon iPhone now. But, if you’ve been waiting a long time for a Verizon iPhone and just cannot wait any longer, you will not truly go wrong buying an iPhone 4 on Verizon. There’s no telling whether the Verizon network will fare better than AT&T’s when it gets slammed with iPhone users, but the iPhone 4 is a great device and Verizon is not charging any more for it than the competition.

I was recently asked to write a short piece on “My Favorite Gadgets of All Time”. I decided to take that topic and write about

For me, the original iPhone was a revelation. It wasn’t that it had a touchscreen — I’d seen a lot of stylus driven Pocket PCs and Treos. It wasn’t that it had a completely integrated iPod — many phones had mp3 capabilities and some, like the Walkman series, were even more than decent at it. It wasn’t even about the UI — it was intuitive, fresh, and new, but very simplified (especially the original 1.0 release). It was all about the web browser.

Mobile Safari showed me that it was possible to have a true, desktop-like internet experience on a mobile device. I could carry around the internet – and it was the true internet, as I was used to experiencing it — in my pocket! This blew my mind, and opened up new worlds of possibilities of what I could do and where I could do it. Plus, I could consistently get “woah!” reactions from people who’d never seen it by whipping out my iPhone and navigating to their favorite site.

Another of my favorite gadgets was the first crop of netbooks — the original Asus EEE PC and the competitors that came shortly thereafter. Whether running Linux or Windows XP, all of these machines were new in that they were computers small enough to take practically anywhere and cheap enough so people could actually afford to buy them (as opposed to UMPCs). Like the iPhone, they allowed me to have real computing power wherever I was, whenever I needed it (I personally had an original Acer Aspire One). Now, the current netbooks are even less expensive and get phenomenal battery life, and have been largely responsible for pushing down the prices of laptops overall.

I’ve finally had the opportunity to spend some time with an iPhone 4. I’ve got some quick initial impressions on the device coming up after the break. (To find in-depth impressions and run-through of the software — iOS 4 — click here).

• Since the exterior of the phone is made entirely out of glass and metal, it really does have a higher quality feel than the plastic iPhone 3G and 3GS. That said, the metal and glass give the phone an unexpected heftiness. While the iPhone 4 is a smaller than previous iPhones (particularly in width), it is not any lighter, which makes it seem surprisingly heavy for its size. The weight won’t be a problem for those used to the previous iPhone models, but those coming to the iPhone for the first time may need to adjust to carrying a heavier phone.
• The phone is really thin. Apple says it’s the thinnest smartphone out there, and while that may or may not be true, it’s more than svelte enough to fit into narrow pockets. It’s not as astonishingly thin as the iPod Touch, but, then the iPod Touch doesn’t have to fit cellular antennas inside or include as large of a battery to make them run. Without a doubt, the iPhone 4 is extremely attractive and sexy device.
• The iPhone 4 has an amazing screen. The clarity, resolution, and brightness surpass any display I’ve ever seen. Everything is spectacularly sharp — it makes the screen on my iPhone 3GS look fuzzy and pixilated by comparison. Having a screen like this makes using the phone a real pleasure, since text is easier to read and everything on the phone just looks fantastic.
• The new 5 megapixel camera seemed to take really nice pictures. That said, the iPhone’s screen will make any picture look good, and I never had the opportunity to load pictures onto a computer. But, there seems no doubt that the iPhone 4’s shooter is a nice improvement over the fairly mediocre cameras of the previous iPhones. Video looked good too, and played back smoothly and stutter-free on the phone.
• After reading the reviews online, I was expecting Facetime to produce crystal clear video calls. My expectations probably shouldn’t have been so high — after all, the resolution of the iPhone 4’s front camera is VGA so the quality can only be so good. In my experience, calling from one iPhone 4 to another in an Apple store, video looked compressed and pixilated and often stuttered and froze. This was true when using both the front camera and the rear camera, though the rear camera was, as you would expect, better. For comparison, the video and audio performance seemed of comparable quality to a medium to low-quality Skype call — not spectacular, but certainly usable, and making out the image of the other person and their surroundings isn’t a problem. However, it definitely does not compare to a high-quality Skype video call using nice webcams and high speed internet connections. It should be noted that Facetime performance will likely better over a faster and less-crowded wifi connection than that found in the Apple store, but in the real world people are often going to be making Facetime calls from mediocre wifi connections like those found in coffee shops, airports, and hotels.

Keep in mind, these are all first impressions, and I reserve the right to change them once I’ve gotten to spend more time with the device. After I’ve had a chance to use an iPhone 4 at length (which may not be for a week or two), I’ll do a more in-depth post about the device.

Related Posts:

• iPhone OS 4.0 (iOS 4) — Run Though, Impressions, and Tips
• The Dark Sides of iOS 4
• Apple’s Long-Term Strategy for the iPad

Yesterday, I wrote an extensive run through of iOS 4 that was very positive about the new operating system. I found that my phone ran faster and could do more with the new software, and said so. My phone is still running smoothly, but now that the OS has been out there for a day and a half people are reporting issues, and some of the dark sides of iOS 4 are starting to emerge:

Battery Life:

Multitasking definitely causes battery life to take a hit. This shouldn’t be too surprising — it’s the reason Apple was reluctant to implement multitasking in the first place. After just an hour or two of running apps in the background (mostly Pandora) while using other programs in the foreground, my battery was down to nearly 50%. That said, the battery life doesn’t seem to have changed for instances when I’m not running things in the background. So, my battery life isn’t actually worse with the new software — iOS 4 is just allowing me to take actions that I couldn’t before and these are more battery intensive.

Privacy:

Upgrading to iOS 4 requires accepting a new privacy agreement from Apple, which carries a few alarming clauses in the fine print. One is that Apple can now monitor your phone’s GPS and track your “real-time geographic location”. It also reserves the right to sell that information to partners and licensees. The company says that it will only sell the location data anonymously and for location-based services only, but it is still frightening to know that you have agreed to let Apple keep tabs on your movements.

You have also agreed to allow Apple to monitor your browsing habits, so that they can serve you targeted advertisements using their iAd platform. iAd hasn’t been launched yet, but starting in July should be featured in a lot of apps. Targeted ads are nothing new, and it can be less annoying to see an ad for a product you are interested in than one that is irrelevant to you. Nevertheless, it can be disconcerting to know that information about the web sites you’re visiting is going to Apple. Fortunately, there is a way to opt out of this — using Safari on your iPhone (or iPod Touch), go to http://oo.apple.com. Unfortunately, most people won’t know about this, but at least you can keep your privacy intact if you prefer.

Lots of People are Having Issues:

My phone is running fine, but many people are having serious issues with the new OS. This Engadget poll shows that thousands of their readers are suffering from problems which range from random crashes to contacts getting deleted to an inability to connect to data networks. I know from the search terms people are using to find my blog that my readers are suffering from the same issues, which include “os 4.0 issue with 3g network” and “ios 4 freeze crash on phone call”. Unfortunately, not having suffered any of these issues myself, I am unable to offer any advice on how to troubleshoot or solve these problems. However, this serves as another reminder of why it is so important to back up your phone before making an upgrade. You never know what’s going to happen, and it’s critical to have your contacts backed up somewhere should your phone annoyingly decide to delete them all.

Related Posts:

• iPhone OS 4.0 (iOS 4) — Run Though, Impressions, and Tips
• Apple’s Long-Term Strategy for the iPad
• The iPhone 3GS: My Impressions

This morning, I downloaded the latest major software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch — iOS 4 (renamed from iPhone OS). I’ve been playing with it all day on my iPhone 3GS, testing the new features and exploring how it performs and what it can do. I have an extensive run though, some thoughts and impressions, and some useful tips.

iOS 4 is available now for all iPhone 3G and 3GS users, though original iPhone users have been left out and iPad users won’t get it for a few months. To get it, you just need to plug your iPhone into your computer and hit update, but if you don’t have iTunes 9.2 yet you’ll have to upgrade to that version first.

Let’s run through things one at a time:

General Impressions

It’s fast. Rather, on the 3GS the new OS is noticeably snappier than the previous version (3.1.1). Icons seem to fly around and I haven’t run into any noticeable lag, even when running many apps in the background (which I’ll get to below). That said, reports from users of the iPhone 3G are that the new software is not any faster on that device, but it isn’t purported to be any slower either.

It’s pretty. Not only can you select a background wallpaper for the homescreen (you can check mine out in the post image), but the look of the dock has changed to more closely resemble the one in Mac OS X and some of the icons (notably the calculator) have been made a little more attractive. iPhone 3G users are apparently not able to set their own homescreen wallpaper, but it should be noted that these changes are purely cosmetic.

Multitasking

It’s the big, headline feature of iOS 4, and so far it seems to work as advertised. Multitasking allows apps (or rather, specific features of apps) to run in the background while you are doing other things on the phone. For instance, I can listen to a station on Pandora while surfing the internet, or answer a phone call while using a GPS app without losing my guidance. Apps have to be specifically updated to run in the background, so many or most of your non-Apple apps won’t work in the background right off the bat. The first thing to do after updating to iOS 4 is to hit up the app store to see which of your apps have updates and download them, so you can take advantage of the new features right away. It should also be noted that iPhone 3G users won’t get multitasking – apparently the 3G doesn’t have the processing power to handle it.

How multitasking works: When you hit the home button and the part of an app that supports multitasking is running, it will stay running. So, if you’re listening to a song in Pandora, or are getting GPS voice guidance, and hit the home button, it will keep playing (whereas before it would cut out), even if you open other apps. Other apps that don’t actually have something going in the background will ‘freeze’ in place, so that when you open them up they should be in the exact same place they were before you froze them. This means that you can browse the web a little, go check your email, and come back to Safari without fear that you’ve lost your webpage. For that matter, you could start a page loading in the background while you go and check something else.

To see which apps are frozen or running in the background, you double click the home button. This brings up the app switcher, which pops up from the bottom of the screen and shows you the icons for those apps. Clicking an icon takes you directly into the app — this means you can move from one app to another without having to bounce to the home screen first. If you have more than four apps open, swiping to the right will take you to the rest of them. In my experience, once you open an app for the first time it will appear in the app switcher, with the apps most recently being those furthest left.

A few app switcher tips:

Swiping left on the app switcher will provide playback controls for whatever music player you are currently using/were using most recently (such as iPod or Pandora). You will also find an icon there for locking the screen orientation into portrait mode, which could be useful in some instances.

Multitasking performance is remarkably good. Switching apps happens really fast (with a neat little animation), and streaming music in the background did not seem to affect the performance of other apps. In fact, even as I opened more and more apps, I did not notice the phone slowing down at all. Now, I haven’t had the chance to use a really heavy duty app, such as a turn by turn GPS program, but so far the phone has handled everything I’ve thrown at it.

The other big question is battery life. It’s too early for me to tell if running all these apps in the background has really affected the phone’s longevity, since it’s spent most of the day plugged into the computer getting updated.

Folders

Users can now group the applications into “folders”, which allows them to name them under a shared icon. Clicking the icon (which is a box containing a grid of the apps it contains) opens the folder and lets you click any of the apps it contains. To create a folder, you hold and drag one icon onto another, and name it. For some reason, there seems to be a limit of 12 apps per folder, which I found a little annoying. Also, and this is my opinion, the folder icons do not look nearly as good or distinctive as most of the application icons they’re replacing, which can leave your screen looking boring and make it hard to quickly find what you’re looking for.

iBooks

iOS 4 grants the iPhone access to Apple’s ebook reader and store, iBooks. iBooks isn’t automatically included on the phone – you must go into the app store and download it yourself (it’s free). It comes with one book — Winnie the Pooh — and using the built-in store you can buy many, many more. If you have iBooks on the iPad, logging on will automatically sync your library (including your notes, bookmarks, and current location in the books) between the two devices. I will do an entire post with my impressions of the iBooks software — look for it in the next day or so.

Email

Many people are really excited about the new email features, which include threaded email (like you see in Gmail) and a unified email inbox for users with multiple email accounts. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten to use those features since I only have one email account and don’t like threading, but they reportedly work as advertised.

Lots More Tips

Zoom in the Camera: The camera now has a 5x digital zoom. To use it, tap once on the screen while in the camera app, and you’ll see a zoom slider which will let you move in and out. It should be noted that with a digital zoom, you’re not actually zooming in. You’re essentially doing the same thing as cropping the image on the computer — moving in on a portion of what’s being picked up by the image sensor and blowing it up, which will detract from the quality of the image.

There are lots of other small changes to iOS 4. For instance, you can now search your SMS messages using a search bar at the top, use a longer alpha-numeric password to lock your phone, and tether your phone to your laptop once you set up your plan to allow for it with AT&T. I have not gotten to try all these features yet, but several of the ones that I have not touched on can be found at this fairly comprehensive Gizmodo post.

Wrap Up

So far, iOS 4 has more than lived up to its promise. Multitasking, folders, and all the other improvements seem to work, and work well. Moreover, performance is quick (at least on the 3GS), and I have not had the phone freeze, crash, or even stutter in the one day I’ve been using it.

My only gripe is that the iPhone 3G is getting a watered-down version of the OS, and the original iPhone has been left out entirely (despite having the same processor as the 3G). I get that Apple wants people to upgrade to the latest hardware, but it seems unfair to their loyal customers who just want to hold on to their still-functioning phones.

Nevertheless, I feel like my phone has a lot more utility and functionality than it did this time yesterday, and to that I can only give a big thumbs up.

Related Posts:

• Article: Apple’s Next iPhone
• Apple’s Long-Term Strategy for the iPad
• The iPhone 3GS: My Impressions

This is my last article for the Occidental Weekly, so it’s only fitting that it’s a Tyler the Tech Guy column. I discuss the forthcoming iPhone model, including the upcoming software (OS 4.0) and the leaked phone prototype.

Click here to read the story >>

A complete archive of all my writing for The Occidental Weekly, including past Tyler the Tech Guy articles, can be found here.

…is to install software on it (a 2G model) meant for the iPhone 3GS. Now you know for sure: If it says “iPhone 3GS only”, don’t install it unless your phone is a 3GS. It seems like common sense, but it can be tempting nonetheless (and it didn’t stop me!).

Here’s what happened: After the software installed, when it came time to boot the phone, the start up process stalled on the Apple logo and the spinning wheel appeared on top of it (but ironically, didn’t spin). I could not get the phone to boot. Fortunately, I was able to force the phone to power-down by holding power and the center button for a few seconds. I was then able to plug it into my computer and restore it back to health. It’s been a hassle to restore and re-sync everything, but all’s well now.

I’m still proudly holding on to my original iPhone, but fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to have some extended hands-on time with the new iPhone 3GS. My usage of has formed some definite thoughts and opinions. The new model boasts a lot of new features and incremental improvements, and I’ll go in depth into them all. Here we go…

The body of the 3GS is, well, the same as that of the 3G. This firmly plants the phone in the ‘evolutionary’ and not revolutionary camp, and it means that people on the street won’t immediately know that you have the hottest new phone out there. But, it does have a few advantages. The huge variety of cases, docks, and accessories that are available for the 3G will all work with the 3GS, including external batteries and charging solutions. So, if you invested in that bulletproof case or Morphie juice pack, those items will still work.

The ‘S’ in 3GS stands for “speed”, and that speed takes several forms. One of these is network speed, as the phone now faster cellular radio. However, this provides no actual real-world benefit because AT&T doesn’t have their faster 3G network up and running yet, and won’t for months or years.

More practically, speed also refers to a faster processor and graphics chip within the phone. In my experience, the phone is definitely a little snappier. Having used the original iPhone for so long, I’m used to having to pause in certain places in the OS, and it’s refreshing when on the 3G things instead come right up. That said, the performance improvement is more slight than significant – you won’t notice a dramatic difference, especially since the previous iPhones weren’t terribly slow to begin with.

The faster processor and especially the new graphics capabilities will have a much greater impact when it comes to 3rd party applications. Developers should now be able to create games that are more graphically powerful and rich than before. The benefit that comes from this will entirely depend on the development community. We’ll have to see if app makers will want willing to push the hardware to its limits, because it will mean their games have a smaller audience since they won’t run on the older, slower hardware of the iPhone 2G and 3G. People have been questioning whether the iPhone could become a gaming platform on par with the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS. It definitely doesn’t have the controls or layout of those devices, but now it does have the horsepower.

I think that the 3GS feature with the most appeal is video capture. The 3GS has a new camera – it’s bumped up to 3 mega pixels, has autofocus, and records VGA video. The new camera definitely takes better shots, especially those in less than ideal light (I’m not saying they’re great – just that they’re better).

The autofocus works by touching the screen where you want to focus. It’s an easy concept, and really cool the first couple of times. However, in practice, I find it a little annoying to try and hold the camera, frame the shot, tap where I want to focus, and tap the shutter button all at the same time. Maybe it’s just me and my clumsy fingers, but it pretty much prevents me from taking shots quickly, which is often what I need to do when taking cellphone snaps.

As far as the video capture goes – it’s not bad. It certainly isn’t as good as a camcorder or even a pocket camera, but the video is relatively clear and fluid. I wouldn’t watch it on an HDTV, but it’s fine for a computer screen, and more than good enough for YouTube. Audio quality isn’t great, but not it’s bad either, and it will be fine as long as the environment isn’t too noisy.

The old photographer’s adage is ‘the best camera you own is the one you actually have with you,’ and this definitely applies to video as well. Just as iPhone suddenly got everybody taking cell phone pictures, I think that the 3GS will get everybody to start shooting cell phone video. I don’t want to spend too many words pondering the implications of a society where everyone is walking around with capable video cameras in their pockets – but boy, they’re huge.

The 3GS also has basic video editing capabilities, giving you the ability to trim down the clip on the iPhone to just the parts you want. It’s simple and easy, but I found it hard to be precise and get the clip exactly where I want it. It’s always easier and better to do this kind of video editing and manipulation on a computer anyway, but if you are just going to upload the clip to YouTube straight from the phone, it’s better than nothing. One thing to note: currently the editing is not non-destructive, meaning that any changes you make are permanent and the cut video is lost. Supposedly, iPhone software 3.1, which should be coming relatively soon, will fix this and make it so that any changes create a new video file and keep the original intact.

The 3GS has a built-in compass and a new compass application. The application is simple enough, but I doubt many will use it often. The compass is more useful in the maps app, since it can now know which direction you’re facing and orient the map accordingly. However, whether the compass will have much real benefit for users again depends on 3rd party developers, who are coming up with some really cool implementations using the compass. Most notable among these is a type of mobile application called “augmented reality.” These let you pan around the world using the camera on your mobile phone, and based on GPS and the compass will give you information about the buildings, businesses, and things around you. To see what I mean, check out an application called Layar, currently only available for Android OS phones. These apps have the potential to be truly transformative, so watch this space.

There’s voice command on the 3GS, which can be accessed by pressing and holding the home button. An attractive interface pops up, and the possible commands come floating by to remind you what you can do. I found that the voice recognition fairly accurate when it came to placing calls, which is important (otherwise, you might wind up calling someone you don’t want to speak to!). However, I found that trying to get the phone to recognize song or artist names was a hilarious failure, and the phone almost never got one right. Hopefully, Apple can improve their voice recognition with software updates. I can see voice command being useful to those with impaired vision, or people placing calls from the car, but beyond these limited situations I don’t think many people will really need or use this feature.

The battery on the 3GS is bigger than that of the 3G, but it’s balanced out by the 3GS’s faster components, resulting in very similar battery life. This means just about a day with light usage, and ¾ of a day with heavy usage. Whether you consider that good is up to you, but I’m a little disappointed. I need my phone to get me through the whole day, even if I’m using it constantly. I’m aware that more powerful components and 3G radios eat up juice, but I find it a little sad that the iPhone that has the best battery life is still the original model, and that the 5 year old $50 Nokia in my drawer as a backup has a longer battery life still (it can go for days between charges).

This post only covered the hardware updates to the iPhone 3GS over previous models. There are a lot of new features included with the software update, iPhone OS 3.0, that are now available for all the iPhone models and iPod Touch models. I will cover these in a later post.

All in all, the iPhone 3GS is a nice upgrade, but unless video capture or a compass are really important to you, it’s not a must have. Apple really wasn’t in a position where they could change a whole lot – the UI, software, and screen size could not change without breaking backwards compatibility and alienating all of their partners and outside developers.

I think they’ve added just enough to keep people buzzing and upgrading. If you’re a first time iPhone buyer, I would definitely buy the 3GS over the now discounted 3G – all the new features seem to be worth the $99 dollars, and you’re helping to future-proof yourself. If you’re already an iPhone user, I’m not sure there’s enough new value here to warrant buying a new phone and signing on for another 2 years with AT&T.

Related Posts:

• My Gear: My Phone, the iPhone
• Skype Releases iPhone Client
• Article: The New iPod Shuffle and Simplicity in Technology

Follow Tyler the Tech Guy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TylertheTechGuy

I’m kind of unusual. I’m not one of those gadget guys who has 4 phones, 3 data plans, and countless sim cards. I have one phone — one — and I’ve had it now for over two years.

It’s the original Apple iPhone, bought in July of 2007 for $600, and I’ve added an entry about it in the My Gear section.

What do I think about it, having used it for two years? Click through for my thoughts and impressions.

Apple iPhone (2G) >>

Previous “My Gear” entires:

… is working now. The other day, I discussed Skype on the iPhone and mentioned a problem I was having with the Skype iPhone app, which would not let me log in. I tried everything to fix the problem, but nothing worked. I didn’t do anything special to fix it — I just tried it one more time today and it finally let me log in. I have no idea why it’s suddenly working now (or why it wouldn’t work in the first place), but I’m not going to complain.