Techie / Former BB Tour to EVO convert, thinking of going to iPhone 4

[forumsid987]

Okay, i have had the evo for two weeks. I am a techie. I hate apple and att. I came from a blackberry tour. I am, however, thinking about going to ATT for the iphone 4 and jailbreaking it or possibly waiting for the new blackberry, I'm sick of dealing with a phone that doesn't do things it should.

Now...

I LOVE the evo for these reasons:

AMAZING browser, although it's too responsive at times. I want to scroll and it clicks.
Navigation
Widgets
Kickstand
Wifi tether
Swype
Apps are 100x nicer than the blackberry.
I can purchase a cheap repair plan for my phone
I love the cost of my plan and sprint service
4G - although it's completely useless indoors unless you're near a window.

I am really starting to hate the EVO. For these reasons.

1) Camera quality sucks and I've had some force closes with it

2) Apps running slow until I clean up with task manager

3) Music application is garbage compared to ipod functionality of iphone and the lack of any desktop application to do what I want (genius / smart dj playlists, good job of album art downloading, etc) Music app also is jerky as hell when scrolling through my artist / album lists (only about 1000 long)

4) Woes with programs, for example I upgraded to 16 GB SD Card and now I had to re-install swype even though I copied everything over perfectly. I lost all my custom words. VERY annoying.

5) Size, it really is big. I love the screen but the size of the phone because of it is huge and the phone is heavy. Does not feel nearly as comfortable in pants pocket (without case) as my tour did. I didn't think so at first but now it's starting to bother me.

6) Quality issues: Wifi signal blows, unresponsive top of screen (grounding issue), picasa uploads have gray bars at the bottom of almost all my uploaded photos.

7) Exchange sync is not always working. Most of the time email comes in instantaneous but a few times I did not get emails until all at once, all about 4 hours late, even though all my sync settings are correct.

8) Battery life is awful, but I expected this.

9) I'm stuck dealing with an annoying password every-time my phone is left untouched for 30 seconds or I'm stuck with no password at all. WTF? Blackberry was smarter than I gave them credit for, after any amount of time of being asleep I wanted it would enforce a password.

10) Security. Rooting is great and everything but if my phone is lost, I'm f'ed. Anyone with a brain can get access to all my info. Not possible with blackberry and iphone.

11) Sprint apps constantly running in the background! WHAT THE HELL!
I know I can root and get rid of this, but come on...I've got to spend hours backing up, rooting, making changes, and restoring JUST TO DO THIS? And if my phone needs to get replaced I get to go through this whole process again? GREAT

12) Lack of any real, good, backup solution for switching devices.

Blackberry and I assume iphone are both very good at this, If i get a new blackberry...even if it's a whole new model...everything gets moved over quite seamlessly. Apps, not so much. But settings, custom dictionary, etc, all done perfectly. My backups are all encrypted and stored locally.

13) Copy and paste doesn't work in gmail or sms apps, REALLY? What a joke. I have to fwd a sms to be able to get it in the box to copy and paste and i have to fwd gmail msgs to my exchanges to copy and paste. This is embarrassing.

14) Stock keyboard is trash, although I LOVE swype...I hate dealing with it being beta software and I do have some gripes with swype.

15) Screen shot applicaiton (shootme) is garbage. Shaking my phone to get it to take the picture results in moving to landscape mode resulting in a blurred screenshoot most of the time. Also, if i don't force kill the applicaiton I have 100 screen shots over the course of the day. Woowhoo. Blackberry app for screenshots was FLAWLESS and iphone has it built in

16) Having an extra battery w/charger, cool. Swapping them out, while being careful and having this happen. NOT COOL P.S. Like the gray bars on the picture? Yep, it's sooo cool.

17) Gallery is garbage! Why do I go to my gallery and see a bunch of album art there? Now I have to google search like hell to figure out how to get them out of there.

ALSO...Why do I have this in my gallery?



All in all, I'm annoyed. I'd like someone who has had experience with the 3GS to give me their opinion on whether they think I'd be better served with the iphone 4 on ATT or waiting or BB OS 6 on sprint?

 

[2CupsWithString]

You don't need to backup anything to root, to root you just root what you have, you don't install a new ROM.

there are fixes from probably everything on your list except "Size".

 

[jedisrus]

Sounds like the iPhone is a better fit for you. How is AT&T's service in your area? And have you considered the differences in costs of comparable plans?

 

[Cr12]

yeah jps that was what i was about to say if at&t plans were as competitive as sprints i would probly jump on the bandwagon

 

[Kirstylawer]

I will take the Evo off your hands

 

[Kirstylawer]

I would go iPhone if you don't like your Evo, the BBOS 6 looks far less superior still.

 

[Edge767]

I personally could never join the herd and get an iPhone, but I don't deride others for doing so.

Enjoy your iPhone, and good on ya for giving the Evo a try. The refurb pool needs Evo's: go return yours ASAP!

 

[Droidus Maximus]

I'm a Bberry Tour to EVO convert...I also own a 32GB iPad.

Here's my take. If you love techie stuff, you'll do what you must to GET the techie stuff. Your long list of things you were beginning to hate sound like my first list of things I hated about Bberry when I first switched over from Palm.

It's just a diff OS. As said above, there are several ways to "cure" the ills you mentioned. As for size...dude really? lay your EVO ontop of any iPhone. If that small amount of space kills you, then I imagine the weight of a pencil must break your wrist - LOL just kidding...for the EVO to only be slightly (measure it) bigger than an iPhone yet have that % dedicated to screen space...not sure why the mental process makes folk believe it's huge.

Sounds like you may either be a closet Apple, or have new iPhone envy - which does basically the same thing s the EVO, but on a smaller screen & "Big Brother" militants making sure you understand who's boss (Steve Jobs).

Being a techie myself...I got what I needed to do what I wanted...thus the EVO / iPad combo pack.

Let the games begin...

 

[Cr12]

I'm a Bberry Tour to EVO convert...I also own a 32GB iPad.

Here's my take. If you love techie stuff, you'll do what you must to GET the techie stuff. Your long list of things you were beginning to hate sound like my first list of things I hated about Bberry when I first switched over from Palm.

It's just a diff OS. As said above, there are several ways to "cure" the ills you mentioned. As for size...dude really? lay your EVO ontop of any iPhone. If that small amount of space kills you, then I imagine the weight of a pencil must break your wrist - LOL just kidding...for the EVO to only be slightly (measure it) bigger than an iPhone yet have that % dedicated to screen space...not sure why the mental process makes folk believe it's huge.

Sounds like you may either be a closet Apple, or have new iPhone envy - which does basically the same thing s the EVO, but on a smaller screen & "Big Brother" militants making sure you understand who's boss (Steve Jobs).

Being a techie myself...I got what I needed to do what I wanted...thus the EVO / iPad combo pack.

Let the games begin...

thats exactly what i have, and thus my need for an iphone is diminished b/c of the ipad it definitely fills the small void android leaves.

love it!

 

[forumsid987]

You don't need to backup anything to root, to root you just root what you have, you don't install a new ROM.

there are fixes from probably everything on your list except "Size".

I thought I couldn't remove sprint apps without losing all my data. Can you please direct me to a link that says how to do this?

Sounds like the iPhone is a better fit for you. How is AT&T's service in your area? And have you considered the differences in costs of comparable plans?

I would get pillaged on att, but I think I would be much happier. At this point though, that's what matters to me. I'm just not sure if the iphone really would be better for me. I really really don't like apple or ATT. I am a huge windows / google fan.

I'm a Bberry Tour to EVO convert...I also own a 32GB iPad.
...
Sounds like you may either be a closet Apple, or have new iPhone envy - which does basically the same thing s the EVO, but on a smaller screen & "Big Brother" militants making sure you understand who's boss (Steve Jobs).
...
Being a techie myself...I got what I needed to do what I wanted...thus the EVO / iPad combo pack.

I don't want an ipad at all. I simply want a device that does the things in that list. I'm just finally starting to think the device might actually be superior having had the latest and greatest android device for this long and it still not doing what I think it should.


P.S. You should see my edits.

 

[Yourdogsdead]

You say you hate AT&T yet you want an Iphone? Dude, carrier first phone second.

 

[forumsid987]

You say you hate AT&T yet you want an Iphone? Dude, carrier first phone second.

I'm on wifi 75% of the day...the horrrrrrrrible wifi reception with this phone is killing me. But you make a good point, that's why I'm thinking about waiting for BB OS 6 on sprint or sucking it up with this phone until att gets better coverage / iphone goes to vzw or sprint. I think the former will happen much sooner. By then maybe android will have fixed my gripes but I don't know....

 

[Holsum]

1) quality sucks compared to what? The photos i have taken are absolutely amazing! go check out the Photo thread on this forum.
2)if you are using a task manager with a Unix OS you are NOT a techy sorry, a technical person knows how memory works. you are a gadget person...
3) Good thing about Android is you have options, if for whatever reason on the iphone you start to not like it, good luck
4) Cant really help you with this.
5) Size is a huge plus, have you ever tried to browse on an iphone, i have, its ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE
6) wifi is spotty but that is hit or miss, (grounding issue) who uses a phone while its on a table, pick the damn thing up and LOVE it
7) I have experienced this as well, not sure of a fix for it.
8) i get 16hrs a day easy, no complaints here
9) increase your phone timeout to > 1 min and when you are done doing what you need to do just sleep the phone with the power button that way it doesnt timeout on you.
10) If any phone is lost and you have personal/confidential information you are f'd not sure why bb or iphone would be different.
11) they are not utilizing any resources just memory not cpu cycles are being wasted on them trust me.
12) Google cloud, everything i have is backed up, contacts/calendar/text messages/voicmails. Try and do that on any other phone that isnt android....goodluck
13)copy and paste work perfect in EVERY app. just long press them and copy, not sure why that is so hard???
14)ill admit i think it is garbage too, i have swype as well, you dont like the apple keyboard for any reason???? trying changing it.... i dare you... nope cant do it unless jailbroken.

 

[ilivetowin]

Okay, i have had the evo for two weeks. I am a techie. I hate apple and att. I came from a blackberry tour. I am, however, thinking about going to ATT for the iphone 4 and jailbreaking it or possibly waiting for the new blackberry, I'm sick of dealing with a phone that doesn't do things it should.

Now...

I LOVE the evo for these reasons:

AMAZING browser, although it's too responsive at times. I want to scroll and it clicks.
Navigation
Widgets
Wifi tether
Swype
Apps are 100x nicer than the blackberry.
I can purchase a cheap repair plan for my phone
I love the cost of my plan and sprint service

I am really starting to hate the EVO. For these reasons.

1) Camera quality sucks and I've had some force closes with it
2) Apps running slow until I clean up with task manager
3) Music application is garbage compared to ipod functionality of iphone and the lack of any desktop application to do what I want (genius / smart dj playlists, good job of album art downloading, etc) Music app also is jerky as hell when scrolling through my artist / album lists (only about 1000 long)
4) Woes with programs, for example I upgraded to 16 GB SD Card and now I had to re-install swype even though I copied everything over perfectly. I lost all my custom words. VERY annoying.
5) Size, it really is big. I love the screen but the size is huge and heavy. Does not feel nearly as comfortable in pants pocket (without case) as my tour did. I didn't think so at first but now it's starting to bother me.
6) Quality issues: Wifi signal blows, unresponsive top of screen (grounding issue), picasa uploads have gray bars at the bottom of almost all my uploaded photos.
7) Exchange sync is not always working. Most of the time email comes in instantaneous but a few times I did not get emails until all at once, all about 4 hours late, even though all my sync settings are correct.
8) Battery life is awful, but I expected this.
9) I'm stuck dealing with an annoying password everytime my phone is left untouched for 30 seconds or I'm stuck with no password at all. WTF? Blackberry was smarter than I gave them credit for, after any amount of time of being asleep I wanted it would enforce a password.
10) Security. Rooting is great and everything but if my phone is lost, I'm f'ed. Anyone with a brain can get access to all my info. Not possible with blackberry and iphone.
11) Sprint apps constantly running in the background! WHAT THE HELL!
I know I can root and get rid of this, but come on...I've got to spend hours backing up, rooting, making changes, and restoring JUST TO DO THIS? And if my phone needs to get replaced I get to go through this whole process again? GREAT

12) Lack of any real, good, backup solution for switching devices.

Blackberry and I assume iphone are both very good at this, If i get a new blackberry...even if it's a whole new model...everything gets moved over quite seamlessly. Apps, not so much. But settings, custom dictionary, etc, all done perfectly. My backups are all encrypted and stored locally.

13) Copy and paste doesn't work in gmail or sms apps, REALLY? What a joke. I have to fwd a sms to be able to get it in the box to copy and paste and i have to fwd gmail msgs to my exchanges to copy and paste. This is embarrassing.

14) Stock keyboard is trash, although I LOVE swype...I hate dealing with it being beta software and I do have some gripes with swype.

15) Screen shot applicaiton (shootme) is garbage. Shaking my phone to get it to take the picture results in moving to landscape mode resulting in a blurred screenshoot most of the time. Also, if i don't force kill the applicaiton I have 100 screen shots over the course of the day. Woowhoo. Blackberry app for screenshots was FLAWLESS and iphone has it built in

16) Having an extra battery w/charger, cool. Swapping them out, while being careful and having this happen. NOT COOL P.S. Like the gray bars on the picture? Yep, it's sooo cool.

17) Gallery is garbage!

Why do I go to my gallery and see a bunch of album art there? Now I have to google search like hell to figure out how to get them out of there.

ALSO...Why do I have this in my gallery?



All in all, I'm annoyed. I'd like someone who has had experience with the 3GS to give me their opinion on whether they think I'd be better served with the iphone 4 on ATT or waiting or BB OS 6 on sprint?

I came from ATT, I had a Blackberry Bold 9000 for Business, and I had an Iphone 3GS. In fact I still have both of them phones I havent sold them yet.

If you look at my former posts you will see my detailed post of both why I was leaving ATT to get the EVO, then you will also see a detailed post later on why I left my EVO after owning it for about 2 weeks.

I personally love Sprint over ATT for several reasons...firstly I am saving 40 bucks a month, secondly they give me GPS and TV for free, ATT charges extra 20 a month for both these features...so I would be saving 60 bucks monthly IF I had used them on ATT...but I didnt.

I am also a techie and love all the new gadgets. I can tell you 100 percent I would recommend you to the Iphone 4. I used the on screen keyboard and I am 100 percent efficient. Yet I hated the Android Keyboards. Everything is so smooth on the 3GS while Android often lagged. Even my Iphone camera at times appeared to be better then the EVOs and yes I had the correct settings on the EVO.

Anyways, I would not go back to ATT because they charge an arm and leg and have unreliable service. But if an Iphone hits Sprint or even Verizon(expensive but reliable) I would jump in a second. I may even try WebOS when they release a new device.

Hope that helps ya. Any further questions feel free to ask me.

 

[forumsid987]

1) quality sucks compared to what? The photos i have taken are absolutely amazing! go check out the Photo thread on this forum.
2)if you are using a task manager with a Unix OS you are NOT a techy sorry, a technical person knows how memory works. you are a gadget person...
3) Good thing about Android is you have options, if for whatever reason on the iphone you start to not like it, good luck
4) Cant really help you with this.
5) Size is a huge plus, have you ever tried to browse on an iphone, i have, its ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE
6) wifi is spotty but that is hit or miss, (grounding issue) who uses a phone while its on a table, pick the damn thing up and LOVE it
7) I have experienced this as well, not sure of a fix for it.
8) i get 16hrs a day easy, no complaints here
9) increase your phone timeout to > 1 min and when you are done doing what you need to do just sleep the phone with the power button that way it doesnt timeout on you.
10) If any phone is lost and you have personal/confidential information you are f'd not sure why bb or iphone would be different.
11) they are not utilizing any resources just memory not cpu cycles are being wasted on them trust me.
12) Google cloud, everything i have is backed up, contacts/calendar/text messages/voicmails. Try and do that on any other phone that isnt android....goodluck
13)copy and paste work perfect in EVERY app. just long press them and copy, not sure why that is so hard???
14)ill admit i think it is garbage too, i have swype as well, you dont like the apple keyboard for any reason???? trying changing it.... i dare you... nope cant do it unless jailbroken.

1) compared to blackberry tour. this phone is sooo noisy. and the gray bars at the bottom from picasa, WTF?

2) Okay?

3) I can't seem to find any good music management apps, doubletwist seems okay but still not up to snuff.

4) Okay?

5) I totally agree, size is nice for lots of reasons but it's turned into a pain when I put this phone in my pocket

6) Who uses a phone on a table? Is that a joke? Also, when i'm in my car I have it sitting in a mount...should I not be able to use it while it's on the mount? You are starting to sound like a fanboy at this point.

8) Good for you...I don't and most people dont

9) I don't understand what you're saying here. Are you saying I can use the power button to turn the screen off and have a timeout for the password? Pleaseee tell me how to do this!!!

10) BB and iphone encypt data (on BB you just have to turn it on, iphone is automatic). Android is a big NO on that front.

11) Trust me when i'm browsing the internet and i have 40 mb free vs browsing the internet with 200 mb free it's a big difference.

12) I have everything backed up with google that you list except text messages, but that's not everything. App data, custom settings, etc. I need a rooted phone to do all that and it's still far from seamless.

13) COPY AND PASTE DOES NOT WORK IN GMAIL. TRY IT! Try it on an email someone sent you. COPY AND PASTE DOES NOT WORK IN SMS, TRY IT ON A TEXT SOMEONE SENT YOU.

At this point...I've lost all respect for you.

14) I hear the iphone keyboard is the best but you make a good point.

P.S. You should see 15-17

 

[ilivetowin]

1) quality sucks compared to what? The photos i have taken are absolutely amazing! go check out the Photo thread on this forum.
2)if you are using a task manager with a Unix OS you are NOT a techy sorry, a technical person knows how memory works. you are a gadget person...
3) Good thing about Android is you have options, if for whatever reason on the iphone you start to not like it, good luck
4) Cant really help you with this.
5) Size is a huge plus, have you ever tried to browse on an iphone, i have, its ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE
6) wifi is spotty but that is hit or miss, (grounding issue) who uses a phone while its on a table, pick the damn thing up and LOVE it
7) I have experienced this as well, not sure of a fix for it.
8) i get 16hrs a day easy, no complaints here
9) increase your phone timeout to > 1 min and when you are done doing what you need to do just sleep the phone with the power button that way it doesnt timeout on you.
10) If any phone is lost and you have personal/confidential information you are f'd not sure why bb or iphone would be different.
11) they are not utilizing any resources just memory not cpu cycles are being wasted on them trust me.
12) Google cloud, everything i have is backed up, contacts/calendar/text messages/voicmails. Try and do that on any other phone that isnt android....goodluck
13)copy and paste work perfect in EVERY app. just long press them and copy, not sure why that is so hard???
14)ill admit i think it is garbage too, i have swype as well, you dont like the apple keyboard for any reason???? trying changing it.... i dare you... nope cant do it unless jailbroken.

I stopped reading after Point 5. Iphone browsing is TERRIBLE? LOL you are clearly just an Android fanboy ready to go to war for the OS regardless of its shortcomings you will find a solution to all of them.

I have no loyalty to any phone or carrier, I will go where the best phone is regardless. Comming from my 3GS I can say 100 percent if you think browsing on the Iphone is TERRIBLE, you clearly have no idea how to use the device. In fact Android is really trying to be the Iphone, it offers a similiar expierence just doesnt do it nearly as well.

I am no fanboy so enjoy your EVO and Ill enjoy my Sprint BB for now, and when the Iphone comes to a real carrier I will be all over it.

 

[forumsid987]

I came from ATT, I had a Blackberry Bold 9000 for Business, and I had an Iphone 3GS. In fact I still have both of them phones I havent sold them yet.

If you look at my former posts you will see my detailed post of both why I was leaving ATT to get the EVO, then you will also see a detailed post later on why I left my EVO after owning it for about 2 weeks.

I personally love Sprint over ATT for several reasons...firstly I am saving 40 bucks a month, secondly they give me GPS and TV for free, ATT charges extra 20 a month for both these features...so I would be saving 60 bucks monthly IF I had used them on ATT...but I didnt.

I am also a techie and love all the new gadgets. I can tell you 100 percent I would recommend you to the Iphone 4. I used the on screen keyboard and I am 100 percent efficient. Yet I hated the Android Keyboards. Everything is so smooth on the 3GS while Android often lagged. Even my Iphone camera at times appeared to be better then the EVOs and yes I had the correct settings on the EVO.

Anyways, I would not go back to ATT because they charge an arm and leg and have unreliable service. But if an Iphone hits Sprint or even Verizon(expensive but reliable) I would jump in a second. I may even try WebOS when they release a new device.

Hope that helps ya. Any further questions feel free to ask me.

That actually helped HUGE! Thank you very much. I think I'm going to wait and see how some of my peers iphone 4's reception are around here and then make a decision. THANK YOU x100 again.

 

[forumsid987]

I stopped reading after Point 5. Iphone browsing is TERRIBLE? LOL you are clearly just an Android fanboy ready to go to war for the OS regardless of its shortcomings you will find a solution to all of them.

I have no loyalty to any phone or carrier, I will go where the best phone is regardless. Comming from my 3GS I can say 100 percent if you think browsing on the Iphone is TERRIBLE, you clearly have no idea how to use the device. In fact Android is really trying to be the Iphone, it offers a similiar expierence just doesnt do it nearly as well.

I am no fanboy so enjoy your EVO and Ill enjoy my Sprint BB for now, and when the Iphone comes to a real carrier I will be all over it.

Haha, I said something quite similar in my reply. I do like the reflow of android's browser though.

 

[ilivetowin]

No problem glad to help! You will always find fanboys who defend a certain product or company regardless I dont understand it. Iphone had things I didnt like, I wouldnt defend them on forums and accuse people of now knowing what they are doing. I would say hey I dont like that either I hope Apple fixes that.

But to me it came down to Sprints price vs ATTs price and what they offer for that price. But if price was the same across the board...Id be getting an Iphone 4, and trust me I wanted the EVO to be better then my 3GS, it just wasnt.

And as far as the battery concern. Yeah I got about 4.5 hours or use a day before having to recharge, it was awful. Iphone was much better battery then this. Also a friend got the EVO and said she charges it 3 times a day!

I personally did LOVE the big screen tho. It was big and beautiful, much nicer then the Iphones. I would love to see Apple do a 5 inch touchscreen in the future with a nice high resolution, preferably on Sprint and 4g?

 

[steve41015]

Hit menu-settings-security to set an unlock pattern for opening the phone.

PS I agree with Holsum on the Iphone browsing experiance it is not good.