Holiday smartphone guide: Motorola Droid vs. Blackberry Bold 2 with some iPhone and Pre thrown into the mix

My good friend S, who works at a major law firm, wrote me a few days ago asking an age old question: buy the Motorola Droid or go with the tried and true Blackberry platform on their new, slick BlackBerry Bold 2.  My friend had no idea the puddle he was jumping into when he asked me that question…

If you do not want to read the whole post, here is a summary (I would also check out Mobile Crunch’s phone gift guide here):

Best network (in order of quality): Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile

Best smartphone option on each: Verizon = Droid, Sprint = Pre, ATT = iPhone, T-Mobile = Bold 2

Best choice for consumers: Droid or Pre

Best choice for business (but just barely now): Blackberry on any of the networks

Best choice for cost: Pre or anything else on Sprint.

The email(s)

Below is an edited version of our email conversation.  I hope this helps anyone out there who is asking themselves – what smartphone should I buy this holiday season.

S asks: my plan is up for renewal and I am thinking seriously about moving from T-mobile to VZ to use the Droid [editor’s note: VZ and Moto, those weird ads are reaching people, nice].  I know you work in the industry and pay attention to this stuff, do you have thoughts on the matter?

Me:  I do have thoughts on the matter, in fact!  I love phones way too much and hate the fact that my co makes it difficult to use other phones [with service that they pay for at least]. [editor’s note: my company provides me with a global data plan and phone.  The only requirement: I have to use a BlackBerry].

S, to start off any decision, you have to ask yourself this question: is the service more important or is the phone?

If service is more important, than I would go with Verizon (or, to be honest, Sprint).  I know of too many people with issues/dropped calls on ATT.  I never experience any on Verizon and very few on Sprint.  I can’t speak for Tmobile but since you have it already, you can judge that service for yourself.  Note: VZ used to have an edge in DC with the metro but now all the platforms have service on all the carriers (VZ is still the only one with service in the tunnels, I believe).

If service is not as important, then it is a device decision.  You need to ask this: what is my main phone use?  If you main use is for work, then a Black Berry is still better (although only barely at this point if your company supports non-berry email devices).  If your main use is personal emails, then the sky is the limit.

This holiday season is filled with awesome devices.  To your specific question: Droid vs Bold II.  I tested the Droid this weekend.  In short, it is an awesome device but the physical keyboard is terrible.  However, the on-screen keyboard is as good, if not better, than the iPhone.  If a software keyboard does not bother you and [your law firm] supports non-BlackBerry email devices, the Droid is a great way to go.  The GPS/Google Maps is awesome.  There are a ton of apps (best non-iphone number of apps).  One bad thing: it is a bit buggy right now and not super intuitive all the time but a) Google is constantly innovating and updating their software, b) less intuitive only because there are so many options and things you can do (vs Blackberry). [editor’s note: I hate the fact that my Blackberry seems like such a controlled device.  However, I am a geek who loves to install and test out different apps.  The average user appreciates how stable and difficult to mess-up the Berry platform is for users].

The Bold II, from everything I have read, is going to be the best BlackBerry out there this holiday season.  Of course, it is still a Blackberry.  Minus their email/calendar functionality, I basically hate all things made by RIM.  I think they try to put in just the minimum to make it work and know they have a captive audience [ie lazy Corporate IT staffs].  All Blackberry’s are chronically short in memory (for use with apps), their software is extremely outdated even with a fancy new software skin, and their browser is terrible.  Finally, their app store is small.  With all of that said, the hardware [of the Bold 2] looks good, is probably rock solid (i.e. hard to break), and the software just works (of course, it can only do maybe 50% of what the Droid can do).

So what are your priorities?  Truthfully, this is a very difficult call.  I probably lean slightly towards the Droid but only slightly.  Blackberry is still probably much better for work.  [Editor’s note: while I do use my Berry a lot for work and it is an important productivity tool, I also use it for personal things.  An ideal phone should be able to do both.  The average user should ask themselves – what % of my time do I do work with my phone and what % is personal.  If it is more personal, then you have no reason to buy a Berry].

Adding the iPhone and Pre to the discussion

S replied and I brought up other options (since this holiday is filled with them):

Since you only asked about VZ/Tmob, I kept the discussion to those phones.  With that said, if you care about price, my favorite phone from a functional/looks standpoint is the Palm Pre.  It has the best hardware design out there this holiday.  Supposedly the hardware keyboard is okay (better than Droid).  Apps are weak but probably not too far behind Berry.  I happen to think Sprint’s network is really good (a lot of ppl have left so they have extra capacity).  My friend who is a lawyer for Sprint absolutely loves his Pre.  He writes a lot of emails on his phone so he obviously doesn’t mind it from a corporate perspective.

If you do not mind a non-keyboard phone on a terrible network [i.e. AT&T] but with an app for everything, then the iPhone is still king of the hill.  I happen to think that Apps are a bit overrated once you hit a certain number but that is a discussion for another time.  The iPhone is a beautiful piece of hardware with great underlying software.  Of course, it is also owned by nearly everyone.  Think different!  (check out this iPhone vs droid battle, here)

Editor’s side note on Apple and iPhone apps: If the phone can do 95% of the same things as the other phone but has better key metrics (such as the network, hardware, and core software) then will a larger app catalogue really make the difference (since every app store will have all the major programs)?  Ex: Apple computer software (i.e. Leopard) vs. Windows.  Windows likely has millions more apps than Apple yet many people still prefer to buy a Mac.

S’s response (we are taking this offline and going to lunch to continue the discussion):

The long email is definitely appreciated.  I also spend way too much time thinking about phones (probably spent 10 hours in the last few weeks reading up now that I am out of contract).  And what you are saying jives with what I’m generally reading/thinking.  My thought right now is that I’m going to wait for the December 11 software update for the Droid to see whether they fix the fact that you can’t search Exchange Sync emails (and hopefully a few of the other bugs I’m reading about).  Unfortunately, not being able to do that is a non-starter for me since it’s so important for work.  If they do fix that, I’m leaning towards the Droid.  The Google Navigator looks awesome and I generally think Android is a more fun platform if not more functional from a work perspective.  I may also wait to see what this new HTC Android phone due out in December ends up being.  I really wanted to get something new as soon as I went out of contract, but it seems like giving it another month to let the holiday roll outs play out is a good idea.

 

Duplicate Programs in User Folder

The installation of Snow Leopard prompted me to do something semi-dangerous — delete a bunch of duplicate programs.

These duplicate programs resided in my “Users” folder under the folder “Adam” (the other folder is “shared”).  Because I have this inane trust in Apple, I assumed that these programs were supposed to be there and that they were not in fact true duplicates.  I thought that they were just a link to the main file.

I was wrong.

Snow Leopard made me look at my old Mac programs, which I thought would have been deleted during Snow Leopard installation.  The old Mac programs were not deleted.  I copied to new Snow Leopard Mac program version into my “Apple” folder.

I then looked at the “user –> Adam” folder.  All the programs in that file were the older (sometimes much older) version of the most recent version of a given program.  The most up-to-date version of the program resided in my “Application” folder.

I have no idea how these programs came to reside in this location.  I never directed them to install here.  My guess is that they installed in this location at the same time of the original program installation.  As I updated the file that also resided in the “application folder” these files did not change or update.  My assumption (giving Apple the benefit of the doubt) is that these files reside here as a backup in case your main application version becomes corrupted somehow.  This is smart except for one problem — if you do a spotlight search for a program, it is not clear which version is the updated one and you may end up using the older one.  Apple should delineate the the backup file as such.  Of course, this is only speculation.  Maybe this is something that is wrong with my machine.

With that said, I have Time Machine so I deleted away.  I deleted 90% of the programs (about 80 files).  I recovered about 3 gigs of space.  My computer is still running fine without any issues (yet). If you are worried about doing this, don’t worry too much.  No problems here thus far.

Next time I install a file, I will check to see if it copies to the “user –> Adam” folder.

Has anyone else seen this occur?  Is this normal?  Is there a way to turn this off?

Apple Snow Leopard

My Macbook Pro has a horribly small hard drive — 120gb.  With Windows Vista taking up 32 gigs, I was not left with much.  With some music and a bunch of random applications, I was left with little extra space.  As of last week, I had about 3gigs of free space.

When Snow Leopard, the new operating system from Apple, was announced, I was curious.  I am a tech guy so new OS’s interest me.  However, I am not usually one to jump at version 1 of most products.

Snow Leopard promised something that I could not pass up — more free space on my hard drive (8 gigs was promised).  I pre-ordered Snow Leopard via Amazon.  Choosing free super saver shipping, Amazon took exactly 14 days to deliver my item.  Super Saver shipping is never usually that slow (although they claim it could take 10 business days and it did).

I immediately installed Snow Leopard.  My main goal: free up hard drive space.  The installation requires 5 free gigs.  I found some files to move to my external backup drive and had 5.15 free gigs.  Installation proceeded and took a little over an hour.

At the end — 18.5 free gigs.  In other words, Snow Leopard gave me back ~13.5 gigs.  Thank you, Apple.  This one improvement is huge.  [If only MS was promising the same with Windows 7.  My Windows Vista partition is completely out of space -- only 32 megs of space free, seriously].

With a few days of light use, I have only found one major problem with Snow Leopard.  It installed new versions of many the main Mac programs such as Quicktime and iChat.  However, it did not delete the older versions.  This may be due to the fact that I have the older versions in folders other than the “Application” folder.  Either way, I am about to delete the older programs and hope it does not some how corrupt the newer programs (which are clearly using data from the older programs).  Wish me luck.

Side note: my computer seems to run at about the same speed as before.  No changes there but the free gigs are huge.

Why I went back to Firefox — Feedly

In my previous post, I spoke about why I left Firefox for Safari.  The basics — Firefox ran too hot for my liking.  Safari is better optimized for my Macbook Pro.

However, a few weeks ago, I read about a program that has “forced” me to go back to Firefox.  It is called Feedly.  It is an add-on for Firefox.  Scoble and Louis Gray have both spoken about it, which piqued my interest.

What does it do?  Generally, it aggregates all of your feeds and creates a magazine like digest of those feeds.  However, it has another function that makes it worth Firefox abusing my computer’s fans.  Feedly Mini sits at the bottom right hand corner of my Firefox screen.  Feedly Mini essentially turns every web page into a Google referenced page.

What do I mean?  I can share any web page or article that I read through my Google Reader shared items feed.  I can email it using Gmail.  Feedly also ties into some other great web 2.0 programs, which I rarely use.

Feedly is great for me because my reading habits are not just confined to my 250 RSS feeds found in Greader.  I read many other websites such as the Nytimes, Cnet, Techmeme, WSJ, WashPost, etc.  I prefer to read over these general sites because they open me up to greater variety of information than I would otherwise gain from my more directed and specific RSS feeds.  Until Feedly, I was never able to share (and, why I really like Greader, it allows me to save these feeds) the articles that I read outside Greader.  I would read many great articles that were quickly forgotten.

With Feedly, these articles no longer go through my head and then a few days later, leave it.  I have a record of my favorite articles that is kept for posterity (or for however long Google is around).

Feedly is not available for Safari so now I am back as a Firefox user.

Firefox vs. Safari – processor use and overheating computer

Fan noise irritates me.  When I am only running essential programs, there is no reason for me to hear my fan.

What constitutes an essential program: a web browser.  

On my Mac, I have two major options: 1. Firefox, 2. Safari.  Due to all of the extensions and add-ons, I prefer Firefox.  

However, after months of attempting to ignore the fact, I came to the conclusion that Firefox is main reason for my “overheating” computer.  Since a web browser is an essential program, I did a simple test.

I turned on Firefox and Safari.  I opened the exact same web pages on both (3 pages/tabs per browser).  I only had one add-on running (1Password). Using iStat pro, I was able to watch which processes were using what percentage of my processor (lots of p’s in that sentence, phew).  

Firefox consistently used 5-20% more processor power than Safari.  My fans were running ~1000rpm faster with Firefox.    

I still do not like Safari but I prefer a quiet computer over Firefox.  The choice is simple — Safari is my web browser of choice from now on.

As a side note, here are some details about my web use: normal pages that are open: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Google Reader, Pandora.  Some of these might not play nice with one or the other web browser although it is more likely they would not work well with Safari rather than Firefox since FF has a larger user base.  

I also have 4GB of Ram, so that is not the problem.

Slow internet and the culprit – Entourage

Brief summary – entourage slowed down my internet and I could not find a post about this anywhere online.  I hope this helps.  If you don’t want to read the story, scroll to the bottom.

Over the past week, for a reason unbeknownst to me, my internet slowed to a crawl.  By slowed to a crawl, I meant that speedtest.net was showing 999 ping and approximately 200kbps up and 20kbps down — i.e. my Internet was nearly unusable.

I should note that this occurred just after I lectured my parents on the slowly dying need for any specific OS such as Windows Vista or Mac OSX.  I told them that the OS of the future was a web browser and all one would need was access to the an internet connection.  Then my internet…broke.

My first reaction — blame Comcast (my internet provider).  I recently moved and the place where I was using internet has notoriously terrible service.  At my old place, my internet (also from Comcast) was extremely fast and worked without major issues.  My new place — terrible.  I called Comcast cust support and the rep did a few checks and said that I was achieiving 75% data packet loss.  He sounded impressed and admitted that this was “unacceptable.”  I couldn’t agree more.  A technician is on the way.

I now realize that my knee-jerk “blame it on comcast” reaction might have been just that — knee jerk.  I am now at my parent’s place for the holidays.  I started up my computer here and after about 30 seconds, the internet speed dropped from acceptable but not great 1.5Mbps speeds  with 299 ping to 999 ping and the same slow speeds I had at home.  My parent’s confirmed that their internet usually worked well and this new “speed” was not common.

Could my computer somehow be corrupting an internet connection?  Personally, I have never heard of such a thing occurring.  Unless a person was using ungodly amounts of down and upstream data, they should never experience dramatic drops in speed. However, I was experiencing just that epidemic and my computer was clearly somehow at fault (the moment I shut down my computer was the same moment that my parent’s internet sped right back up).   Whoa…stop the presses.  What was going on?

I did a few searches and decided that I had one of three problems: 1. major spyware, 2. my computer was part of a botnet, 3. my computer was doing something that it should not.  Since I have a Mac and keep everything password protected, I felt fairly confident that number 1 was not too realistic.    I dont know much about #2  but thought that it could be possible (although the Mac thing made me wary).  #3 was the most likely.

Unfortunately, I consider myself fairly tech savvy.  I keep my computer clean.  I maintain it (and everyone else’s computers & technological gadgets).  What could be the culprit?

Like any sleuth, I set out to find the problem.  I ran Applejack to clean up everything (caches, etc).  I went through every process in the activity monitor to make sure I knew what it did.  Unfortunately, the problem persisted.

Next step, trial and error with my programs.  Which two do I use most often?  1. Firefox, 2. Entourage.  They usually run all the time, at the same time.  I turned on FF.  Speed was good.  I turned off FF and turned on Entourage.  Speed dropped — FAST.

Success [sort of] — problem identified.  Somehow and for some reason, Entourage was slow my internet to a snail’s pace.  My internet was slow.

Fix — my Entourage has two email accounts — 1. gmail, 2. hotmail.  Gmail was storing thousands of my messages on my hard drive.  I liked my set up even though it took up a lot of disk space.  I was also desperate to fix the problem.  I didnt need those messages on my hard drive.  I did need fast (i.e. usable) internet.

For those who have yet to do this — IN ENTOURAGE, LOCK YOUR SETTINGS TO SAVE ALL THE EMAILS IN THE GMAIL FOLDERS AND NOT LOCALLY.  To do this, go to entourage, account settings, choose gmail, go to the advanced tab, for all of the special folders, choose the [Gmail] folder.  Do the same for the deleted items folder.

My internet is now fast[er] and usable.  My hard drive has a lot more space.  Problem, thankfully, solved.

Why I don’t care about the “Genius” Feature of Itunes 8

I have iTunes 8 and I have a lot of songs.  iTunes new “Genius” feature, where the program is supposed to figure out which songs go together, a-la-Pandora or Last.fm, does not interest me.

Why?  Simple — I never listen to my iTunes songs.  I hate trying to find music that I enjoy or want to listen to right now.  I would rather spend my time reading than finding music.  I know that is just how I work but I am a lazy music-listener.  I want the music I like without the work or hassle.

Now, all of my music listening is done through a) AOL Radio, b) Pandora, C) Last.fm.  These services are similar to many subscription services except they are all free (with some advertisements).

I no longer have any need for ownership of my music.  I am sure that statement would scare the music companies (especially since they are, supposedly, not receiving a “fair” amount for the music that these online stations play — see politics).  That sort of statement has obviously scared Apple (and the Microsoft Zune team), which is why they came up with the “Genius” feature.

The feature is a good idea in concept and should stem some bleeding of users towards these services.  However, if you want to listen to any new music (new being a) anything not in your library or b) recently released), the “Genius” feature still requires work on your part.  You have to buy the music.  With each of these services in my pocket (a la iPod Touch/iPhone) and on my computer, why would I ever need to buy new music and then use Apple’s “Genius?”

iPod Touch Apps & Apple App Store

For my study break tonight, I installed Apple’s version 2.0 software update for my iPod Touch.

Put simply, it makes my iPod the best pda in the business.  Now I really want an iPhone since I hate being tethered to wifi but might dislike ATT and their iPhone ripoff just as much.

I am tired so I will keep this brief (and try not to regurgitate too much of what other’s have already said) — the iPhone is a great piece of hardware but the software + the app store = an amazing piece of equipment.

In a manner similar to computer makers who are stuck with Windows (see my previous post), phone manufacturers are going to have difficulty replicating the iPhone/iPod Touch’s software and app store.  Hardware is easily replicated (see Sprint’s Samsung Instinct) but software legions of fans (and businesses) wanting to create programs for your software is not.  Apple’s App store is the “hot” place right now.  That could change (especially when Google’s Android is released) but Apple has a big head start, which is growing by the day.

Quick review: The App store is already good and will only get better as more software is released.  However,  not all of this new software is up to Apple quality and my Touch has already frozen on me once.  How long until people begin to blame Apple for 3rd party software problems (see Windows for an example of how this happens)?

Even still, RIM, Nokia, Samsung, LG, you have major work to do and I hope you do it asap!

What happens when Apple is no longer cool?

With the launch of the new iPhone rapibly approaching, a thought has popped into my head — what happens to Apple when they are no longer as cool or counter-culture as they used to be?  Will its legions of hardcore fans, the ones who stuck by Apple through all of those tough years (and the new people who are joining the train now), want to continue to eat every scrap Apple throws their way without complaint?

People are lining up throughout the world to be the first to get their hands on the new iPhone.  From everything I have read, it is a great phone but if you already have an iPhone version 1, version 2 isnt so much better.  The most important part of this launch is the App Store and that is available on iPhone 1, as well as 2. Why are people lining up?  Why so much hype (in every newspaper in the world)?  Because it is Apple.  What happens when they stop being the golden Apple?

I loved my Apple when it was only one of a few around town.  I was part of the Apple crew and I bonded with people over my Mac.  Sure, it is a great computer with great software but it stood out because it was an Apple.  Heck, just today someone asked me questions about it and whether they should buy one.  This person came to me because he saw I had a Mac.  I can’t imagine someone doing the same if I was using a Dell.  My problem was this — I didn’t want to tell him to buy a Mac.  I wanted to say, “no, dont buy a Mac.”  I didn’t want the people not already in the Apple group to join.  I wanted my Mac to be exclusive.

Apple no longer is exclusive.  It has gone mainstream.  I still love my Mac but it is no longer the same sort of love and devotion that I used to have for it.  “Everyone” has a Mac.  It simply is not special.  Will this hurt or help Apple’s business?  What happens when Apple’s every move is not as closely tracked and people don’t care.  I don’t see people lining up for any other product launches (except video game systems and that only happens once every five or so years).

Too many apples too much of the time makes one sick of Apples.

Why Dell, HP and the other PC manufacturers are scared

In the past week, there have been a slew of articles discussing the huge growth in Apple’s share of the overall computer market.  One article discussed how nearly 8% of computers now in use are Apples, which is a nearly 32% jump in a year and another article here.  Apple’s notebook sales jumped 61% in a year.  Another article discussed how 14% of all new computers sold are Apple (cant find the link).

To add to this growth, a number of articles have discussed the iPhone halo effect (similar to the iPod halo effect).  The big difference this time around — the iPhone does much more and is a more important part of people’s live than any iPod ever was.  If you use and iPhone and love it, buying a Mac running on similar software makes sense.  Check out some discussions/articles, here, and here.  Apple has seen a dramatic rise in sales of Macs but the interest in the iPhone far dwarfs that of Macs.   Add the halo effect plus an unprecedented level of interest in the iPhone and you have huge potential Mac growth.

Of course none of this would be possible without the help of Microsoft.  Vista’s growth is huge but it started from zeo and is in the range of 250% growth year or year.  However, that growth happens because people are not nearly as willing to switch to a new computer OS as they are to make the move from a regular cell phone to a smartphone.  A computer is already an integral part of people’s lives and they are rightfully scared of making any big changes (especially when most folks fear computers and any minor computer change).  Making the move to a smartphone is less frightening than moving to a new computer system.

Vista, as anyone who has tried it knows, is not the revolution that Microsoft promised.  It is, at best, adequate.  Whenever I turn on parallels or bootcamp, I cringe in fear of something freezing.  Components still do not work and drivers are not out.  Vista forced me to return to Apple after a near 10 year separation and anecdotal evidence shows that it is making many people do the same.

However, to return to the title of this post, Dell, HP and the other PC manufacturers are scared.  Apple sales are growing and, with the iPhone effect + Vista, they are likely to continue to grow for the foreseeable future (Windows 7.0 might change this but it is too far away to discuss here).

Why are they scared?  Apple has one thing that those PC manufacturers do not and that they can never reproduce — Apple’s OS Leopard.  Dell, HP and the others can build the best computers in the world but Apple will not allow them to run Leopard on those machines.  Those machines are stuck with Vista (or XP).  As the iPhone, Leopard & Vista have shown, people are drawn to stable software on quality hardware.  Apple has both of these things while Dell and the others only have one.  Apple’s growth can continue unabated while Dell and the other PC guys will decline and they do nothing to stop it. With an enterprise based iPhone coming down the pipe, a less virus prone & crash prone OS, and with consumers snapping up Apple’s for their homes, company’s are going to start to make the switch (as they already have).  When this switch begins to happen in full, Apple will begin to hit at the jugular of PC/Vista sales.

The PC manufacturers are tied to a now sinking (or at least leaking) ship of Vista.  If I were them, I would be scared…