Should I switch?

Now that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, I will have to make a decision about sticking with AT&T or moving to Verizon. As I still have an existing plan with Sprint that my wife uses, I don't have to make this decision until this summer (the ETF on my Sprint lines will be a total of $100 which I'll gladly pay to combine my lines once again). In June, like many others, I'll be 1 year into my 2 year AT&T contract putting the ETF at something over $250 which is a bit steep, but I have to consider will I get better service? There is a lot of speculation that lots of people will jump to Verizon and there are others that say that there won't be a mass exodus. At this point, I have no idea what all the unhappy AT&T customers will do.

There are a number of pros to sticking with AT&T. First off, I won't have to pay an ETF to leave. Second, while being able to do voice and data at the same time isn't something I do all that often, having that ability is nice. This is something that Verizon can't  do and with the mobile hotspot feature available on the Verizon iPhone, one has to question its utility if you lose data connectivity when talking on a phone (I find that if I'm in a hotel or at an airport, I use my MiFi and am talking on the phone at the same time, something that the hotspot feature won't be useful). Third, the speculation is that an iPhone 5 will come out this summer. I don't think that this phone will immediately be available on Verizon which has seemed to always plague CDMA carriers for as long as I can remember (it took forever to get Bluetooth on a CDMA phone). If I stick with AT&T and an iPhone comes out, I can just renew my contract, pay for the new phone and go on my merry way. If I went with Verizon then who knows when I'd get the next iPhone.

The cons of AT&T? Well, so far, I've only had two experiences where the iPhone failed me. The first happened to be the first day I got the iPhone where I couldn't get data coverage in the San Diego airport. The second was when I was in San Francisco; I was unable to get data there as well. Many people that fault the iPhone are in the most populous large cities, New York and San Francisco. Others have pointed out that the big problem is the time it takes to get cell sites live in these cities; we're talking years, so AT&T is finally getting new sites up that they planned back when the iPhone started getting popular. The assumption is that Verizon has seen this and been planning their network. Other than those 2 times, I've been relatively pleased with AT&T. Coverage is fine everywhere I go and is a bit superior to the coverage I had on Sprint.

Why would I goto Verizon? Cost would be one factor, but the plans are quite comparable between AT&T and Verizon. However, at this time Verizon hasn't announced if they'll keep the unlimited smartphone plan for the iPhone; I have the 2 GB plan on AT&T. I use maybe a few hundred MB of data a month, so the cap isn't an issue. Better coverage? In 7 months, I've had basically 1 day of problems. Is that reason enough to jump ship? I don't think so.

Now that I've written this article and laid out my points, I've convinced myself to sit tight and do nothing. I'll revisit this in the summer when I have to switch my wife, but unless something major happens, I'm going to move my wife's line to AT&T.

The end of standalone GPS units?

Recently I've started using RunKeeper when I walk the dog as well as when we went to the zoo a few weeks ago. I received email from them the other day indicating that they now support heart rate monitoring via the Fisica Ant+ Sensor key and a heart rate strap like the one I have with my Garmin Forerunner 405. This got me thinking that I could replace my Garmin Forerunner 405 for running. One device down as the RunKeeper software works pretty well; my only issue would be wearing my iPhone in a case on my arm. Will the moisture stay out? Will it be too heavy? I'm not sure, but definitely worth looking at sometime in the future when my 405 breaks (or about $100 lands in my lap).

In addition to using RunKeeper for tracking runs/walks, I used it to geotag photos that my father took at the zoo. This now replaces the i-Got-U device I have used for geotagging. Using the RunKeeper Web site, I can export the GPS track and then use it for geotagging.

Last Friday I used my Garmin nüvi 765 to get me to a meeting near the convention center. It took me on a strange route that may be due to year old maps or due to strange software routing. Then on the way home, I got to see the 32nd street Naval Station, a place I've never seen in all my years in San Diego! While these 2 issues may just be anomalies, there is pretty much no chance that there will ever be a software update for this unit and the maps are not going to be cheap to update.

There are a number of navigation applications available for the iPhone that didn't become viable until this past summer when iOS 4 was released. Up until then, navigation apps couldn't run in the background on the iPhone and really weren't up to par. In addition, these applications are including full maps and not loading from the network (one of my major complaints about phone based GPS was that loading maps off the network is too slow and can't route fast enough). The exception to this is Garmin's Street Pilot application; Garmin has decided against putting the 1 GB or so of map data on the device which I think is a huge mistake.

While I haven't purchased one of these navigation apps, yet, I'll likely do it for a future trip. I'm sure I'll be pleased compared to my aging Garmin, at a much lower price.

So I've just identified that my iPhone, a device I carry all the time, will replace my Garmin nüvi 765, my Garmin Forerunner 405, the i-Got-U, as well as the iPod Nano I use for running. Is there a reason to keep these devices? I don't think so. A year ago, I wouldn't have said this, but the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 have really come a long way in delivering a quality GPS experience.

The wrong way to dispose of a tree?

The other day when I was running, I saw someone driving along with a Christmas tree dragging behind him. Instead of putting the tree on the roof of the Ford Explorer to take to the recycle site, the driver tied a rope to the trailer hitch and the other end to the trunk of the tree. This was absolutely one of the times that I would like to have used my iPhone for running instead of my Garmin Forerunner 405 so that I could have taken a picture of this. However, a picture didn't tell the whole picture as the smell of burning wood (it wasn't on fire) added to the humor of the situation.

Piracy in the Mac App Store

A number of web sites are reporting that apps in the Mac App Store can be pirated. While this seems to be news, it really isn't in my opinion. As long as I can remember, software has been pirated no matter what developers have done to protect the software. Many applications use a simple user name and registration code for registering; some send a request to a web server to verify the request. In all cases, the software can be cracked by people that are unscrupulous and aren't buying the software. Isn't there other news to report on besides something that really doesn't affect the average user that isn't going to user pirated software?