Thursday, January 11, 2007

I will sooooo be the first one on my block.


This is going to be a great summer. In case you've been hiding under a rock the past few days, Apple has finally unveiled its long-rumored smartphone. As a longtime happy Mac user, I can hardly wait until it's released in June. I was at a Cingular store just yesterday getting help adjusting to my brand new Palm Treo 680 (which is "okay," but doesn't really play well with Mac). I tried to get them to put me on a waiting list for the iPhone, but they wouldn't do it. Grr. That's okay because I will be first in line, dammit. Once you go Mac, you'll never go back, baby.

Imagine. A smartphone that works seamlessly with my MacBook, all the way down to using the same operating system! I could just pee. Sure, people are already hollering about the price tag ($599 for the top-end 8gb version), but in my humble and considerate opinion, knowing first hand Apple's well-earned reputation for making their hardware & software work together seamlessly, just eliminating the frustration quotient will make it well worth the price. Oh, and we mustn't forget to add "cool factor" into reasons this is my #2 must-have of the year. What's my #1 must-have this year? Silly rabbits...that piece of paper that says, "drsharna, PhD," also hopefully out this summer.

6 comments:

Dr. A said...

Hey Dr. S, Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I appreciate it.

I did want to ask you about the Treo 680. My contract with Cingular is coming up in a few months, and I was considering the iPhone or the Treo.

Even though the iPhone is not out yet, I've been reading a lot about the pros and cons. What do you think of the Treo 680? You mentioned not playing nice with the Mac. What did you mean by that? Any other feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dr. Brainiac said...

Hi Dr. A. Thanks for asking. My Palm/Mac issues (subscriptions??) are long-standing and now encompass 7 years, 2 mac laptops and 3 Palms. I won't bore you with the gory details but bottom line, I don't know that I'd make the same decision if I had a do-over.

The Treo was delivered within hours of the iPhone announcement but my contract with the old carrier would have ended today so I had to get the old number, which I've had about 10 years ported over to Cingular before today (number portability became available about a month after my last 2-year contract renewal). Aside from having the number so long, it's easy to remember because the last 4 digits spell the mother of all curse words ;oD. So what does it say about me that I was willing to tolerate horribly inadequate service for nearly a decade on the basis of shock value alone? Hmm.

I got everything set up to my liking after much tech support but after installing some of the bundled software, the Treo just stopped syncing with my mac. It just couldn't communicate and the app I suspected as the culprit would NOT delete. Then as of today, neither the Bluetooth nor the phone would work. Let's just say that I was less than pleased.

So, being a bit of a techno-nerd gadget freak type, I tried a soft reset - no good. Then I tried a "warm" reset followed by the recommended soft reset - still not good. It took me no less than a dozen attempts with very poorly written instructions to get it to perform a hard reset, and what I finally did was not in the instructions - by that time I was just making shit up. Apparently the third appendage necessary for that particular manipulation didn't come bundled with the hardware.

Fortunately, I haven't had it a week yet & there wasn't much data to erase, although I have to go in and manually re-enter important telephone numbers. So now the phone works again and I reconfigured the Bluetooth. I just got off the phone (for nearly the second full hour in under a week) with tech support and the email works again.

Yeah, the Treo is kind of cute (with the red leather form fit case on it) and kind of smallish but the nanosecond that Apple phone comes out, I am sooo getting one and selling the Treo on eBay.

Dr. A said...

Thanks for the info. It will definitely help me as I make my final decision.

Dr. Brainiac said...

Hey Dr. A,
This just in...the bluetooth is working again after the mystery 3rd-appendage hard reset, but the unit is still not syncing with the mac. At this point I don't even care if it syncs or not because the other 2 didn't so why should this one be any different? Today's issue was that I had to do a soft reset (read: remove the battery - again) because it got "stuck" trying to retrieve the reconfigured email - which was the primary reason I bought it. Grr.

Dr. Brainiac said...

Okay, I've had this stupid thing for a month now and am beyond being highly irritated with it. I have to remove the battery at at least once a day and it's driving me batshit. I bought it as a time-saving device, not a time-wasting device. Why do manufacturers put out buggy products?

Dr. Brainiac said...

Yep, still having to remove the battery at least once a day. My best advice is just don't.