Author
Josh Cox
Last week a friend of mine and I went out for a few beers at a local Belgium Micro-Brewery. It was around 8:30-9 so the late dinner crowd was still out and about. We decided to belly up to the bar instead of going through the hassle of finding a table.
We order drinks and causally talk to the bartender about the different types of beers they have that week. People beside us at the bar come and go as their tables open. I don’t know about you but whenever I am sitting at a table or bar for that matter, I take my phone out of my pocket at lay it in front of me. It’s mainly habit but it’s a good bet that I’m also going to have to check a text message, email, or how many NBA players retire with career average double-doubles (true story).
I was just wrapping up my first brew when a man in his mid thirties turns to his girl friend and says, “I’ve got to do this. He has an iPhone.” This total stranger then pulls his EVO out and gently, as though he was performing a magic trick lays it on the bar in front of me.
At this point I realize he is talking about me so I look over, smile, and began to prepare myself for what I knew was coming next. He began to tell me why his new phone was WAY better than my iPhone, the screen is bigger, there’s a kickstand on the back, he can stream TV, the data plan cost less, and so on. His girl friend was also stroking the EVO’s ego (maybe they should have named it the EGO) saying that she just got an iPhone a month ago but she really wants an EVO now that she see how “amazing” it is.
I politely tried to tell him that that was very cool for him but I prefer the iPhone and that the iPhone 4 is soon coming out and will easily rival the EGO, I mean EVO. He then said that AT&T doesn’t have 4G like Sprint so the downloads won’t be as fast. This is where I stopped listening to him.
I asked him what exactly was Sprint’s 4G technology (I knew what it is). He said, “It has download speeds up to four gig.” That is all he said. He is wrong. First of all 4G is WiMAX, which is a form of long range Wi-Fi, not a cellular technology. And it does not have speeds up to 4 gigabits per second, it’s more like 3-6 Mbps which is comparable to AT&T’s peak 3G coverage. Oh, and I was also in Indianapolis which does not have Sprint 4G coverage. So that guy obviously did not know what he was talking about.
So here is my question to you. Why does having an iPhone put a target on our backs? This was not the first time a total stranger has approached me about how his non-iPhone was better than mine. I have never provoked this from anyone, yet people must feel like me using my phone in front of them is a direct attack, so they must explain themselves.
If you really want to know about the speed of AT&T’s network compared to Sprint’s, Verizon’s, and T-Mobile’s take a look at this, www.att.com/network/assets/pcworld.pdf
If you want to know more about 4G or as I like to call it WiMAX, check back with the site I am planning on writing an article about it soon.