Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

According to CNN, Apple made review copies available to its favorite publications. The overall verdict is that the current Verizon iPhone is slower than the AT&T iPhone, BUT IT DOESN’T DROP CALLS! Here are links to detailed comments and reviews cited by CNN:

• The New York Times – David Pogue found the phone nearly the same as AT&T, but it doesn’t drop calls, making it “the holy grail.”
• The Wall Street Journal – Walt Mossberg found AT&T’s network 46% faster in downloads and 24% faster in uploads in his experience.
• TechCrunch – MG Siegler found that HE COULD MAKE A CALL FROM HIS OFFICE (previously impossible to either make or receive calls ) in the SoMa (“South of Market”) area of San Francisco and that he made it through the 45-minute call without being dropped even once! (Note added February 5, 2011: “Coincidentally,” “South-of-Market” is the location of THIS SBC/AT&T building on Folsom Street (in which I was charged with making an inventory of Sun servers in a room), involved in the “dragnet surveillance” of ordinary American citizens, by the NSA. Needless to say, I made no progress. Needless to say, one day Sun stopped caring about my inventory of this location. I have always wondered about the potential impact of this surveillance upon other telecommunications activity in the area.)
• Daring Fireball – John Gruber found that the WiFi hotspot works so well that he would never likely buy a 3G iPad again, but use a WiFi-only iPad and his iPhone!
• Bloomberg Businessweek – Rich Jaroslovsky noted the inability of the Verizon iPhone to do “simultaneous voice and data” and that CDMA is not widely used outside the United States.

Here are links to EVEN MORE reviews.

Now what about those “DATA HOGS?”

Will they become “slow-cooked” ribs?

Verizon said today that it may reduce the download speeds for the current and subsequent billing cycles of subscribers who fall within the top 5% of the network’s data users.

According to a memo (PDF) on Verizon’s Web site:

“Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren’t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.”

I love it when corporations say “proactive,” almost as much as when they “take it to the next level,” wherever THAT is. The memo also describes the employment of “optimization and transcoding” techniques, including “… caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing the video more appropriately for the device.” A more detailed explanation of this optimization is described here. T-Mobile is the only other U.S. wireless carrier that “throttles” speeds for its “data hogs.” A report released on Tuesday by Cisco Systems showed that the top 1% of mobile data users account for 20% of ALL mobile traffic.

The same report found that the monthly wireless download trafic of the AVERAGE smartphone user DOUBLED in 2010, to 153 megabytes.

(A chance conversation this week [an amazing “coincidence”] convinced me to wait until summer for a Verizon iPhone. No, the person with whom I spoke was in no way connected to Apple.)

(Note added February 4, 2011: It took LESS THAN 24 HOURS for Verizon to sell out of preorders for the iPhone 4. Verizon’s Web site says that Verizon customers will be able to order an iPhone 4 at 3:01 AM [EST] or 12:01 AM [00:01 hours] PST on Wednesday, February 9. At 7:00 AM EST on Thursday (4:00 AM or 04:00 PST) the iPhone 4 will be generally available at Apple and Verizon stores throughout the U.S.)

(Note added February 5, 2011: CNET’s review of the Verizon iPhone 4 is here, with other links on the main news page.)

(Note added February 9, 2011: Two other VERY important news items, which discuss FUTURE 4G network use, are here and here.)

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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