• The new retina display is awesome.  Since you end up doing a lot of reading on the iPhone the new display makes this easier on the eyes.
• New processor and better battery.  Even if you have an existing 3GS phone this could be a nice selling point to upgrade.  While I don’t notice that much of a difference when it comes to the processor, I do notice a difference on the battery.
• The new iPhone 4 has the ability to record 720p video at 30 fps.  With this ability to shoot HD video, this could easily replace HD Flip cameras.  Grab the new iMovie app and things can get really exciting.
• New hardware design.  This phone is a lot thinner than the current 3G and 3GS phones and is more industrial.  The front and back are made of glass that is supposed to be 30 times stronger than plastic.  The frame is made of steel rather than plastic and should help with the durability of the phone.  I really like the feel of this phone over my 3GS and it just looks awesome.

So while all of these are great reasons to own the new iPhone 4 I am now going to play devils advocate and list some reasons as to why you may want to hold off on getting the new iPhone 4:

• If you are a current iPhone 3GS owner then you will already have access to some of the best new features of the iPhone 4 since some features are actually part of the new iPhone operating system they are calling iOS 4.  Multitasking, folder organizations, iBooks update, 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpaper, unified inbox, and over 100 other enhancements.  This update is available to you free of charge.
• No Verizon announcement, and if you want the iPhone you need AT&T.  Now while I have always tried to stay away from the cell phone provider debate, I know some people feel very strong about their hatred for AT&T, so this could be a big issue for you.  If that is the case it sounds like you will need to wait a bit longer for the iPhone to come to VZW.
• No more unlimited data.  AT&T recently announced that they were dropping their unlimited data plan option.  This means that you will have to pay for either 200MB or 2GB worth of data.  With the Netflix announcement at the keynote, the thought of streaming 2GB of data is a reality if you take advantage of that service.  Add on streaming radio and it won’t take you long to reach those limits.
• Lack of Google integration.  The fact that you can’t use Google Latitude or the Google Mobile features where you get turn by turn navigation for free is frustrating when you see all of your Droid friends using those products.
• Reception issues are pretty common.  A downfall to the redesign is the fact that the antenna is around the edge of the phone and when held a certain way you can lose your signal.  If you are a person that will end up putting your phone in some sort of case then this is a non issue, but if you go case-less then this is something to take into consideration.

I ended up ditching my iPhone 3GS for the iPhone 4 and so far I have been pretty happy with the device.  The camera, new retina display, the new OS, and battery life all make the upgrade worth it.  It even made my wife happy as she got to upgrade from the 3G to the 3GS, but she doesn’t know what she is missing….

Palm CEO: I’ve ‘Never Even Used’ An iPhone – I understand hating the competition but how do you know what your competition is when you have never tried the competition?

Exclusive: Qualcomm to Power iPhone – it has never been a matter of if the iPhone will land on the Verizon network, just a matter of when.  Sounds like that will be this summer.

iPhone wins touchscreen quality test – this is probably one of the things that I will always evaluate as new phones come out as I think the touchscreen and gestures are really important on smartphones these days.

Facebook’s iPhone App Gets New Push and Sync Features – this is the first time I have used the push notifications on my iPhone and love the contact sync.  The contact sync is a small feature, but its just nice to have the pictures automatically pulled into your contacts for you.

iPhone Runs Toy Helicopter Taking Off at CES 2010 – while the iPhone still has a little bit of a wow factor when you show off some of the funny/cool apps that you can run, this would definitely make jaws drop.  Especially the live camera feed while flying the helicopter.

Apple: Three billion downloads from iPhone App Store – the App store still gives the iPhone an edge, but the playing field will be leveled as the Android Marketplace gains momentum.  At that point, I think it will come down to the software on the phone.

1. The iPhone will land on Verizon.  This is just a matter of time and if the rumors are right the exclusive contract is up this year and some version of the iPhone will land on the Verizon network.
2. Android momentum won’t catch the iPhone.  Right now, Android looks sweet and is driving competition against the iPhone.  The main reason it has a lot of momentum is because Verizon users don’t have any other device that can compete with it.  Once the iPhone hits Verizon I think people will take the iPhone over a Droid phone.
3. Multi-tasking, Voice Commands, 5mp camera, LED flash will come to the next version of the iPhone.  You can thank competition from the Droid and Pre lines for this one.  I may even go to say that there will be a front facing camera with some sort of live conferencing capability.  The voice commands are something that is built into the Android platform and is pretty slick, the iPhone will need to catch up to that.
4. Storage is the next thing to increase but they still won’t support external storage cards.  Do they really need external storage if you have 64GB of space?
5. The App store will hit 350,000 apps by the end of the year and there will be an option for developers to expedite their approval process by paying extra.
6. Subscription services will come to the iPhone and iTunes.
7. Flash won’t come to the iPhone in 2010.  I know Adobe has the mobile version but I just don’t see Apple letting that run on the iPhone and take away from their game market.
8. The overall form factor of the device won’t change much but the screen and internal CPU compoents will get get an upgrade.  The screen should get an HD upgrade, while the processor will go dual core which will allow them to open up multitasking.
9. Major enhancements to the default maps application, even a move away from using Google.  Integrated Traffic and weather?  Better GPS?
10. Continue to dominate sales and be the best phone out there.

What are your predictions?

As you can tell the list of vendors jumping on board to support the initiative is pretty broad, but Apple is no where to be found, which is perfectly fine by me but more on that in a minute. I think we need to look at why Apple is so hesitant to allow Flash on to the iPhone. Once they allow Flash on the iPhone Apple would be giving developers a way around their AppStore Cash Cow. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal for utility type applications because the user experience would not be the same (Flash apps would probably not be allowed to have an icon on the main menu system), this could be a big blow to Apple since they are marketing the iPhone as a gaming platform. If the iPhone had Flash that can take advantage of the accelerated graphics and video, why would developers create a game that is specific just for the iPhone and go through the Apple approval process?

On the other side I think more and more iPhone users are starting to get used to life without Flash, which makes you wonder how necessary it really is. Based on my usage, I really don’t see a need for Flash anymore and I hope it never comes to the iPhone. I visit more and more sites each day that just created a mobile or iPhone version of their site that works great without Flash. I find that most sites that I visit use Flash for either navigation or ads which can easily be replaced with a non-flash version of the site that performs better and does not eat up system resources. The only real use I could see for Flash would be for streaming such as video from Hulu, but I would rather see that implemented as a native app that is feature rich and not in the browser.

So where do you stand when it comes to Flash support on the iPhone?

Leave your comment below.

“As you know, today we do it by type of app and also have show popular apps and top-selling apps, et cetera,” Cook said. “We realize there’s opportunity there for further improvement and are working on that.”

Apple Insider provides a post that details a lot more information about the call.  So, what can Apple do to really improve the App Store?  Here are a few ideas on how I think they can do it:

1. Allow sub categories - This will allow users to filter down the list of apps within a category.  This would really help in the games category
2. Ratings Sort - Allow users to view a list of apps based on rating, not just free, paid, and release date.
3. Provide Preview Period – create an automatic demo mode that is available for every app.  Apple could eaily track this within the iPhone and allow users to try the game out for  a certain time period.
4. Genius - bring over Genius from iTunes but for app store purchases.  This little service could make recommendations based on past purchases
5. Improve Social Network – Improve the social network around app ratings and follow the model that Amazon uses by creating top reviewers, and have these reviews provide more weight to how the game is factored into qualifying for the top cateogires

What do you think?  How do you think Apple can improve the App Store?

Here is a summary chart of what I found while shopping online:

As you can tell the monthly cost of ownership between the iPhone and the Storm are pretty close.  The G1 is your best cost saver across the board, except for when you get into the unlimited talk, text, and data.  Once you get to that tier, the Palm Pre comes through as the cheapest.

Now some basic disclaimers.  I tried to put some carrier specific disclaimers on each chart listed below.  These prices were effective on 7/20/2009.  When listing the price for the phone, I took into account what offers the carriers had running at the time, regardless of if it was a mail in rebate or instant rebate.  The prices do not include any state or federal taxes.  Finally, all of this is based on signing your life away to a 2 year contract as a new subscriber.

Here are the rest of the charts:

[View with PicLens]

1. The plan for the family trip was to go to Waterworld (recently featured on the travel channel as the 3rd best water park in the US)  in Denver.  As most people do these days, I had to make sure that I had my directions since it had been a while since I have been there.  Normally, I would track down the laptop or go to my desktop, but no need this time.  Just opened up google maps and was able to track down my directions.
2. Once I had my directions, next up was to get the weather forcast.  As I had done numerous times throughout the week, I just fired up the Weahter Chanel app and checked the forecast.  I was glad to see that it was going to be partly cloudy and in the high 80’s.
3. The drive to Waterworld was just over 1 1/2 hours from my house, and on my way up I had to shoot a quick text to my brother in law to let him know we were on our way to pick him up.
4. Throughout the drive, my iPhone became in car entertainment.  My wife and kids stole the phone to check Facebook and play some games.  I think my wife even listened to a few tunes on the way up.
5. We got to the park early, so while waiting for the park to open I decided to check some news to see if anything exciting was happening, and thankfully there wasn’t.  What I did find out was that the park offered free Wifi.  Nice!, Very Nice!
6. Once in the park and we got situated the iPhone got stored in the locker and it did not see any action until around lunch time.  At this point, it was time to relax a bit since the heat was kicking in and we were getting a bit tired.  While lounging and watching my kids in the wave pool I decided to fire up Google Reader and check out some blogs.  After a bit of R&R, the iPhone went back into the locker and we went on to enjoy the rest of the water park.
7. We stayed at the park until it closed, and on the way out we saw some storms moving in and we also had to track down a place for dinner.  So of course, we tried out a few apps on the iPhone to help us with this.  First, we fired up google maps, iWant, and Yelp to see what was in the area.  We ended up passing on a sit down place because we just wanted to get home, so we hit a fast foot joint near by.
8. While on the interstate I had my wife pull up the local radar on the Weather Channel app to see what kind of weather we were going to hit.  Come to find out that there was a servere thunderstorm warning and of course that slowed traffic down a bit.  But its okay, my wife was able to hop on Facebook to pass the time.  This time around, my kids weren’t asking to play on the phone, since they were passed out in the back seat.
9. By the time we finally got home, my phone was down to about 35% battery life left, so I decided to put it to bed for the night and let it recharge.  I wasn’t too far behind it either.

So as you can tell we were still able to make pretty good use of the iPhone even though we were at a water park.  I know some people will say, “hey, just enjoy your time with your family” and I can respect that, but the iPhone is a convienence gadget and it helps me unwind by doing some light reading or playing some games.  My wife picks up a good book, I pick up my iPhone.  I also made sure that I wasn’t getting too wrapped up with the iPhone and enjoyed the water park just as much as my kids did.

There were also signs that this is the future and more and more people will expect to be connected, even at a water park.  There was evidence of that the minute I entered the park and saw the big sign that said “Free Wifi”.  I will also mention that I was not the only person at the water park on their iPhone.  Right now it probably was probably other iPhone fanboys that I saw, but as the smart phone market continues to grow more and more average people will expect more and this will become the norm.

It is suggested that you:

1. Minimize location services
2. Turn off push notifications
3. Fetch new data less frequently
4. Turn off push mail
5. Autocheck fewer accounts
6. Minimize 3rd party applications
7. Turn off Wi-fi
8. Turn off 3G
9. Turn off Bluetooth

Give me a break! Most of these options is why I bought the phone in the first place!  I typically get about 6 hours of usage and that is from using app, surfing, listening to music, texting, and making calls.  A full charge usually lasts me 2 days, unless I just get bored and play on my phone.  In that case, the phone will only last me a day.

Here are a few habits I have gotten into to help with my battery:

1. Turn off auto lock and get into a habit of locking the phone manually.  I don’t know how many times the phone would lock up while I am just reading stuff on the phone.  I thought about increasing the time on the autolock, but found out that I liked just locking the phone manually
2. Turn off “wifi ask to join networks”.  I would gest extra push notifications for having this on and found it annoying.  I also figured it would help with battery life since its sending out fewer notifications
3. Turn down the brightness on the phone.  Dont’ turn it down too much or else you won’t enjoy your apps very much, but the dimmer screen can help and is easier on the eyes.
4. When you do charge the battery, try your best to hold off as long as you can.  I try to make sure my battery if as low as possible before I charge it as it could help prolong the life of your battery.

As you can tell, my list is pretty weak and I am stretching it a bit, but that is because I don’t recommend removing all of the features that make the iPhone what it is.  I would recommend that you do play with some of the settings such as push and pull email, although when I played around with that I did not notice much of a difference at all, but your results may vary.  And if you are a power user, look at getting a rechargable battery case that can usually double your battery life.  I haven’t done this yet myself, but it is something I may consider if my needs ever increase

What do you find works the best to increase the life of your battery in your iPhone?

[CNET Article - Get the most out of your iPhone battery]

Here are some things that I would think would need to happen before people start bailing on the iPhone for the Pre:

1. Device Maturity – this is a first generation device and based on the reviews and from my experiences with the device there is room for improvement. If you think about the changes from the original iPhone to the 3G iPhone, it was pretty drastic and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Pre. The keyboard needs to be improved for sure, and the over all quality of the device needs to be improved. Visual Voicemail is missing, video capabilities, and what about the possibility of a virtual landscape keyboard? The good news is that most of these features, and many others will arrive through software and device updates.
2. Lack of SDK and App Store – so it appears that they followed the same model of the iPhone. The first iPhone was released without an official SDK and we know one will be coming from Palm. Palm knows the importance of this and once they release this they will have to then start a the process of trying to get developers on board. This is something that all the new smartphones are playing catch up on when it comes to try to tackle the iPhone. Because the iPhone was first to market with this, they were able to jump out in a huge way with their AppStore and this has given them a good advantage over the competition
3. Better Carrier – If people continue to bitch and moan about AT&T, people could be more open to looking at the Pre if it was on more carriers. It has already been confirmed by Verizon that the Pre will be coming to their network in 6 months, and once that happens there could be a chance that more people take a more serious look at the device. This will give a lot more exposure to the device and would rather choose a Pre than switch to a Blackberry or over to AT&T for the iPhone.
4. Need to innovate, not just copy – What also made the iPhone so successful is the innovation that was brought to the smartphone market. An awesome AppStore, full web browser support, gestures, touchscreen, a real OS and a real music player. Apple saw a lot of potential in the smartphone market that others like windows mobile and Palm have missed out on. The Pre has to come up with something that really makes it stand out rather than just playing catch up.

Out of all of the bullets listed above, I think number 2 is by far the biggest thing that sets the iPhone apart from the Pre and all of the other smartphones out there. The SDK and the AppStore is huge, and even with all of the complaints about how Apple micro manges the AppStore, people are still spending a lot of money there. I think for any smart phone to really compete with the iPhone, this is an area they need to target and develop quickly. They need to target the developers and provide an SDK thaty makes it easy to leverage the hardware in the device and help the developers create some really powerful apps for their device. Apps that are fun and comical, but also apps that will help the consumer be more productive by owning a smart phone.

What are your thoughts on what it will take to de-thrown the iPhone?

AppleCare Details
AppleCare FAQ

Would I buy AppleCare?  Not a chance.  I really don’t see much value in AppleCare.  Since AppleCare does not cover against accidential damage, I find the coverage pretty limiting.  The only selling point for me is the battery replacement, but I figured I would take my chances and see how well my battery holds up.

Your alternatives are pretty limiting though.  The only other way that I found that you can insure your iPhone is through a company called SquareTrade.  The coverage looks pretty decent as it extends the normal warranty and covers you against manufacturing defects, but it also covers you for accidental damage.  When making a claim for accidental damage, you will be charge a $50 deductiable, but this is pretty standard even with insurance provided by AT&T.  The pricing for SquareTrade is very reasonable, 8GB $76, 16GB $96, and 32GB $115.

Has anyone ever used SquareTrade?  Let me know by leaving a comment.