iPhone 3g - the first month

Today marks the end of my relationship with Verizon Wireless. I bought an iPhone 3g about a month ago and Verizon wouldn't let me port the number (explain to me how that's legal?). So, I kept my old number active and forwarded the calls to my new number for a month. But today, it's official, the old number is gone. I thought this would be a good time to share my thoughts and experiences now that I've had the iPhone as my primary phone for just over a month now.

First off, Blacksburg, VA is not known for it's excellent reception. Nestled in the mountains of southwest Virginia this place would be nothing more than rocks and trees if someone hadn't dropped a state university in the middle of it. It's a little pocket of modern civilization in the middle of not much else. The lack of a large metropolitan area means companies are slow to bring infrastructure in, and the local town authorities do everything in their means to keep the town small and neophite. As a result, there are not that many cell towers and definitely not the latest-and-greatest (no 3g here, EVDO arrived about 8 months ago). Combine that with mountainous terrain and you've got dead spots. Excuses aside, Verizon has great coverage out here. In fact, their coverage is what they're most proud of:

The rest of the slogan is always cut off though, it seems, if I remember right it goes something like: "It's the network, who cares if our phones are overpriced and at least two years behind everyone else's." I left Verizon because I wanted a smartphone that wasn't a two-year old Audiovox priced $200 more than it should be, a Palm with a keyboard built for the fingers of a 7-year-old, or last year's Blackberry. The coverage was AMAZING, but equipment I couldn't deal with anymore.

The iPhone is great, it beats everyone hands down in this respect: the software. The UI is well done, very user-focused, and with the SDK freely distributed anyone can make their own apps. The App Store is a great extension of this, allowing developers to distribute their creations either for free or for-pay. I've downloaded a dozen apps, all free, which is where Apple pulls ahead of Blackberry, Windows Mobile, etc. When I had my Blackberry developers would charge just for themes, and a couple dollars for just that. Most of the iPhone apps I've seen, if not free, are $1.99. I've heard lots of people complain about crashes, slowdowns, etc., but since the 2.1 update I have had zero issues. My only problem before that was the contacts list would stutter. My only big problem at this point is coverage. Let's go to the map:

This is AT&T's coverage map, straight from their website. I have marked two places, my home and my office. #1 is work, located in what they have zoned "best." #2 is home, located on the border of "good" and "moderate." Now let's see what I get as far as signal strength:

One bar at each location? Come on AT&T, put up some more towers! And, since you're installing new towers, might as well load them with 3g hardware. I would think in the area labelled as "best" I wouldn't be stuck with only one bar of signal. (This is measured inside a building, I know it's five bars outside but do you go outside every time you want to make a call? ...I didn't think so.)

After a month of use, I am very happy with my purchase. The hardware/software combo of the iPhone is amazing. The only thing I would change would be better reception, but that's between AT&T and the mountains, nothing to hold against Apple. And, for the curious, that yellow and black case is a Capsule Rebel from http://www.switcheasy.com. I've bought a few cases from this company now, different colors, models, etc., and think they make great cases. In one instance they sent me the wrong color. I notified them via e-mail and had an apology and the correct case in the mail within 24 hours. They also told me to keep the erroneous color case gratis. Good cases, great customer service - I'll be recommending them to anyone looking for an iPhone 3g case.