> What smart phone dou you have and why?

An iPhone.

> I do wish it were a little more open

I wish it were too. But at the same time I'm impressed with how open
it is. That is, it's a phone. And it's thoroughly tied up with
Apple's brand. Think of the horrible press that they'd get if one
crashed while someone was trying to dial 9-1-1.

And I could be wrong, but I don't recall there being any "unlimited"
data plans before the iPhone. I'm sure that Apple had to make a bunch
of promises in order to get that concession from AT&T. Such as no
BitTorrent, ever.

Hm! Coincidentally, here's a bit from a Slashdot story:

http://tinyurl.com/yzcqsvw

about Verizon's Droid tethering that I just noticed:

    Verizon will charge $50 for each additional gigabyte over the 5Gb
    limit on the unlimited data plan. Verizon has confirmed that
    tethering will cost another $30 per month for an additional
    unlimited data plan that is also limited to 5Gb.

If AT&T's "unlimited" data plan deserves scare-quotes, that's a use
of the term that's just hilarious.

> and I am sick of at&t as my provider for two reasons:

> Lack of tether (think emergency)

> Too many call drops over the last 6 months

Unfortunately, I suspect that those two are related. My understanding
is that AT&T estimated the amount of data that people would want to
use based on its experience with earlier smartphones. But iPhones are
pleasant and easy to use. So people use a good deal more data.

I was at a dinner party last night and it wasn't at all a geeky one.
Of the ten or so people there, at least half had iPhones. And in the
course of the lively and non-geeky conversation, iPhones were often
being handed around to show photos and web pages that were related to
what was being talked about.

I expect that AT&T is busy upgrading its network. It could sure stand
to do that a bit faster, but I think that other places have it worse.

Regards,
Matt