> 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