So, to our latest entrants …

“Aside from the gamers who have piled-on the blog posting, I disagree with your entire approach and position. Please don’t take this personally … but you have no idea what you are talking about.

Ralph”

Well, Ralph K – you do have a small flaw in your argument … that being that you don’t know me. Therefore, you can not make any sort of credible claim about what I do and do not know about in life. Perhaps if you really wanted to drive that point home … a follow-up with a pointer to something that I was actually wrong about would have helped. Then, you’d have a much stronger basis for your claim.

But don’t worry – I won’t take it personally.

“The only person wearing a “tin-foil-hat” is you. You are so full of crap. Not only will the original work nearly at 3G speeds all over Europe but here in New York, both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G can be quickly and cheaply hacked to run on the Verizon network.”

Well, Phil – gosh – there are so many flaws in your posting it’s hard to know where to start. But did you read all of the comments in this blog post, and its predecessor? Do you fully understand the differences between CSD, HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and all the subclassifications of the IMT-2000 … and still want to make that claim?

Secondly, the iPhone has not – EVER – been documented to be converted, in it’s 1st or 2nd generation – to work on a CDMA network. HOWEVER, it’s a trivial exercise to alter the firmware files and change the carrier tag on the screen to read “Verizon” instead of “AT&T” … as a matter of fact, some folks who tinker around with these things (read a site like hackint0sh from time to time) like to have fun with clueless Verizon retail store reps by doing exactly that. Sounds like someone was having some fun with you as well … because if it was so simply done in NYC, a lot more people would know about it than just you.

By all means … do share more with us please.

The only person wearing a “tin-foil-hat” is you. You are so full of crap. Not only will the original work nearly at 3G speeds all over Europe but here in New York, both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G can be quickly and cheaply hacked to run on the Verizon network.

P.G.

Aside from the gamers who have piled-on the blog posting, I disagree with your entire approach and position. Please don’t take this personally … but you have no idea what you are talking about.

Ralph

I guess he assumes we all must be PR flacks of some sort. I guess that mindset fits in with the same tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory that Apple intentionally loaded software on the iPhone to cripple its throughput when on AT&T…

At this moment I get 145kbps on EDGE, and 1330 on 3G – in Toronto, on Rogers. This is average EDGE speed, and high for 3G, according to DSL Reports, which by now has polled tens of thousands of phones. Your handful of readers don’t represent a statistically accurate group to base connection speeds off of. Furthermore EDGE is not capable of achieving 3G “comparable” speeds. It is beyond the capability of the signal.

I suppose if you were used to much worse EDGE speeds, and went somewhere with a proper network, you would be in for a surprise.

But it should be obvious that a subjective, personal experience is not the basis for coming to some very wide ranging conclusions. Network speeds vary around the world, from city to city and block to block.

European EDGE networks are pretty clear of traffic, because many phones run on UMTS. Population density there encouraged carriers to invest in 3G earlier, as the pay off was greater (the licenses are expensive). The US and Canada have pretty hopeless population density, it makes it tougher to justify the investment. Toronto represents 1/6 of the population of Canada, so we are fortunate enough to have good investment in networks here.

The iPhone is physically incapable of connecting to UMTS networks, period. There are much more competent and intelligent people who have physically ripped the iPhone to pieces, and hacked every piece of code in the system. If it were possible to use the iPhone on a 3G network, it would have been worked out a long time ago.

You seem to be taking a very layman’s approach to a technical issue. Research would have helped you understand what you were experiencing and why some of your claims sound absolutely absurd to people that do understand the subject matter.

And yes, Europe is covered in EDGE – it isn’t talked about much because most European phones run on UMTS. Nokia was one of the companies responsible to enabling EDGE on existing UMTS networks in Europe. As they stated, it was just a software upgrade to make EDGE available (every tower installed since 1995 was software upgradeable to handle EDGE).

This can easily be worked out with limited research – it’s all online!

Alex,

According to ATT, it will when nothing else is available.

David”

We have to assume that this is a factually accurate statement, that someone from AT&T did say that.

They’re wrong though, it is 100% physically impossible. It wouldn’t be the first case of someone above 1st line management in a technology company not fully understanding the detail of what they sell.

“Doug and Gerald,

I wrote no such thing about Apple. Are you political spin-meisters?

David”

WHAT?

You are now claiming that you didn’t write -

“But in America, however, original iPhones are throttled back by Apple’s software and forced to operate only on AT&T’s aged, outdated and antiquated Edge data network…”?

You are now claiming that you didn’t write -

“I was astonished by the speeds while in Germany and Switzerland and checked with my sources at Apple and AT&T here in America.”?

It seems someone took away your shovel, only to put you in the seat of a JCB.

How utterly bizarre.

Only one side is spinning here, David. However, I’ve heard that political spin-meistering can be very well paid, so if you think I’d be good at it and want to hook me up with someone willing to pay me lots of dosh, please don’t hesitate to make the connection.

But, to be clear, I do not work for any of the following:

AT&T
Apple
iNetwork Test
Verizon
Nokia
Samsung
T-Mobile
Motorola
Sprint/Nextel
LG
Research In Motion
Microsoft
…or any “PR” company

Better?

See my response to your 3rd blog entry. My results – about 20 miles away from you – are different from yours.

Thanks again for your posting. Are you associated with a PR company and/or iNetwork Test or AT&T?

David

Actually, you /did/ say Apple. You said they wrote software into the iPhone specifically to “throttle back” the 1st gen device.

David: “original iPhones are throttled back by Apple’s software”

Which goes to my previous point…

Doug: “you have made a very specific, tin-foil-hat kind of claim there that Apple has intentionally crippled their phone via software in some way”

I’m starting to think the parsing problem is entirely on your side, David … as your response to Alex was:

David: “Sorry, Alex, but you are incorrect. The iPhone original in quad band.”

No. Alex was correct, it is you that are wrong. The statement of yours that Alex was challenging was that the original iPhone was a quadband device ***and*** (your words) capable of operating on 3G networks.

The first part of that sentence is accurate, the 2nd part is wrong. The “and” in the middle means that the statement – in its entirety – is inaccurate.

The comment in your previous blog post was spot on – once you’re in a hole, it’s really best to stop digging.

Looking forward to your 3rd blog post on this subject.

According to ATT, it will when nothing else is available.

David

I wrote no such thing about Apple. Are you political spin-meisters?

David

Thank you for your comment. Please read my posting dated today.

David