I wanted
to buy the coolest of the cool: the new Iphone 4. I
went to the ATT store on 86th Street, credit card in
hand, and played with the Iphone for 2 hours. But alas,
here is what I found:
1) Emails? I could not type my full name and email address
on its keyboard without a half dozen typos.
2) Voice Recognition? Its voice recognition software
made even more errors. The problem the salesman told
me was the microphone picked up ambient noise.
3) Phone? After 3 tries, it connected with another Iphone
in the store, but the clarity was spotty, as I walked,
and at some moments inaudible. When I asked the salesman,
he shrugged, saying again the problem the ATT salesman
told me was the “ambient noise.” But “ambient
noise” is part of the context of modern life.
life in New York City.
conclusion: I cradled in the palm of my hand a gorgeous
device that didn’t work as either a phone or as
a message sender. If there was ever proof of the global
triumph of form over function, it was the beautiful
Iphone 4.
The
Trip Across 86th Street
At
the Verizon store, I tried Motorola’s new Droid
X. It actually worked.
1) Emails? The keyboard is about 50 percent larger than
that of the Iphone so I could now type my full name
and email address on its keyboard without a problem.
2) Voice recognition? It errorlessly typed out my email
address as well as a cliched line from Shakespeare.
So one does not even need to type to answer emails.
3) Phone. It actually worked. Even as I moved around
the store, it was clear as the proverbial bell. It turns
out the Droid X has 3 microphones, two of which are
used to cancel out the ambient noise. (This may also
explain why the voice recognition works so well).
4) Utility
The clincher for me was that, unlike the Iphone, the
Droid X has an HDMI outlet for high-definition transfer
This feature allows me to hook the phone into my home
theater so I can skim the world’s data broth watch
and watch videos on my 10 foot screen in HD
.
Conclusion: I bought the Droid X.
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