I think the Jawbone as some intelligence between it and the iPhone. For instance, you can control the volume through the iPhone using the side buttons. One thing I wish it had was the battery level indicator the Apple BT has displayed on the iPhone status bar at the top.

Did you buy the jawbone in Scottsdale? How do you like it?

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It's working for me, there must not be anything wrong!

I bought the Jawbone 2 at the AT&T store across the street from Scottsdale Fashion Square (see yesterday's report for all the details). I also have the original Jawbone. Jawbone 2 is a lot more comfortable than the original. The call quality is as good (if not better) than the original. Plus, I really like the smaller size of 2 over the original.

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-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Mark you might be right on the last statement.
When Will Apple Admit 3G iPhone Has Problems? - Borked chip, manufacturing errors and poor programming... - dslreports.com

I am only getting 600kbps using text.dslreports.com 400k file for testing. On GSM/Edge I got 50Kbps. Which I thought was unusuall as 1G users were reporting 200kbps and I confirmed that on my tilt. Oh well I use wifi at home and work to do any real downloading (Wifi Toggle App is great if you have a jailbroken iPhone)

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iPhone 3G 2.0.2 Jailbroken
tilt WM 6.1 L26 KaiserDiamond v12 Throttle Launch

Very interesting article. If I am reading the article correctly, the iPhone is supposed to switch between 3G and EDGE depending upon signal strength. Question: Can it switch networks in the middle of a call? If not, that might explain some of my problems (start the call in strong 3G area but drive to weak 3G area and it cannot transfer to EDGE). If it can switch in the middle of a call, then perhaps problems (dropped calls) are being caused by the hand-off between the 3G network and the EDGE network.

The statement about the 3G being defective, though, has me a bit worried, especially if the defect cannot be cured by a firmware upgrade (as cited by Windsor in the article).

So, who's telling the truth here?

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

8:00 a.m.--I unplug my iPhone after a full charge and reset the usage stats. I really want to try the 2.0.1 upgrade but figure that, for the sake of science, I should at least run without it for one more charge just to get another comparison of battery life and reception without 3G. I also decide to break out the i760 and see how it does in terms of battery life. It has a full charge, and I turn on Bluetooth. I'll leave BT on 24/7. The i760 is still set for push e-mail on my firm's Exchange server. Other than that, I don't think I have anything else that will automatically pull data from the net. I still haven't figure out, though, how I'm going to make sure that I use the iPhone and the i760 for the same amount of time. Anyone remember the number to call to get the time (if I make a call on the iPhone, I can always use the i760 to call for the time and just let the call hang there until I hang up the iPhone )? Also, anyone know of a freeware program that will track data and phone usage on a WM 6.1 device?

I just checked my wife's iPhone. Remember, I unplugged hers and mine about the same time 2 days ago. I had to charge mine last night. Her's is now showing about 80% battery life left, but she has only used hers for 2 hours and 32 minutes (I used mine for nearly 8 hours), and her call time is only 14 minutes. Her data is 201KB sent and 1.5MB received.

8:30 a.m. (appx.)--A few minutes before I arrive at my office, I call my wife just to see if the call drops when I pull into my parking spot. It does NOT!

8:53 a.m.--I am very impressed with AT&T's customer service. As promised, someone just called me to see how my reception is now that I've turned off 3G. If only AT&T's 3G coverage was as good as its customer support....

8:37 p.m.--On my way to an appointment this afternoon, I talked on the iPhone for virtually the entire 25 minute (give or take 5 minutes) drive. The call held firm. The drive took me from 16th St. & Glendale to McDonald Drive, just east of Scottsdale Road. After my appointment, I made another fairly lengthy call (probably 20 minutes or so). This time I was traveling from McDonald and Scottsdale Road to Miller and Pinnacle Peak, though I ended the call around Hayden and the 101/Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard. Again, the call held firm. I then called my wife's iPhone. We were meeting some friends for dinner near Grayhawk. One of our iPhones (not sure which one) ended up dropping the call after some terrible reception issues. Overall, though, I'd say turning 3G off continues to provide better service for me.

The friends we were meeting for dinner are from Chicago, and one of them has the original iPhone. So, I struck up a conversation about how he likes the iPhone and, particularly, what he thinks of AT&T's service. Now, this friend of mine tends to travel the country quite a bit so I think his comments are quite telling. He told me that he has the biggest problems in Phoenix and that pretty much everywhere else he goes he gets solid coverage from AT&T (keep in mind he is stuck with EDGE because he doesn't have the 3G iPhone). In other words, in his experience, AT&T's coverage in Phoenix is, in fact, worse than in other parts of the country.

In any event, I'm now sitting here 12 3/4 hours since my last full charge, and I've got a good 75-80% battery left. Usage stats are:

• Usage since last full charge 2 hours, 56 minutes
• Standby 12 hours, 44 minutes
• Current Period Call time 1 hour, 10 minutes
• Lifetime 13 hours, 31 minutes
• Data sent 326KB
• Data Received 1.8MB

Looks like if I keep the iPhone, I'll be keeping 3G off unless I truly need it.

9:39 p.m. My wife just got home from her book club. Apparently, the group really enjoyed her iPhone. She actually found a use for Safari--they needed to pull something off the net and were able to do it using her iPhone--on EDGE no less. Then, my wife confessed that while our kids were having their swim lesson today, she started surfing the net using Safari. She's finally exploring her iPhone. And, she seems to be enjoying it (And, don't forget, she's operating on EDGE.)

In any event, when she got home she told me that during book club she received the 20% battery remaining message so she's going to charge the iPhone tonight. Her usage starts are as follows:

• Usage since last full charge 4 hours, 45 minutes
• Standby since last full charge 2 days, 14 hours
• Current call time 27 minutes
• Lifetime call time 3 hours, 37 minutes
• Data sent 646KB
• Data received 11.5MB

I find the comparison interesting because I last got something close to 8 hours of usage with 3G off, but she only got 4 hours and 45 minutes. Now, two things could be affecting these numbers. First, I ran my battery below 10% usage when I got the 7+ hours of usage; she stopped at 20%. Second--and probably more significantly--I just noticed that her Wi Fi is turned on (even though mine is turned off). Another interesting factor is her data received--11.5MB, which is much higher than what I typically have (she really has been surfing the net).

In any event, I have no turned off Wi Fi and her iPhone is charging. We'll see how she does with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G turned off (I still have my Bluetooth turned on).

EDIT--8/15/08: Final e-mail count for today=66 received.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Jay,

Too bad you have bad coverage. I found that at&t actually has better coverage in my area then Verizon did. It was always a long standing assumption that was the case around here. However, on my train commute days into Philadelphia (45min). Areas where I would get no signal Verizon, at&t had a signal and that signal was in 3g. Because of this I started to use my laptop more tethered wirelessly via BT. So as always with phone coverage YMMV rule always apply. Well I know the 2.0.1 update did not help with signal. However, even with low bars I was still able to make calls.

Here is some help:
Report: Software fix in the works for iPhone 3G | One More Thing - CNET News.com

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iPhone 3G 2.0.2 Jailbroken
tilt WM 6.1 L26 KaiserDiamond v12 Throttle Launch

I'm hoping the Apple sources are correct that the reception problems can be fixed with a firmware upgrade. And, I'm hoping even more, they release the upgradee sooooooon!

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

If they say the 3G problem can be fixed with a software fix and it may be available at the end of the month, I wonder if Apple is referring to 2.1 Beta 3 that is currently in the hands of a few. Update 2.1 is supposed to become available in September. Wonder if anyone knows anyone with the Beta and can confirm if they are getting better 3G reception.

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It's working for me, there must not be anything wrong!

Wow, I'm impressed you know that it is Beta 3 stage. I hadn't even heard that. I love to get some feedback from anyone who is using 2.1 beta 3!

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

poop-scoop news says it might truly has to be a hardware swap for that to work. Apple is going to buy time by announcing a software fix (they are tweaking the radio frequency) "us WM guys are used to it and we used to call it updating PRL". This will give Apple some time to get units taken in to be replaced with a different Infineon chip. Beta3 still consumes a lot of battery power but DOES NOT drop calls. A friend of mine told me that a new SIM Technology is being used to ONLY ID iPhone sims and handle radio signals so when it is being handed over from tower to tower there will be an overlap so that a drop will almost be eliminated. Lets see how true that is

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Funny it worked.....the last time!!Now I am not sure what was working before they put a hole in my head!!!!

Are you saying that at some point in the future we're going to see some sort of recall of the 3G iPhone so Apple can replace the Infineon chips?

If so, I might be inclined to cancel my contract and just re-up when chips are replaced (or when new chips are put in new iPhones).

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

I wouldn't hold your breath. A chip replacement recall would be a last resort for them. It wouldn't surprise me if they offered some kind of relief on the next model of iPhone for those of us that have the 3G.

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It's working for me, there must not be anything wrong!

I hear you, and I'm not holding my breath. However, I seriously dobut Apple will offer any kind of relief on the next model of iPhone. They'll just try figure on selling another several million of the newer iPhones.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

I can't believe I'm already on Day 17. I have less than 2 weeks to make a final decision.

Yes, I'm leaning toward keeping the iPhone, but I am frustrated that it looks like I'll need to keep 3G off to get better reception and battery life; plus, the reception definitely is not as good as what I'm used to and I swore I would never change carriers just so I could get a cooler device. I probably can get used to charging the battery every night, and I've gotten used to not having Voice Command (but still very much miss it).

In any event, on to today's report:

8:01 a.m.--My wife's iPhone is fully charged so unplug it and reset the usage stats. I confirm that Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G are still off.

8:30 a.m. (appx.)--I peak at my iPhone, I have roughly 50% battery life remianing.

8:50 a.m.--I am at Northern and SR 51. I want to test reception at my office again so I call my legal assistant and talk to her for the next 6 minutes. The call holds solid even when I park my car, walk into the building, walk up 2 flights of stairs, and go into my office. Geez, if only AT&T would do better with 3G (or if Apple would fix the iPhone's 3G radio).

1:00 p.m.--I just ran out of the office to pick up some lunch and am back in the office. On the way back, I called my wife. The lunch place was about 2 blocks due north of my office so I didn't travel far, but I did drive. The good news is that once again, the call held solid, not only when I got to my parking spot but also when I entered the building and walked up the stairs to my office. More and more it seems as though the 3G coverage here is just inferior to EDGE.

10:12 p.m.--Made a couple of more calls today, and all held solid. In terms of battery life, it looks like I only have about 20-25% left, but I haven't had the 20% battery warning pop up yet. Stats are as follows:

• Usage since last full charge 5 hours, 31 minutes
• Standby since last full charge 1 day, 14 hours
• Call time current period 1 hour, 36 minutes
• Lifetime call time 13 hours, 57 minutes
• Data sent 680KB
• Data received 2.9MB

I'm hoping the iPhone lasts all night. I figure, though, that by the morning, I'll need to charge it. In the meantime, my i760 is showing more than 50% battery remaining (I estimate roughly 60% remaining). Although I haven't used my i760 for anything, it is receiving all my e-mails via push. I still think that if I had made 1 hour and 36 minutes of calls on my i760, I would have more than 20% of my battery on the i760 left. Hmmm, if the iPhone hasn't died in the morning, maybe I'll try to make an hour and a half phone call on the i760 and see what happens to the battery life. That might be a pretty close comparison.

EDIT (8/16/08 @ 9:44 a.m.): Total e-mail count for yesterday is only 33 e-mails received. Slow day, I guess.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

My Day 16 (August 14) report is completed and can be found here. In it, I summarize what a friend of mine who lives in Chicago and has an original iPhone told me about his experience. He travels throughout the country and told me that Phoenix is the only city that gives him reception problems.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

I think you cross-pasted your link.

Thanks. That's very weird. Almost like I cut and past from two different sources.

I've fixed the link in my post #155 above. I'd appreciate it if one of the mods would edit onlydarksets post #156 to remove the quote. Thanks.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Done.




.

Thanks. I greatly appreciate it!

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

The Day 17 report is now complete. No surprises. With 3G turned off, I am getting noticeably better reception and bettery battery life.

__________________
-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)