MY REASONS FOR UPGRADING TO THE iPHONE 4

My social media pal Loukas Koufodontes (@Koufie) presented a good question to me via Twitter. He asked, “Carlton, did you find that you needed to upgrade to the iPhone 4? I can upgrade as well, but don’t know if it would benefit me.” I thought this was a great question, and an opportunity to summarize my answer in a blog post!

I currently own an Apple iPhone 3GS. It’s a great device, and I have had the best use out of it. I did manage to crack the screen, but I am in the process of fixing it. However, I broke the speaker prying the phone apart from the wrong seam. So that is unfixable. Great reason to get a new phone. There are several other reasons that motivated me to get the iPhone 4. instead of replacing my device with a cheaper 3GS. They are as follows:

HD Video

I have hosted a local access TV show in the past, and i am planning on kicking off the show again this fall. With the iPhone 4, I can shoot video in 720 HD. This means I can use my smart phone for shooting television show. I will be able to use the iPhone 4 instead of spending $500 to $600 on a new video camera that has HD capability (my current video camera is a Hi-8, not great for television quality).

The $4.99 Video Editing App

Not only do I love the HD video capability, but I will be able to edit videos right on the phone and upload them straight to social media sites. For five dollars, I can download a powerful app that will let me add titles, transitions, and even background music to my videos. Instead of relying solely on my desktop computer and video editing software, I’ll be able to upload a lot more quality content by using the iPhone 4 for short videos.

Camera Flash

I’ve been waiting for the camera flash for 2 years. I didn’t purchase a 3G iPhone due to lack of video capability and lack of a flash. I bought the 3GS for reasons that other features along with the video capability showed up, but I still missed the camera flash. With the new 5 megapixel camera (up from 3) and the addition of the camera flash, my picture taking will be a much higher quality. I would rather have this capability on my smart phone than to buy a separate camera.

Front-Facing Camera

This feature is beyond awesome! I could not wait to call my brother-in-law for my first “Face Time” conversation! It was everything I expected it to be. This is “Jetsons” technology that I have been waiting on for years on end. I am easily entertained, I’ll admit, but this is a feature that is well worth the cost of upgrading for.

The Flat Base

One of the biggest annoyances with the 3GS version of the iPhone for me was the irregular base. The back of the phone is curved. When you place the phone down on a table to text or write an email, it rocks and wiggles due to the curvy back. I had to put the phone in a hard case to solve that problem. It was either that, or hold the phone in one hand and text with the other. This causes the antenna problem to surface. Just as it is on the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS also drops signal when you touch the antenna that surrounds the phone. But with the new model, I can at least set the phone down on a table and type to my heart’s content.

Those are the biggest reasons why I felt it was worth spending another $200 to upgrade my phone after 1 year. What are your thoughts? Did you decide to upgrade, or wait it out and continue using your current device? Post your comments below!

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CABLE VERSUS DSL – WHICH FREEWAY IS FASTER?

Last week, I moved my family into our new home in Jefferson City. One of the first things that a tech geek like me had to do was decide on which high speed internet service provider would be the best choice in terms of price and bandwidth offered. My choices were Mediacom Cable Internet service and Century Link DSL service.

It was a tough decision, and I wish it were more clear-cut than it was. But after analyzing the pros and cons of both styles of broadband internet services, one company edged out the other.

In my previous house, my only option was a 1.5mb DSL service. It was horribly inadequate and rarely ran above 0.8mb in speed. But at my new home location, the fastest speed of DSL service was available. I could opt for 10mb service at $39 a month with one line, or even go for the new 20mb bonded line option at only $69 per month. Century Link’s main selling point was the fact that their broadband is not shared among a group of people in a neighborhood, as is the case with Mediacom’s cable internet service. The rated speed that is advertised is the speed you will get alone. This was a big plus. The only negative aspect I could see with the DSL option was the fact that 10mb could be approaching the limit of maximum future speed due to the smaller size of the phone lines which carry the signal.

Mediacom was offering a 12mb service bundled with extended cable for $59 per month, and $79 per month after the first year. This was an attractive price. But once again, the Internet is shared across a group of people in the neighborhood. With everyone using the Internet at the same time, speeds could be lowered depending on how much bandwidth was being downloaded. But the plus side of this was the fact that Mediacom’s highest rating was 2mb faster than the DSL package for one phone line, plus the company plans to raise the top speed to 15mb this fall at no additional charge.

This was a tough decision, but what tips the scale to the favor of the winner boils down to the greater upside potential of cable Internet access. Let’s face it… the “big fat wire” with the copper middle has more throughput potential than the thin telephone line. We are much closer to the maximum amount of data we can cram through existing infrastructure (all things being kept equal) for telephone lines than we are for cable wire.

Something else worth mentioning, the bandwidth speed draw down during peak times for a cable modem is not nearly as bad as what the phone company wants you to believe. As you can see from the picture above, my speed during a peak time today (around 7pm) was 8.3mb. At other times, I run at speeds 11 to 12mb. So clearly this is not a major issue.

I am absolutely excited to have my cable Internet access back again, and I will probably stick with it because it meets my needs. What are your main uses of your high speed Internet access, and which type of service do you subscribe to? What are the pros and cons that affected your decision, and how satisfied are you with the customer service you have received? Sound off below!

Carlton Flowers
Techno Geek

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