from semi-smart phone to smart phone -- my two-year experience with AT&T

My current cellphone is an LG Vu from AT&T. I bought it at year 2008, just before the first iphone was shipped. I am quite happy with this phone -- it has all necessary functions I need (bluetooth, internet browsing, big screen, friendly user interface, etc). But after two years, the battery deteriorates a lot and I have to charge it almost every two days. Last week I decided that it was time to get a new phone, so I ordered a SonyEricsson Xperia X10. This is a very powerful Android phone.

A lot of things happened in the last two years, especially in the IT industry. From LG Vu phone to Xperia Android phone, I clearly see the changes. Two of them are especially interesting:

1. My old LG phone has an application called “AT&T Mall”. You can browse and buy music, pictures, games and applications from AT&T through it. Sounds familiar? It is very similar with Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android market. But it did not get success as big as those two. In my new Xperia Android phone, this “AT&T Mall” is gone and now it is Android market.

2. My old LG phone has an application called “MySpace Mobile”, which allows you to access your MySpace account easily. Remember MySpace? Now everybody is talking about Facebook. Accordingly, I can not find MySpace application in our Xperia X10 now (of course, you should be able to install a MySpace application through Android market). Instead, Xperia has a Facebook application supporting your addiction to Facebook.

What do those tell us? A good idea does not necessarily lead to good business, and the roaring wave of internet business is so unpredictable.

I’ll post a review on my Xperia phone when I get more experience with it. So, stay tuned :-)

What is the difference between Nexus One and Droid?

Today, Google introduced Nexus One, which generated a lot of excitement. I like to see the competition in smart phone market, which speeds up smart phone innovation and benefits consumers.

On October 30, 2009, Verizon released Droid. There is still a lot of commercial to promote Droid, even when I watched NFL game this past weekend. Droid is probably the most discussed Android OS-based cell phone before the release of Nexus One and is still hot in the market. Thus it is natural to ask what is the difference between between Droid and the newly released Nexus One. Here is some difference.

1) Branding: Nexus One is designed by Google directly (manufactured by HTC); Droid is designed by Motorola.

2) CPU: Nexus One uses 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; Droid uses Texas Instruments' TI OMAP 3430 processor, which runs at 600MHz .

3) Keyboard and Trackball: Nexus One does not have physical keyboard. It has touch-screen soft keyboard; Droid has one physical slide-out keyboard and touch-screen soft keyboard. Nexus One has a trackball; Droid does not. Instead Droid has panel to move around.

5) Software: Nexus One runs on Android 2.1 version; Droid runs on 2.0.1 version. There are some difference, but not significant. Both OSes can be upgraded continuously.

6) Carrier: Nexus One is unlocked. You can use whatever network you like. Currently it has only GSM version. So it can be run on T-mobile or ATT network. A CDMA version Nexus One will be released this spring, which can be run on Verizon and Sprint network; Droid is the locked phone and is exclusively run on Verizon network.

It is exciting to see the release of Nexus One. It's interesting to see how consumers react to Nexus One. Overall, I think 2010 is the key year for Android-base cell phone.

BTW, if you want to buy Nexus One, you can buy from Google website directly.

AT&T poor signal in bay area

Verizon is believed by most people to have the best quality of wireless signal. I and all of my friends thinks so. AT&T had the largest wireless user base for a period of time. AT&T sometimes also claims that it has the best quality of wireless signal, none of my friends (in New York, Boston, Seattle, Illinois, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles. etc) believe this.

Because of the flood of iphone users, AT&T wireless network is overwhelmed since 2007, especially in New York and San Fransisco. There are many dropped calls. AT&T even urges iphone users to use less data.

But the poor quality of AT&T is not a new problem because of iphone, at least in the bay area. Even T-mobile has a much better signal than AT&T in the bay area, although T-mobile signal bothered me a lot when I lived in Winchester county, NY and Seattle. T-mobile has a very good signal at my office, my wife's office, and my home while AT&T has a poor signal in all of these places.

For people who do not use phone a lot in bay area, I recommend T-mobile prepaid phone. Using 35% Bing Cashback, you can talk 1000 anytime minutes by spending only $65. It is much more flexible and cost-effective than to sign a two-year contract.

How long does it take to cancel an ATT cell phone plan? (22.41 minutes)

Today, I canceled my ATT cell phone plan. I have used it for 2.5 years. Overall the quality of service is pretty good. I made a cancellation call, which is the only way to cancel a plan, as far as I know. It took me 22.41 minutes to complete the call.

As always, I first receive automatic voice, make some number selections, talk with one representative, get transferred to another representative, wait for advertisement message, and finally get cancellation done. You need to say your names three times. Even that, I feel that my cancellation call went pretty smoothly. So if you want to cancel a phone plan, reserve 30 minutes for the call.

I wish I could cancel it on ATT website directly. ATT could save some customer service cost anyway .