My next cell phone

I'm almost done with my contract with T-Mobile and my cell is about to break, so I've decided to get a new phone with possible a new carrier. You'd think I'd get an iPhone since I'm a typical Mac junkie but then again I've had mixed reviews in the mobile industry. Jared had given me his $.02 on the iPhone (shown below - the ones in bold are things that I have to agree with).

Here are some facts taken from reviews of the iPhone. Some are good,
some are bad (some VERY bad), and some are of the "take it as you
like" variety.

GOOD:
-On a PC, the iPhone syncs with Outlook for calendars and addresses.
-Battery life lives up to Apple's claims (almost).
-Said to be very scratch resistant.
-Probably the sexiest phone the reviewers have ever seen.
-High resolution screen.
-Svelte form factor.
-Sturdily constructed.
-Visual voicemail, web browser, email client, and iPod functions were
all a pleasure to use.

Not Bad, But Not Great:
-It supports Exchange in some way, but no specifics noted.
-PDF, Word, and Excel files (only) are readable, but not editable.
-Apple will be rolling out periodic updates.
-Users are prompted with lists of WiFi networks if you're not near a
trusted hotspot (potential annoyance, no doubt configurable).
-Voice quality is good, not great.
-The keyboard auto correction feature is tolerable, usable; a couple
reviewers agreed that the iPhone keyboard will not replace a
Blackberry (I've been saying this for a long time).

BAD:
-The iPhone's OS occupies 700MB of the device's capacity.
-No cut, copy, or paste functions.
-No A2DP support (Bluetooth stereo audio).
-Music cannot be used as ringtones (not even MP3) and no ringtones
will be sold at launch.
-No Adobe Flash support.
-No Java support.
-No embedded video support.
-No MMS (multimedia messaging/picture messaging).
-No flash or zoom for the camera.
-No IM chat.
-No 3rd party applications, only those made by Apple, or mini-apps
through the web browser.
-No slot for adding memory cards.
-Takes photos, but no video recording.
-Contact groups can't be emailed as contact lists.
-Contacts cannot be searched through, only scrolled through.
-After 300-400 charges, the battery will lose capacity, requiring you
to send the phone in to have the battery replaced for a fee.
-Some popular websites take 1-2 minutes to load over EDGE connections.
-Dialing a call can be tedious, sometimes taking as many as six steps.

I'm actually surprised at some of the things listed as bad. I would
have thought that many of these would be standard features, nay,
SHOULD be standard features on multimedia phones, and especially one
that costs $500-$600. I could get a PS3 for that kind of money.

A lot of people like it, and a lot of people will love it, but for a
tech-head like me who enjoys everything I have on my phone now,
looking at what the iPhone doesn't have confirms my suspicions that
it's not a device I would own.

However, there is one thing I do like about it, and that is the fact
that it is definitely "revolutionary." It does a lot of things so well
that other manufacturers will have no choice but to up their game.
Rather than see what iPhone will do, I'm interested to see what iPhone
will make its competitors do.

--Jared

Dentists

Okay so I haven't been to the dentist in... I dunno, over a year, until today.

Throughout my life I've had a few variety of dentists to check on me. My aunt in the Philippines was the earliest that I can recall. From her, I got a couple of fillings. Don't get me wrong I trust her, but I just don't trust the "methods." Maybe it's just that I kept thinking, this would be much more reliable if she had the "technology."

Then came the mainland dentist and that turned out to be okay. In Vanuatu, I had a French dentist... that's where my opinions started to change. The "wisdom-teeth-pulling" runs in my mother's side of the family. He suggested that they needed to be removed before we left the country as soon as possible. This never happened and since then, another checkup from the mainland confirmed that it never needed to be pulled out. What happened? Did my wisdom teeth miraculously come out fine? Or was it misdiagnosed? The aches did go away.

Now I'm in Hawaii, and the verdict is that my wisdom teeth are just fine the way they are. The checkup in general was good: minor cavities, two fillings needed (I think the old fillings deteriorated), and a mention of "evidence of teeth grinding." What the frak?! I never grind my teeth while I'm sleeping, unless my sig. other can vouch otherwise. There's no way I'm gonna wear a mouth guard like Gabe.

So you can see, I have a hard time with trusting dentists these days.