In the penultimate para, how did you work with the retina display ‘off’?

Fundamental question. Why would anyone want to watch a special-effects blockbuster like the new “Star Trek” on a dinky, low-res screen? Ok. Ok. It was just a test of battery life vs. network speed. But really, you have no business staring at the aforementioned dinky, low-res screen for any length of time for any reason. The American Ophthalmological Society is reporting widespread eyestrain from “smartphone” users who use them for anything more than brief looks at an email, text message, or web site. We can expect the same eyestrain from the non-cutting-edge iPad (VGA resolution!) when it is used as a — say, e-book reader — because VGA has been causing significant eyestrain since it was introduced way back in 1987 [I think?]. And while we are on the subject of the mass hysteria that causes people to buy overpriced Apple products (the $39 SanDisk sana clipit” MP3 player by actual CNET tests with an audio analyzer sounds better than any iPod, Zune, or Walkman), the de-facto standard for gain-leveling MP3s, MP3Gain, sets them at a default 89 dB. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Ear doctors are reporting widespread, lead-guitarist, wall-of-Marshalls, hearing loss among kids who go around all day with iPod eargbuds (how do they keep those hard-plastic thingies in their ears?) in their ears and their MP3 players set on blast. By all means run MP3Gain to gain-level all your MP3s but do yourself a favor and set it to the recommended 82 dB. Eh? What’s that? Could you repeat that? Huh?

Interesting article. I have been a 10yr plus Verizon customer, but when I moved to Austin 2yrs ago I decided to go for the iPhone 3GS on AT&T. Needles to say the phone and applications available blew away what Verizon phone I had 2 yrs ago. For those trying to decide which carrier to go with there are 2 major considerations when using the iPhone. 1st. If your primary use of the phone is to make phone calls then stay as far as you can from AT&T. I drop calls all the time. I am a sales guy and travel throughout the U.S and AT&T is bad. They do not have enough towers to compete with Verizon. That being said I am not rushing back to Verizon either. There is 1 key feature AT&T has that Verizon does not. That is talk on the phone and text at the same time. I find myself using this feature all the time. I’ll be on the phone and get another call and instead of putting the person on hold and taking the second call. I just send them a text that I am on the phone and will call later or text me with what you want. Turns out to be a great capability that Verizon lacks. My contract is up in a few months so let’s see if Verizon can add this ability or AT&T can add towers.

-chuckp

I have, however, wanted an iPhone for some time. My experience with AT&T customer service has ALWAYS been horrid and their price point ridiculous. My first provider, however, was Verizon and I left them specifically because they did not honor their service contract. i have been with T-Mobile now for 10 years and have stayed because their customer service, both in the stores, online and by phone has always been outstanding, even if their product offering was weak.

I am considering a return to Verizon so I’d like your honest opinion of how there customer service has been, as well as the price point compared to AT&T.