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Apple is always a step behind the competition in technology...look at how long it took them...just to put a video camera on the phone....still no true multi-tasking.

They win hand down on design

The iPhone has had a camera since day one. You must be thinking about the iPad or iPod Touch.
 
I don't have that feeling.

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God, that AT&T map is such a huge misrepresentation. I live in a "4G" area (which I believe is just enhanced 3G), and I get no where close to 7 Mbps as it says. I usually get around 2-3 Mbps. It's actually sufficient for me at the moment, so not exactly wanting LTE.

I do have a feeling though, that if iPhone 5 does end up getting LTE, AT&T will go about its regular BS and force everyone buying an iPhone 5 to upgrade to a tiered LTE/3G plan to get people off of unlimited 3G plans. So that's another reason I wouldn't want an LTE iPhone.
 
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If 3g speeds are decent, there will be virtually no difference between 3g/4g webpage loading as it's limited by the phone's slow processor.

That was valid about ten years ago when we had slower processors, but nowadays network latency often plays a bigger role.

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An argument for it having LTE is that Verizon has more LTE coverage by population right now than ATT had 3G coverage when the iPhone 3G came out.

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An argument against it having LTE is that many people think Apple will put out a dual mode CDMA + GSM phone so they can make one phone for all.

A counterargument to the above, is that Apple already makes at least two versions for GSM and CDMA, and another for China is on the way. So there's nothing preventing them from doing a CDMA+LTE phone for Verizon, and perhaps a GSM+LTE phone as well.
 
I do have a feeling though, that if iPhone 5 does end up getting LTE, AT&T will go about doing its regular BS and force everyone buying an iPhone 5 to upgrade to a tiered LTE/3G plan to get people off of unlimited. So that's another reason I wouldn't want an LTE iPhone.

I don't think Att needs to have an LTE iPhone to tempt you to get off your unlimited data...

... Att will already kill off unlimited starting Oct 1st.

Either you have:
- "unlimited" for $30 and are throttled at 2gb
- tiered data for $25 for 2gb

No real reason to stay on unlimited anymore past Oct 1st :(
 
I don't think Att needs to have an LTE iPhone to tempt you to get off your unlimited data...

... Att will already kill off unlimited starting Oct 1st.

Either you have:
- "unlimited" for $30 and are throttled at 2gb
- tiered data for $25 for 2gb

No real reason to stay on unlimited anymore past Oct 1st :(

When they say top 5% of users I honestly doubt they would include the tier-priced plans. I'm also guessing a softcap limit would be around 5GB.
 
I don't think Att needs to have an LTE iPhone to tempt you to get off your unlimited data...

... Att will already kill off unlimited starting Oct 1st.

Either you have:
- "unlimited" for $30 and are throttled at 2gb
- tiered data for $25 for 2gb

No real reason to stay on unlimited anymore past Oct 1st :(

Yeah I heard about the throttling as well. But I'm still trying to find out when they will actually throttle your usage. A forum on here says that he got a "data abuser" text from AT&T, and he uses 11GB per month. I use about 3-4GB or so per month, sometimes 5GB per month. But I haven't gotten any such text yet, so I can only hope that they won't start throttling at 2GB. If they start throttling at 2GB, then I'd still keep my unlimited because I'd rather go with slow internet than having to pay ridiculously extra prices for overages.

But what I originally meant was that, for those of us grandfathered into unlimited plans (like myself), AT&T will pull some BS and say that if you want an LTE capable iPhone, you have to switch to a new capped LTE/3G iPhone plan. As opposed to a non-LTE iPhone 5, where I can keep my $30/unlimited 3G data plan even after upgrading.

And if AT&T is low enough to say that I can't keep unlimited 3G data plan after upgrading to iPhone 5, then hello Sprint. :)
 
When they say top 5% of users I honestly doubt they would include the tier-priced plans. I'm also guessing a softcap limit would be around 5GB.

I don't think they will throttle the tiered plans either because they want the $10/gb overage charge.

As for the Att "unlimited data" softcap it will be 2gb before throttling GUARANTEED... Verizon just did the same to their users (making unlimited data worthless). That's also a reason why T-mobile started throttling after 2gb since they are going to be bought by Att and want their customers to be in compliance when the transfer occurs.

If anything its better to be on a tiered data plan because if you need more data at least you could pay for more data at fast speeds after 2gb. With "unlimited" your slowed to a crawl after 2gb and are completely stuck for the rest of the month :(
 
I don't think they will throttle the tiered plans either because they want the $10/gb overage charge.

As for the Att "unlimited data" softcap it will be 2gb before throttling GUARANTEED... Verizon just did the same to their users (making unlimited data worthless). That's also a reason why T-mobile started throttling after 2gb since they are going to be bought by Att and want their customers to be in compliance when the transfer occurs.

If anything its better to be on a tiered data plan because if you need more data at least you could pay for more data at fast speeds after 2gb. With "unlimited" your slowed to a crawl after 2gb and are completely stuck for the rest of the month :(

It's a double edged sword if the cap is at 2GB. While on a tiered plan you can retain the same speed, but for more money. On an unlimited plan you will be slowed down to Edge-similar speeds, but no overcharges. So actually you will SAVE $5 a month by staying on the unlimited plan in this scenario.
 
Although LTE and HSPA+ enhanced back-haul is quickly becoming the normal for smartphones I have enough reason to believe the iP5 will lack LTE connectivity. However HSPA+ is very possible in the iP5 for AT&T as HSPA+ and 3G use the same chip now.

well considering HSPA+ is just 3G that is not really surprising. They always have been on the same chip. HSPA+ is backwards compatible with HSPA.

Now the iPhone 5 on AT&T will be sold as "4g" because AT&T decided that HSPA+ is 4G (or as I call it fake G) Apple is not going to put LTE into the iPhone 5. Just look at the current LTE phones on the market. They are thicker than the 3G phones and LTE is a battery drainer. Both are things Apple will not accept. Look at Apple when they did not go with 3G in the first iPhone. Now the battery draining argument was weak and crap then but at least here it is valid case. If I was on Verizon I honestly would more than likely go with a Droid 3 right now for my phone of choice.
 
Take this with a grain of salt, I am just telling you what I heard.

I was at Verizon today and talking to a sales rep. I played kinda dumb like I normally do to avoid talking to them. He brought up the iPhone 5 and said that they would be getting it and it should be out in october. blah blah all stuff we know.

Anyway he said that they were told the iPhone would definitely not have 4G. He didn't seem to be lying about anything and said that no one knows the specs or anything about the iPhone and seemed rather unknowledgeable about iOS 5, which for the most part is commonly known.

He also knew I wasn't buying anything that day so he wasn't trying to talk me into a 4G droid. I told him I thought my next phone would be an iPhone. He used an iPhone 4 as his phone and said he loved it.

Like I said I am not guaranteeing this in any way as I know VZW reps are usually in the dark.

Another interesting tidbit that came up was that he said they don't have a 4G booster in the store, so some of the 4G signals might be bad. Curious some apple stores are getting 4G signal boosters while VZW stores don't have them yet.

Just food for thought...
 
Take this with a grain of salt, I am just telling you what I heard.

I was at Verizon today and talking to a sales rep. I played kinda dumb like I normally do to avoid talking to them. He brought up the iPhone 5 and said that they would be getting it and it should be out in october. blah blah all stuff we know.

Anyway he said that they were told the iPhone would definitely not have 4G. He didn't seem to be lying about anything and said that no one knows the specs or anything about the iPhone and seemed rather unknowledgeable about iOS 5, which for the most part is commonly known.

He also knew I wasn't buying anything that day so he wasn't trying to talk me into a 4G droid. I told him I thought my next phone would be an iPhone. He used an iPhone 4 as his phone and said he loved it.

Like I said I am not guaranteeing this in any way as I know VZW reps are usually in the dark.

Another interesting tidbit that came up was that he said they don't have a 4G booster in the store, so some of the 4G signals might be bad. Curious some apple stores are getting 4G signal boosters while VZW stores don't have them yet.

Just food for thought...

I'm taking this with a grain of salt yet I still had to yell mentally that he[The sales rep] knows nothing.
 
No offense to anyone, but in my experience sales employees are useless anyway. When I bought the iPad 2 on September 1 one employee came up to me asking if I was interested in it, I said yes and I also played dumb. So he started going on about specs and said that front-facing camera is 3.2MP and the back is 5MP :eek::eek:
 
I'm taking this with a grain of salt yet I still had to yell mentally that he[The sales rep] knows nothing.

Agreed on the sales rep not knowing jack ****! :p

If anything I would look at what he is telling you to see if there is a sales incentive to it for him.

So if he tells you that the iPhone 5 will have LTE then that means you will wait to get it = lost sale for him

But... if he tells you its going to be without LTE you might be more inclined to purchase right then and say "F it if it doesn't have LTE I'll just get the iPhone 4 right now" = sale for him

I don't trust sales reps as far as I can throw em'
 
Not to mention the ridiculous LTE data cap plans, where even if you WERE getting max LTE speed you could literally hit your monthly data cap in under an hour.

So if you get your information faster, you use more of it? Like if you drove to Chicago at 100 mph you would drive more miles than if you went 60 mph? You lost me somewhere.

Think!

Here's the deal...little doubt that LTE will be baseline connectivity in two years. So you sign up for a new two year contract now on a non LTE device and you are stuck paying a penalty to terminate that contract and get an LTE phone. BUT wait, it's worse than that. At least on ATT, and probably everybody, you can't walk in and pay the penalty to terminate the contract. The only way to get the termination is to switch carriers. So you just switch carriers, port your number, and inside the return period (14 days?) return the new phone and go back to the old carrier with no contract and get an up-to-date phone? No, if you return in less than 30 days your old contract is still used...you do get the termination fee back...but you still have a phone with no LTE. You're stuck man....you keep your phone under your shirt so nobody knows how obsolete you are. Best to think before buying something that obsolete before you get the front door.

You need to get over thinking Apple is your new best friend. They are going to be behind the curve come Oct 4 (if they have no LTE) and you're going down that rat hole with them. I am not an Apple basher. I have Apple every darn thing and I like it all, but I think that's about to change. I hope not.
 
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Best solution that will never happen to address battery issues: put in LTE and make the battery swappable!

no..no..no.

I used a phone one with a swappable battery and got an extra battery to start with thinking this will be cool since I'll have doubt the battery life. However, the you have to carry around the extra battery all the time and then if you do swap batteries now when you get home you have two batteries you have to now charge up instead of one. Sounds nice in theory "unlimited battery life with swappable battereis" but the reality is quite a hassle. IIRC, in the end I wound up losing the extra battery some time when it wasn't in the phone. That is the same issue I have with the whole "with a microSD slot you have unlmited storage" - I don't want to carry around a bunch of microSD cards with me and if I did as small as they are there is a good chance of losing one if I have several with me for "unlimited storage".

Maybe I am strange but I don't want to have to carry around a bunch of extra stuff for my phone.

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On the topic of this thread, while I love my iPhone 4 and do enjoy the apple ecosystem (have ATV and Ipad 2 and they all play great together), if the iPhone 5 doesn't come out with 4G it will be tough to do another 2 year contract for a non-4G phone because by this time next year the amount of coverage for 4G is going to be much higher then now and just about all new phones will be 4G. I resisted buying the iPhone with it first came out mainly because of it being edge-only.

If there is no LTE on the iPhone 5, I may seriously take a look at the Nexus Prime which is supposed to be out around the same time as the new iPhone. What I may do is keep my iPhone 4 (personal unit) and see if I can get work to upgrade my blackberry to a nexus prime. I don't want to leave Apple, but no LTE with phones like the Nexus Prime right around the corner makes the choice very difficult.

The upcoming Apple keynote is going to be very interesting.
 
"Uh, you don't have to port out. You CAN buy phones without a subsidy."


Duh! I'd always have done that except for one little thing. The service plans include the cost of amortizing the subsidized portion of the phone. The subsidized value is 50-66% of the original phone cost. So just an example...if you pay $200 for an iPhone you will pay an additional $400 or so in amortization of the subsidy or about $18 a month. If you buy your phone, you still pay the same rate so you are paying for 50-66% of your phone that you already bought.

If the carriers gave me a cheaper rate for owning my phone, I'd jump on it, but I'm not going to buy it and then pay them for it again. Are you?
 
no..no..no.

I used a phone one with a swappable battery and got an extra battery to start with thinking this will be cool since I'll have doubt the battery life. However, the you have to carry around the extra battery all the time and then if you do swap batteries now when you get home you have two batteries you have to now charge up instead of one. Sounds nice in theory "unlimited battery life with swappable battereis" but the reality is quite a hassle. IIRC, in the end I wound up losing the extra battery some time when it wasn't in the phone. That is the same issue I have with the whole "with a microSD slot you have unlmited storage" - I don't want to carry around a bunch of microSD cards with me and if I did as small as they are there is a good chance of losing one if I have several with me for "unlimited storage".

Maybe I am strange but I don't want to have to carry around a bunch of extra stuff for my phone.

----------

On the topic of this thread, while I love my iPhone 4 and do enjoy the apple ecosystem (have ATV and Ipad 2 and they all play great together), if the iPhone 5 doesn't come out with 4G it will be tough to do another 2 year contract for a non-4G phone because by this time next year the amount of coverage for 4G is going to be much higher then now and just about all new phones will be 4G. I resisted buying the iPhone with it first came out mainly because of it being edge-only.

If there is no LTE on the iPhone 5, I may seriously take a look at the Nexus Prime which is supposed to be out around the same time as the new iPhone. What I may do is keep my iPhone 4 (personal unit) and see if I can get work to upgrade my blackberry to a nexus prime. I don't want to leave Apple, but no LTE with phones like the Nexus Prime right around the corner makes the choice very difficult.

The upcoming Apple keynote is going to be very interesting.

you don't have to carry around a spare: making it swappable just gives you the option.

And if you do get an extra, you are supposed to get an external charger too. Without it, there is almost no point: you are right, it is more of a hassle charing 2 batts.

With a charger, it's brilliant: swap whenever you are out of juice and go 100%.

you can't seriously complain about carrying an extra battery. these things are thinner than the phone and maybe 3x3 inches.
 
That was valid about ten years ago when we had slower processors, but nowadays network latency often plays a bigger role.

--

An argument for it having LTE is that Verizon has more LTE coverage by population right now than ATT had 3G coverage when the iPhone 3G came out.

--

An argument against it having LTE is that many people think Apple will put out a dual mode CDMA + GSM phone so they can make one phone for all.

A counterargument to the above, is that Apple already makes at least two versions for GSM and CDMA, and another for China is on the way. So there's nothing preventing them from doing a CDMA+LTE phone for Verizon, and perhaps a GSM+LTE phone as well.
A better argument is that the LTE chips are currently power hungry. Apple simply won't release an LTE iPhone until more power efficient chips come out.
 
Ggmissmolly, I meant that if I'm still paying off my most recent subsidy and haven't met my end of the bargain (carrier loses money up front on the phone, I pay them for nearly two years so they can recoup and profit) and I want a new phone, I can buy one without a subsidy.

I have never understood why some folks expect a subsidy whenever they feel like it.
 
you can't seriously complain about carrying an extra battery. these things are thinner than the phone and maybe 3x3 inches.

Sure I can. I don't like to carry around more stuff then I have to. In fact, that is why I bought an iPhone in the first place - I didn't want to carry around a phone AND an iPod. In fact, that is one of the big selling points of smartphones - that you can replace lots of devices with one. If I then have to turn around and carry extra batteries or extra microSD cards then that to me defeats the purpose.
 
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