Inspired by LeBron James, my buddy Peter agreed to interview me about the question everyone in America has been waiting for. Will Bill choose the iPhone 4 and AT&T or make the jump to Verizon and get the HTC Incredible? Here is a transcript of the interview.

Peter: Bill, this has been a long process for you. What was it like?
Bill: Well Peter, I won’t lie to you; its been arduous. My family, the media, camera crews day and night – its been a nightmare.

Peter: What is motivating you to look at different options after two solid years with iPhone and AT&T? Is it a question of loyalty?
Bill: In part, yes. AT&T has continually refused to take sufficient responsibility for the number of dropped calls I have to deal with and as a paying customer, it seems like if you are in a contract with them, you give up all your rights.

Peter: That said, why is there even a decision to be made? Why not just take your talents elsewhere?
Bill: The phone is the thing. iPhone is the best device from syncing, to apps to functionality. I really don’t believe there is a better smartphone on the market.

Peter: What was the determining factor in making the decision?
Bill: Ultimately, it came down to rollover minutes.

Peter: Well, before I ask you the big question, I have one more; who butchered your hair?
Bill: I cannot say, as it is a legal matter. Suffice as to say that I won’t be going back. Unless I have a coupon.

Peter: OK, I’ve stalled long enough. What is your decision? What phone are you going to choose for the next two years?
Bill: I’m going to keep giving my money to Apple and AT&T.

Peter: There you have it America. We have a winner. Even though AT&T continues to give its users the shaft, they’ll stay in business because Apple refuses to give up their exclusivity contract.

Based on this NY Times article, there have been over 600,000 orders for the new iPhone on the first day it was offered.
Go read that again.
That is a lot of phones. They have pushed back the delivery date into mid-July instead of June 24 as previously planned. Apple always claims that whatever they put out will “change everything.” In this case, I think they are sort of right. If you haven’t yet watched the video for the new phone, here it is:
iPhone 4

For me, the new OS upgrades including multitasking, single email inbox and organization of apps are what sell it. Also, the hope that the apps I use for work will run a bit better and faster. From a geek perspective, the face time feature looks incredible. I wish it ran over mobile broadband and that there was an application that would allow you to connect with users other than iPhone users on a WiFi hotspot.

Either way, while I am still mulling over my choices, the new phone may just keep me with AT&T – two year commitment and all.

If you read the tea leaves and ANY tech blog or website, it seems that Apple will probably announce and release some version of a tablet this year. My question is; Why?

While a 10″ iPhone/MacBook SOUNDS cool, who would use it other than gadget freaks? We’re talking about a device that could run iPhone Apps, surf the web, have a touch sensitive screen and could be a replacement for the Kindle or your portable DVD player.
Ok, it sounds like I’m talking myself into it.

First, they already have the MacBook Air; basically a very powerful netbook. If the Air isn’t ultra-portable, I don’t know what is. And yet, you still need to carry it in a bag. The beauty of the iPhone is that it fits in your pocket. The iSlate or whatever they decide to call it will need a bag of some sort, be it your purse or man bag. Even with the newest Pine Trail processor from Intel, the device won’t be much of a business tool, will it?

One of the biggest markets for tablet based PC’s is the medical profession where EMR and EHR systems integrate with tablets to allow medical providers to markup charts and bubble sheets as they work with a patient. All of the Practice Management, EMR and EHR programs I am familiar with require Windows to run. Unless this new tablet from Apple allows you to run Boot Camp, it won’t get much penetration into that market, and even if it did allow you to run Windows on a partition, the software providers probably wouldn’t support it. Add to that the fact that you would lose the functionality that you presumably bought the gadget for and it seems a pointless exercise.

The form factor itself is not without precedent. Remember the Microsoft Origami? There was so much talk at the time about it changing the mobile computing world and it failed miserably.

It looks to me like it will be a device for gadget hounds and folks with too much money. I’m probably wrong. At least all the die hard Apple geeks will buy it and that will probably make it successful enough to keep around for a few years.

Your Thoughts?

So for the last couple of days, my phone has been acting up. This has happened once before. Basically, the phone part of the phone stops functioning. I can’t receive or make calls, voice mail is screwed up and I don’t get texts.
Today, performed a restore of the phone and it didn’t do a darn thing.
SO . . . . I made an appointment at the Apple Store Genius Bar. I took the phone in, told them what I had tried and they did some diagnostics. The diagnostics turned up bubkus. They replace the phone anyway.
Thank goodness for Apple Care.
Now, my phone is happy again and so am I. It really affects my bottom line as a business owner when the cel phone quits working.

Has anyone else needed to get a replacement iPhone?

As previously posted, Microsoft doesn’t allow direct upgrades from XP to Windows 7. Dell also cannot sell you a PC with XP without also selling you Windows 7. Many version incompatibilities exist between different versions of Microsoft software. It seems that whenever MS decides to “innovate”, they leave someone or something out.

Google, on the other hand, makes their money from advertising. This frees them up to create all manner of products and services that actually deliver usability. It also frees them up to use the “group think” mentality of open source to increase the stability and usefulness of their products.

I just read a piece about the new Google Chrome OS and it will no doubt, be a work in progress. That said, it has a limited scope; phones, netbooks and other ultra-mobile devices. In the post, they openly state that they will need help from developers to make it work.

Contrast that to the Microsoft issues listed above and the secrecy and closed system that Apple has. I am seriously thinking about the new Nexus One phone from Google. If I can get that phone with Verizon service, I just may get out from under the iPhone and AT&T.

Google Nexus One

Since it is only $29 to upgrade, you might be saying, Why Not?

My friend Lynn is having problems with her printer. I am going to go look at it tomorrow, but in the mean time, I say, keep your shirt on.

No matter the the operating system, always wait for the first update from the manufacturer before buying. While a new version of Quick Time, 64 bit support and better performance all sound great, do you really want to pay to be a beta tester? Me neither.

Wait for the first OS X 10.6 update before upgrading.

Over at the iPhone page on Apple’s website you can view all the new specs on the new Apple iPhone 3G S. I don’t know what the S stands for, but maybe “supercool” works as well as anything. Autofocus camera, video recording and editing, cut, copy, paste, this phone is now loaded for bear. They boast that it is twice as fast as the current 3G and has a longer battery life. The phone will be available June 19.

For the current iPhone users, the new update for OS3 will arrive via iTunes on June 17.

So far, the coolest part of all of this is that the iPhone 3G will be starting at $99. That’s $100 less than the current price.
Here is a comparison of the two phones.