[Touch HD General] Boinng:
The problem is, you continue to see this as a black and white issue. You had "no service" therefore there's a 3G fault. I don't have the same, therefore I'm a fanboy. If I point out the vast bulk of reports you're linking to (including the meter readings in your latest point) come from before the 2.1 software release which fixed most of these issues, then I'm even more of a fanboy apparently. Apparently the most scientific and unbiased approach is to ignore that update ever happened, ignore any and all positive reports, and just dig up more evidence from July and August of this year. I struggle slightly with the validity of that approach.

Your logic seems to be that because some people reported a problem, there's definitely a bug - and anyone who doesn't experience the same is simply lucky. That might be valid, but let's apply that to the Touch HD, just on the strength of this forum - you immediately discover you that the Touch HD has very poor wifi reception, constant hangs, laggy GPS, laggy call answering, slow browsing, poor battery life, rubbish video, and needs hard resetting several times a week. Just because some people don't experience all those issues doesn't mean they're not real and likely to affect any Touch HD customer, right? Still looking forward to getting yours?

What you've done there, perhaps unknowningly, is equate a band of paid call centre goons, who are employed for the express purpose of lying to you and taking your money, with a few posters on this forum who are just trying to give you their real world experience with the iPhone. Do you see the problem there? As much as you might want to believe otherwise, I'm not an Apple employee, I'm just a shmoe like you who's giving their honest opinion on the matter, for no other reason than it's what I know to be true. You're telling everyone on this forum that if you buy an iPhone you'll have signal problems, I'm here to tell everyone that I bought an iPhone and have no signal problems. It's as simple as that. No hidden agendas, no profiteering, no deliberate denial of anything.

I've already countered the vast bulk of those claims - the whole base of your "mountain" - with the simple fact that they predate a software update designed to improve signal and call performance. That update was released on September 12th - after the post you quoted in full. It's interesting that the poster of that quote never posted again on the signal issue after August 23rd (but was still posting on other subjects in November).

Am I going to waste my time digging out positive posts for you to knock down? No, of course not. You've already found plenty yourself, in some of the very threads you've posted here, and simply ignored them. If you were interested in reading them, you would; you don't need me to point them out.

That's just such a weird argument, and it only seems to come out in regard to the iPhone. When I was considering buying the Tytn II last year and looking at the hard keyboard built into that, did I declare "Who is Peter Chou to tell me he knows what I prefer"? No, of course not, that would make me a moron. I chose the Tytn II because I liked its keyboard, I didn't choose other phones because I didn't, and then this year I chose the iPhone - Steve Jobs didn't tell me to buy it, I chose it - partly on the strength of its keyboard. In a phone with only three buttons, software keyboard is every bit as important as any element of the hardware design, and that's the way I approached it. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have bought it, but I wouldn't have a personal grudge against Jobs for it either way.

Even you have to admit, the number one reason for the wide choice of add-on keyboards in WM, is the simple fact that the built in Microsoft one is completely awful, and a total waste of space in any ROM. Apple took care to actually integrate an excellent software keyboard from the get go - and they really integrated it completely into the UI, allowing developers to call up context sensitive versions in their own apps - so no, it's not so easily replaced and neither is their the same demand for a replacement, at least amongst those that have used it.

Some people jailbreak, in the same way that some people use HardSPLs and the like to flash new ROMS - it's probably a similar proportion of the respective userbases too. For many others, they expect their devices to simply work for them, and that's where Apple's approach over details like the keyboard and UI win out.

I can't help pointing out that you knew about the navigation from the very start (I told you, for one). The battery is equally obvious, although your dismissal of the idea of an in-case battery extender seemed odd to me, given that it's no less practical than a pocketful of spare batteries. Office software is not as clear cut as you think, I have a very workable spreadsheet app on my iPhone already, and more is sure to come (Quickoffice early next year, for starters).

Has anyone here chosen the iPhone based on its look, or is that an assumption of yours? I think it's probably the latter. The look certainly helps, but as many have told you, there is much more to the device than fashion.

You're ignoring that the iPhone has that transflective, capacitance screen - which means that in full sunlight (as on your golf course) it's far more readable than the HD even on the lowest brightness. While the HD must be on full brightness to counteract the sun, the iPhone's screen gets at least some of its brightness from the sun. But don't let fact get in the way of the all important golf test...

Apple built the accelerometer into the whole interface and allowed it to be used in entirely new ways - I can fly a flight sim using only that accelerometer for the controls, that's innovation.

Incidentally, isn't it fair to say that the Athena was released around the same time as the original iPhone? Didn't exactly have a massive lead, did it?

This is just descending into nonsense. Apple didn't innovate because they didn't invent radio or television? What?

Apple took the traditional smartphone and turned it on its head - that's a fact, and one which HTC and the like are still trying to deal with.