<p>Congrats matt. Which remind me… does anyone know when the career services salary surveys are released? To me it seems that they are just delaying them for this past year because of the mess…</p>
<p>I think around Halloween every year. I doubt they’ll delay this year’s, but it’s one of those things that just always takes a long time - they basically collect data up until october (~6mo after graduation)</p>
<p>I’d vote for an iPhone. It can connect to the Wharton Exchange network just like a Blackberry (replete with instant push emails and all that). If you type in multiple languages the software keyboard helps…it takes some getting used to but now I prefer it over a physical tiny BB keyboard…I can type faster because it corrects my errors and I don’t need to press a button so I can just lightly tap-tap-tap-tap it. And when I’m not using the keyboard it goes away and leaves me with a big beautiful screen (I take it to the gym and watch videos on it while I use the exercise bike)</p>
<p>And of course there are the apps…65,000 of 'em (several thousand of which are worthless, but that still leaves tens of thousands of fun and useful apps…)</p>
<p>I believe AirPennNet has authentication problems with some BlackBerry models…at least that is the feedback I’ve gotten from the Penn IT department’s SIG (smartphone interest group) listserv.</p>
<p>You will be fine with either one. I’ve had a lot more friends switching from BB to iPhone than the other way around (but even those are comparatively rare…once people pick BB or iPhone they rarely seem to venture to another platform…sorry Palm!)</p>
<p>Arent smartphones from other brands such as Nokia and the likes popular? I think a good nokia phone can beat the functionality of an I phone or blackberry any day.</p>
<p>no, nokia in general isn’t that popular in the united states anymore</p>
<p>you may see some palm pre and htc touch units, but iphones / bbs are overwhelmingly dominant</p>
<p>I think samsungs are still popular. Like the blackjack, the blackjack, instinct and the omnia. Not totally sure…</p>
<p>But yes iphones and blackberries are the crave nowadays. It’s actually quite amazing how a couple years back, smart phones weren’t really popular, but now they are…</p>
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<p>Hardware-wise, no doubt. Nokia has more experience engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing mobile phone hardware than Apple, RIM and Palm combined. The N97, hardware-wise, beats the pants off all of them.</p>
<p>The Nokia falls short in SOFTWARE…Nokia’s Symbian is dated and totally not optimized for touch the way the Pre and iPhone are.</p>
<p>An N97 with iPhone OS or webOS would be a dream come true!</p>
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<p>^^ I didn’t quite understand what you meant there?</p>
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<p>That’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>Blackberry > alll</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter…just get a phone with e-mail</p>
<p>When I say not optimized for touch, I mean the OS (Symbian S60) was NOT designed from the ground up as a finger-based multi-touch operating system. There are only 2 operating systems that are: iPhone OS and Palm webOS (and it shows).</p>
<p>S60 was designed for conventional smartphones with a numeric keypad, d-pad navigation, and <em>no</em> touchscreen whatsoever. It was also designed on much more primitive, 2001-era hardware, with slower processors, less RAM, and no 2D composite graphics engines.</p>
<p>Like Windows Mobile, S60 feels dated because it IS dated. You can’t just bolt on a touch screen (well you can, and that’s what Nokia did, with predictably bad results). A finger is different from a stylus (one must incorporate the possibility of multitouch, of gestures (swiping, scrolling, pinch-zoom, and of course the fact that the interface needs to be redesigned for larger buttons as a finger is fatter than a stylus). Even MORE different is the non-touch d-pad navigation for which S60 was designed.</p>
<p>Nokia could easily stop its hemorrhage of smartphone market share if it would adopt Google’s Android, as that is a wonderful OS and Nokia still makes the best hardware out there. But it’s never going to happen thanks to Nokia’s own stubbornness.</p>
<p>I was thinking of buying a Nokia E63. It seems to have a decent feature set with all the benefits that come with an unlocked phone, and I could probably use an upgrade for my current phone (a basic call/text phone that’s comes free with a contract). Would you say it’s worth the cost?</p>
<p>If you’re looking at the E63 I’d take a look at the E71. It can be subsidized through AT&T and has a much higher quality look and feel about it (it is also like half as thick as an E63). It will be more durable and hold up better over time.</p>
<p>If you have an itouch, or get one free with the purchase of a mac, you can get on Penn’s wi-fi network and have internet access at all times while on campus (and wherever free wifi, or the occasionally purchased wifi is available). This might be a better option in terms of saving money on a data plan. It means you need to carry your itouch and cell phone with you all the time, but it might be worth it.</p>
<p>does penn have wireless internet everywhere on campus? so if i get an itouch, it’ll be basically the same thing as an iphone without the phone part then and i’ll save myself the $30 a month. sounds like a pretty good deal to me</p>
<p>There technically is AirPennNet everywhere on campus. However, that doesn’t mean it works everywhere on campus. I’ve been lucky that I’ve almost always had AT&T service wherever I go on campus.</p>
<p>Fair point Venkat, but are a few dry spots worth 30 a month? (This is a question each person can answer for herself. 'Tis neither rhetorical nor meant to be answered publicly.)</p>
<p>if u get email on yr phone, will it work pretty much everywhere?</p>
<p>Unless AirPennNet has considerably improved its reliability and campus coverage since I left, it might be worth it to get the iPhone as there are a lot of places where AT&T consistently works and AirPennNet doesn’t.</p>
<p>That being said, an iPod touch is almost as sexy, thinner, and free (when you buy a Mac, anyway…)</p>
<p>The concept of carrying around an iPod touch instead of a phone for email access has certainly been tried by many Penn students. It’s a pretty decent way to go about it, as most classrooms have sufficient wifi coverage, but there are certain places where you’d like to have access, like standing in line at a food cart or at wawa, or while walking to/from class.</p>