BaerConsulting LLC Blog

As computer technology evolves, so will cellular phone technology. Most of us can remember back in the old days of analog phones where the only screen you had was a small strip that gave you 6 bars indicating reception. It’s hard to believe we’ve come so far in 15-20 years. The cellular phone you have now is probably pretty close in specifications of the computer you had at the time of analog phones.

Processors and memory are getting smaller, thus, you end up with Smartphones. Blackberries, Windows Mobile devices, Palm OS, iPhone, etc. When thinking about purchasing one of these, one must take in to consideration the network that it will run on. You may have a computer that could rival NASA but is it really worth it if you have dialup? As a company, we’re partial to CDMA technology, primarily Verizon. There’s just something about GSM (T-mobile and AT&T) that just don’t work well for coverage, signal, and general performance of the network. Of course, that is dependent on where you will be primarily using the phone. If we rule out AT&T and T-mobile as options, you automatically rule out the G1 from Google and the iPhone from Apple (which rumor has it, Verizon will soon be getting an Apple phone but they cannot call it the iPhone for copyright reasons). Sprint is also one of those networks that just don’t work very well. That statement can be considered true mostly anywhere as we’ve never heard a good thing about Sprint. Their customer service is horrible, their network is unreliable, and their selection of phones is pretty bad. We’ve just ruled out the Palm Pre. Verizon’s selection is pretty nice and they do have some exclusive rights to some of the phones that are out now. The Blackberry Storm is a pretty decent phone if you’re in to the touch screen features and you’re willing to void your warranty with software updates that aren’t technically supposed to be out yet. They also have the new Blackberry Tour. They also have one of the best networks in the country. Our favorite by far.

When purchasing a new phone, you essentially can pick from 4 different options as far as operating systems go: Windows Mobile, Blackberry OS, Apple (which is based on OSX), and Palm OS. Out of these, we’d have to say it’s a toss up between Blackberry OS and Apple for the best of the best. Blackberry OS does tend to get bogged down and glitch here and there, but doesn’t ever seem to crash, while Apple has the opposite problem, it runs well, but has a tendency to crash from time to time. Windows Mobile has a lot of flaws particularly when it comes to speed. It seems a bit too bulky for the hardware it’s running on (Vista anyone?). Palm OS seems to be pretty decent looking and have heard reports that it has some issues with bugs, but that can be expected with any new OS. The Palm Pre is the first device to run Palm’s new operating system and, as with any new software, the bugs must be worked out. However, we have not had the opportunity to play with the Palm Pre, so we can not offer an objective opinion on the phone’s capabilities.

Just keep in mind that the coolest phone may be worth nothing more than a hockey puck on the wrong network.

Edit:

A gentleman kindly pointed out that I forgot to mention Google Android. This is yet another OS that is in its infancy. Google is making a wise move by trying to get Android running on phones under other networks, but it currently resides on one of the worst networks in the country, T-Mobile. Thus, it is still not one of the top contenders.

Well, seeing as how we use all 3, we thought it would be nice to throw a review out for current Operating Systems. Keep in mind, that each Operating System serves a very particular purpose in our organization. Mac is reserved for Blogging, programming, web site development, and most everything else creative. Windows is reserved for compatibility purposes; it’ll run nearly everything that you need it to. Ubuntu (Linux Distribution) is reserved for servers, both production and non-production.


First, we’ll start with the Pros and Cons of each.

• Incredibly stable
• Will run (even through updates) for months or even years
• Free
• Mostly free packages
• Mildly Secure
• Widespread support

Cons:

• Not very user friendly, mostly command line interface
• You must have years of background experience in Unix or Linux in order to operate one of these machines efficiently

Other Thoughts:
Ubuntu is a lot like the Georgian swamps, you don’t go in with a guide if you want to come out alive. Fortunately, there is a whole bunch of support out there for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. Since most distributions are very similar, there are a lot of general support options out there as well. However, despite these options, it can take days or weeks for you to find a solution to your problem, as almost all support is forum based. We’ve run in to problems that astonish even seasoned Linux administrators.

• Highest compatibility
• Program for just about anything
• Mostly user friendly
• Vista brought a much better looking user interface

Cons:

• Price
• Price…This is not a typo
• XP was stable, Vista wasn’t. Vista has gotten better, though
• Expensive upgrades that aren’t even really worth it
• Mildly unstable
• Doesn’t play well with others
• When something does go wrong, good luck trying to decipher the error code
• Highest threat for malware

Other Thoughts:
Windows XP was phenomenal once they released the correct patches and updates. Vista was horrible when it came out, but since its release, it has become significantly more stable. Vista is not that bad once you figure out where everything is and how to shut off the useless security features that it includes.


There was a study done a couple years ago where a couple of college students put a Windows machine directly connected to the internet with no firewall, no virus protection, no router; and it took less than a minute to get infected with a virus.