X

Not every iPhone is equal

You would think that two identical iPhones bought from the same store, at the same time, would have similar reception. Think again.

Kevin Ho
Kevin Ho is an attorney living in San Francisco. He's from Iowa originally where he got his first Atari computer when he was little and remembers using the Apple IIGS. He is PC-user but secretly a Mac person in the closet as evidenced by many an iPod cluttering his desk drawers. He'll be writing about his experience with the iPhone. Disclosure.
Kevin Ho

As per usual, the weekend rolled around and we headed up to Stinson Beach armed with our iPhones. In between catching rays and laying out my friends I wanted to check out the new features from Meebo and Facebook for the iPhone. Strangely, the EDGE network was very either/or--it was on...or completely off. Spotty coverage with the EDGE network? Surely not.

In another comparison, my friend Max and I were waiting for a table at a popular crepe place in San Francisco's Mission District and were surfing the net via our iPhones. Yet, we noticed that while my iPhone had 5 bars of service from AT&T, Max's had one, then none, then one.

Not sure why, but I'm sure it has to do with towers, transmission rates, data compression...But you would think that two identical iPhones bought from the same store, at the same time, would be alike. Think again, I guess.