Can we talk about phones and companies here?

[suspectdevice]

Out of economic necessity I am very good at escalating calls at phone/electric/beuracratic nightmare situations to a very high level. By the time you talk to someone in Texas at AT&T you can get pretty much anything you want. All of those fuckers are evil. I've managed to force Verizon into giving me 3 free months of internet at the shop and releasing me from my contract 7 months early. I can't even remember what the problem is that made me beat them down honestly, but if you are patient enough and aware of the law you can get your way with any bureaucracy. You just need to be prepared to spend a few hours on the phone.

I just got an Iphone4 after 10 years mostly on Nokia brick phones that hold up to my abuse. The phone is great. I get shitty reception at the shop, which sucks since it's the business line. It's an old munitions plant and the roof is 4' thick concrete. No phone works well in a bunker...
My old lady is a computer wiz among other things, and she promptly "Jail broke" my phone and started fucking with everything. The damn thing is pretty amazing now. With the new quickbooks online app I can run the entire business from my phone, including Autocad and Solidworks viewing software, so I can even review engineering docs on the road. I've got the ability to share files and notes with my collaborators easily and now I've got the best camera I've ever owned to boot.
I'm hoping might give me more time too ride this year.
I'm trying to research headphones with noise canceling microphones that work well enough so that I can have conversations rolling on the bike at 17mph. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Tom Kellogg]

Couple of more things; I rooted (unlocked) my Incredible a while ago. Most who do this want to flash different ROMs (operating systems) or overclock the processor. Not for me, I really like HTC's kernel. Reasonably efficient and very stable. And the Incredible is easily fast enough without overclocking. I rooted it so that I could actually slow down the clock speed when I don't need it to be fast. Without rooting, you can't gain control of clock speed, among other things. Now, when the screen is off, the max clock speed is only about 40% as fast as as the processor is designed for. Battery life is much improved. I've also been able to rid my phone of the annoying "bloatware" that Verizon has HTC put on there with their OS. Although I can now tether with my phone for free, I'm not doing so. Two reasons; a) I rarely need to use my laptop where I don't have an internet connection and b) Verizon charges for the ability to tether and it would be dishonest to start doing it without paying for it.

For practical purposes, this sort of stuff is not possible with the iPhone. But also, the iPhone is such a slick product that very few people need to play with it anyway.

[critpix]

If you decide on the Android route, you'd be best served getting a vanilla Android phone like the Nexus S. Android is only "open" to the carriers, as they're the ones buying the phones from the manufacturers and dictating features and bundled crapware in an attempt to differentiate them from all of the other Android devices.

[prcrstn8]

This is like Campy vs clinchers.

[Saab2000]

b) Verizon charges for the ability to tether and it would be dishonest to start doing it without paying for it.

A man with integrity! I like it! This country needs a few more like you!

[54ny77]

What is tethering?

[Tom Kellogg]

Tethering is when you use your cell phone as a WiFi or Bluetooth hot spot. You are using your cell data link and allowing other devices to "tether" to your data link. Helps?