You're right, you shouldn't. Luckily I'd used an O2 contract for a few years and have pretty good coverage in the places that I use the phone. I've also got T-Mobile and Orange contracts and get good coverage on those but have ditched Vodafone as I don't get a good signal with them. If the iPhone had only been offered by Vodafone, then I wouldn't have gone down that route.

You can of course jailbreak the iPhone and use whichever service provider you like but it's a faff and not without some risk - flashing unofficial ROMs was one of the reasons that I went with the iPhone in the first place! But yes, it would be much better if multiple carriers were able to provide the iPhone.

I do miss the Skyscape BNF, but as you imply, I expect it will only be a matter of time.

Cut and paste - I agree. Maybe in 2.1.1?

A2DP - there's a way round it by using a Bluetooth adaptor. There shouldn't have to be but until Apple relax their control on the Bluetooth stack it's the only way. The also block the use of Bluetooth for file transfer.

There's also no-turn-by-turn GPS app like TomTom either (yet). This isn't an issue for me as I already have GPS in the car but can see that it would put some people off. The in-built Google Maps works brilliantly and the GPS gets a fix very quickly. And unlike my Diamond, you don't need to use oven gloves to hold the handset when GPS has been on for some time.

It depends on what your requirements are. My requirements put both handsets in the same market where the iPhone wins hands down. There's quite a large cross-over between the two where they share the same functionality, but each also has unique additional functionality which leads to some diversity.

The Diamond is far more flexible than the iPhone but is let down by the operating system. The Diamond is smaller than the iPhone but this compromises the battery size and the trade-off doesn't work for me.

The size of the iPhone isn't an issue to me - it still easily fits in my shirt pocket in a leather case. The fact that it's as slippery as a wet bar of soap when out of the case is a different matter.

I've just had the 20% battery warning on my iPhone since taking it off charge yesterday morning. It has been constantly powered up on 3G for the past 39 hours (made five or six calls, push email on, spent an hour on WiFi downloading apps from the AppStore and played around on various applications for at least a couple of hours + some web browsing).

I've never seen the fascination with Macs, they have always seemed more form over function. Something that an architect’s office or a graphical design department might use purely because they were Macs. I saw the iPhone in the same light..... until I used one last week. One of my customers had one and handed it to me to call their other office. Looking up a number and dialling it was a lot slicker and easier than I expected and the call quality was excellent, though I was still sceptical regarding the usability.

This started me thinking. I had an O2 contract that was due for renewal and considered getting an iPhone 3G to give it a trial – if I didn’t get on with it, the wife would no doubt like it. I’d be losing MMS (I think I’ve only ever sent three or four in my mobile lifetime) and tethering (which has been handy a couple of times in the past year). Then last week I needed to phone a client quickly whilst I was out and about but the damn Diamond refused to dial. I had to stop and perform a reset before it would let me dial the ruddy number. Then the sodding battery expired. I seriously considered going back to my TyTN II (I’m using Dutty’s stable 1.6 Diamond ROM in case anyone thinks I’m using the stock ROM).

So, I got the iPhone 3G. Charged it up. Installed iTunes and updated the firmware to 2.0.2 so that I could sync to my Exchange Server. Everything worked flawlessly first time.

1. It just works. No tweaking required. I did like fettling my WinMo devices in the early days and did flash ROMs on a fairly regular basis. When I started to get busy with my business however, the fine tuning became more of a hindrance.
2. It’s responsive. You click an icon and it does something, quickly. There’s no waiting around or wondering if you pressed hard enough or pressed the wrong part of the screen.
3. The battery life is absolutely amazing (well, it is now the 2.1 firmware is on)! No kidding. It’s using 3G and has GPS set to come on automatically when required. After a full charge this morning, three or four voice calls, several texts and some browsing the charge indicator is still showing full! My Diamond was also fully charged this morning, my wife has made two short calls, sent a couple of texts and done some quick browsing and it’s showing about 20% charge. It had to go back on the charger in case she needed it tonight and she’s thinking about going back to her Vario III.

The iPhone is a phone first and a PDA second so I know that I can’t directly compare it with the Diamond. Having said that, and this is the deciding factor for me, I can do everything on the iPhone that I needed to do on my Diamond – record client timesheets, email and calendar appointments sync to Exchange Server, VNC and VPN to remote clients and make and receive calls.

As I said at the start, I’m not an Apple fan. I still think that WinMo has the potential to be so much better than it is but it fails on usability and network support. The iPhone 3G was a flawed product and initially fell well short of expectation. However Apple released a series of firmware ‘updates’ that fixes many of the problems. I have just updated to the latest 2.1 firmware (iTunes backed everything up, applied the update and restored my settings for me) and I don’t have to worry about O2 not honouring the warranty. It just seems wrong that you have to go down the route of an unofficial ROM if you want a more stable, responsive Windows device.
I’ve just sold my TyTN II on ebay. If the wife goes back to her Vario III the Diamond will be joining it shortly. I hope Windows Pro / Mobile 7 can compete with the likes of Google and Apple but fear that it will be too little too late.

All the best.

Did your free car charger ever arrive? I checked their web site and they are definately using my 'review' but I've yet to see the promised charger.

I second this. Changng the SIP based on the stylus status woud be great (and something that should have been built into TouchFlo).

Yes, came in today's post

I'm guessing he's a busy chap. He sorted mine out today.

My £80 cash-back (cheque) came from Mobiles (Carphonewarehouse) today as well

Hi Paul,

I sent you a PM regarding the Modaco Plus membership last Wednesday when my order arrived but haven't heard back from you. Are you still wading through all the requests?

Cheers.

I'm not sure I know what you mean? Your first bill will include your usage to that date plus a pro rata service charge plus the next month's bill effectively in advance so won't include any out of contract usage (ie. just the subscription). So you should be ready to go immediately - unless I'm wrong. Is that what you meant?

Yes, I quite like the case but I'm used to carrying my TyTN II in a belt case. I'll have to watch that I don't leave the Diamond lying around as it's significantly smaller and lighter and more likely to go down the back of the sofa.

I like the headset. The packaging was a bugger to get into though. Like some sort of chinese puzzle (please send off for solution) - probably cost half as much as the headset to produce and print.

Glad it arrived..... eventually!

So has it arrived yet? Hope you don't have to wait too long.

I must admit that I was skeptical that mine had really shipped this time but Mr Postman turned up in his red van with it first thing.

It's a bit different to the TyTN II that I'm currently using. It's small! Lovely screen as well.

Got a reply to yesterday's email just before lunch. They say that they had a "system error" with regard to their stock but my order "has now been processed and despatched" (the use of the past tense is more reassuring). They also state that it will be with me by 1pm tomorrow (again).

Yes, thanks Paul.

It begs the question as to why mobiles couldn't tell me this rather than getting me to wait in on the two days that they said the delivery would arrive! I'd rather be told that they're awaiting stock than sit in waiting for the postie.

No phone. No further response from mobiles.

Thursday - placed order. Got email confirming order. Later got email confirming despatch.
Friday - emailed to check on delivery. Quick response, was told to expect delivery on Saturday.
Saturday - no delivery. Emailed, got quick response again and was told to expect delivery on Monday.
Monday - no delivery. Emailed at 1pm to query lack of delivery - no response yet!

Not feeling very confident about them.

Maybe that's why they're keeping quiet (despite their web site still saying "In stock now!"). They responded to me within a couple of hours on Friday when it didn't turn up but haven't even ackowledged my email from lunch time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my order got lost in the warehouse. Knowing my luck they'll withdraw the offer before my unit gets shipped.

Well the promised deadline of 1pm today came and went and still no delivery. A bit dischuffed at waiting in again . I suppose Royal Mail could have lost it but I can only speculate as I haven't had any response from mobiles.co.uk to my emails yet.

They did send me an email asking me if I'd fancy writing a review of the Diamond and get a free car charger for my trouble!?!

The same as James (£80 + Jawbone) - if it ever actually arrives - fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I've got the original Jawbone that I use with my TyTNII and it's great (people can't tell I'm in the car with the radio on). SWIMBO can have that, though I expect that she'll complain that it's too big and want to take my new toy off me.

Cool, probably just my bad luck then. Got an email from Rebecca at mobiles saying it will be with me "by the latest 1pm Monday 14th", despite the fact that the order status still shows as pending. Can't say I'm feeling confident that it will arrive.

Have Orange applied their branding to the menus or is it pretty much un-touched HTC?

I placed my order on Thusday. Got an email confirming the order followed later by one stating that they'd despatched the order. Nothing arrived Friday so I emailed them. Got a reply stating that the order had definitely been sent to despatch and to expect the order today (Saturday) by 1pm. Still nothing. Just checked my order status via their web site and it says 'Pending'!! I hope they really have got stock and aren't messing about - has anyone here actually ordered via the link and received theirs?

3G now seems to be working fine when I'm at home. I switched it on earlier and haven't had any problems at all - both data and voice are going through without dropping. How're you getting on Taffowl?

My father lives on Lydgate Lane (the Crookes side of the hill) which isn't a million miles away from you but I guess it's far enough to be on a different mast. We'll see if they manage to fix it by the weekend.

I got back in touch with T-Mobile yesterday afternoon. They'd asked me to make a note of at least five instances of when and where the problem occurred. I got back in touch with that information and they said that they'd be sending out an engineer to check on the masts in the area and that it might take up to 72 hours before it was sorted (assuming that they actually find the problem).

I was over at my father's in Crosspool at the weekend and the signal strength on 3G was great - HSDPA was flying. Taffowl, what end of Crookes are you?

Hi taffowl,

I'm in Greystones and still having problems (Vario III and TyTN II). I have to remember to switch 3G off when I get home otherwise it constantly fails to connect. I've done a bit more testing and it certainly seems to only affect me when I'm on one particular cell - which happens to be when I'm at home. Like you, the city centre (and pretty much the rest of the city) seem to give good data rates

I phoned T-Mobile again this evening and managed to speak to someone in tech support who promised to follow it up. He did say that a number of the cells local to me (but not the cell that I was currently connected to) were shown as being "saturated" which wasn't a good thing. It all used to work so well but seems to have gone a bit pear-shaped recently.

Cowie.

Thanks for the link. Installed and looking good

I've just paid the upgrade (with Handango discount) which came to about $16. Unfortunately the installer falls over every time and I can't find a CAB file to get it onto my device. Is anybody else having the same problem or is it just me?