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06/21/2009, 04:19 AM
#101
Had a showdown with an iPhone Fanboi over dinner tonight and came out ahead.
A large group of us were having dinner at a restaurant we had never been to before. While we are looking over the menu, Fanboi pulls out his iPhone and announces "I wonder what other people would recommend for this restaurant. I think I'll look at Yelp." He proceeds to make a little show of his iPhone and its browser. I pull my Pre out of my pocket and show it to him, "I've got this new phone that's pretty good at browsing too. It's a Palm Pre. Have you heard of it?" He glances at it, tries out the slider. "Yeah, I heard about it but it doesn't have any apps." he says and returns my Pre to me, showing little interest. Some of the other people at the table are curious about what I'm holding. I tell them "It's a Palm Pre and it's better than an iPhone." "Yeah, right" responds Fanboi next to me and everyone laughs. The match is on. I return my Pre to my pocket, not really wanting to make a show of it.
So dinner goes on. Fanboi pulls out his iPhone occasionally to check something, showing it off. Then the check comes and we have to figure out what the split is. "Anyone got a calculator?" goes up the call from one of the women. "I've got an app for that" announces Fanboi as he whips out his iPhone and loads up his tip calculating app. He shows me how the app works with its fancy spinner and all. Others start peering over curious to see what this iPhone app thing is.
Then the decision is made to go to a couple's house for after dinner coffee and dessert. But no one knows where the couple's house is. "I've got Google maps" announces Fanboi has he pulls out his iPhone again and proceeds to punch in the address so he can show everyone where the house is. This is getting intolerable. I've gotta do something about this.
"I've got Google Maps too" I say as I whip out my Pre to meet the challenge. "But I have something even better!" I startup Sprint Navigation and enter the address. After a few seconds, "I've got turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts! Can your iPhone do that?!" as I smile at Fanboi. "Oooh, can we see?" asks one of the couples. I proceed to show everyone the Pre's screen with the 3D route plotted on it. "It looks just like our GPS" says one of the women. Fanboi realizes the shine on his iPhone is dulling and mumbles something about "We're getting that from TomTom soon". I then posed the question to the table, "What do you think is better? A phone with a tip calculator or one with a turn-by-turn GPS with voice announcements? What would you choose?" Everyone laughs as they watch the duel of the smartphones. "And look, I can check the score of the ballgame (I had ESPN open in a browser) and check my email too while navigating." I showed everyone how I could slide cards around and switch what I was doing with just a flick of my finger. "Can your iPhone switch to another app right now?" I asked Fanboi. I could see him grit his teeth because he was stuck. If he dumped out of Google Maps to do something else, he would have to type in the couple's address all over again.
Pre 1 iPhone 0
I never expected I would ever get in a showdown with an iPhone owner but the situation I was in was too much too resist. And I think everyone had fun watching Fanboi and I duel it out with our phones. Maybe all except Fanboi.
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