Dear AT&T,

I’ve been a customer with you for quite some time. I’ve owned the iPhone, the iPhone 3G, and I was one of those rabid fans who did camp for the iPhone 3GS.

As of late though I just feel like the service has been shoddy at best. Actually, the service has always been shoddy but I just dealt with it because I had the best phone.

The Android phones have always seemed cool to me and I really like a lot of the things they’ve been doing but I’ve never felt any of them are an upgrade.

Sure, some of them have been almost comparable but I’ve played with many and just been unimpressed.

Until this weekend. The Sprint EVO 4G really seems like a really cool phone. I’m leary of Sprint but in all honesty the service can’t be any worse.

AT&T you have effectively driven me off. The lack of 3G nearly everywhere I go, the dropped calls, the “Searching” on my iPhone while it looks for service, any service and drains my battery just feels unacceptable.

You have rollover minutes but I never use them. I never even come close to using them. I use my phone for data, I use my phone for texting. The unlimited data isn’t really unlimited, the unlimited texting is expensive when I look at a carrier like Sprint.

You say I can’t use data and take calls on Verizon. This maybe true but most of the time I don’t have service anyways so what does it matter.

You’ve been bad to me AT&T. The EVO 4G feels like a kickass phone. Sprint even has 3G where I live. You don’t. You don’t plan on having it where I live until next year. You don’t let me tether and even if I could I doubt I would have service anyways.

Dear AT&T, you suck and I don’t care that I have to pay an ETF. I’m leaving… soon.

Good App Updates

As I sit here in the car while my wife drives us out for dinner I decided it would be a good time to install some app updates on my iPhone.

This got me thinking about the various update that were ready for me to install and the annoyance that often comes up for me when updating apps.

Poor app update descriptions.

When I go through my applications to update and see simple the word “Fixes” I get annoyed.

What does the new version fix? Did you add a new feature or improve an old one?

How would I know unless you told me or I download and install your update only to find something has been changed for the worse?

Mashable’s new app handles this well. The developers actually tell me what is going to be different right up front so I feel comfortable installing the update.

If you are the developer of an iPhone app I urge you to write descriptive update descriptions so I know why exactly is changing or being fixed. Otherwise I assume you are just updating your advertisements just for the sake of it and I don’t install your update.

Gowalla vs Foursquare

Location aware services are to many the future.

A brave new frontier of data, sharing and monetization opportunities. We are on the ground floor of this new technology and plenty of startups have formed around the gaming and social elements.

Two of these startups are Foursquare and Gowalla. Both offering a unique check in system, game play and social element. I’ve been using both extensively to determine which would win my own personal daily use.

When I initially started Gowalla was my only choice. Foursquare was limited to certain metro areas only. Fort Wayne is a large city but was never large enough to see a rollout for a long time. Gowalla on the other hand allowed you to play in any place at any time. This gave me the chance to use Gowalla for quite some time while the majority of my friends in the larger cities played on Foursquare.

Gowalla has a great interface, great in game graphics, a good Facebook connect implementation but not as many users of Foursquare.

Foursquare has more players, as well as more incentive to play. Gowalla offers unique items that can be picked up at various check in locations while Foursquare doesn’t offer an immediate item for your check in it does give you a number of points and a chance at mayorship.

Mayorship is a unique element that at some establishments can offer immediate benefits at certain establishments. Some stores, coffee shops, restaurants and bars will offer you some special benefits, discounts, and freebies for becoming the mayor.

Gowalla has no system currently that is similar to this with rewards. While this isn’t to say that certain places can’t offer something like this Gowalla doesn’t seem to be going after that. A huge mistake by them in my opinion.

The community on Foursquare seems to be more solid but again this could be chalked up to having more users but I personally feel that it is also because they have been doing a better job at connecting with the community.

One thing Gowalla offers that I really miss in Foursquare is a weekly digest email. The email sums up the places you have been as well as a sampling of your friends activities for the week.

Foursquare users seem to share more often, have more friends and play the game more due to the mayorships.

Foursquare is more social in that it shows what your friends are doing while Gowalla puts a special emphasis on what you are doing.

So which one comes out on top? For me it was Gowalla until I started playing Foursquare more. Foursquare allows me to see more of my friends, allows me to discover new venues that my friends frequent better and has a wider audience.

If you are stuck in the middle of the two games keep trying them both but I find that overall the Foursquare experience is better.