So that being said, I thought a comparison between this device and my old BlackBerry Storm is in order.

I’ve only had my iPhone for 5 days, so I will follow up this article in a week or so with part deux.

Coverage:

I have always had a Verizon cellphone (Smartphone or not) for years, so the thought of switching carriers did cause a bit of concern.  I heard multiple people say the AT&T coverage in my area (Pittsburgh) was not that great in comparison to Verizon’s.  Generally a few dropped calls would be  okay, and even understandable, however since this is primarily used for business I need to have a reliable network.  I don’t believe in the TV commercials for AT&T or Verizon, as they are playing the marketing game, and really only the individual using the phone can correctly assess the coverage.  As of now (5 days) using the phone, I have yet to see any situation that makes me believe Verizon is a better network.

To test the AT&T commercial, I created a phone conference with two other phones.  Once  I had the phone conference going I began surfing the web and perhaps because of the network and the beauty of Apple everything just worked.  I could not make a phone call and browse the web on my BlackBerry.  I do not know how often I’d use this, but its fantastic knowing that I can.

Email/Calendar/Contacts (Exchange):

The first account I configured on this device was my Microsoft Exchange account from work.  Prior to the iPhone I was using multiple BlackBerry devices (VZW WE 8830, and the BlackBerry Storm), so I was used to getting my email very fast.  So far I have not noticed a delay in the delivery of my email.  Typically my phone has notified me of a new message either 1 – 2 seconds after my computer received the message, no major delays.  The calendar and contact synchronization has also been fast.  I have not seen a major delay yet in comparison to the BlackBerry platform.

Email/Contacts/Calendar (MobileMe):

I have now moved from using Gmail to MobileMe.  I have been using Gmail since the early days, when the initial invites had been in small numbers.  I knew what to expect from Gmail so once more, I was leery of the switch.  I tried using MobileMe a few months back on the 60-day trial, and noticed that the web interface was slow, and my contacts would randomly delete themselves, so I cancelled my trail.  My thought was even though the web interface was beautiful, I need reliability.

Since getting the iPhone I figured, lets give it another chance to fully take advantage of the push technology.  I am not sure if Apple has changed their servers, or made an update but now my web interface is extremely fast.  Had the experience been this fast during my trial I probably would not have cancelled it.  The push for email is extremely fast, and I believe it works faster than my exchange account.  The updating of contacts and calendar is actually faster than Exchange.  I can move items in my web interface or on the phone, and almost in real time I see the update.  Exchange takes a little bit longer (10-20 seconds).   This is actually much faster than the BlackBerry platform again. I am actually loving the performance of MobileMe over Exchange and even the BlackBerry platform.

Ease of Use:

I have to admit using this phone is truly a dream.  Typing on the iPhone’s keyboard is a better experience than that of the Storm.  In a previous post, I mentioned how one had to touch, then physically click on the screen to input a character.  This is not the case with the iPhone. I am actually finding it faster to type email and SMS messages via the iPhone.  I have yet to try the landscape keyboard because I am so impressed with the portrait keyboard.  On the storm I was constantly producing spelling errors, due to the “SurePress” keyboard.  The phone would “think” I wanted to type one word when really I meant another.  This led to some embarrassing emails to executives as the overall grammar of the email made no sense.

Battery:

I’ve been charging my battery daily, but I believe the reason it is getting low is due to my constantly playing with the device.  Once the novelty slows down from having the iPhone I will be able to truly give both devices a fair comparison.  I do not want to give a opinion on the iPhone’s battery quite yet.

Summary:

I have been downloading applications like crazy this week, and the App Store has a far better selection than what I could find for my BlackBerry.  There are many applications I have found so far that will allow me to be more productive and aware of my servers at work while I am out of the office.  This is one of the reasons our company is actually removing all BlackBerries from our environment and moving to the iPhone.  I plan on following up to this post in a week or two once I have really tested the phone in more detail.  As I said both phones have been on the market for quite some time, however I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts on moving from a popular platform (BlackBerry) to the iPhone.

If you recall, in a recent chat with Verizon Tech support, I was told that the issues with my HD boxes weren’t truely issues, but not to my preference. As we all know, that was completely untrue. And this firmware update proves it. The 7xxx series boxes now have the 4:3 guide once again. The current show information and the guide itself is no longer stretched.

I wish there was a way to talk to “Anthony” again directly. I don’t appreciate being lied to by support staff.

Maybe in the future, companies and employees will admit to doing something wrong. In the long run, it will hurt the company less. Customers are not stupid and I don’t appreciate my intelligence being questioned. If you take a look back at my prior blog post regarding the issues I faced, you will see why Verizon and their staff have lost some of my respect.

I contacted support because the 1.7 firmware was finally rolled out to Pittsburgh.

It is fairly common knowledge that the 1.7 firmware totally screws up the guide to a point that it is actually a pain to use. It looks horrendous and is not right at all on the 7xxx series boxes. But, it displays correctly on the older 6400 series ones.

Here is my chat with tech support regarding the issues I have. He was by far one of the worst representatives I have come across while talking to Verizon support.

Anthony(18:55:31): Thank you. One moment while I pull up your account. I am sorry for your problems, but I will help you. Please be patient.
Anthony(18:55:51): Are you havign a HDMI issue since the 1.7 firmware update to the boxes?
StevoFC(18:56:09): no I’m having guide issues on the 7100 series boxes
StevoFC(18:56:14): it looks horrible
Anthony(18:56:30): unrelated…
StevoFC(18:56:36): no it’s not
Anthony(18:56:41): you don’t like it
StevoFC(18:56:53): it’s a proven fact that the guide is stretched only on the 7xxx series boxes
StevoFC(18:57:09): it shows correctly on my older 6400 series dvr
StevoFC(18:57:31): I am unhappy with the service since this update
Anthony(18:57:36): I am sorrty
Anthony(18:57:41): sorry
Anthony(18:57:57): It can’t be changed but I have notated your tech support notes
StevoFC(18:58:04): it can be changed
Anthony(18:58:15): how?
StevoFC(18:58:16): i would like my box replaced with a model that doesn’t have the problem
Anthony(18:58:51): I can’t replace the boxes because you don’t like the way the guide is displayed
Anthony(18:59:06): The 7000 boxes are HD
StevoFC(18:59:13): so are the others
Anthony(18:59:18): the 6416 is HD & standard
StevoFC(18:59:31): i have the 6416 dvr
Anthony(18:59:36): I see that
StevoFC(18:59:46): and it displays correctly
Anthony(18:59:56): the 7000 are correct also
StevoFC(19:00:02): no it is not
Anthony(19:00:22): all 3 display the same way correct?
StevoFC(19:00:49): all 3 what? 7100?
Anthony(19:00:55): yes
StevoFC(19:01:16): yes, but they dont look like they used to, and they dont look like the 6400 does
Anthony(19:01:41): I am sorry they don’t look the same
Anthony(19:01:46): but they are correct
StevoFC(19:01:50): can you roll my firmware back?
Anthony(19:01:55): no
StevoFC(19:02:17): how much is the verizon cancellation fee?
Anthony(19:03:07): I am tech support
Anthony(19:03:13): 1-800-VERIZON (1-800-837-4966), available Monday through Friday between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM.
Anthony(19:03:18): give them a call and they will work with you
StevoFC(19:03:35): if you are unwilling to help I will most likely cancel my service
StevoFC(19:03:46): because this update is not acceptable
Anthony(19:03:57): I can’t roll your firmware back
Anthony(19:04:03): I am sorry
StevoFC(19:04:16): you would if the update didn’t install correctly on my end
Anthony(19:04:41): it installed correctly
StevoFC(19:04:58): so you are saying verizon purposely screwed up the guide?
Anthony(19:05:08): no
Anthony(19:05:23): Unfortunately you don’t like the way it loks
Anthony(19:05:28): looks
Anthony(19:05:28): I am sorry
StevoFC(19:06:18): then like i said, I will have to call the number you gave me and possibly cancel my service
Anthony(19:06:28): I am sorry to hear that.
Anthony(19:06:39): Thanks for using Verizon Click to Chat. For more information visit http://help.verizon.net . You can also download the Verizon In Home Agent at http://verizon.com/inhomeagent to help with any future issues with your service. You may receive a survey regarding this chat. I hope you can rate us a 10 based on your experience with me today. Thank you for choosing Verizon.
Your session is now closed.
Thank you,have a nice day.

Yes, I was rude…I normally try to be nice but the guy was treating me like an idiot. Sorry Anthony, but don’t assume people who contact you are dumb and maybe you would be treated nicer.

To make things even better, They include an email link at the bottom of the chat when you are done so that you can email the log to your account. I click the link to email the transcript to myself and I got this…

I started to laugh when this happened…Why, you ask?

The FiOS email addresses are .net not .com, so I couldn’t even email the transcript to myself.

Thanks Verizon, you seem to be getting better each day.

I contacted support via chat and told them about the problem. They told me they could “initialize” my box because it was possible there was some sort of programming error after the last firmware update. I said no problem and they told me to contact them again if the problem persisted because a replacement DVR would need to be sent. That same evening I contacted them again and told them the problem was still there and without any problems I was told a new one would be sent via UPS.

Since I contacted them on a Friday evening, the box wasn’t going to be delivered until Tuesday. I had no problem with that since the box worked for the most part. The signal was just lost occasionally. Tuesday came along and I got the box via UPS like they said.

My original DVR was a 7216, and I was happy to see that the replacement they sent me was a 6416-2. Even though the 6416-2 is older than the 7216, it seems to have many less problems. First off, I can actually use the HDMI connection now with my Samsung LCD. It did not wok correctly with the original DVR. Secondly, it makes much less noise. I would think the newer one would have been quieter, but that’s not the case.

I have not had a single problem at all with this replacement box. The entire experience is much better now. There were many more problems with my original box than I even thought. There was a lot more lag in menus and in general overall usage. I am quite happy of the replacement and support couldn’t have made it any easier. All I had to do was put the faulty DVR in the box the new one was shipped in and take two labels to the UPS store and drop it off.

Self activation was very simple. The whole process didn’t even take me 30 minutes and I had the new DVR up and running with all of the guide data. They give you a code and you have the option of calling a telephone number or entering it online. I did it through the page online. It honestly couldn’t have been any simpler than it was.

What I thought was the most impressive part of this whole situation was how willing the support staff was to believe that my problem was actually with the FiOS equipment. Not once did they ever try to blame it on my television. Back when I had Comcast, any time I had a problem the first thing they tried to do was blame the issue on something I owned. Verizon never once even questioned me.

Once again, I am very happy with the service I am receiving from Verizon.

As I said before, some problems started to occur even with the component cables about a month ago. It didn’t happen very often at all, maybe a few times a day to start. The screen would go black for a split section because the signal to my tv would be lost. The tv would then immediately display the information in the upper left of that screen that a 1080i input was connected. Like I said, it didn’t happen very often, until recently…

Last week it started to get very bad. It would happen very often. Sometimes the signal would be lost and a second or 2 later it would happen again. I am fairly knowledgeable about these types of things in general, and I was confident that I could figure out the problem on my own without wasting my time explaining what was happening to Verizon support.

I thought about it for a day or 2 and I basically narrowed it down to 2 things. The box was either overheating or the component cables they gave me were going bad. The first thing I did was change the output of the box to 720p instead of 1080i. I figured if the cable was going bad, there is a chance it could handle the lower resolutions still. I figured if it didn’t cut out while on 720p, or cut out less, the cables were most likely the problem.

I set the box to output at 720p for almost 2 full days and the signal never dropped. About 10 minutes after changing it back to 1080i the usual happened and it lost the signal for a second. At that point I decided I would just order new component cables because they are very cheap now online.  I went with this set from Cables To Go on Amazon. They cost about $9. I have bought other cables from them before, so I figured they would work fine.

They arrived a few days ago and I connected them right away. I watched some things that I had viewed the day before on my DVR that caused signal loss. I was happy to see that the problem seemed to have gone away.

For about 2 days now the signal has not dropped out at all. With the original cables that were given to me by Verizon, the signal would have dropped at least 15 or 20 times by now.

I figured I would post this incase others were having similar issues. It was much easier for me to just buy the cables myself rather than going through to hassle of support. Hopefully the cables turn out to be the only problem.

FiOS is gaining popularity, and for the most part, information about it is not that easy to find. So, as I come across things related to FiOS I will be sharing them here.

This time, I am going to talk about a few things regarding the pay-per-view (PPV) services that Verizon offers.

First off, you can order a PPV basically in 2 ways; on your set top box or online with FiOS TV Central.

If you order a PPV on a specific set top box, you are limited to that box for watching the PPV. As I have tested while watching multiple UFC events on PPV, you are able to record them to your DVR. If you have a multi room DVR you can actually hit record and then watch it on another box in the house. Just remember, if you stop playing it completely you will not be able to enter the recording again where you left off. I guess this is a limitation of viewing something while it is currently recording. As far as I know, if you record something like a UFC PPV it will stay on your DVR for as long as you keep it there. I left one for about 5 days to see if after 24 hours is was disabled, but it never was.

The other way to order, as stated above, is online. This works fairly well from my experience. I ordered UFC 99 via the web interface about 20 minutes prior to the show. When ordering online, the PPV is not limited to a single box. It will play on every box in your house and there is not a limit of viewers either. I tried watching it on 3 of the 4 HD boxes in my house and it showed on all of them at the same time with no problem. The only limitation to ordering online is that you can’t record the event. If you hit the record button on your DVR it pops up a message saying that can not record without purchasing. Obviously, if you are able to watch it then you have ordered it, but once again it’s just a limitation of their system.

So basically, if you want to record an event you need to order it on your DVR. If not, online ordering is the way to go so that you aren’t limited to one television.

Here is the proposed channel lineup:

MTV HD 710
VH 1 HD 717
CMT HD 721
Nick HD 752
Spike HD 554
Comedy Central HD 690

The first of these channels should be live starting on June 24 (subject to change), with the rest to be added over the following week.

This is in no way official, but it has been spreading over the internet today. Let’s hope that it’s true. I have been waiting for Spike HD. Now that it has been added I basically have every HD channel that I need. All is good…

The internet portion of the Triple Play is very good. As stated in an older blog post, I have the 20mb download and 5mb upload tier. The speeds are great, and for the most part constant. Certain times of the day when Comcast would start to lag are pretty much non existent with my Verizon service. As much as I like the quality of the service there is one major problem…the hardware. The included Actiontec router is decent, but has some major flaws. I was lucky enough to get the Gen 2 (rev. E) version of the Actiontec hardware but it still has major problems. There is a NAT table limitation that practically makes the router useless. When trying to connect to torrents or even Steam server lists, you hit the connection limit and the router locks up. Usually closing out of the program will fix it, but sometimes a restart of the router is needed. The only way around this is to run ethernet cable through the house to where the router is placed.

By installation default, the ONT  is connected to the router via coaxial cable. Because of this, you need a router such as the Actiontec to take the MoCA connection. MoCA is needed to give IP Addresses to all of the set top boxes throughout the house. Like I said, I could run an ethernet cable through my house and up to the 2nd floor where the router is, but that is a lot easier said than done. If I ever feel like taking the time to do so I might, because then I could use my own router. Even if I use my own router (D-Link Dir-655) I would still need to connect the Actiontec to it for the MoCA bridge. Currently I have my D-Link connected into the Actiontec because the wireless signal is much better and everything wired here is gigabit.

As for the television portion…I couldn’t be much happier with the service. The picture quality is amazing. It’s quite obvious how much better the quality is of FiOS over Comcast. The channel lineup is great. Having over 100 HD channels is definitely nice. The Multi Room DVR works fairly well. The main problem once again though is the hardware.  

The Motorola boxes seem to have a problem with HDMI connections, primarily with Samsung televisions. Of course I only buy Samsung LCDs. I have 4 through the house in varying sizes all HD and connected to HD boxes. One of them in particular, of course the one with the Multi Room DVR, has a major problem when trying to connect to HDMI. The image blacks out frequently because the signal is lost and it takes a few seconds for it to work again. Also, after the latest firmware update (that I also blogged about) when using Component cables the signal is occasionally lost. It much less frequent and takes only a fraction of a second for it to return, but there is definitely a problem. It just sucks to see such dodgy hardware when the service itself is so great for both the TV and Internet.

Without a doubt I am happy to have made the switch from Comcast to Verizon. The cost is much less per month and the overall service is much better. If Verizon can fix the problems with the hardware I wouldn’t really have much of anything to complain about.

I hope this post helps answer any questions of those people who are thinking about switching. If you have any other questions or comments please post them below…

I will try to be as detailed as possible so that any questions you may have with the install process can be answered.

The tech was scheduled to come to my house between 8am and 12pm. He called me around 8:45am saying he would be at my house in 10 to 15 minutes. As for the times, don’t expect them to come around 8. They don’t start working until 8am and have to get their van ready and travel from whichever location they work from. In this case, he came from the Robinson call center.

He arrived at my house at 9am. He told me he had enabled the service at the closest hub and that he would have to run the fiber from the pole in my back yard to the house. Before starting that, he asked to come inside and look where all of the boxes would be installed including the router, which has a major part in the whole setup.

I showed him around where the 4 hd boxes went (including the home media dvr) and where the router would be installed. I then took him to the basement to show him where the cable is split throughout the house and to decide where the ONT would be installed.

The ONT is a box that houses the connections from the outside and has a built in battery backup for if the electricity ever goes out. The battery lasts about 6-8 hours, depending on the phone usage during a power outage. It also has an emergency battery built in that can be enabled by the press of a button for 15 minutes of call time just in case the main battery runs out of power. I asked a lot of questions and was told by Chad, the installer, that the internet will only run for 5 minutes after a power failure and is then disabled to save battery backup power for telephone calls.

The majority of my 5 hour install was running the fiber and installing the ONT. After that was completed it went fairly fast. While he was installing the fiber and ONT I offered to place all of the boxes for him. I set all of the boxes in place and connected them to the LCD’s. I just didn’t connect the coaxial cable or plug in the power until he had everything switched over to FiOS. The difference in signal could possibly damage the boxes if connected too early.

He walked through the house again and replaced the ends of all the coaxial cables because they were all fairly old. He then tested the signal of each cable and connected them to the boxes. He really appreciated that I placed all of the boxes in position because it cut back on install time a good bit. And he was also happy that everything was moved out of the way for him in the basement. All of the signals were perfectly fine, which I was happy about, because when I had Comcast they were mediocre at best. All he did was replace the splitter in the basement and replaced the ends of all the cables as I stated earlier.

Before the boxes are activated to do anything he needed to plug in the router. It assigns an IP address to all of the boxes throughout the house. He has an install program that was run off of a flash drive. During that time we set up all of the boxes and verified that everything was correct. I accepted some license agreements and set up the router password and the primary email address and password. I asked him about the software and if we actually had to install anything on my computer and he told me no, and that if i really didn’t want it we could just stop after a certain step because the actual activation of the boxes and everything was completed.

Before the Verizon router was placed I asked if we could just use my existing dlink router and he said no because it was going to be connected with coaxial cable. I didn’t have a problem with that. I disabled the wireless on the FiOS router because i still planned on using my own. I set up my dlink router as a network bridge. I wanted to use mine because I have a gigabit network at home and my dlink is a draft N router with gigabit switch. My dlink router still connects everything like it used to. The wireless is still the same. The only difference is the dhcp is run by the FiOS router instead. I just set the ip address of the dlink router to one in the range that the FiOS router was assigning and I connected the 2 together using the LAN ports not the WAN port. Most people when doing something like this make a mistake at that point and try to use the WAN port, but it won’t work correctly that way.

The installer left at about 2pm, right before I started setting up my dlink router. Getting my wireless set back up took only about 15 minutes, and at that point everything was finished.

Before he left we tested all of the boxes, recorded something on the dvr, and tried playing back that recording to all of the boxes in the house. It all worked perfectly fine. As soon as I saw the picture quality I could easily tell that it was much better than Comcast. There is no blockyness and the colors do actually seem a little more vibrant.

At this point I tested out the internet some more. I ran some speed tests and downloaded some files. I got about 2.5MB/s download speeds. And that was a constant speed unlike how Comcast works with the speed bursts at the beginning of a file that slowly drops down.

Overall, the entire process went very well. The installer was very nice and actually knew what he was doing and the service is great so far. I am very happy to finally get rid of Comcast.

I will try to think of anything else that I could have possibly left out and will edit this post and make note of it if I do.

FiOS has been around for a couple years in my area (Pittsburgh) and I have been holding off from making the switch.  I figured now would be a great time to finally drop Comcast. In a few days Verizon will be here installing all of the new services.

I got the triple package, phone, internet and tv. I got the 20Mbit down and 5Mbit up internet tier. As for the tv plan, I got the extreme HD package along with one home media dvr and 3 HD boxes.

Comcast has become so far behind in terms of service and price that it would be dumb not to switch. The package deal I got takes off over $50 a month. It also helps that Verizon locks your price in for 2 years and is currently giving $150 cash back. 

I will post my experience this upcoming week of the entire install process.