Has anyone noticed that Verizon’s choices of phones are lacking? I mean if you want LTE, you currently have 2 choices: The HTC Thunderbolt or the DROID Charge. Both of these phones are single processor 1 GHZ phones. AT&T has the Atrix and T-Mobile has the G2X which both use the Tegra 2 (Dual core 1GHZ ARM processor). If you are thinking of iPhone, you need to remember that with Verizon you cant use 3G data and voice at the same time. It isn’t that the technology isn’t there, it is just that Verizon chooses not to use it (Verizon could be using SVDO instead of EVDO to fix that problem).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in my opinion there isn’t a good phone on the Verizon network. I wish Verizon understood that a good network with crappy phones is a crappy option. So when is this going to change?

I’ve been looking at server upgrade pricing and features of Windows Server lately. I was digging through Microsoft website when I ran across the Edition Comparison by Technical Specifications. Apparently Windows Server 2008 R2 standard is limited to 32 GB of RAM! Windows 7 Pro x64 is limited to 192GB of RAM! Given Server can do a lot of things that Windows 7 can’t, but 32 GB of RAM is a low limit for a server grade product.

32 GB of RAM is quite limited since they allow 4 processor sockets. That is a mere 8 GB of RAM per processor. Intel server processors typically use triple channel memory, while AMD’s newest processors use quad channel memory. This means if you have 2 Intel processors and want to have the same amount of memory for both processors, while optimizing memory (Means all 3 channels are filled with the same amount of memory per processor), then you are limited to six 4 GB and six 1 GB memory sticks (30 GB total). With AMD, we are limited to eight 4GB sticks. It is easy to see that buying 8 and 16 GB sticks are out of the question in this situation with Server Standard.

So what am I going to do about it? —- I’m not going to buy Standard. The Enterprise version of Windows Server is limited to 2 TB of RAM. It also allows for you to run 4 VMs of Windows Server on the system that it is physically installed (vs 1 on Standard). It also has fail-over clustering which is nice if you are running Exchange (It means you can add the server into a Database Availability Group). Enterprise is quite a bit more expensive though ($3999 vs $1209), however Enterprise comes with 15 more Windows CALs than Standard (valued at about $600), so Enterprise will only cost you about $2200 more than Standard.

Well, Apple has revealed the specs on the new iPhone 4. This leaves me wondering where the iPad fits into things. Lets see, the iPhone has the same processor, 78% of the pixels the iPad has, fits in your pocket, and it can do more than the iPad (Like make phone calls). The iPad has no way of taking pictures. Skype would be really awesome if the iPad had a forward facing camera for video chats. The iPhone is only $199, whereas the cheapest iPad is $500 (For a non-3G model).

The iPad just doesn’t make sense. I believe Apple dropped the ball on this one. Three things I think the iPad is lacking in is 1) A decent operating system. It can’t have the same operating system as the iPhone and iPod touch. It needs to have something that you can truly multitask with (Something closer to OS X). 2) It needs to have some USB ports and the ability to plug in a keyboard and mouse, because I don’t want to always be stuck using my fingers. 3) Apple needs to include a pen to write on it with. Writing with your finger isn’t going to work, and typing on it is a pain in the butt. It would be very nice to just be able to write free hand like I would on a sheet of paper. Until then, I’m not getting an iPad because the iPhone can do everything it can and more.