Lanchester.net ...musings of an old nerd

I have several pages of third-party apps on my iPhone 3GS, but there are only a few I use a lot.

• Facebook
• Grocery iQ: The best grocery shopping app around! The husband and I both have it, and we can sync lists. We separate A LOT at the store to speed up shopping, and as I check an item off the list, he gets the update! A huge amount of features for 99 cents!
• Echofon: My chosen Twitter client. Seems to be an easy font for the middle-aged to read without glasses.
• Google: I primarily use Reader, but also GMail on occasion.
• MacGourmet: I have the app on my Mac, too, and these sync up marvelously. The "chef's view" on my iPhone blows the recipe up to a size big enough for me to read from without reading glasses.
• Mantis Bible Study: My main workhorse of the Bible apps. You download the translations, commentaries, concordances, etc., to your phone. The company has been updating the app frequently, and now it's about perfect. You can take notes, highlight, and look up commentary. Anything you enter can be backed up online with the click of a button. This is the most expensive app on my phone.
• Things: This is my to-do app. I have the Mac version, and they sync marvelously! Fabulous interface.
• The Holy Bible, YouVersion: This has great reading plans! As a study Bible, it's not nearly as full-featured as Mantis Bible Study, but you can't beat free. (The browser-based version on my Mac has a beautiful interface.)
• Evernote: Just a fabulous free app for every kind of note-taking you could possibly do.
• Flashlight: A basic free app that turns the entire screen white. It lights the way on dark nights up the stairs.
• Mi-Fi: Shows signal strength and battery charge for a Verizon Novatel 2200 Mi-Fi.

Those are the apps I use all the time. If I'm having connection problems, I might use a network test app (Speed Test, iNetworkTest).

I bought a Verizon Novatel Mi-Fi 2200 Wireless Hotspot to work with an Apple Tablet. (It's actually an iPad, horrid name, yet to be released by Apple.)
 
I tested the speed of the Mi-Fi* at work and at home and at various places using my favorite iPhone speed test app, SpeedTest.net. Well, the Mi-Fi was getting TROUNCED by AT&T 3G on SpeedTest.net every single day. I chalked it up to a very nice AT&T 3G setup in this area. (*I understand I'm actually testing the speed of Verizon's 3G CDMA-based EVDO data service, not the speed of the Mi-Fi, but it's much shorter to say "Mi-Fi" than all that!)
 
Then something big happened. The "Great AT&T Melt-Down of 2010" at work began. Too many iPhones. Too much drain on the AT&T amplifier in our buildings. AT&T's service tanked to a range of 0.00 Mbps to 0.09 Mbps download last week.
 
The Mi-Fi provided zippy network access to three of us, including two who were hitting Pandora, and still the Mi-Fi download speed was reported around .29 Mbps. Hmmm...
 
I finally decided to get the computer at home on the Mi-Fi, and I used the internet version of SpeedTest.net to check the speed. What? The Mi-Fi reported 1.66 Mbps, a huge jump.
 
That's when I figured something was fishy. I tried the iNetworkTest app on the iPhone. Mi-Fi: 88.79 Kbps. AT&T 3G: 54.68 Kbps. What?!
 
So when I cruised to dslreports.com on the iPhone (i.dslr.net/iphone_speedtest.html), the Mi-Fi was 1510 Kbps, and AT&T 3G was 640 Kbps. Double what?!
 
The SpeedTest.net app (NOT the website) appears to be reporting incorrect data. SpeedTest.net app indicates the iPhone on Mi-Fi is .29 Mbps (296.96 Kbps), and on AT&T 3G is .38 Mbps (389.12 Kbps). Clearly wrong.
 
Speeds are measured in bits per second, not bytes. To translate megabits to kilobits, multiply the megabits by 1024, or divide the kilobits by 1024 (your choice).
 
The conclusions to be drawn are:

• Don't trust a single speedtest app/website.
• Speed test results vary, based on how busy the download/upload speed test server is and other factors.
• The iPhone appears to slow things down. (There's no way to test AT&T 3G on my laptop, but the Mi-Fi appears to download far faster on a laptop than on the iPhone.)
• The Mi-Fi was definitely the way to go for the Apple Tablet (iPad)!!!