Like me, you may have had something to do that prevented you from watching the U.S. versus Ghana World Cup match on TV. I had a wedding that started at 1 CDT in Minneapolis suburb Wayzata, Minn. Two hours for pictures and the ceremony would prevent from situating in front of the TV for the duration.
Smartphones to the rescue. Not really. It was AT&T 3G and an iPhone v. my Blackberry Curve and Verizon 3G. Neither performed admirably. My son had the iPhone and for 30 minutes tried to get a video feed over the Internet and specifically over iTunes. That did not work. Waaaaaaay too slow. My aging Curve doesn’t do video.
So he abandoned that effort and went to live blogging at Guardian.co.uk. I opted for the ESPN live blog of the game which provided minute-by-minute (and very opinionated) updates. My live blog worked well for the first half, but completely shut down in the second. My son’s live blog worked throughout (yes, AT&T prevailed over Verizon). 
Neither feed worked inside the church where the ceremony was held. Divine providence, perhaps! We only got reception in the vestibule, which improved near the windows.
By no means is this a definitive test. This was just my experience and where I happened to be when I REALLY wanted connectivity.
The inability for 3G to provide video and consistent connectivity reminded how badly we need 4G before the potential of the latest smart phones can be realized. Follow me on Twitter.
