Network data transfer tests on 57,000 iPhones all over the United States show that, on average, AT&T iPhone data transfer rates are about 2 times faster than Verizon iPhone’s.

Wired reports:

Ookla, creators of the Speedtest.net broadband test, compiled data from tests run by iPhone customers using the Speedtest.net app on both AT&T and Verizon. On average, the reported AT&T iPhone transfer rates were roughly two times faster than the Verizon iPhone’s.

The AT&T iPhone’s average download speed was 1,769 Kbps, and the average upload speed was 730 Kbps. By way of comparison, the Verizon iPhone’s average download speed was 848 Kbps, and the average upload speed was 506 Kbps.

The results come from 43,000 AT&T iPhones and 14,000 Verizon iPhones all over the United States. Most Speedtest.net app users ran the tests multiple times, totaling 106,000 results from AT&T iPhone users and 49,000 results from Verizon iPhone users.

Wired also notes that in the reporter’s own tests, tests show that the Verizon iPhone is able to complete all tests while AT&T iPhones were not, leading to the conclusion that AT&T’s coverage isn’t as good as Verizon’s.

Of course, this may not seem like news to most people. AT&T has been notorious for dropped calls while Verizon continues to tout its broad and reliable cell phone coverage. In my continuing saga of cell phone shopping, I have to make a trade-off if I really want an iPhone. AT&T’s iPhone is faster than Verizon’s iPhone, but AT&T has poorer coverage than the Verizon iPhone.

The conclusion? Go with AT&T’s iPhone if you plan to use it primarily to surf the web and other online activities, but go with the Verizon iPhone if making and receiving quality calls is more important to you. What do you think?

We all do it– the quick cell phone screen wipe on our clothes or just taking our thumb and re-smudging the screen. (Or at least I’ve done it myself and seen others do it as well.) So how dirty exactly is that new iPhone you’re gabbing on, I wondered.

A Google search for “cell phone bacteria” came up with several great sources on this topic. I found the following great YouTube video from a news station in Albuquerque that shows the kinds of bacteria that exist on cell phones including staphylococcus, the bacteria that can cause meningitis.

In another article, ABC News shows that cell phones are the dirtiest among toilet seats and the bottoms of our shoes! Check it out here.

To keep our Blackberrys, G1s, Sidekicks, fill-in-the-blanks clean and to reduce the risk of illness from gossiping/texting/blabbing on our devices, just use an anti-bacterial wipe or rubbing-alcohol-soaked cotton ball and gently wipe the surfaces of your cell phone.  Note that a hands-free gadget like a bluetooth headset is also more clean than the average mobile phone.