well, here we are again with an iPhone story.

Ive gone from WOW, to WHATEVER.

Simply put the iPhone is a iPod with a cheap and nasty GSM radio in it.

The gadget itself it technically unimpressive.

Think of it more of an iPod with a phone inside rather than a phone with an iPod inside

Its junk, and anyone who get this on a contract AND pays for the hardware wants examined by a doctor

...before it even touches down here. Come on Apple, let old Europe hear some news. As Andy sais, the PRICE + provicer lock-in thing is still high up in my BAD book, and I ususally like Apple a lot. I mean, they can apparently rip-off Americans that way as they apparently are used to it, but in Europe? Come on... It better be better for that. I admit I would love to have one. With cut & paste, Mac media control via WiFi, and proper sync. You know, proper, like support *#!"&§ categories in the calendar app, and exportable notes.

I still like the "Will it blend?" video more...

>Simply put the iPhone is a iPod with a cheap and nasty GSM radio in it.

>Think of it more of an iPod with a phone inside rather than a phone with an iPod inside

The fact that it actually runs a version of OS X with CoreGraphics and all that inside a handheld is worth nothing? The multi-touch display and UI? It's actually very unlike an iPod, in terms of hardware, functionality and design, and I'm sure you'd know that if you've ever even see one.

Anyone who's technically inclined and has spent 10 minutes trying an

iPhone can't help but be impressed. I've tried one for phone, wifi browsing, youtube,and camera functions (skipped the iPod part) and was indeed impressed. Wifi beats any 3G internet connection speed. My Blackberry is just a plaything compared to the iPhone.

I suspect all but the last comment above are from folks who never actually had their hands on an iPhone. It is indeed a revolution in Cell phones that has Nokia, Sony-Eriksson, Qualcomm, Motorola and others buying iPhones to take apart to help design their future products.

I am still unimpressed.

I have used probably fifteen mobiles for work. None, and I mean none, from the Pearl to some crappy old thing from LG have come close to what the iPhone does. With very little effort, I have a complete bash shell running in my iPhone. I no longer have to carry my laptop around to work on access points. I can simply get in proximity with my iphone and run whatever commands I need to to repair them on the fly. I can install software updates using FTP and manage all the settings from a device fits in the palm of my hand. Even though the things that I mention are not standard, they aren'y exactly hard to accomplish. I defy anyone to claim that their device does these things better than the iPhone.

So, one of my developers was in great need of a moral boost and was already the lone-wolf AT&T user in the building, so I decided to buy him an iPhone as a way to say thanks for all this hard work.

He gets the phone and spends most of a whole day playing with it and getting it set up and, lack of productivity not-withstanding, I was wholly impressed with the . It really works, and works well. I was really tickled that the UI worked just as advertised. I decided then and there I'd like to have one. Except,

I refuse to bow to the arrogance of any hardware provider who seeks to force me to use the service of their choosing. It's just bad policy and reinforces really bad ideas in already screwy corporate mentalities. Until I can buy an iPhone (that isn't hacked or fucked up by some 3rd party software) that works out of the box on any provider I refuse to buy one. Probably doesn't make much of a difference to Apple but I will do what I can to reinforce consumer rights.