If it isn't the return of firewire to the macbook line, I don't give a damn.

-Daniel

The damn thing's still $60+ bucks a month for the service. I can't afford Jesus at that price.

They should do what RIM did and make deals with all of the other carriers. Even if they limited the carriers to just the big three, AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile (in the States), they'd sell vastly more than keeping it chained to AT&T.

Saying these phones cost $99-$199 is like saying you can buy a car for $0 because dealerships offer "no money down" deals.

Eventually you have to pay for the phone/car.

I suppose advertising the phones as costing over $1680 would not be good for sales. (Two years on the "cheap" $70/mo. plan.)

How many years are left on this asinine Apple-AT&T deal?

So long as the device isn't tied to some of the most expensive or useless providers on the planet, but is instead sold as an unlocked mobile phone that can be used where ever the fuck I want to use it. THEN I might consider it. Otherwise it's just Apple shilling for certain phone companies all over again.

I've sworn off Apple products at the moment. I've gotten tired of trying to drain Steve's ego from the devices I already have, be damned if I'm going to create even more work for myself.

might almost be worth it.

If they really do come off the stick and will put out a 4 Gig 3G iPhone then I might well pony up for one. To be honest the difference between the cheapest AT&T contract and the one I have with Tmobile is five bucks a month and the internet/data service tacked on is minuscule at best in terms of minutes. I've looked and much prefer the contracts I've seen with AT&T over what I currently have since I'd rather have slightly fewer voice minutes per month in exchange for unlimited data (but that's just me). The only thing that kept me from an iPhone this year was the fact that I still have until March next year on my current contract with Tmobile.

I've seriously looked at the alternatives and the iPhone suits everything I need a portable to do and reduces the amount of crap I currently carry with me. I hope this prediction is true as I'd love to get in on that kinda deal.

Not that I'd get one, but this does not sound too bad... My current cell phone plan here is the most basic one from my provider, and it's $33-$35 a month. Includes almost nothing, some 200 min (which I never get close to using up), no free texts. Obviously no data or anything like that -- my phone is extremely primitive. So $70 does not sound like too much if it includes data and etc.

Whatever, what I'm interested in is a 32GB iPod Touch. If Apple would just stop making it hard for Linux fanbois to use the thing, I would have bought it already. As it is not, I have to keep waiting for the nice hackers out there to take care of business before.

I have full-featured computers I can use anywhere.

I have full-featured cameras I can use anywhere.

I can play music anywhere.

My phone is a phone. It works (nearly) anywhere.

Hydra equipment is a single point of failure. I'll pass, regardless of price and glitter.

I do wish people would stop bleating on about the "true" cost of the phone = Phone Cost + (monthly rental * contract length).

It may not have occurred to you, but you pay a monthly fee *regardless* of the phone you buy, and guess what? You get bundled minutes, text messages and data access in with the iphone contract too (or at least you do in the UK). They're going to make the money back one way or another, and I'd prefer to have a subsidised phone and spread the payments over 18 months

Would you feel better if the phone cost $1,500 but you paid for all your minutes and data access at the market rate?

... The guys at apple bring out an SIM FREE version of the iPhone which can be used on any network in the UK I wont be getting one!

I predict severe mental distress for Fanbois everywhere. I mean, it MUST be cool because the blessed Steve says so, but at the same time how can it be cool when it's (a) cheap and (b) sold in Wal Mart? How will they resolve that little dilemma?

Why, when talking about how they hate the iPhone, do people say "but it's not $99/$199/whatever-it-costs-for-the-phone, it's $2000, because that's the total cost of the contract and the phone!"

Why, when talking about any other contract phone on the planet, do people refrain from mentioning the total cost of the contract there?

Yeah, OK, over the 18 months of my iPhone contract, the damn thing will have cost me about £900, but that's less than my previous (blackberry) contract, which worked out almost £800 a year.

At least with the iPhone contract (in the UK anyway), I know what I'm getting.

So where's all that "but the blackberry will cost you $1997 over the contract term"?

Paris, because she is pay as you go.

"I've seriously looked at the alternatives and the iPhone suits everything I need a portable" - just lacking all that text forwarding, cut & paste, decent camera, no flash content, limited bluetooth and locked into malware ridden iTunes - damn, you are easily pleased.

Do you carry your laptop with you at all times?

Do you carry your camera with you at all times?

do you carry your MP3 player with you at all times?

Didnt think so...

Having a camera on a phone, and in fact other stuff to is pretty damm useful on occasion, if I want to take a pic of my daughter and email (MMS on iPhone plz) it to my wife then I dont want to have to get the camera out, take the picture, transfer it to my laptop, log onto nearest wifi hotspot, email pic...

Paris cause er... ... I got nothing sorry

@Tom Kerrigan

"I suppose advertising the phones as costing over $1680 would not be good for sales. (Two years on the "cheap" $70/mo. plan.)"

But it doesn't cost that much does it. FFS. Why do you people ALWAYS go way over the top? Factor in free airtime, SMS, wifi (wifi is part of the deal in the UK), tax AND phone subsidy, oh and the businesses need to make a profit, otherwise the cannot afford to pay the support staff, maintain their kit et c. Plus manufacture, distribution, export/import duties, R&D...

Think rationally, write it down, think about it some more, THEN post only in it doesn't seem hysterical.

@ Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 5th December 2008 12:36 GMT

""I've seriously looked at the alternatives and the iPhone suits everything I need a portable" - just lacking all that text forwarding, cut & paste, decent camera, no flash content, limited bluetooth and locked into malware ridden iTunes - damn, you are easily pleased."

The key phrase in Iam Me's stament was "I've...". For the hard of thinking, that mean that in HIS opinion as a consumer the device that most meets HIS criteria is the iPhone. The world REALLY DOESN'T revolve around you AC. Surely you should be at day care or where ever...

@ jake

Do you want all those horseless-carridges to go awy too? How about that newfangled television - it'll never catch on...

more iDiots blabbering on them...

Er....

I admit I'm only a Dev but I'm fairly sure that £900 is MORE than your "almost £800 a year" blackberry contract...

But hey.. don't let lucidity get in the way of a good rant :)

I'd buy a 4gb ipod touch for that price... no thanks on iphone. it can lick my area.

(paris because she can lick my area too)

his £900 was on an 18 month contract ie a year and a half....

Ah... my mistake... obvioulsy I am indeed a retard.... :-)

Of course it costs $1680. I'm financially commited for that, even if I don't get that value.

If I want a smart-phone to download apps onto, talk a little bit, an occasionally browse the Web, I can get a lite package from almost any operator, and if that costs me $40 a month and the phone is free, then that's $480 per year. If I buy an iPhone that's ONLY from 1 operator and ONLY with a minimum package then that's a cost I have to pay. Who cares if it comes with 'free minutes' etc that I don't want to use.

To continue the car analogy, it's like someone insisting I use Shell SuperUnleaded and have to buy at least 100 litres a month to run a certain car. With another car I can run unleaded from any forecourt. Am I going to factor that into the car cost?, for sure!

> Do you carry your laptop with you at all times?

Yep. One is within arms reach, unless I'm in the shower.

> Do you carry your camera with you at all times?

See above.

> do you carry your MP3 player with you at all times?

I don't own one. I have real music capability everywhere it's appropriate.

> Do you want all those horseless-carridges to go awy too?

Don't be daft. I collect them ... But that doesn't mean the Wife & I don't take the buck-board to town occasionally ... We're primarily a Hunter/Jumper barn, but we do have a couple draft horses that use to train folks driving. I'm restoring a "Cinderella" coach, which we plan to rent out to yuppies for weddings & the like :-)

LOL, here is a dime go buy a clue troll boy cos you fail at even coming close to adult comprehension. Lets see here no cut and paste, don't need it. Camera, is perfectly fine and if I want quality pictures that's what I have an actual camera for. I'll give you text forwarding. Limited blue tooth eh, I think that one belongs in the same category as this choice quote "malware ridden iTunes". Malware ridden iTunes?? Really, you're going to stand behind that iTunes statement are you? I hope so because it would prove what a clueless fuckwit you really are. Please do because I could really use another good laugh for the day.

Oh and by the way, since you are the be all and end all (in addition to just another clueless luser with a baseless pathological hatred of Apple for no apparent reason) of what a smart phone should be, then what phone would you recommend. Do tell the unwashed masses that we may bask in the glory of your knowledge.

I'm not the same AC as at 12:36.

With no cut-and-paste there's no way of, say, cutting and pasting information from a text to your browser. I mean when you finally get there you'd not be able to see the site- or even get someone to MMS over a screenshot of it to you.

Also, you can't cut and paste texts to get 'round the no text-forwarding thing.

I'll agree with you on the camera- they are always crap on smartphones, aren't they?

Limited Bluetooth was probably because it doesn't support some profile or other. Someting no-one would EVER use on a mobile-media device, like support for stereo bluetooth headsets (A2DP profile). Or a keyboard to type messages quicker (HID profile). Or the Bluetooth remote control function. Or Basic Imaging Profile, File Transfer profile or even Object Push. Or Basic Printing Profile (BPP), Cordless Telephony Profile (CTP), Device ID Profile (DID), Dial-up Networking Profile (DUN), Fax Profile (FAX), General Audio/Video Distribution Profile (GAVDP), Generic Access Profile (GAP), Generic Object Exchange Profile (GOEP), Intercom Profile (ICP), Personal Area Networking Profile (PAN), Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP), Serial Port Profile (SPP), Service Discovery Application Profile (SDAP), SIM Access Profile (SAP,SIM), Synchronisation Profile (synch), Video Distribution Profile (vdp), or Wireless Application Protocol Bearer (WAPB).

As far as limited goes, only supporting bluetooth headsets is pretty limited.

I don't use iTunes, so I can't coment on that.

I've got an HTC Kaiser. Crap camera, but 3D hardware accelleration, cut/paste, the ability to write my own software if required. Also, I can play Quake 2 on my phone if I get bored- can you? Oh aye, and it's actually modern, what with HSDPA rather than quaint old 3G that the iPhone's just got. I can change my own battery, I can change providers- or change to PAYG. WiFi, touchscreen, it's a bit bigger owing to it having a keyboard. Oh, and flash online too :D

Camera's still crap...