"our mellifluous voice..." Ben referring to himself in the plural now??? ditch the layout and keep up the great work!

I almost never listen to the radio these days, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear Ben's voice when I happened to be listening to NPR in the car today. Kudos!

@DCvision: Perhaps he's "the Royal we"

Now, now, now, even you should know that death isn't a viable way to cancel your cell phone.

I also heard something similar on this subject on NPR as well. But it was a different guest and she had a better idea on getting your contract canceled. First check to see if your roaming coverage is free. Then, roam with your cellphone like you're a hobo with a hot corporate deal that'll get you off the streets and into a brand new home. Roam for over 50% of the time and your cell company may drop your contract as now it'll start to cost them money to keep your contract.

Seriously people. It is just a cell phone. Besides switching to AT&T will just bring more regrets later. Other carriers will start offering it soon enough when Apple realizes the mistake it made and the less than satisfactory number of sales.

Thanks for posting these tips! You'll need them once you switch to AT&T and realize the quality and customer service is the worst in this country.

AT&T has a 5 years exclusive on the iPhone.

They made extensive and costly changes to their network to accomodate Apple...specifically the visual voice mail feature.

@Mojosan: Pfff... Visual voicemail is just a simple software update to their Comverse voicemail platform. That really doesn't make it an "extensive costly change".

I'm suspecting the majority of their cash went to marketing.

Here is a tip for those that don't want the iPhone, but do like saving money: call your operator and threaten to cancel. I called T-mobile yesterday and let them know I was thinking of getting the iPhone.

After a 5 minute story about how terrible the iPhone is, and how T-mobile is so much better I explained I really wanted it, and that I didn't care about the termination fee.

I ended up getting 3 months of service for free "for being a valued customer". Saving: over $200 for a 10 minute phone call.

Operators are scared, and now is the time to take advantage of that.

@Mojosan:

I failed to see how adding a visual element to voicemail would cost more than the time it takes somebody to code that onto the network.

I almost think that's something that could be done on any cell network. I alredy get an SMS message when I get a voicemail, so how much more difficult would it be to a code a program which attaches the caller ID/Name to the voicemail and automatically updates depending on how many voicemails are in the system?

Another thing, I hope people know what they're doing.

Two year plan
+$500-$600 OTD
+$40 voice plan
+$20 data plan
+$35 or so activation (for the droves of new ppl)
___________________________________
A lot of freakin' money and commitments for a phone that will be obsolete and lame when iPhone 2 and competitors come out.

I think a lot of people are going to regret the decision to get one once the hype dies.

Can anyone say "Newton?"

@Hawk07: So basically, 500-600 for the phone? $60 for voice and data is pretty hard to beat, and $35 for activation is par for the course as well. I'm not arguing that it's not expensive, but I don't know of any cell phone with unlimited data that's less than that.

The real outrage, which I'm surprised consumerist hasn't picked up on, is that prepaid plans are available, but only to people with BAD credit. If your credit is good enough to qualify for a contract, the contract is your ONLY option. The prepaid plans have fewer minutes, but they're actually cheaper and have the same unlimited data and 200 txt included (e.g., $50 for 200 minutes/data/200 txt v. $60 for 450 min/data/200 txt). Rewarding deadbeats with better pricing and no contract...Grrrrr.

lhutz, that's not better pricing. It's cheaper, but not a better value.

@lhutz34:

$60 sounds good until you realize you're only getting 450 minutes. You can get a Blackberry (or any phone for that matter, the BB data plan can be used on anything) on T-Mobile for $60 and get unlimited data and 1,000 minutes (or 1,500 if you take advantage of a promo plan they have right now, but that doesn't include free nights and weekends). Then there's Sprint's SERO deals which I don't know off the top of my head. AT&T's pricing is a ripoff.

A. There are companies that make 3rd party Visual Voicemail for Blackberry & WM5/WM6.

B. If you live in a major city, why would you want a phone that only supports GPRS & EDGE?

C. I have AT&T & enjoy their service. I currently have the Palm 750 and HTC P3600 - I would never get an iPhone.

Set your phone to roam only under its network settings and your cell provider will cancel you within about 2 months.