I'm not going to stop making fun of you, but that's only because I wish I could have an iPhone. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn't believe my state exists.

I'm not a big fan of Steve Jobs. I've worked with him as an enterprise customer, and I think he's a dick.

But I think the iPhone, and Apple in general, give us something more important than a device for a price with this feature but missing that feature.

Apple gives every other competitor a high bar to try to jump over.

I think the iPhones are pretty cool. Just not the dickbags holding them.... usually.

I'm happy with my iPhone, but I rather have an unlocked, MMS capable device with the same interface. The gPhone perhaps?

"it's still got more features than any phone I've used."
Not sure how that happened; just about any GSM phone these days is capable of running J2ME apps. You could have loaded Google Maps and Opera Mini on those. YouTube is the only thing you might be missing out on; but even then, most phones nowadays can access YouTube mobile too.

I'd get an iPhone if they'd go away from ATT oh and get MMS.

Buying mine right after the price drop, I managed to escape being one of the first adopters. But I definitely wouldn't mind having been one.

Seriously. All the clowns that diss anyone who bought an iPhone in the first year really need to take a step back and realize how stupid some of their talking points are.

It's the best gadget ever. Don't agree? Fine. But get off my nuts!!

As cool as the iphone is I don't need a $300 cell phone mine still works fine. For those who would use all the features more power too them, I know I wouldn't use half the stuff on it.

They announced "no commitment" pricing. Activate it (which I presumes unlocks it, or JailBreak it), and take it to any other carrier that it works on. I guess in the US, that's only T-Mobile.

I didn't spring for the first one, 'cos I'm not about to sign a two year contract. I might go for the 3G version, now that I don't need a new contract. I'm an AT&T customer, but have been contract-free for three years, and like it that way.

Ooh Alex, don't forget 'no cut and paste'

That's amazing. A phone that makes calls, AND lets you look at the Internet, AND lets you read mail? AND works as a GPS device?

I have one, called the Samsung i760. Before that, I had one called the Palm Treo 700w. They both had little keyboards too. I'm hard-pressed to figure out what the iPhone does that my i760 doesn't.

Oh, why? Well, I still use a Clié (Sony with Palm OS), and an iPod for the car, plus my AT&T phone, plus my work phone. For the minutes I use, I could forward the work calls to the AT&T phone, and ditch everything else. Plus wireless web browsing? Cool.

Actually, anyone with real experience syncing with Outlook at work, and also Mail/iCal (or even Entourage) at home? I can't even do that well with the Clié.

This essay or blog entry is a little contrived.. Why the poor me, pity me attitude.
I've had an iphone from day three, and have never been made fun of. Alex makes it sound like having an iphone is like being a leper.
How does this make "shoppers bite back" -- more like a where "shoppers exhibit depression"

@balthisar: Ahhh I had a Clie! Getting a Treo changed my life forever.

Here's why we make fun of the iPhone Illuminati...because you felt the need to put "Sent from my iPhone" at the bottom of a 500 word screed about your iPhone.

I'm just saying. Be happy with your purchase. Who cares what anyone thinks.

DC, particularly NW, is layed out in a grid based upon numbers and letters. Who knew that the iPhone was for retards?

I have an iPhone and love it. But, if you need serious technology to find Fox and Hounds, you should be operating yours while wearing a helmet.

iPhones rock... being exclusive to AT&T makes me cry.

@backbroken: It was a joke.

For those that thing AT&T's the problem, and that going to another provider is a solution, you have a few roadblocks:

First, the iPhone's GSM, a global cell phone standard. Since Sprint and (currently) Verizon's CDMA, they're out. T-Mobile is GSM as well as AT&T... but T-Mobile doesn't have 3G data service and their coverage map is worse. The best bet *IS* AT&T, unfortunately.

Yeah I love the iPhone but not the thought of a hideously expensive two year stint with the death star...

Only a few more years...

@STrRedWolf: As a current T-Mobile user, let me say that the coverage may be worse, but it's almost never a significant issue, at least in my experience. They have roaming agreements with almost every GSM provider out there and coverage only craps out in places like the middle of west Texas or deep in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. Honestly, I don't ever plan to/need to go to either of those locales.

Besides, we're not nickel and dimed for every little service in everyday usage.

@backbroken: The average man needs copy and paste to include all those links. Here, I almost thought Alex was no average man...

@postnocomments , BeastMD: If you had an iPhone, you could send an email, with attachments, for free. (Rest-In-Peace, MMS.)

That qualifies as a "confession"?

The Consumerist is really going downhill.

Maddox wrote an article: "The iPhone is a piece of shit, and so is your face"

[www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net]

Pretty funny. The iPhone itself is fine, the movement, is retarded.

iPhones are neat toys that nobody needs in my opinion. My HTC Touch does everything I want it to do for cheaper. But hey, people have different tastes and if it makes you happy, go for it.

I don't hate on anyone who has an iPhone... just don't talk loudly about it to your friends while flashing it in front of everyone. I think my dick is pretty cool but I don't whip it out and toss it around in front of you.

@blainer: I think you're confused. The Phoenix metropolitan area is an example of an accessible grid (nominally 1 mile on each edge). DC with its cross-hatched, 19th century streets is not.

I never felt bad about buying my phone (on day 3), and now I feel even better about since the 2G plans are a hell of a lot more reasonable than the 3G plans. Apple needs to reconsider their exclusivity with the deathstar, since their family plan just cost Apple a couple of 3G sales and a mobile me subscription.

I bought my iPhone on the first day as well, and have not regretted once overpaying the $200, and my only complaint is no MMS. The new iPhone doesn't solve this, and the only good upgraded feature is GPS. However, I have found the cell tower location works fairly well.

3G is also not available in my area and probably won't be for some time, thus not a big upgrade in my eyes.

Then you have the fact that the new one costs more over 2 years than the original one did. I used my $100 Apple credit to buy AppleCare, so warrenty running out isn't an issue for another year either.

I'll wait until next year when low model iPhones are free with 2 year contract (Razr anyone?).

Oh man, I love that video too

Let me preface this by stating that if I could go out and get an iPhone tomorrow, I would.

Having said that, I don't "need" an iPhone. Here are my needs for a wireless device:

* Make and receive phone calls adequately
* Small, solid form factor that is easy to carry around
* Customizable within reason [ringers, backgrounds, applications]
* Access to mobile web for checking e-mail, newsfeeds
* GPS, if possible

For $75 on a two-year contract, my LG VX8350 does all of that. Sure, I'm under lock and key for 24 months just like an AT&T customer - but I end up paying less in the long run.

* VZ Nav - works well
* 'Side loading' ringers and backgrounds - works well
* Mobile Web [2.0] - Fast enough to check my GAFYD Account
* 8350 is a clamshell style device, fits easily into pants pocket or holster

Oh, the phone plays music as well.

With the recent introduction to Form-fill on Google Docs, I've been able to modify an on-the-go register to keep track of expenditures on the go. That eliminates my PDA.

Yeah, my tweaks and interfaces aren't maybe a swank looking as they could be on the iPhone, but I'm doing it on the cheap and I get a greater sense of accomplishment that way.

@Michael Belisle: Take a look at those "cross-hatched, 19th century streets" within a mile of Fox and Hounds. Notice anything in common? That's right, they're all named after states. Not being able to find 17th and Q is pathetic and I can barely read a map.

Totally forgot this, but worthy of its own entry:

Call quality - amazing.

Those who say their phone does everything the iPhone does have not user an iPhone.

The amazing thing about the iPhone is the phone is the feature I use the least.

@blainer: Alright. Let's fight.

I know Fox & Hounds is near Dupont Circle, it usually wasn't my first stop, so I couldn't remember how to get there unless I checked Google Maps.

Now, once the Jesus phone says "Q and 17th St NW, 0.2 m away (p.s. you're at P and 19)", then yes, it gets much easier.

@The Rude Bellman: The amazing thing about the iPhone is the phone is the feature I use the least.

Exactly... that's why I'm not impressed. For my cell phone is just a phone. I buy the cheapest thing I can find that feels like it can be dropped and sat on multiple times. No, I wouldn't take it personally if you considered that boring. The OP's article seems really absurd to me, in fact I'm wondering if it's a form of satire.

@Michael Belisle: Yes, not being able to send MMS shouldn't be a problem on the iPhone. Not being able to receive one...now that has no workarounds.

I bought an iPod Touch because I pretty much keep my life on that (it replaced my Palm Pilot) and didn't want to lose my life if I lost my phone. As tempting as the new iPhone may be, I'd still wait -- you don't know what surprises Steve Jobs has in store 6 weeks after THAT launch.

@SBR249: Sure there are a couple workarounds: Exhibit A or Exhibit B. The rumor mill says a real MMS solution may be coming with the IM client.

@Televiper: My last phone was just a phone too. But do you sometimes have an MP3 player, portable web browser, organizer, GPS, shitty camera or any electronic device other than a phone? That's the primary benefit for me: having all of those in one slim device whenever I want it.

@Michael Belisle: Actually no. I have a small Sansa Mp3 player and a spiral notebook. I know how to use a map so GPS is unnecessary, and to me surfing the web is something I do at home. I have a fairly good camera that fits in my pocket, and actually does have a flash (if not it's hard to buy a phone without one). I'm an engineer, I design electronics, I'd just prefer to get away from this stuff. I am very conscious when deciding what I need, and in my mind that fits in with the Consumerist mentality.

I do respect where you're coming from. That does seem to be your thing. You'd probably disagree with some of the ways I spend my money too :)

@Cynicor:

Yeah, and a Hyundai has 4 tires, a steering wheel, runs on gas, and gets you places just like a Porsche!

Yup, other than the expensive monthly plan, the iPhone is a great deal for all that it does.

When its free with a 2 year contract, I'm all for having an iPhone

I bought a Moto Q9c for $150 and I get to use the fastest data network in the nation (I bench 1M/128K on Sprint). Google Maps? Installed the app as soon as I got it. YouTube? It's had a WML/WAP version for a looong time. WikiPedia? I use WaPedia for mobile-friendly pages. Music and video? Instead of buying a crap-ton of expensive flash memory, I stream it off of my PC with Orb and don't worry about getting it into a compatible format. Still waiting for someone to mention something, anything, that the iPhone does that a comparable handset will not.

You know what I really hate about the iPhone? How developers are falling over themselves to build apps for it when platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile represent several times the market share. It especially cheeses me off then the app in question is a webapp? Uh, hello? Anyone heard of WML? Maybe browser detection? It's called standards, folks, and I would think that the kind of people cheesed at Microsoft for corrupting them wouldn't give Apple a free pass on it either. I'm surprised that Steve Jobs can even move with all of the folks standing on his coattails to kiss his ring.

@LINIS:

I whip out my Moto Q that does YouTube better than my friend's iPhone cause it's on Sprint's EV-DO network. Thing came out YEARS before the iPhone.

And yay for Orb! That program owns everything if you have a decent connection but so few people know about it.

Fanboys are overrating the iPhone, but the detractors are just as bad.

What's special about the iPhone isn't what it does, but how much BETTER it does it than its competitors. Who the heck is going to buy a blackberry now when you can get an iPhone for the same price?

Cell phones have been terrible over here. The software always sucks and the hardware is barely better. Even the iPhone killers are clueless. Copying the hardware and throwing on crap software at the last minute doesn't work!

If I hadn't made it clear at the start of every transaction - the iPhone owners in South America who bought them from me at $750 each... well, I'd take their complaining more seriously. But I made it clear - ALL you will get from me is a shrink-wrapped iPhone brand new from an Apple store. It's up to you to get it unlocked.

And still they whine. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

As for me, I was ahead a few hundred bucks in Vegas so I decided to eat the iPhone dogfood. It was a nice -if fleeting- moment liberating it from the Deathstar. But the USAGE experience sucked.

I like my HTC phone running WM6 a whole lot better.

@Televiper: My last cell phone was a Nokia 3390, which I got when it was still the newest, smallest phone out there. It was indestructible until I dropped a large ceramic bowl on top of it (a month ago). When it came time to look at new phones, I looked at all of them, Blackberry, Tilt, everything. I wasn't under a contract, so I checked on phones from different carriers. I didn't like anything, and had decided to just get another 3390 on eBay, but my mother wanted to see what the iPhone hype was about on the way out of the store.

It was beautiful. It displayed web pages just like my computer, you could pinch the screen to zoom out, its display was bright and shiny... It was the most well-designed thing I'd ever seen. I agonized over spending $400 on a phone, but I decided it was worth it, because I haven't bought a new phone in almost eight years, and it will probably be another eight before I do it again. I've now spent a total of $460 on cell phones in the last ten years.

I have NO regrets. The enjoyment I get out of it every time I use it makes it well worth every penny. And I don't care what other people think of my iPhone, any more than I cared what they thought of my 3390 (which I also loved).

I do get irritated by the automatic assumption that I must either be an Apple fanboy, a trendy hipster, or a foolish spendthrift. I'm none of these, and I'll bet the majority of Consumerist-reading iPhone users aren't either.

have fun paying the extra data/text prices too. get a blackberry.

@Televiper: You'd probably disagree with some of the ways I spend my money too.

Nah, it's your money and doesn't affect me. Blow it on strippers and alcohol for all I care.