iPhone ShmIphone

What people fail to realize is that this is just like any other gadget! It has pros, cons, side effects and issues, and in this case MAJOR issues.

Take for example that nice, 3.5" LCD screen. True it's something, it's gorgeous. If it was on an IPod or a Sony PSP. But smacked next to your lovely face? Ladies, do I hear anyone say, Doh, Foundation! These things came with trial and error to major manufacturers like Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola and Samsung. It took them years and plenty of failures to realise that a glass sheet stuck next to your oily, sweaty, chemical laden face is NOT a pleasant thing.

But that's only the beginning. Also, many years ago people have discovered (through accessibility research which Jobs apparently doesn't give a damn about), well they discovered that 90% of people actually don't look at the keypad. That's right. People just slide their fingers until they find that little protrusion marking the number "5" (also search for that on your num-keypad on your keyboard). It makes life much easier. Especially in dark situations, of for the SMS worrior, or the old aunti who misplaced her glasses.

The next thing is the dimensions. It's 135grams 115x61x11.6 now quite frankly, that's large, heavy and unusual. It frankly looks like a Sony PSP without the keys.

Now to the seriously nasty stuff. It's Cingular ONLY for 2 YEARS and you have to sign up a 2 year contract to get the advertised price of $499. Highly discounted of course and heavily LOCKED and Cingular customised.

No Push Mail. Come on if you're getting an awesome phone, wouldn't you want to do some "work" on it?

There's also no word on A2DP stereo bluetooth (play tunes on your gadget while you're wireless headphones are picking them up over bluetooth, pretty nifty, first to the market Nokia)

I project the price of the unlocked version of the phone will be in the neighborhood of $900 for the 4GB version. That's the price of a pretty decent laptop + a moto-razr and some change in your pocket.

But I have to admit, the cool factor is there.

Advocates say, well Apple users don't usually worry about technical details. Well, *NEWSFLASH*, this phone is not directed to apple fans, but rather to the masses. Someone paying $900 for a phone sure knows (or should know) what he's getting. And lets be real only a tiny section of the geeky crowd is NOT interested in specs. Does this phone looks like my mamma's next phone? No way in hell. Does it look like a geek's phone? Well, after considering all the opportunities out there.... I'd go for a nice Samsung SGH-i310 (which have been out for a year now) but can you look at these specs and cry!!? it even has TV out for god's sake! Voice recognition ... etc ...etc ...etc

SGH-i310 Specifications

Standard		GSM / GPRS (900/1800/1900MHz) + EDGE
OS		Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone
Camera		2 Megapixel Camera with Flash
Display		2.0” 240x320 65K Color TFT
Features		8 GB HDD Video Recording & Messaging (MPEG4 / H.263) MP3 / AAC / ACC+ / ACC+(e) / WMA / WAV / OGG Dual Speaker / Digital Power Amp / External Music Key / BT Stereo Bluetooth® Technology / USB 2.0 / Voice Recognition Document Viewer / TV-out / BT Printing
Memory		8GB HDD embedded, External memory (microSD)
Size		111.9 x 48.5 x 19.8 mm
Weight		120 g