I do agree with you on that part of your statement.

That is what my aunt wants.

So the iPhone 2 looks really good, to be fair, Apple have been doing really good products, that emphasise an easier digital lifestyle than their competitors. They are generally simple to work, hard to break, pretty good against viruses and don't suck @ss 3 months after you bought it (my 800mhz imac is still pretty good).
I love the way my mac 'works' and doesn't require changing settings and moving files to different places, using wizards and what not. But I also love my NIT, mainly because it's different (the reason I bought my mac), you get to see how things work on the flip side. Now Maemo may not be perfect (lordy it is far from that!), but it is on the right track, Canola looks great, some of the apps are great for what we (the end user pays), and it's open source.
So for a good proportion of people out there they'll buy an iphone with a massive contract and data charges, and they'll play with their new gadgets and widgets, and the software will work nicely. Some people will stick with windows mobile (there's just no talking to some people), while others will use their blackberries and palm os. While some of us will keep using our NIT's, the constantly evolving OS (please get off your @ss Nokia), and the vast array of great open source software, safe in the knowledge that it won't be perfect, but that it's ours, and it still looks pretty f**king cool.

Oh, and I don't want to pay a £40 a month contract either.
Sorry for the soap box

No worries, that is what these threads are for. I suppose.

To quote the instructions on shampoo: lather, rinse, repeat.

You can kill a programmer like that

First of all I never bought any Apple product, and I don't like their non-standards, closed source, DRM, certain 'rogue' enthuasiasts and so on, and so on... however Apple products & community have many + too, I know that.

Today I used an Apple Iphone 1 and I have to admit: this seemed a good device. Lets ignore the terrific way one starts applications on the OS (although I did miss a statusbar and so on). The thing even has a maps, sweet & useful accelerometer, a browser with terrific zooming capabilities. I would not even need multitouch. You double click on a text and it knows you want to read that part. Terrific! I still wonder how to select text though. Anyway, with 3G and WiFi you have all the connectivity you need. With GPS, PIM, media player, phone it has a lot to offer. Smartphones, PDAs, MITs, netbooks, MP3 players, portable DVB, digicam, navigation systems they're all very similar to each other, or overlapping each other. Often, hardware designed for a specific purpose (say DAP/MP3 player) has 'more' to offer than an all-in-one device, but sometimes 'enough is just enough'; you don't need 'the best of the best'. You can say the N96 is Nokia's competitor for the Iphone 2, but given both their functions its also a competitor to Nokia's N8x0. It'll be released Q3. When in Q3? No idea. The N96 will be sold for... how much?

The 200 USD statement is BS. You still need a subscription with it, and tada: the subscriptions for an Iphone are incredibly expensive. However, in USA, unlocked Iphone 2 costs 600 USD (700 USD for 16 GB version). This is cheap: for 380 EUR you got it. Don't forget to include S&H and import tax. Although there are ways to work around that. Note, although it doesn't apply here, many Europeans don't know this: import tax is NOT counted until 150 EUR.

I just noticed that if you are already an AT&T customer, an iPhone 3G unlimited data plan is just $30/month extra on top of your current voice plan ($20/month for the 1st gen iPhone). I think that's still cheap compared to other countries.

Really? Unlimited? Define unlimited? I think its on par with normal prices. Here in The Netherlands I get for 10 EUR an 'unlimited' data plan (FUP), for a mobile phone. The iPhone costs 30 EUR a month with 'unlimited' data plan (FUP) and 150 minutes calling & 150 SMS. Compared to other deals like say a N95-2 with data plan, free minutes/SMS, 24 months this is pretty expensive. You have to take into account its X EUR a month more expensive than an alternative. It isn't possible to switch from T-Mobile + iPhone 1 to T-Mobile + iPhone 2 here though, and this lack of option is widely criticized. Its important to note that contracts state its illegal to use either one or more of the following: VoIP, 3rd party devices like laptops, VPN.

VoIP because it competes with their over-expensive, monopolized GSM services.
3rd party devices like laptops are not allowed because these potentially create too much data traffic.
VPN because of data traffic and because it allows above 2 options.

In this case 'unlimited' is 'limited' by contract, and if you use far more than the average usage they are able to 1) breach the contract 2) limit your speed. This is even defined in some contracts. For example Vodafone Germany states you get 500 MB per month, but when you use 300 MB, they cap you heavily to 384 kbit/sec down and 64 kbit/sec up. Although this is an example of the limited data limit, it was also true for the unlimited data plan although this one costed like 80 EUR a month so I haven't bothered to remember that. Besides that theres usually a FUP.

Therefore, in at least 2 ways (speed-wise and connectivity/legal-wise) unlimited is an illusion, a hyped marketing term. It should be illegal to use it, because its misleading advertising.

ugg, iThought that the this iThread was iDead. I guess iWas iWrong.

I think I heard that the iPhone finally went on sale here in Kanada. iDon't know the iDetails because iDon't iCare but it is safe to say that at several times the cost of anywhere else on earth you don't even get an unlimited data plan. And people wonder why I don't have any kind of cell plan up here..... I'll just stay happy with WiFI, SIP, and the N8.

Hello

Last friday I bought the iPhone, where my N800 is collecting dust in the bag I always carry around. It is good for receiving Files via Bluetooth, but I think Apple will release some advanced profiles in the next firmware, because why should they take Bluetooth 2.0+EDR just for HSP?

I really like the zippiness of the iPhone, surfing the web or opening the application is fast, faster than on any Windows Mobile or Symbian smartphone I've seen and used. The App Store is also a brilliant tool! You can download your Apps in iTunes, but also everywhere else.

The streghts of the N800 is the possibilities, there are no limits in what you can do, it's just a question of sense.

I like both worlds, but for most of the time (99%) I prefer using the iPhone. But for special needs an N800 is affordable and does it's job quite good!

Which just shows that boundless optimism about "the next one" is not unique to Nokia fans... Anyway, if they do, the obvious profile to add is DUN/PAN. Then it might actually make sense to tote an iPhone 3G and N800 at the same time.