I'm just wondering what it will cost if you're not eligible for a phone discount. If it's reasonable, I will probably end up buying this. If not, I'll just wait a couple months for the Android phones.

If the cost of ownership had actually gone down then maybe I'd bite. If I actually needed one then maybe I'd bite.

Something bugs me about paying $40+/month for hi-speed internet at home and then paying another $30/month for 3g internet. It doesn't help either that I get a free cell phone.

GPS is fairly worthless to me. I have one for the car and outside the initial 'wow' factor I've used it once since Xmas. I know where I'm going too. Even my wife, who is directionally challenged, resorts to her old habit of printing out directions first when she's going somewhere.

I wonder, does AT&T offer deals for mobile & DSL service together? Because I don't need much of an excuse to dump Comcast (especially since my TV service is DirecTV, not cable).

But soon you will be moving to the land of Cox and their wonderful Internets. A cox rep literally told me I could hack my modem. I got it on tape. Ah sweet plausible deniability.

The deal they do is not much. You need three services. Mobile, DSL, Dish Network, and home phone are what they offer. Choose three, and you get a small break of $5 a month.

Whatever happened to asking your boss or coworkers for a recommendation and some directions?

I don't count finding a place to eat during lunch on my new job as a reason to pay for $30/month for a data plan and buy a phone with a gps. I'd probably rather have 2 $15 free meal gift cards every month instead.

Plus you can always use your computer to do that and print out directions if you can't memorize them.

Personally i'd love to have one but I just can't justify the price considering my current albeit crappy phone (Samsung A900) has an unlimited data plan through sprints high speed network for $7/month. I'm hoping the Samsung instinct is a bit cheaper or at least can be paired with a cheaper plan.

I am all over this thing. Cannot wait - I skipped the first one because it wasn't 3G. I really hope that surfing GWJ on it is as good as doing so on my (already 3G) Samsung Blackjack, because that's a remarkably solid experience. In fact, the only way I would want to improve that experience would be to increase the speed.

My brother has the first one, it's SOOOO nice. Can't wait to grab a 16gb, load it up with some tunes and movies.

I think the issue Certis was getting at is that it really doesn't matter if GPS is not important to you, it is a feature that exists that will appeal to some. The last thing we need is a thread where one guy says I don't need GPS, then the next guy says he doesn't want to listen to music on his phone, the next guy says he doesn't want to surf the web on his, then another saying that the new Microsoft Exchange support is worthless to him, and so on.

Now, if those features are implemented in a way that makes them worthless, it's important to talk about. If similar features work better on other phones, I'd say that would be interesting.

I'll grab one if I can afford/justify the monthly bill.

Well I blame you for mentioning that you don't need the gps first. I only talked about it after reading it in your post.

Matter of fact your whole post was full of personal aversions to the iPhone 3g. You can thank me for taking the stern warning for the team later.

As I said over on Metafilter: the iPhone is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, version 0.02, single-planet edition. You can locate and summon virtually any service that modern civilization provides from almost all reasonably developed areas. And you can do this with minimal training and about five working brain cells. If you're a traveler, this thing is absolutely indispensable, even with the wimpy locator in the first edition.

If you don't travel much, having access to all of human knowledge on the road is probably of limited usefulness. If your car breaks down or you want pizza, and you're near home, you probably already know who to call and/or where to go. But if you spend much time away, it's instant semi-familiarity with any neighborhood, anywhere in the country. It's possibly the most powerful problem-solving device for travelers ever invented.

When I bought my first (and only) GPS, in 2000 sometime, I remember saying that I thought it was the biggest invention since the light bulb. The light bulb did away with the dark; the GPS does away with being lost. The iPhone does away with being ignorant. You can know virtually anything you need to know, anywhere you happen to be. It's a little awkward and clumsy compared with a full-size keyboard and screen, but it's a pretty fair substitute when those aren't available.

It's entertainment if you're bored, directions if you're lost, knowledge if you're ignorant. And it works almost anywhere. It's a big deal.

I just wish it wasn't so locked down; I really hope the hackers can rip it open for full access quickly.

And $5/mo for SMS is ridiculous.

edit to add: AT&T 2G service is pretty bad in some areas. Las Vegas was dismal. In the South, it's excellent. 3G may change that completely; I understand the coverage is entirely different in 3G mode. So it might suck here and be great in LV.

Ah I think was joking with the person I replied to who was joking with me?!??

Your post doesn't help things move along. It really has the opposite effect. Posts like yours just make the other guy want to defend themselves. (hence this post.)

Really don't assume the worst in people. IF you want things to be civil and move along then be civil and move along yourself.

Well, first, let's identify what Google Android is. It's a Linux kernel with a slim Java virtual machine sitting on top of it, and the core Android libraries are all written in Java. There are some C/C++ libraries built-in, but they are exposed through the Android APIs.

So, the first question is, has anyone managed to get Linux up and running on the iPhone? I see a project, iPhoneLinux, but their status page indicates that they haven't gotten very far.

Really good questions Edwin. Tell me when you find out
I was thinking of getting the Tilt. Now you didn't sign a 2 year contract so you bought it without a discount? If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost without discount? Also impressions would be great.

*checks thread title* Oh yeah. Does the iPhone 3g allow video recording?