Yeah, I admit it, I have no willpower what-so-ever. I will give my self credit for at least considering the situation carefully before picking up an iPhone. I know damn well what I’m getting myself into, and I also know 600 for a phone is somewhat insane, but at this point, I could care less. I know all of the iPhone’s weaknesses and that it is entirely possible there will be a new version in under a year, and I still don’t care.

After seeing countless commercials, and reading countless articles, and doing my own share of bashing, I just could resist the thing.

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Most people don’t know who John C. Dvorak is, so they might be shocked by his claim that “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone”, those that do know of him, would just consider this business as usual. He has always been extremely skeptic of Apple products but he’s smart enough to substantiate his bold claims with some sort of logic. He raises several interesting points, including:

• It’s the loyalists who keep promoting this device as if it is going to be anything other than another phone in a crowded market.
• [The mobile market] is not an emerging business. In fact it’s gone so far that it’s in the process of consolidation with probably two players dominating everything, Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc.
• The problem here is that while Apple can play the fashion game as well as any company, there is no evidence that it can play it fast enough. These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

You may already be sold on the “Jesus Phone”, but the article is worth a read.

Word on the street is that the AppleTV is finally shipping out to customers who ordered theirs early, which is good for them, but due to the fact that Apple seems to have made locking out user generated content standard practice (at least, without a whole lot of leg work), I’m not in the market.

In steps the Netgear EVA8000, which seems capable of streaming every format under the sun (Including streaming your Bitorrent files) for only $100 more than the AppleTV, and all in HD as well. It’s for Windows users only, which should be great news for those that have made the switch to Vista.

I’ve been waiting to pick up a Mac Pro for a while due to the rumors they would be updated soon, looks like it’s almost time. Seems someone at the UK web branch screwed up, which probably isn’t so great for their job status, but it’s great for the internet rumor mill.

In my quest not to get rail-roaded into buying an iPhone simply due to the juggernaut that is the Apple advertising machine, I will be occasionally posting information about alternate smart phones that will soon be coming to market. I have recently been seeing a lot of gadget sites, including Gizmodo and Engadget (two of my favorite sites for tech news) comparing every upcoming phone with a large (touch)screen to the iPhone. Somehow, a few people have managed to convince themselves that touchscreens and media-centric phones did not exist until Apple announced the iPhone, which is rather idiotic if you ask me.

So with that, I present the Samsung F700 which is due out in the near future. I’ve provided a few links below where you can do some research on the phone, enjoy:

• Gizmodo: Apple iPhone vs. Samsung F700: Which is Touchscreenier?
• Engadget: Samsung outdoes itself with Ultra Smart F700
• Samsung: SAMSUNG Unveils Revolutionary Ultra Smart F700

Well here it is, the first iPhone Ad. I suppose it’s very contextual, it’s only charming as an advertisement during an award show for movies. I’m hoping they come up with something better, especially after their iPod ads have become so iconic (I have my doubts about how much further they can push the whole dancing silhouette thing) it would be a shame if the best they can do is cut and paste old movie clips.

After months of speculation and half-assed hoax images of the iPhone, we finally got to see the real deal today. I’ll admit, I love the thing. The price point is pretty high at $600 for the 8GB version, and the fact that only Cingular will carry them is going to break the hearts of many people that dislike Cingular or are stuck with contracts elsewhere.

I’m sure many of the Apple fanatics will proclaim this thing as being the best device ever to grace this miserable little world of ours, but it’s not all sunshine and giggles.

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