Apple iPhone 
My boss at work has suggested that he might purchase Apple iPhones for us. He needs a new phone, and wants to afford us the opportunity to play with the fancy new gadget, too. We'd be responsible for paying the monthly plan charges -- he'd only be able to get the phones themselves for us.
The battery in my Treo is beginning to lose charge, so I was at first a little excited at the idea of getting an iPhone. I admit to being extremely impressed by both the functionality and the sheer elegance of the unit. But upon careful reflection, I think I'm probably going to pass, for a number of reasons:
- The iPhone uses AT&T for the carrier, notorious for their eagerness to help spy on American citizens
- I don't use Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X, so I'd have trouble activating and syncing the iPhone through the iTunes Music Store
- the iPhone does not support Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking, which allows me to connect to the Internet from my laptop via my phone. Although I don't use this feature a lot, it's darned handy when I do use it.
- I don't listen to a lot of music while out and about, so the iPod functionality of the iPhone is not very appealing to me
Another compelling reason to avoid the iPhone is lack of third-party applications. Although I use it only rarely, one of the reasons I really like my Treo is the ability to ssh into Linux servers from anywhere. There is an ssh solution for iPhones, but it's (to me) an inelegant hack. I don't know that the Safari scripts permitted on the iPhone will provide the kind of features I would like to have.
The biggest reason not to get the iPhone, though, is cost -- both dollars and minutes. We use Sprint for our carrier, currently. Our Family Plan includes me, Carina, and my dad. We have a pool of minutes we all share, and we can call each other's cell phones without using any minutes. Were I to get an iPhone, I'd be paying an extra monetary fee every month, and Carina and my dad would have to consume minutes when communicating with me (though I likely wouldn't consume any minutes, due to the iPhone's free mobile-to-mobile calls).
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June 27th, 2007 at 4:11pmI was under the impression that mobile-to-mobile minutes only applied when you're on the same network as the person you're calling. It makes sense to me that Sprint customers, for example, would be able to all call each other on their own network without Sprint themselves incurring additional charges (and passing them on) for connecting a call to some other network. Maybe I've completely misunderstood this feature. Anyway, that would be a pretty big downside: Two separate mobile phone bills. Yuck. -
June 27th, 2007 at 8:00pmI would love to get an iPhone, but if I were, I'd wait until the second generation. I suspect that, in addition to improvements, Apple will make an attempt to meet the needs of would-be users like you. -
June 28th, 2007 at 6:17amYour treo battery will not last as long if you are connected to the internet a lot. For normal phone use, my battery will still last for 4-5 days without a charge and my phone is approaching 2 years old. -
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:18amiPhone version 3 might be a good point in time (early 2009?) to maybe buy an iPhone, if it co do some more tricks even, like gps and the dishes. 
January 22nd, 2008- December 30th, 2008