i-ntolerable

note to self in the future, about six months out when the iphone is available and well reviewed: verizon charges a $175 cancellation fee for breaking contract. something to consider in your calculations.

i can’t speak to the service on cingular, but it runs with sim card phones. the advantage there is that if you want to change phones, you just swap the card into the new one and BAM, that’s your phone now. not that i’d ever change from the iphone to anything other than a newer and better one. so it’d be nicer if i were on cingular already.

alternatively, if you’re on a non-cingular plan that uses sim card phones, you’d probably be able to buy an iphone, swap the card, and use it anyways, albeit without product support from your provider and probably with reduced utility on certain features.

useless to me in any case. stupid verizon. i get a great signal but that seems to be the extent of it. i’ve been hesitant to get a higher-end phone as an upgrade from my basic one because they’ve crippled the feature-set on so many of them to make you pay them for everything worth doing. i guess i won’t mind switching.

as for the iphone, i’m almost definately getting one, although i may simply wait until my verizon contract expires and then jump ship next february. in the meantime, i’m going to pick up a refurbished first-gen ipod nano from apple and replace my discman. that and a tablet are next on my shopping list. then a dell flatscreen monitor, and maybe upgrading my computer, maybe a pda.

maybe i’ll buy the iphone and use it as a pda without phone service until my verizon account expires. i could do that pretty painlessly this summer, ignore the phone, and simply have a widescreen ipod with some data capability, and wifi internet.

in fact that’s sounding like an optimal plan, possibly better than ever using the thing as a phone at all. as neat as the cellular internet would be, while i’m fine with $600 for the device given it’s capabilities, i’m not so sure about paying $80 a month for wireless online that i don’t need. need to look up what cingular’s data plans cost. another bit to include in my calculations. and this is provided that the wifi works independantly of a cellular plan. which it should, technically and morally, but, well, this is still technology we’re dealing with. and business.

the best part of the iphone is that regardless of whether you can afford it, starting yesterday apple has already revolutionized the market. a year, two years from now, wait and see what motorola brings to the table. note how archaic windows mobile looks now, and how irrelevant the palm os has just become.

and it doesn’t even stop with cellphones. the iphone is also a pda, and has just kicked that market in the ass as well. and what i’m really excited about, what i can’t wait to spend probably $1000 for, is the inevitable apple umpc. and all that will be, really, is the same tech and features as the iphone: os-x, multi-touch hires screen, wifi and etc. only the i-pad will be larger; 5 x 9, 8 x 12, and other sizes as well. add a larger hard drive, a stylus or a digital pen of some kind, and pack-in photoshop.