iPhone 3G. Get over it

Posted: June 17th, 2008 | Author: Ben | Filed under: Uncategorized |

I have to admit to being sucked in by Steve Jobs and his church. It’s easy to succumb to temptation, bowing to him, filing myself somewhere deep within his flock.

It’s because I think owning an item made by Apple of California will make my life richer, fuller, happier. I start to believe that the shine of my iPod is not a refraction of the light, but an angelic halo. The design It’s as if the clouds have parted for a ray of God’s light to embrace me and love me and tell me everything is going just great.

Then my iPod will display a fucking unfixable error over and over just days after the one-year warranty expired, and apparently the only thing to do is to buy a damn new one. Also I keep sitting on the stupid white headphones as I like to keep my iPod in my back pocket. The weight of my left buttock forcing the $50 designer earphones into little white pancakes. Reality sets in. My life is no better. I am no closer to enlightenment. Maybe I need an iPhone?

The initial iPhone wasn’t released in Australia (with exception to the unlocked iPhones that were abundant). This next version is going to be everywhere, including the land downunder. Australia isn’t known for its embrace of the mobile web, Vodafone (my provider) likes to charge extortionate amounts for Internet access and refuses to let me onto a data plan. Telstra whilst not so keen in the Internet, does encourage subscribers to watch television on their mobile, but who the hell wants to watch television on their mobile? It’s like being sat on your neighbour’s lawn watching their TV through the window.

The new iPhone is cheaper in terms of the initial outlay, but with a more expensive contract involved the actual cost is a bit more. It does include GPS, although what’s not clear to me is whether GPS navigation is extra, as it is on Nokia phones. With my N95 I get GPS location for free, but if I want to use it to navigate anywhere I need to pay a recurring fee. Pretty crap really, especially considering the number of times my N95 has suggested I drive the wrong way down a one-way street, and turn into non-existent roads.

If an iPhone is to replace my phone, iPod and a GPS it had better do all those things better than the stand-alone gadgets can do by themselves. Except the chances are that it won’t. And I’ll still sit on the damn earphones.

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