Is that true about dropping SMS? Seriously? That’s absolutely ridiculous if true. Talk about nickel and diming.

Jack –

I suppose it’s a good deal for newcomers “relatively speaking”.

They purchase the phone for $200 and pay an extra $240 for the 2 years, which is $440 total (not including standard service). For that, they get all of the iPhone features including 3G and GPS.

However, us existing iPhone owners pay the $440 just for the upgrade to 3G and GPS. We’ve already shelled out $400-$500 for the existing features. Granted, we can sell our used iPhones at a great loss and recover some of the $500, but it seems like we’re still paying an awful lot just for two more features. That’s how I see it anyway.

With 3g and true GPS, the new iPhone seems like a fairly significant upgrade to me over the old model, this however will be my first iPhone so I’m pretty excited about it.

Someone asked about GPS when there is no celluar signal. The old iPhone found your location by triangulating cellphone towers and wi-fi hotspots… This wasn’t always the most accurate, although it can be useful inside of a building where GPS may not work. The new iPhone has *real* GPS meaning if you are outside it can find a satillite, it doesn’t rely on a cellular signal.

- Bryan Campbell

1) Because it has a SUCKY CAMERA! I want to use my phones camera when I don’t have my regular around.

2) No video.

3)Faster internet isn’t that important to me. EDGE in Chicago isn’t to bad and I’m usually near a computer.

4) Don’t need GPS. In Chicago if you can remember where Lake Michigan is you can make you’re way around.

5) I think the plastic backs look cheap also.

iPod, iPhone, iCan’tBelieveIPaidAppleAgainForTheSameProductIBoughtSixMonthsAgo. Yez’re like a frickin’ cult, yez “Apple faithful!”

3G will be many times faster than EDGE. The theoretical limit on EDGE throughput is about 236Kilobits/sec, but in reality it never breaks 200. The average is usually around 180-190. HSDPA is currently about 1.0-1.4Mbps (5-7 times faster). But the performance of all 3G networks (meaning both EVDO and HSDPA) is considerably more variable than EDGE, and it can be really different depending on the city and your location. In other words, even if you live in a 3G city, I would expect the performance to be frustratingly inconsistent.

ATT has been making a lot of claims about the 3G network upgrades. They are saying people should be getting up to 1.7 now and 3.6 this year (3.6 is probably the limit for the new iphone 3G chip). I think I remember hearing a claim that they will be at 7.2 in 2009. Obviously, they are making a lot of noise about the network upgrades because of the 3G iphone launch. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Brian E