• 802.11g
• 3G
• expandable memory (preferred)
• hardware keyboard (preferred)
• decent camera that can capture video
• decent audio capture
• synchronise with my MacBook

If you know anything about the iPhone you can start to see the divergence. So I listed the things where the iPhone fell short for me;

• No Copy/Cut/Paste (massive for me as I use the “smart” more than the “phone”)
• Ordinary camera with no video
• No expandable memory (I commute for almost 90 minutes a day so I need to store some stuff)
• and like everyone has got one? Ugh!

BUT

• it’s a a super nice iPod (apart from the storage limits)
• the Safari browser is the best mobile experience you can get at the minute
• the user interface is as smooth as
• the iTunes Application Store is very compelling

You know what finally flipped me was the price. I don’t use the phone that much. I hammer the productivity, documents, audio and video capture stuff pretty hard. (It’s why the keyboard is an issue.) I’m on a tiny plan, no data, and I rarely go over. I don’t want a larger plan that I know I won’t use. You can sort of get the iPhone outright but you do so by getting a pre-paid then paying for it to be unlocked but it works out expensive.
Now when the 3.0 version comes out with cut/copy/paste that could be a whole different story.
This isn’t just about the iPhone however. The Nokia E63 and E71 caught my eye. Great looking handsets and ticked all the boxes and the prices were definitely right. No touch screen though which I thought may take some getting used to. The Blackberry Bold met all my requirements on the surface as well until I was joining one to the the network at work and found the web proxy cannot be defined by the user. Deal breaker.
So I settled on the Treo Pro. Nice looking device running Windows Mobile 6.1. It couldn’t be that bad. Half the world was using it. Right?

Maybe 3.0

Another iPhone Desktop Wallpaper

Originally uploaded by Sigalakos

Student asked me if she should get an iPhone. Her Uncle has offered to buy her one. I told her if it was that or nothing get it. What are you nuts?!
But seriously, she said she uses her phone a fair bit and loves listening to her iPod. She currently has a Touch which she likes a lot and figures if she can slim down to one device it’s a bonus. I agreed. But who’s paying for the plan GF?
I was asked the inevitable question “Would you get one?” and I got to thinking.
Probably not.
Biggest obstacle at the moment would be cost. I can’t justify the expense (although salary sacrifice would be an option) and would find it hard to give up my Treo. I know a lot of people rag out on Palm and think the Treo is outdated etc but I quite like it. (I go into this in more detail here) I guess I don’t make or receive many calls and primarily use the PDA functions on my Treo680 so the iPhone doesn’t register for me at the minute. The ActivSync plugin might change that somewhat if I could get my email anywhere on campus easily but I still have my laptop and don’t really like to be contacted that much…
Besides, I need the Palm platform to run Turbostats so I can take stats on my basketball games.
Deal-breaker right there people.