I think that the choice of 1700 for North American 3G is odd. There are a double handful of smaller carriers who would love to get this phone, and are working on upgrading their networks to 3G...in the 850/1900 bands. Also, the "big three" Canadian providers are all on 850/1900 and Telcel in Mexico is on those frequencies as well.

So that might leave Wind Mobile for Canadians who want 3G on this phone. For the US, you have T-Mobile if you want 3G with this phone right now. My local telephone co-op has 1700 spectrum but currently they're sitting on it... :/

Granted, 850/1900 GSM inclusion would've probably bumped the price of the phone up significantly, but right now it isn't quite the world phone that everyone wants. Hate to say it, but AT&T could run a "map for that" ad against T-Mobile and be absolutely truthful. Hopefully T-Mobile will change this but right now that's the way things are going.

Hopefully a 850/1900 3G version of this phone comes out so we're not faced with "any US 3G provider as long as it's T-Mobile." Also, 7.2/2.0 HSPA is nice but it would've been awesome if Google had bitten the bullet and asked HTC to put HSPA+ in there. Having a phone that's also usable as a 3.99G modem would be just plain awesome.

Remind me again what makes this phone worth $800? Okay, maybe I'm trying to justify my purchase of a Touch Pro that should arrive in a few days, but $800...whew...

Three words:

Too. Fracking. Expensive. When the Apple tax is 100% of the price of the monitor, you gotta draw the line. Plus, unless I ge a new-gen Macbook I'd have nothing to connect the monitor to.

From a person who spent $3500+ on Apple products between the time Leopard came out and March of this year, I gotta say that the Get a Mac ads are getting more tacky. Show your features in a cool way (Time Machine, Stuffed, etc.) but the more attack ads show Apple to be as insecure as Microsoft...trying to kick Vista while it's been downed by mac-friendly media. Enough's enough. Last I checked I couldn't search my Mac by hitting one key and starting typing (WinKey on Vista...two-key combination on the Mac for Spotlight or Quicksilver).

Also, system requirements are pretty much a moot point between Vista and Leopard...running both on Mac systems (Intel...PowerPCs can't run Windows really) you find that they perform equally well on a machine of given specs. heck, XP performs much snappier on my iMac than OS X does, though I don't use XP for anything but gaming. So that old upgrade ad was a bit of a hack.

One thing Apple could do: have a Mac\PC article where the Mac drives up in an elegantly CG-rendered car...

Mac: Hello, I'm a Mac...
PC: And I'm a PC...whoa, nice car! Where'd you get it?
Mac: A video game-
PC: Wait, I thought you couldn't run games?
Mac: Honestly, if I had the same onboard graphics as you I couldn't, but...

[steps out of car, has nVidia shirt on]

Mac: ...I can.
PC: Wow, um, you're right, I can't do that. Mind if I catch a ride? My car broke down...

[picture of new Macbook, with nVidia background maybe]

Sure, it could be a little more polished, but people willing to shell out $1300 + tax for a notebook computer are more likely to buy on features than, say, someone who'll grab a $580 laptop (which will definitely run Windows...erm...Vista)...

Another vote for MacTheRipper. MacTheRipper + Handbrake = awesome DVD ripping abilities, for free. Even the default settings for Handbrake do fine, so it isn't that hard...

Hmm but does the video recording actually record at 15+ FPS currently? Not on the iPhone.

Also, Sprint doesn't use WiFi as a crutch to limit cell network functionality on their phones. Any of 'em. Instinct included. This is from a guy who shelled out for the iPhone, though not when it was $600 heh.

Additionally, the Instinct's web browsing speeds will probably top the iPhone's, even whe the iPhone is on AT&T still-rather-paltry 3G network. With Rev. A the limitation is Sprint's network capacity (which is good), not how fast the phone is actually capable of pulling data down.

Don't forget that EvDO has been around longer in a stable form in the US than HSDPA. Thus the battery life concerns of ole Jobsy have been resolved on CDMA for the most part.

Yes, I know that the web browser on the Instinct is not as good as Mobile Safari, however I have a solution: Skyfire. But that's just me...and Skyfire is in beta right now.

Yes, I know that the iPhone screen is higher-resolution than the Instinct's. On the other hand, the Instinct is smaller than the iPhone.

Yes, I know that the next iPhone is *rumored* to have GPS. Which has been in CDMA phones, particularly Sprint\Nextel models, for years. And in the Instinct.

The iPhone may have YouTube (which everyone has forgotten about by now aince EDGE video quality is lousy) but the Instinct has Sprint TV (better quality, comparable to WiFi YouTube...anywhere) and radio (iPhone doesn't have that, yet at least).

I could go on but the iPhone fanboys would crowd me out. Guess we just have to wait 'til Monday to find out whether it's released. And if so, which types of dishes it will wash in its built-in kitchen sink. This is from a person who has the flagship smartphones of both AT&T (iPhone) and Sprint (HTC Mogul) and by extension VZW (same phone as HTC Mogul). From a person who uses his Sprint phone to make a WiFi hotspot in which to use his iPhone to browse the web, because EDGE is a lame network tech for 2007, let alone 2008.

Fanboy shields, up!

Hmm, +1 for the integrated media reader. Just make it high-speed, with CF and SD support. That way only pro Olympus cameras will work, and Sony cams won't work at all. Typical Apple, and it saves space.

Though in all seriousness I only use SD-based and CF-based stuff and having those two readers (or at the very least an SD card reader) in a computer is a big boon for me.

As to the iMacs, I'm lusting after the 3.06 8800 24" model. Mostly about the better graphics...put a terabyte HDD in that thing, add 4GB of memory (currently ~$80) and rock & roll. I have the 20" 2.4GHz...but this one looks to be about one-third faster, and the graphics are probably 2x as good, at least.

Thanks, Apple. Now I don't have to think about the choice between performance (Mac pro) and power\size constraints. Though octo-core is still awesome. And on my 4GB memory iMac I still can't run Vista, XP and S X simultaneously. Get to work on that, VMWare, woncha?

I have an iPhone, and I gotta say that it's decently durable. More durable than any other smartphone out there that I know of...but not quite as durable as, say, a lovely old Nokia bar phone. Those things are built like rocks. The iPhone is merely built like a thin aluminum brick.

As to call quality and reception, I agree, and so do UK users: the iPhone is not top of the line by any stretch. Not that it's not revolutionary, but reception stinks.

As to the speakerphone, not loud enough. Same with the ringer. Not going to mess with hacking my iPhone, no way.

Uncomfortable? With you on that one. Of course, these sound quality concerns could be solved by using my headset...which got washed several months ago. I'm using T-Mobile prepaid and campus WiFi, so a headset would cost much more than a month of service. Take that ATT suckas.

$20 for data is sorta lousy unless ou're using the device as data only, then it's merely okay. Still, EDGE is lame. Any self-respecting smartphone (take your pick of which one the iPhone isn't) has 3G connectivity now, whether via HSDPA or EvDO. Some phones can even upload faster than the iPhone's EDGE can download!

My personality is not tied to using Apple products. My iMac is a very nice tool, as is my Air. I'm salivating over the 2.06 8800 24" iMac. My next laptop will be either Lenovo (IdeaPad) or Dell (XPS). My main phone: the HTC Mogul, from Sprint. It has tactile feedback, 3G, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, thousands of applications, a decent (though lacking in bass) speaker, a camera that takes video. With Skyfire, I even have a very capable browser, that actually beats the iPhone in Acid3. Wait, did I just say EVERYTHING that people are waiting for in iPhone II?

And no, I love my iPhone for a web browsing device, an iPod, a gaming platform and a low-profile doorstop. As a phone, for all its slowness when dialing numbers, I'll take my Mogul any day of the week, and it's what gets carried places as my main phone, not my iPhone. So basically I have the iPhone, and the highest-end smartphone from the rest of the carriers (the Mogul is the Verizon 6800 and better than the T-Mobile Wing). As a phone, my calls are clearer, the speakerphone better, the reception better, on...shocker...the one that isn't an iPhone.

For those of you who use the headset, are in a good coverage area, and don't mind a single-tasking operating system on your phone, go ahead and use your iPhone as a phone. I for one will extol its iTouch features, plus the fact that it can make and receive calls if I need it to do that.

I'm pretty sure the iMac still has the TN panel. Looks like they didn't change much...

One quick question though: are these chips the "coming soon" next-gen procs we're all waiting for? In other words, will we be seeing these chips in notebooks soon? If so, I can breathe easier, knowing that when I get my next Dell (sorry people, I'm an Apple user, not a Mac fanboi) it'll have the faster proc in it. Sorry, can't afford a Macbook Pro...

As an owner of the 20" 2.4GHz iMac, which I quickly upgraded to 4GB of RAM, the speed bump between it and the new system is minor, 15% at most. The only thing that changed was the speed of the memory and the speed\FSB of the processor. The 24" model, on the other hand...that's some serious computiing power; with the 8800 gfx card it's actually serviceable for decent gaming! As long as it doesn't overheat and degrade performance after a few hours of gaming like my 20" does...

One other question: does the older (20" 2.4) iMac support (i.e. actually use to a performance advantage) the 800MHz DDR2? DIMMs are dirt cheap right now and I could put my current memory into other computers, or sell it, etc. but I'm max'd out on capacity anyway so I would only do that if there was a performance benefit. Anyone?

I got the Mogul pretty much right when it came out. Now up to the latest firmware, and it rocks. However the Raphael rocks harder, IF it has Rev. A and GPS as well. If it has QChat PTT (as the 800w is rumored to have) you can bet your boots I'm getting this one, even with the paltry $75 upgrade credit that I'll be getting. Will need to talk to Sprint about that, but then again I could just...um...break my Mogul, get a closer-to-new one on insurance and sell that one on eBay for enough to make the upgrade price a bit less painful.

But yeah, coming from a Palm TX and also using an iPhone (not my main line though) a VGA screen would be awesome, and the styling looks "dressed to kill". Don't even mind the corners.