Hi

to Carly:

i write about Treos for a living.. but TreoCentral doesn't pay my monthly Sprint bill.. i do. i'm in a position where i HAVE to have (at least) two Treos for reasons which should be blatantly obvious... i'm also not a TC employee.. i'm an independent contractor.. whether you read the site or not makes no difference to me.. i get to keep products i review (as do most professional writers).. but i don't get any kickback on sales.. i know a thumbs down review can clobber sales of a product, just like a glowing review can push them flying out the door.. but i write reviews from the retail customer's point of view.. as though i had spent my money on it.. i also talk to every mfr. whose product i review, often many times.. i might talk to the PR people who hand out product to reviewers, and i also call tech support (for those mfrs. for whom you can even FIND a phone number).. and pretend i'm just Joe Customer to see how Joe gets treated.. i like to think i write objective reviews.. i'm not a salesman for their store, and i'm not a shill for anyone.. and i'm not saying you said i am / was, i'm just laying my cards on the table so people know where things are at..

and as far as "Just because Steve Jobs pulled the plug on something ten years ago doesnt mean he's going to again. Especially since this isn't just his dog and pony show but ATT's as well."

Newton wasn't the first time he did it.. remember the Mac "cube"? and just because it was inspected, doesn't mean a bridge in Minneapolis isn't going to collapse.. (someone's priorities are seriously out of whack when they ram through legislation for a new $300 million baseball stadium they didn't need.. while a bridge that 160,000 vehicles cross every day rusts away.. bridges aren't sexy.. new baseball stadiums are..).. and just because they get inspected more than just about anything else you could name, doesn't mean a space shuttle isn't going to explode.. make that two space shuttles.. i don't care if the iPhone is so sexy it comes with a push-up bra and panties in the box.. if it doesn't have an easily-swappable battery, if it's not on a 3G network, if it can't run the software i love to use or a functionally identical or superior equivalent of it, i don't want it.. if Santa Jobs wants to hand me one and pay the ATT bill, bring it on.. but not with my money.. i'll follow with much interest the class action lawsuit against Apple..

to Patrick:

"I hear/read very good things regarding the interface and eyecandy, so maybe as a nano-sized, cheaper feature-phone version, I can definately see myself with an iphone eventually :)"

the iPhone on the market now is just the first version in what will eventually become a multi-version line of them, just like everything else Apple makes.. (how many versions of the iPod are there? how many "generations" of it have there been since the first one?).. most likely, the current model iPhone is the "middle" model with a fancier (more expensive) one and a stripped-down (less expensive) one to follow..

Thanks Harv

Hi

couple a things..

• remember what Steve Jobs did to legions of Newton owners in February, 1998.. don't remember?.. he killed the entire Newton division, killed sales of the product line, (just a few months after the newest model, the Newton 2100 ($1000.00).. was released).. shut down all the Newton stores, forced hundreds of Newton developers to find another platform for which to develop (most of them went to PalmOS).. and just pissed off hundreds of thousands of Newton loyalists.. this was his FIRST action after John Scully (Newton's "father") left Apple and Jobs became "Interim CEO".. there are absolutely NO references anywhere on Apple's site to Newton.. if you didn't know it existed, you'd never know except for third-party sites and sources.. IN MY OPINION the man simply can't be trusted..

• his hour-long iPhone Dog and Pony show at MacWorld Expo back in January, 2007, was done over WiFi, not ATT's network. Did he bother to tell the audience of two thousand rabid, drooling Jobs worshippers that? No.. The iPhone isn't on a 3G / EVDO network (yet).. did you see him streaming live teevee / video? Streaming live radio stations?.. no..

• is there a Sling Player mobile for iPhone? Not the last time i checked. Is there anything even as remotely capable as Kinoma Player 4 EX for iPhone?.. uh-uh.. those are two of my must-have apps.. i have two Treo 700ps on Sprint and both Kinoma and Sling are on both of them.. neither company has any plans to develope an iPhone version of their programs, as far as i know..

• if you hate VersaMail (as i do) there are plenty of alternatives for PalmOS that kick the living crap out of VersaMail.. i have SnapperMail on both my Treos.. try it.. it's a remarkable program.. buy it and you'll never use VersaMail again..

• sure, the iPhone is a sexy device.. that's what sells it, along with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertising.. sure i wish my Treos had a huge screen and a better Web browser that could display Web pages as they were meant to be viewed, without having to shift into "wide mode" and do a lot of side-scrolling.. however, the trade-off is either a huge screen and an on-screen keyboard, or a smaller screen and real, physical, tactile keys.. choose one..

• the upcoming Foleo will give any Treo owner a screen that makes an iPhone's look like a postage stamp, a full-sized REAL keyboard, a REAL Web browser, plus USB ports (ponder the possibilities), and not just an SD card slot but a CF slot (can you say "microdrive"?..) .. yea, the Foleo means you'll have to carry around two devices instead of one.. if you want a "Super Treo" with you all the time.. not my idea of the perfect solution, and it'll work over Bluetooth with WM Treos as well as PalmOS Treos.. and other phones too.. plenty of developers have had Foleos in house for months..

• ATT has an exclusive on the iPhone for five years. My Treos are on Sprint. If Apple hadn't locked it in with ATT and instead, had let other carriers have it, i might have given serious consideration to buying one.. but the last thing i need is a second cell phone bill every month.. hey, if you're rich, it doesn't matter.. yawl rich?..

• iPhone has a sealed-in, proprietary battery. Treos have little doors on the back and any Treo owner knows s/he can swap out the battery in seconds if no other charging source is available.. both my 700ps have Seidios monster 3200mAh battery in them.. there's already a lawsuit against Apple about the iPhone's battery (do a search of AP news for "iPhone battery lawsuit" and you should find it)..

• Sling Player mobile lets me watch all 1500+ channels on my digital cable box on my Treos from anywhere.. Kinoma Player 4 EX gives me over 3000 live streaming radio stations world-wide, and an equal number of podcasts with countless thousands of shows, plus the ability to watch and bookarm YouTube and Google videos in their Flash-wrapped containers.. are there any apps for the iPhone that let you do these things withOUT first forcing you to suck files over from a computer?.. unless i'm wrong.. no..

So, thanks, but no thanks, Steve.. spew out on iPhone that works on Sprint's EVDO network, and i might consider it.. although back in February, 1998, when you killed off the Newton, i promised myself i'd never give you another cent.. nine years later, you haven't done anything to cause me to back off that promise..

disclaimer: although i write for TreoCentral.com, i am not affiliated in any way with any of the companies mentioned above, other than having owned or reviewed their products.. i am not a partner, employee of, or stockholder in any company mentioned above..

Thanks Harv