Does The New iPhone Suck?

According to Top News Blog, there are Seven Reasons Why the New iPhone Sucks. Let me enumerate them along with my take on the iPhone’s “shortcomings.”

1. Too expensive to own.
Apple and AT&T may have shaved a couple of hundred dollars off the price but they will more than make up for it in monthly fees. If you take into account the regular monthly fee, the data fee, the text message fee, which used to be free, and the $99 annual mobileme fee you could end up spending over $1,000 a year to own an iPhone, that’s 200 gallons of $5 gas. - Here in the Philippines, Globe is mostly likely going to milk a lot of cash from the iPhone. According to Yugatech, the iPhone 3G will be sold at Php9,995 at Plan 3,500. WTF? That’s $217 for the phone and $76 monthly for two years. That means owning an iPhone 3G would cost around $2050 over two years. Now that sucks.

2. Can’t use the GPS like a GPS.
Forget about getting turn-by-turn voice directions in your car from the new iPhone 3G. The iPhone SDK makes it pretty clear it?s not allowed, ?Applications may not be designed or marketed for real time guidance.? Yes it will superimpose your position on a Google map, or show you the closest pizzeria but what about getting real-time route guidance? If you read reviews for other GPS devices you never come across a GPS that doesn?t provide some form of guidance. There?s a rumor that TomTom may be developing a guidance application but you have to wonder how they?ll get it past the Apple police. - I don’t really need GPS, yet. So I guess this doesn’t count.

3. Can?t tether the iPhone to your laptop.
Want to save sixty dollars per month for a 3G card for your laptop and use the iPhone instead? Not going to happen?not allowed. Although there are plenty of phones, including AT&T’s Tilt, that will allow you to use your 3G phone as a high speed modem for your laptop, the iPhone won?t be one of them so you can add the cost of a 3G card for your laptop at $720 a year to your total cost of ownership. - That sucks. I was hoping the iPhone 3G could replace my dying Nokia 6630 as a 3G modem when I surf the net using Smart 3G. I guess I’ll have to get a new Nokia 3G phone with my Smart line instead.

4. Still no cut and paste.
Cut and paste has been around on Apple computers since the earliest Mac Plus computers. What?s the big problem with implementing it on iPhones? Why is cut and paste so important? Suppose you?re browsing a web site and want to capture some text or a URL, or someone sent you an email and you want to grab some text from it and send to someone else. Not possible on an iPhone. Speaking of email, where?s the spell checker? Predictive typing is fine but spell checkers are everywhere else but here. - WTF? As early as five years ago, my phone (Nokia 3650) already had copy and paste. What’s up with that Mr. Jobs?

5. Wimpy 2 MP camera.
In the world of 5 MP Smartphones and 10 MP point and shoot cameras that you can buy for under $200, why is the iPhone still stuck with a measly 2 MP? That?s so 2003. While we?re at it how come we can?t record video, afraid the non-existent SD card might fill up? The iPhone should be able to stream video by now just like many other cell phones can already do right now. - As long as it produces better photos than my 6630, then it doesn’t really matter. I don’t use the camera that often anyway. But still no video does it. I’m about to get turned off.

6. No stereo Bluetooth.
We thought the iPhone was supposed to be part iPod. At least they fixed the recessed headphone jack flaw (and called it a new feature) but the A2DP stereo Bluetooth standard has been around for a while and is missing from the iPhone. - This would have been nice to have. Tsk Tsk Tsk.

7. The list goes on.
Still no Flash player for rich media content (what grudge does Steve Jobs hold against Adobe). Still can?t send pictures in MMS messages, still no native voice dialing, no mobile TV, no replaceable battery, no flash memory card, and on and on. - Arrgh… What else can it not have?

I want the iPhone 3G because it is the closest I could get to having a Mac OS. But is it worth it with all these shortcomings? There is no way I’m getting a Globe postpaid at Plan 3500 ($79). If Waukster is right about the rumor that the iPhone 3G with a prepaid account would cost only P20,000 - P25,000 ($540), then I might still get one. For now, I’m just gonna renew my contract with Smart. And I’ll have four free phones to choose from. Or maybe I should wait for the Nokia Tube instead?