The iPhone Menace...
Slate is calling the iPhone a menace...
On Wednesday, Apple cut the price of its top-of-the-line iPhone from a wallet-breaking $599 to a less-terrifying $399. This price reduction comes as reports have emerged that July sales of the iPhone outnumbered those of all other smartphones combined. With my battered, aging BlackBerry on its last legs, I went back to the Apple store to try to join the crowd and sell myself on trading brands. But after a few hours of side-by-side comparisons, I'm convinced more than ever that the iPhone isn't the device for me. I'll be replacing my BlackBerry with ... another BlackBerry.
The iPhone is definitely a cool, sexy gadget. As I wrote in January, it's less a phone packed with extras than a full-fledged computer for your pocket. Its big display and touchscreen interface make Web surfing and video watching a whole lot easier than on any other smartphone. It bundles support for Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail. It doubles as an iPod. It does YouTube. And it's even more hackable than a BlackBerry. Along with this week's price drop, Apple has added a built-in iTunes Music Store, so you can buy and download tracks whenever you're in range of a Wi-Fi network. At $400, an iPhone is incredibly tempting.
Read how the iPhone faired with keyboard/spellcheck, Contacts, and autotext here.