There has been a huge ramp-up for the release, starting long before last weeks “World Wide Developers Conference” (WWDC). The fan-boy blogs and the Twitter-verse has been on fire. But Apple has also been pushing hard too. This is their cash cow, their baby. That and all the iPhone apps that will now have to be updated and OS 3.0 compatible by the OS 3.0 release date tomorrow? We’ll see.

Well actually I have seen. I Tweeted earlier tonight in two separate tweets :

Those #iPhone #apps are just pouring out. I got 4 just today. Seems like everyone is trying to get their apps 3.0 ready. Keep ‘em coming. 10:19:19 PM June 16, 2009 from Tweetie


#app #iphone updates:
iTV http://bit.ly/xiL4J
Amazon http://bit.ly/158j1y
Twitterific P http://bit.ly/VBHkG
Trip Cubby http://bit.ly/o9BS8
10:16:14 PM June 16, 2009 from Tweetie

@MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team did a live broadcast and demo of “UltraSnow” the new iPhone OS 3.0 jailbreak. You have to love these guys! The software isn’t officially released and already they have a jailbreak written and ready to go for the new OS. You can find out all the particulars on the Dev-Team Blog.

So I’m ready with my 1st-gen iPhone for the Dev-Team to deliver PwnageTool and QuickPwn their two wonderful jailbreak apps … for the rest of us. Oh how I’d love a new shinny iPhone 3G S … but alas … I’m poor. And seeing how I use T-mobile I can’t get a subsidized iPhone from AT&T. I paid full price for my original one. Not again. But then again I’ve heard that before too. I’ll just take a wait and see attitude. I know I’ll get enough of the new OS benefits. But will they be enough? Only time will tell.

So iPhone enthusiasts, fanboys/fangirls & the uninitiated … start your engines! 3.0 is coming! 3.0 is coming!

If a picture is worth a thousand words. Then I’ll say no more.

But we both know that’s not going to happen.

I thought long and hard. Hard and long. And it’s time to say … so long iPhone & AT&T. In past posts you saw how I agonized. Rationalized. Quantified & qualified my decision to procure this object of electronic lust. But lust is not enough. Nor is the iPhone.

In my previous post I was talking about the ‘unholy union’ of the ‘A-twins’ …. Apple & AT&T. This is also a MAJOR deciding factor to lighten my load. I’m sorry but no object is worth over $100.00 per month to have. I don’t mind putting cash into the pockets of Apple & it’s stockholders. But AT&T? A man just has to draw a line in the sand … at some point. Even if that line is after the fact. I just can not stomach the idea of shelling that kind of money out to a corporate behemoth like the Death Star … AT&T. Sometimes you DO have to go ‘through’ something to get to the other side. And now that I’m there …. I really don’t think there’s any turning back.

On Thursday I will have my partner Chris make me a member of the T-mobile family once again. Nope. I will not have all the bells & whistles of the iPhone. But i will have back my beloved Product (RED) SLVR. I won’t have to hack it to get my ringers back on. I won’t have to pay in excess of $1200.00 for JUST A PHONE! God! What the hell was I thinking? I truly was sucked into the Steve Jobs reality distortion field! Sucked in real good!

But now that my mind & my wallet are free … free of AT&T …. I can go back to life not worrying about a measly 900 minutes & 200 text messages. I can go back to having 2000 minutes & unlimited text messages & T-zones. Yippy! I can also spend that extra money paying off my credit cards and such. Sadly though I will sell my iPhone and use a large chunk of that money to buy out my AT&T contact. If I read the fine print correctly … I believe the buy out is $175.00. Though it could be more.

But that’s it. Say good-bye iPhone. You are … Going. Going …. GONE!

I got my first bill yesterday. Or at least the cost was posted … sans invoice. That I might have to wait ten days for, or so the disclaimer said. Imagine my astonishment when the amount before my eyes read …. $229.36!!!!! What the f%*$k!!!! Now I have no reason to complain. There were lasses and chaps out there who’s first iPhone/AT&T bills were in the THOUSANDS of dollars. Adam Aronson for one got a $5,000.00 bill from the Death Star …. AT&T. So I guess I’m lucky?

I know … Joe … shut your pie-hole. You made a choice to be on the bleeding edge. So don’t have a hissy because there’s a crimson tide headed your way.

How is it I can feel bad about owning one of the most technologically advanced phones in the universe? Maybe because that universe also includes the Red Death Star …. AT&T? Somehow it just doesn’t sit right. How is it that the coupling of such ideological opposites can effect me so deeply? Somehow I feel my best fiend has let me down. BUT IT’S JUST A F%*$KING TELEPHONE! I think it’s the idea that someone (Apple/Steve Jobs) who wanted to change the world through technology has partnered with a company that just wants to OWN the world through technology. And in that unholy union (one even MORE unholy than MS & Apple) the shine on the Apple has become a little more lackluster, a bit more turbid.

Surely I over exaggerate. Certainly I am playing with words. I must be.

I certainly am … losing my will to iPhone.

One of them is a writer for MSNBC. Joe Hutsko … he’s getting lambasted in “comment hell” on his blog JOEyGADGET for writing a story about his failed iPhone and his experience getting a replacement. I wrote a little blurb yesterday about a client of mine that had ‘his precious’ overheat. Jilted Joe is a writer for a company that partners with Microsoft (MSNBC) and he wrote about his experience with AT&T and Apple support. No matter what this guy wrote short of slagging Steve Jobs or his mother personally … um … let’s cut Joey boy some slack!

Good press or bad press … this little phone that could is going to do just fine. Short of some MAJOR bonehead move on Apple’s or AT&T’s part … this is going to sell sell sell. The myth is too big. The hype too big. The momentum too big. So yeah … there are going to be folks who have a bad experience with this mythological creature. Just by the sheer numbers sold. And they might write something about it. It’s the way things work. But as Apple users if we are going to be all Pollyanna about our beloved company THAT CAN (and does) … then we are no better than those who cut Apple for no reason.

But Mr Hutsko did have a reason to tell his story, and a right to tell his story too. iPhone is too new. Those that do own it haven’t put it through its paces yet. Not in a six days time.

So let’s sit back and wait a bit. Lets sheath some of those vitriolic tongues and listen for the sweet marimba tones of your own working ringing iPhone. Or … embrace you inner curmudgeon and send everybody to voicemail! Damn them all!

This is the first day of the rest of my life without an iPhone. There. I said it. Out of the mouth of babes (or at least this 50 year old man) and into the ears of an atheist god & for all that “feel me” (cough cough) on this one.

I don’t think my Steve Jobs ‘anti-reality-distortion field’ was up any higher than normal. Though over the past several months it has been put to the test. It’s soooooo hard to resist. But resist I must. I don ‘t think I’m in denial. Of course … I WANT ONE. Hmmm …. sounds like a new topic of discussion with my current therapist. But there are so many reasons … NOT TO.

Reasons Not To:

1. It costs way too much money!
2. Using AT&T … costs too much money.
3. It’s just a phone … not the second coming of (insert your god here.)
4. Did I mention my partner works for T-Mobile?

Okay. I don’t have that much expendable income. So YES money is an issue. To put out $600.00 for a phone, come iPod, come ‘Internet Navigator” … it’s just too much. It would be one thing if the network were as fast as WiFi … all the time. Or coverage was a no-brainer. But it’s not. So it’s not the ‘ideal’ way to surf. In a pinch (no pun intended) … maybe. But not for the money AT&T is charging for its iPhone plans. To get what I’m getting from T-mobile (via my employee account) I’d have to spend OVER $200.00 a month just for the same block of 2000 minutes.

I get that we as Americans are spoiled by cheap (or free) dumbed down phones that work with what’s out there. So yes … I AM spoiled. But I am also admittedly a cell phone & or technology junkie. Yup I spend too much money on my Moto Product Red SLVR. You can’t get them in the states. Plus if I did … it would be dumbed down by the carrier. “Don’t give the consumer too much .. they might blow themselves up!”

I digress.

So here I am on my first day without an iPhone. Wanting one.

Reasons to go (further) into debt to own an iPhone:

1. Bragging rights to say … “I’m on the bleeding edge. Ouch!”
2. The look people would give me when I whip it out to use.
3. It is sexy! (How can that be. It’s just an object!)
4. Being a Macintosh consultant … I need one!
5. I want one!

As a sentient human being … just trying to be … I’m not doing so well. For the past few months everything has been about this object. Radio. TV. Magazine. The web. It’s all been abuzz. I’m struggling. Must … have … iPhone.

Maybe I should think of Nancy Reagan … and just say no! Ewwww …. what a horrible thought. On so many levels! Yuck! I’ll just use my powers of reason. I still have willpower. BUT IT’S FADING FAST! . How can I fall for ‘techno lust’ once again? Will I make it another day without an iPhone?

Tune in next week for another episode of … “My So-Called Life Without iPhone”