I wish Apple would release the iPhone without the phone/internet part- just a music/movie player with the same interface, and about 200 dollars cheaper.

Crecente I think what you meant to say was "I'd get an iPhone, but I don't want to pay 300 extra dollars for a lower case I"

imagine that, Apple is bing a bitch abut their hardware! It's Apple, they don't really want to make money anyway.

At least with a all touch screen, Apple would have no problem rebadging the buttons for other carriers. Just a simple button change in the interface.

Also, work on the battery life so we can get 3g instead of edge.

Hopefully Apple's 599 US Dollar product feels the same wrath that Sony's 599 US Dollar product feels. Complete and utter distaste over price and multi-functionality.

someone please explain why you would spend 600$ on a phone... please?

No cell phone is worth as much as Apple wants for that thing. Anyone that's been to Japan or at least knows a little bit about the Japanese cellular network will know the iPhone is really nothing special. The differences between the cellular networks in Japan and the US are staggering. They're using Star Trek communicators, we're using cans on a string. The iPhone just happens to be the fanciest can.

You should know by now that is how apple works. Totally exclusive "you got to come to our club house cuz we are too good to accomidate yours" type of marketing. And there will always be people to flok to that idea, which works for them.

Me, ill save it for the PS3 when I can afford it.

Hilarious that this site can continually throw darts at Sony, PS3, and its pricepoint, but somehow a $600 TELEPHONE gets a pass.

A phone for the price of a PS3?

Jeez. THIS is why I don't have an iPod.

@raison: You got me... but then again I'm not a youtube myspace sort of guy. oh yeah, plus I'm sane. Shit I though the motorolla Razor was gimicky as hell but then everyone and their momz bought one.

@edit: I thought* sorry for the double post.

@Sabre_Justice: I agree with you I have never owned an apple product and now that I take time to think about it this is the reason why.

@Atheist Jew: Yes when it comes to communications, phone or internet, Japan has the united states beat down.

I walked past the Apple store on 59th street today and watched the insanely stupid scene that was going on out there for about 2 minutes before I walked away annoyed with it all..

All of this hype for a freaking phone? I don't care how cool it looks, it's a goddamn phone people...And it isn't even a 3g phone, which means there will be a new one shortly. We all could wait for that...And the other yearly revisions.

the iPhone was a long time coming - it was first predicted back in 1979...

reading this from an iphone you broke ass brokers .. i hate poor people .. get a job so you can afford cool stuff.

$600 for a phone/mp3 player? I'll pass, thank you very much!

@whackMushroom: With great shame and dishonor I confess: I lol'd.

I'm getting used to it now, but there are only 2 things I still have a problem with.

1. The logo is too small.

2. There is too much space inbetween lines of text.

@Atheist Jew: Agreed! Though I hear South Korea is more advanced than Japan in terms of cell phone technology.

A $600 phone. I always thought it sounded like some kind of joke, personally.

Posting from my 4 gig iPhone. Worth every penny. I already had AT&T, so it was no biggie for me. I had been saving up since the iPhons announcement at MacWorld in January, so again, not a big deal on the money front.

It fits all of my needs and wants. So keep on hating all you haters. I bought mine after careful consideration and planning.

@TonyRockyHorror:

Worth every penny?? hah

@Crecente:

I'm just about done with my own scheduling. Got one company that's offered slots and I've responded, just awaiting confirmation, and got another that I'm not to the 'slots' stage yet.

Got my invite to the Nintendo press briefing today, though. Yay.

@DeadPlasmaCell: It certainly was.

I'm a full-time OSX user, at home and in the ofice. I have an extensive collection of music in iTunes, I don't do a lot of texting on phones, so the virtual keyboard is a non-issue; I don't need 3G as I'm pretty much near a wifi hotspot all day anyway, so I'll take the improved battery life; as i said before, I've been with Cingular/AT&T for more than 4 years now, happily so with no problems in the entire time, and I saved up the money for it; it allows me to carry one device instead of a RAZR and a nano(my previous setup); and the software and browser on it are extremely responsive and polished.

So yeah, worth every penny to me, and no amount of facts and figures or some jerkoff's negative review can devalue the iPhone's usefulness and elegance vis á vis my needs and situation.

In short: Fuck off; you don't know what you're talking about.

LOL! $600 and no blue-ray... shit if doesn't score high on FOLDING... this thing is going to be a failure.

Seriously, what's the battery life on this thing?

@OKENNY: blu-ray, or bluetooth?

blu-ray would massively increase the size of that thing. It'd be an iPhoneBooth.

I seriously believe this is apple testing the market to see what the consumer will bare. Should this be a success at this price, apple will be what Sony was 15 years ago as far as portable devices are concerned.

I wonder if I'll be able to exchange the PSP skin for an iPhone skin in PS3's Home navigator? :P

apple has my money when its $300, 30gb hd built in, 3g network, and full exchange support... otherwise, its the biggest ripoff in phone history...

@PaulLev: Paul, cram it with the self-promotion. Please.

THANK YOU! This is why I love you guys more than Gizmodo. It's not that I don't like them, its just for the past week it's been
iPHONE
iPHONE
iPHONE
iPHONE
So thank you for not using your blog to post the same thing over and over again, whether or not it's new.

Apple, meet Sony.

You two kids have a lot to talk about!

@TonyRockyHorror:

Interesting post. You cautiously defend the product from your point of view by saying it's worth every penny to you, and no one can convince you otherwise.

so far so good.

Then you drop on f-bomb on a guy for having his own opinion.

Don't be such an ass.

@Crecente and @jallen

I, too, am among the happy ranks of journalists who believe (fingers crossed) that the booking of appointments is finished. Now if only I would receive one of those Killzone 2 invites, I'd be set. I suppose I shouldn't be greedy though. After all, I am required to write something about almost every game I get my hands one.

@jleizer:

Wish I could say the same thing, I still have a few that I'm trying to round up. If I don't get them I don't think it'll be such a big deal since I can check out what they'll be offering in the Hanger.

Going to definitely be an interesting few days, that's for sure.

@Nintendo Gal: I'll admit that there are a few more appointments I wish I had, but then I look at my already insane schedule. I actually almost forgot to leave myself a window of time to just hang out at the Big 3.
Don't forget to check out what they've got at the hotels. I've got this feeling - and know for certain in one case - that the games Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have at Barker will be different than what they've got at their exhibit hotels.

@TonyRockyHorror:

Aah, the typical fanboy response: "My opinion is fact and if you disagree, f-off"

Yeah, the Nokia N95 is way better and it only costs .... $800. And the screen is smaller. Okay, never mind. Well, the Helio Ocean is only $300 and comes with 2 keyboards. Yeah, uhh, 2 keyboards is definitely the solution. Maybe they will have 3 one day and really be awesome. So, uhh, the Teen-Mobile Wing is cool except it has the most sluggigh interface ever so, never mind. I'd get a Sidekick but I'm not a 14 year-old girl.

You know what, $500 doesn't sound that bad. Are iPhones still available?

I'm actually typing this on an iPhone. Everything you say is true bit for me the good outweighed the bad so I took the the plunge. After dealing with an POS nokia brick for as long as I did, I thought I deserved something more frivolous. Plus I got to meet Steve Wozniak. He was first in line at the apple store I'm Santa clara (where I happened to pick up my own iPhone).

Trade in your iphone for the PS3.

After the hype your bill wil be looking really fat and your stuck with no 3G and no dicount for a 2yr contract plus how ridiculous is it that you have to use your laptop to get music and video. iPhone 2? Can you hear me now.

Why pay this much for a cell phone?

I mean honestly, if you want an mp3 player, buy an Ipod, or a Zen Touch. I know theres more features then just music, but it all seems a bit much for me. $500-600 a pop for a phone? I just use mine to call people, and thats it.

It does look pretty nice tho, I will wait till the price goes down, or at least wait for a later model. Just like the Ipod, I'm sure the first generations will have problems.

God, I thought I can escape the Apple phone hype in a gaming blog but it is nice to know Apple fanboys are as strong here as they are in Gizmodo, Engadget etc.

@Padriac: Maybe in the US, but the N95 can cost as low as *free* with a one year contract here in Europe.

@TonyRockyHorror: Welcome to the do it all phone club (not)!

I've been doing that since like 2004! Including surfing Kotaku on my phone full HTML. Maybe once your phone gains MMS, video call, copy & paste, video recording, GPS, replaceable battery...

Blech, iPhone. I am not paying that amount of money for a phone that can be sloten/lost very easily. Also, let's not forget it has a possibility of flopping hard - anyone remember the Newton?

Thank god no iPhone, have you seen what it did to Gizmodo?

That site is shot in the ass for anything else anymore.

KEEP IT REAL KOTAKU!!

@strider_mt2k:

Yea, the Giz site starts sucking during an event that has to do with Apple.. Unless you're an iFanboy, then their coverage is probably the tits.. I mean come on who really wants to see 500 stories about "watch us unbox our iPhone" or "Watch us use our iPhone #58" or "Download our audiobook version of the iPhone manual" Hopefully the iFad will die down sooner rather than later so we can get some other tech stuff reported on.

@DeadPlasmaCell:

I've actually sworn off of Giz and Engadget for a few days to see if they come to their senses.

If they don't, it's a big internet.
Plenty of places to explore still.

@strider_mt2k:
Against my better judgment, I actually took another look at the site to see if it became as bad as I had expected. It was worse. I like how they had to make a 2nd post about them unboxing the fucking thing, just in case people missed it the first time.

Also, am I the only one who would rather have a separate PDA and phone like I do now? I can use my PDA for internet, music, etc and now worry about my phone dieing in a few hours when I really need it. The best part with the iPhone is that if you are using it, it won't last the whole day and you can't even swap the battery or get a high capacity one because of Apple's insistence that their customers are too stupid to actually do anything themselves with their products.

@Padriac:

The phone is $600 with a 2 year contract.

@Padriac: $600 and locked to a 2 year contract is not worth it. N95 is $700 unlocked to any network, and on a network its greatly subsidized to the point of free. The N95 can be used without being activated, you just can make calls.

Come to Europe and Asia to see real advanced phones. You guys in america have been starved with your Treos, crackberries and motorolas for too long.

@Atheist Jew:
>No cell phone is worth as much as Apple wants for that thing. Anyone that's been to Japan or at least knows a little bit about the Japanese cellular network will know the iPhone is really nothing special. The differences between the cellular networks in Japan and the US are staggering. They're using Star Trek communicators, we're using cans on a string. The iPhone just happens to be the fanciest can.
---

I nominate the above for this week in quotes.

@jleizer:

All day Wednesday is in Barker Hangar for me, but because the show floor opens at, like, 1pm, I don't know how much free time I'll have there to just wander.

Thursday and Friday are in the hotels; I've got some gaps, but I don't know if I'll be able to use any of those for Barker Hangar. Thursday, mebbe, but Microsoft swallowed the rest of my Friday with last night's bookings.

Just one to go, though. Light at the end of the tunnel!

@Havok154: You're not kidding. Just checked Giz right now, and they should seriously change their name to iMondo. It's freaking ridiculous.

@strider_mt2k:

You can always do their little trick to exclude all iPhone news when you go to their site (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/not:iphone), but it will probably be a blank page x)

$500 for a $250 worth of equipment if it were not apple. Peresonally I find it hilarious. The same people that bought the iPhone will blindly buy the next 4 revisions that offer no new functionality just because apple says it is cool. Lets see how much you like your iPhone in a year when you have to send it away to have the battery replaced. I will save my money and enjoy my Zune and Windows Mobile based phone (both only cost me $250).