That can't be right, right?

@korybing: PDAs have been around forever.

Seriously one day was normal, the next it was like 200 people in queue constantly with something like a 30 minute wait to speak to someone. Crazy. Anyway, its quite possible that you spoke with reps who hadn't gotten the memo yet. So for that, I'm sorry. I hope your future AT&T CSR experiences are better.

F--- this.

Wow, you can call people and browse the net (and take photos, and blahblahblahblah) with an MP3 player now?

"icrap" - how very, very witty!

Wonder if Apple might consider a similar policy on the 13" MacBook I bought about two weeks ago...

I asked about scratches on the phone and the rep told me that it has to be in "like-new" condition... well mine is not in "like-new" condition. I spoke with his manager on duty and showed him the scratches on the back and the little dent in the corner when it fell. He said it will be no problem and I got his business card for good measure. Either way if they decide the phone isn't in good enough condition they will credit the full charge if I do not accept the new phone.

One neat thing I liked about the store I went to was they are allowing people that pre-order the phone to come in two hours before the store opens and pick up their new ones when apple releases them. Too bad for me I start work too early to take advantage of that, but nice for people that don't want to wait in line. They are located off 252 broadway in san diego, ca (no i dont work for them).

All in all I am very happy with AT&T and the iphone... this is coming from a loyal T-Mobile customer for many years.

@GoonieGooGoo2: I have an ipo touch and an att fuze and also preordered the iphone 3gs. The amount of apps on the iphone is a lot more then whats available on windows mobile smart phones.

Also with windows mobile smartphones you can spend days trying to find the right program then go to install it only to find out that the app nets the .net framework installed.

The iphone has much better support for it and some cool apps that just dont exist on the windows mobile smart phone.

Oh there is, it's just that they're much less vocal about it and don't feel the need to be validated by opinions held by strangers on the internet, so they tend to stay out of fights.

@oneandone: Sorry, that was meant for tackhouse1.

@EYESONLY: Yes, month-to-month - but you will get quite a few calls to renew (like what happened to pecan pi) & offers to upgrade your phone, etc. Mine started about 2 months before the contract expired.

When I got to month-to-month, they kept everything the same - rates, employer discount, etc. I'm back on a contract w them now, since I wanted a new phone, but I didn't have trouble for 5 months w/o a contract.

@brandonmaldonado: Bought my wife one on the 7th.

@floraposte:

That, or they don't want be trapped in a 2-year data plan with AT&T (or pay full retail for one of the things). I'm invested in not spending that money.

In the case of purchasing a soon-to-be-obsolete item after it's replacement/update was announced, but before it's available, Apple usually either provides an automatic upgrade path.

href="#c13538867">tkdnate: a fart app? Where do I sign?

@ncpeters: It is Apple allowing it, becasue apple is allowing ATT to return the open (non broken) older model so att doesnt take a hit. The model she bought will still be for sale though, so its not a big deal to either party.

I try not to judge because I have: 3 servers, 4 towers, 3 notebooks, and a netbook. Granted it's my wife and my own work that causes us to have that much equipment, but the support equipment, extra wiring, et al, you wouldn't believe our electric bill. Then again some of it is used for play...

Hence why I don't typically judge other people's vices.

What kills me is the apps sales for iPhone when there are tons of free apps out for WinMo & Blackberries....

My favorite thing is showing them my fully customized Samsung i760.....with Sirius Mobile, Slingplayer Mobile, MAME, SKYFIRE and many other free apps......all for free and running at the same time....then I tether it to my netbook to surf the net.

Then just for sh-ts & giggles I switch it into a full iPHONE emulation skin with icons.......and send out a picture message and start typing with the slideout keyboard.

Jesus phone my butt.

[buyersguide.macrumors.com]

I called this morning and I was politely told to "check eBay" for a good deal on a new phone because they were obviously not going to help me.

She even gave me advice on the safety of buying things on craigslist and eBay.

Not even a credit was offered or anything. I have been a customer for over 6 years!

About 5 minutes.

Yes, but the same is true (or has been in the past) for their computers.

You are free to do whatever the hell you want to do. Just as I am free to post my review. Just because you disagree with it does not change my experience of it.

I have around 3-4 screens of apps. I paid for 1 of them. The rest were free. I don't use all of them everyday, and I've had more; any that I don't use regularly enough I delete, as I can obviously live without them

I've never downloaded a fart app. Never bought Koi pond. Have tried out a few of the sillier ones with interesting features, but they soon went the way of the scrap heap. There are very useful apps out there if you need them; if you don't, well, the phone has a lot to offer even without them.

Like the commercial says, I have the internet in my pocket. Anywhere. Don't need to rely on someone else's PC, or whether or not I have wifi. If I want to be connected, I am, and if I don't, well, then it's just a phone.

I have an original. Never upgraded to the 3G. Not enough of a pull for me. Will likely get the S, though. The video recorder and improved camera are the big pull for me. It's convenient always having a camera on hand to catch those moments.

I will concede on the plan cost increase, though will also point out the increase from the original to the 3G actually brought the iPhone in line with the rest of AT&T's (and Verizons', for that matter) smartphone offerings, and the S will cost the same.

Honestly, I didn't know Verizon did month to month because I kept getting phone calls from Verizon asking me to renew and I didn't want to. So my mistake was not considering that maybe they did month to month...I had never heard of them doing that. I had just left a family plan with my parents and was on my own contract, so I was never versed in month to month or anything like that.

So in retrospect, if Verizon did do month to month, we could have saved ourselves some hassle. But to further complicate things, Mr. Pi needed a phone that could go overseas so we had to get him another phone anyway. In retrospect, I don't think we could have done it another way because he would have had to renew a contract with Verizon (when he wanted an iPhone) to get a discount on a phone that would work overseas. It was that or pay full price for a Blackberry, which he didn't even want.

So I think all things considered, we had to switch to AT&T because it's what we wanted. His contract was up and mine wasn't - I could have gone month to month after mine ended, but he couldn't have because he needed a phone that would work overseas.

And then we'd be in the same bind we were with Verizon - having one family plan with two contract end dates.

How much time did it take you to write this diatribe?
----------
sent from my iPhone

But they're not. A $175 ETF pays for itself in less than three months of not paying for the plan itself. The more expensive the monthly plan, the better the ETF is for the consumer.

All cell phone companies have to provide a 30-day window in which you can return your phone and cancel your contract without penalty.

@BZMedia: I just love that you are making a huge generalization: "All app are useless to everyone! I KNOW TIHS!"

You aren't everyone, you know.

So if you bought it within that 30 day period they'll allow you to exchange your device for the S, even if, normally, you would have been outside the 30-day return policy.

As for @BZMedia and his post above mine... $99 for an 8gb iPhone isn't really all that bad, compared to other phones on other carriers with similar features. Some people only want/need something that makes/receives calls, others want more of the features that the iPhones offer.. I've found mine extremely useful on a few occasions. Using the GPS/Google Maps on a recent trip to Connecticut when I had to find something to eat for dinner, and being able to forward an e-mail to someone who needed something while I was out and not near a computer are two fine examples. Sure, there's a lot of wasteful apps on the iPhone. But one could say the same thing about the other carriers like Verizon that offer those games like Bejeweled that you can buy for $7.00 and play on a tiny screen, or all of the stupid ringtones.

Also, nobody's forcing you to use all of the apps on the iPhones. I bet AT&T loves the fact that they're making all of that money off of your early termination fees.

Wasn't my intention to be blase. Just my review of the iPhone experience over the last year & a half. Not just with the phone itself, but everything surrounding it. The new releases, the pressure and expense of upgrading, the plan cost increase with every new release, the million apps that let you pop virtual packing bubbles or watch electronic fish when you get bored, etc.

In a nutshell, I've been, I've seen, I have not been impressed.

Just a question. At the end of your contract with Verizon are you allowed to go month to month? Or are you required to sign a new contract? T-mobile allows you to go month to month at the end of your contract (for the same cost and terms).

My point is if that was the case, I don't see the rush to sign with a new carrier. But I have never been a Verizon customer, so I don't know.

@BZMedia: For someone who is so blase about a cell phone, you sure went on forever.

I did. It's tough to be talking about something unless you've experienced it. If I said I never installed ANY apps, you would be saying that I don't know anything because I've never tried any.

Well I have tried them. I KNOW they are useless.

@mikesfree: ...No one was getting mad.

@Chmeeee: "I could care less what people think of my phone, its a goddam phone for crissakes."

Aaah, so there is still room to care!

@SteveBMD: You know very little about the woman that this article was about, and yet you assume that her self-worth is based on a cell phone? Really?

I've got 3 screens of apps on it of which I use maybe three of the main ones that actually came with the phone. iPod, Settings, Phone. The rest really is just fluff and useless junk that I lived without perfectly fine before. Does anyone really need these retarded apps? The whole thing is just a massive money leak. The phones are expensive to begin with, the plan is expensive, and the ongoing purchasing of childish pointless apps just keeps the leak going.

I've given this thing about a year and a half worth of trial and evaluation and I fail to see how this is benefiting the human race in any way. I've concluded that it really is just wasteful. Especially with the constant need to keep getting the latest and greatest. It never ends. It's never good enough.

I've since terminated the 2 3G phones (and paid the ETF) and will be terminating the Gen 1 next week and going back to an inexpensive non-"smart" phone with a pay-as-you-go plan reducing my monthly phone expense to about $10 and without the need to continually upgrade to impress people sitting at the next table at freakin' Olive Garden. I don't expect my computers to make phone calls, and I don't expect my phone to edit video, play feature length movies and produce spreadsheets.

How much of your day is spent staring at your phone, pecking away at the screen? And how much of that time is actually productive? There is life beyond your phone. All this madness and mayhem this week over these phones is stupid. Having remorse over your phone is stupid.

It's a phone.

Well, unless you count my enormous genitals, that is.

Also, does anyone know if you are allowed to upgrade your phone, but keep your original contract? can they deny you the option to renew your current contract?

@bravo369:

Really, no joke! Thats like buying a car and getting mad when the next years model comes out.

honestly i don't know why this is getting so much press. this happens with all phones. I bought a verizon env2 for really cheap because i re-upped my contract. They then came out with the env3 which i no longer can get at the cheap new contract price. I would have to pay twice as much. so i'm sorry that iphone users don't have the latest and greatest but it happens. just think, when your contract is up and you have a credit towards a new phone again, you'll be getting a newer phone while all those iphone 3gs users are complaining.

So I got the 3G knowing that it was possible a new one would roll out in the summer or fall. I did get on the phone with the store, though, and they'll call me back when they find out whether I can exchange my phone, considering I'm only like 4 days outside the cutoff - which does seem a tad arbitrary. Why May 9? Seriously? Why not just make it May 1.

Most people who buy cell phones will go into the stores and buy whatever they like. Perhaps one could say the Apple/AT&T employees should have told the customer a new phone would be coming out?

So in this instance, she did nothing wrong. She went and bought the phone she wanted, she probably even went to the Apple website which made no mention of a new version coming out. Basic product research was covered.

I recently bought a video card one generation behind the current one yet I don't feel nearly as bad as being the one holding the 1st generation Nano mere weeks before they released the less scratch-worthy 2nd gen.

@SteveBMD: I was always under the impression that that was normally kept it our pants (for men at least).

hm...

Maybe I want a cell phone that has access to

- Great functionality, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.

- Various & useful apps.

- A slick interface.

Those millions of iPhone owners would tell you that the phone fulfills all of those functions. Hell I would want one for those reasons. The only thing holding me back right now is the price.

So, yes, I'm sure some people equate certain phones with status symbols. I, on the other hand, will look at an iPhone, and the first thing in my mind is "$70/mo".

Also, these policies are for iPhones purchased from AT&T channels - online, AT&T corporate stores, etc. People who purchased devices from Best Buy, Walmart, or even Apple, will need to return to the point of sale for information on how that chain plans on handling returns and price guarantees.

Either they worship everything Apple does and have to have an iPhone because it somehow completes them and makes them worthy of walking the earth, or they disdain Apple and everything it stands for and can't comprehend how anyone would be so slavishly devoted to a company that they just have to own their products.

There doesn't seem to be a "hey, it's a pretty useful device and it does what I need it to do in a way that I like" camp.

The first lady I talked to told me that I'd have to mail the phone back to AT&T, they'd reverse my upgrade, and then I could rebuy an iPhone at the reduced price of $99. That seemed really stupid/insanely genius on AT&T's part, so I called back and talked to someone else who gave me the other number to call.

Once the iPod first came out, everyone was comparing how much music (I have 4GB...I have 6.7GB, I have 4000 songs...I have 10,000 etc) they have verse each other. It would literally turn into a debate or a pissing contest...more a pissing contest.

It is just a matter of pride that you are up to date and have the lastest and greatest, but isnt that what advertising and this country is all about?

@SteveBMD: I don't understand the relevance of your comment. It seems like a lot of people think the only reason iPhone users have the thing is for some sort of status. I could care less what people think of my phone, its a goddam phone for crissakes. I just like the thing.

When buying any Apple product, one should always expect something newer and possibly better to be released within 6 to 9 months.