The iPhone matches most of its hype (IHT)

By David Pogue

Talk about hype. In the last six months, Apple's iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the "Jesus phone." All of this before a single consumer has even touched the thing.

So how is it?

As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed. It's substance; it's style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.

Unless you've been in a sensory-deprivation tank for six months, you already know what the iPhone is: a tiny, gorgeous hand-held computer whose screen is a slab of touch-sensitive glass.

The $500 and $600 models have 4 and 8 gigabytes of storage, respectively — room for about 825 or 1,825 songs. (In each case, 700 megabytes is occupied by the phone's software.) That's a lot of money; then again, the price includes a cellphone, video iPod, e-mail terminal, Web browser, camera, alarm clock, Palm-type organizer and one heck of a status symbol.

The phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese. The glass gets smudgy—a sleeve wipes it clean—but it doesn't scratch easily. I've walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there's not a mark on it.

But the bigger achievement is the software. It's fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can't get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone's 16 functions. (more. . .)

AT&T details iPhone service plans, activation (InfoWorld)

By Jim Dalrymple Macworld.com, IDG News Service

June 26, 2007

Apple and AT&T on Tuesday released details of the service plans for the iPhone, which will be released later this week. The iPhone will have three available plans that will start at $59.99.

Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes.

The two higher-priced monthly plans provide unlimited night and weekend minutes -- for AT&T, night hours start at 9:00 p.m. local time -- while the least expensive sports a 5,000-minute allowance.

iPhone customers can also choose from any of AT&T's standard service plans, according to AT&T.

Existing AT&T customers can add unlimited data for $20 (with 200 text messages), $30 (for 1,500 messages) or $40 (for unlimited texting) a month; several family-style plans will also be available, according to the Apple Web site. Those plans range from $80 per month for 700 shared minutes to $120 monthly for 2,100 shared minutes. All buyers can also keep their existing phone numbers, including transfers of numbers currently served by other mobile carriers. (more. . .)

Admin: Spam and Contributors

A user named "Big Tom" somethow took over the login for one of the contributors to this blog and started posting spam. I've deleted that user and the posts he put up. (Maria, change your passwords asap).

I've also deleted a number of users who have not logged in via the new Google system. Your posts have not been deleted. If you're a past contributor and need an invite back to the blog, please email me at the address in my Blogger profile.

The spammer also embedded some links in the template which I haven't been able to remove yet., (scroll to the bottom). I'd appreciate some help in trying to remove it. I'll probably just have to switch out templates and add the widgets back.

Also, you can help by flagging the spam blogs- click on each those links and then flagging it by clicking on the link at the very top of the page that says "Flag Blog."

Thanks,
Grace