So, Apple/ATT peed in my cheerios with their upgrade policy/prices for existing customers in regards to the IPhone 3G to 3GS price difference.  Maybe it’s unreasonable of me to expect to pay the subsidized hardware rates as long as I’m getting raped for wireless service – but I don’t care.  It’s my party and I’ll be unreasonable if I want to.  But that’s not what I’m writing about…

In a nutshell, it came down to ATT “offering” me the new IPhone that I wanted for $699.  Less than a year ago I bought a 15 inch Dell XPS M1530 for around $800 (only buy Dell refurbs, as you mostly seem to get buyer’s remorse returns) and today ATT is offering me a PHONE (not a laptop) for $700. 

Outrageous!

So, with  my IPhone honey moon over and this absurd upgrade proposition before me, I began to examine my IPhone usage. 

For better or for worse, I have a few thousand dollars “invested” in Apple media.  I buy TV shows, movies, apps for the Ipod/Iphones and of course we buy tons of music.  Between Michele and I, we have a significant ITunes bill every month.  To compound the problem, we also have an AppleTV.  It’s just too damn convenient to get the media I want through ITunes.  I’ll bend over for the ridiculous DRM schemes.  I don’t care.

That being said, I can still consume all of that media via AppleTV and my IPod should I no longer have access to the IPhone.  So, what else do I use my phone for aside from consuming Apple media?

• Browsing the web.  I do this lots.  Mostly when I’m waiting for stuff.  Unfortunately, I hate Safari.  It’s slow and of course it doesn’t run Flash.  It’s leaps and bounds better than the craptastic browser that I had on my Blackberry 8803, but the IPhone 3G just isn’t beefy enough for speedy browsing, even on WiFi.
• Listening to music and watching movies.  This works fairly well, but not any better than on my IPod or via ITunes on a PC.
• AIM.   Works pretty good.  Now, with version 3.0 of the OS, the push notifications make the IPhone AIM client actually usable.
• Random apps.  Neat toys mostly, but once again the apps don’t run any more magically on my IPhone than they do on my IPod.
• GPS.  Holy crap, it’s horrific.  It’s slow, there are no turn by turn directions (yet), no voice prompts...the list of pain goes on an don.  Basically it shows you were you are on the map and highlights your route.  Hope you’re not needing to drive while using that death trap excuse of a GPS app. 
• Take pictures here and there of random nonsense.
• Calling people on the phone and sending the occasional text message.

So let’s see… to accomplish all the things that the IPhone does I would need:

1. A PC.  An ultra portable netbook would serve well for this task.
2. A wireless provider WiFi card/dongle so that I could have anywhere internet access on the netbook.
3. A GPS receiver.  The Netbook could display and store the maps via whatever GPS mapping software I chose to use.
4. A digital camera of the point and shoot variety.  Possibly one that use a memory card that the card reader in the netbook accepts.
5. Optionally, an IPod.  Alternatively, I could just run ITunes on the netbook.
6. A phone.  Something small and simple.

There are few advantages of having multiple devices instead of one swiss army knife doing it all:

• No single point of failure.  Keep in mind that “failure” doesn’t have to be a mechanical defect.  If the battery on my phone dies, it can’t perform ANY of its functions.
• Multiple dedicated devices will almost always be better at their job than an all-in-one device.

Of course there are several disadvantages to carrying multiple tools, not the least of which is having to carry them around.

However… 

I’m annoyed enough with the IPhone 3G performance and the Apple/ATT shenanigans that I would rather schlep around a netbook, GPS receiver, camera, IPod and a phone in a man purse than slip a sleek and sexy IPhone into my pocket ever again.

IPhone, you’re the devil’s spawn and I will get away from you and your demonic pimps at ATT and Apple.