Hey guys,

Thanks for all of your replies. First of all, I agree with many of you who scolded me regarding several negative aspects of the device, and yes, I am now considering more patience as I decide whether to go iPhone or not.

Chief among my concerns are:

1) No 3G. I tried EDGE before, standing in the Cingular store, and it downloaded like some 56K modem of 20 years ago. EDGE sucks, period. I would hate using it on the internet sans WiFi, I know that much. So that's strike one.

#1's Realization
Come to think of it, I just realized WHY there is no 3G support, and I'll be damned! Apple really IS smart after all! Think about it! You buy the iPhone today with EDGE (which sucks big time), and in 6 months they release the iPhone 2.0 with 3G support, and because you hate your EDGE you are FORCED to upgrade! Apple gets the double whammy! Oh.... we'd be fools to buy this now, knowing that! Companies are growing smarter about how they build products, purposefully leaving flaws and major issues with them so that they can appear to "fix" them in the next version and thereby ensure most users will upgrade.

The 770 was that way: the N800 promised so much more but you can only use the videochat feature by getting your friends to install Nokia's videochat software. None of my friends would bother, so I still to this day have never experienced a video chat on this thing, although it was primary reason for me to upgrade. Wasted, for no reason. And Maemo software development is so far behind the N800's release that the N900 will be out long before the Maemo software catches up to the N800.... My feeling is that I'm going to start skipping upgrades. Jump from the 770 to the N900 and skip the N800, that sort of thing.... because it's all useless to upgrade BEHIND the software development. It's pointless and futile. I'm done upgrading to every new machine in the line I currently use.

2) There is no way that Apple can make the claim that this is "the full internet" or the "non-watered down Internet" when they can't even display the Internet in 640 x 800 ! It already IS watered down simply by requiring you to zoom in and out! And it can't play FLASH, the way they get YouTube to work is by paying YouTube to undergo a massive overhaul of their whole site by converting it to H.263 ! What a lame "fix" for a machine that claims to have an Internet which "is not watered down!" Can it read PDF files? Can it download files?

3) Why, when they have the technology to add a 30G hard drive like they have in their Video iPod models, do they settle for a lame 4/8 gig drives? I will tell you why... see point #1's realization: when they release the iPhone 2.0 in 6-10 months, it will probably have 30 or 60 gig drives! Another reason to "have" to upgrade. Plus all of the widgets aren't yet ready for the iPhone, so if you wait a year to get the iPhone, several things will happen: a) iPhone 2.0 will come out. b) the prices will come down. c) iPhone 2.0 will probably include 3G and a larger hard drive. d) iPhone 2.0 will probably include a GPS system to patch into Google Maps or the like. And e) it will have more software available to use by then.

4) the iPhone will actually turn out to be a great boon to us N800 users. Nokia now realizes that competitors are closing in on their "Full Internet" idea and that those competitors are even making some improvements such as how iPhone uses Google Maps. It's truly marvelous how the iPhone uses Google Maps. If they were smart, they would not even need a GPS. They would ask you "Click on the map where you are currently." And the "Click on the map where you want to go." And then it would draw a route for you and then ask you to click the screen to tell the Routing software that you have advanced to the next direction, and the iPhone could tell you which turn to make next. You would then click to advance the directions. No need for a GPS software at all. All Internet based, without a GPS. Anyone could do it... Gnuite could do this with Maemo Mapper, too. Point where you are, point where you want to go, generate route, and wait for the user to tell the software when they have done the first step, and Maemo Mapper could tell you where to go next. Without a GPS! Easy.

But I got away from my point. The iPhone encourages competition between Nokia and Apple on the Internet functionality. We could begin to see several N800 updates coming down the pipes with new functionality, and new polish, to combat the iPhone's new "cool" attitude and design qualities. The N800, at long last, could begin to see the updates it needs to grow, like Skype support, or videochat usibility for any and all videochat clients like Yahoo and Google chat, or others. It could see "voice" activation features... since it does have a microphone and a CPU... all they would have to do is program it.

If the Nokia does NOT try to compete, then it may begin to die. It would be a shame, since they were the first to pioneer the "Full Internet" concept, and it does the Internet very well when it works correctly.

(I thank those of you who mentioned that I may have a defective touchscreen, I just got it back from repair two months ago because it went to whitescreen of death. It came back and worked fine for 1 month, and then it went buggy. I'm not sure they know what they are doing there in the Repair center to send back a more crappy item than the one they took in.)

Anyway, thanks for your time. I appreciate all of the advice and comments. I believe I will hold off for the time being, and see how other people handle this thing. See their gripes and complaints, and try to find someone who has one so I can see it work in person.

Take care.