My heart was in my mouth there for a minute when I thought that your new toy might have malfunctioned while performing a critical task, such talking on the telephone or listening to music.

Thank heavens you're all right!

I'm sure plenty of folks will come out of the woodwork to spell doom and gloom for Apple because the iPhones crash. Because if it isn't perfect, well applesucksgetarealcomputerblahblahblah.

You're a technology writer, so you have a valid reason to be a first adopter. But most people are better served waiting, as I said on Saturday. Apple first versions of new products are always problematic. That the iPhone crashes is hardly surprising, but Apple has a pretty good track record of fixing problems (with a few noteworthy exceptions). There will be software updates that may solve some of the problems, but sadly for those who bought this inroductory model, it may take Rev B or Rev C hardware for the iPhone to really settle down and shine.

Yet how unusual is that? You never by the first model year of a new car either.

Which blows. AT&T/Cingular is piss poor network reliabilty. As a former AT&T cell phone customer who never got voicemail on their phone account to activate at all and a current AT&T CallVantage VoIP customer, I can safely say that most of the problems with this will be because of AT&T's network. The old pre 1984 Bell Monopoly might have been 9 kinds of evil but it worked, rock solid, instantly every time, no matter what. The New AT&T/SBC/Cingular mini-opoly is a pile of steaming crap in terms of service availability, reliability, speed. You get the same "We don't care, we don't have to. We're the PHONE company" attitude but back in the day you never had any occasion to call them.

my q and treo both crash as well... i think it's more of a matter of anything that has a hard drive. shouldn't deter anyone from purchasing an iPhone, and kind of a bummer that it's being called out for that when it's such a ubiquitous problem.

Sucks to be you I guess. My iPhone hasn't crashed yet, was activated within 10 minutes from walking in my front door, has been nothing less than awesome for these first couple days.

You know, some people believe in Karma. All that trash you talked about this thing, you go out and get one, and it happens to be a lemon (or maybe you are just not "techy" enough to make it work). Bummer dude. Better luck next time.

Farhad seems confused as to why reporting a crash on a Apple product would engender a more robust defense from supporters than reporting a crash/freeze on a Windows machine.

Let me help: Most tech writers, like Farhad, like to consider themselves "hardcore" techies and believe that in order to be considered "hardcore" they must first and foremost love and/or worship all things Microsoft and belittle (or at least harumph in skepticism) anything that isn't Microsoft.

"Apple built a phone? Harumph. Truly tis nothing more than a child's toy. But my bosses are forcing me to 'review' it so I guess the least I can do is buy one. In order to save time let me write the negative review first. ATT&T is the carrier? Ho ho! I think I title my review, "iPhone Massive Failure! Millions bamboolzed out of money!"

I've owned several computers with all the latest versions of Windows and even bought a Zune. No matter how poorly these devices perform or how badly they do simple things (Vista? C'mon!) the tech writers gloss over them as minor problems. (Much like Rumsfeld glossing over the "minor set backs" in our otherwise glorious, universal and on-going victory in Iraq)

If Apple does something amazing (Mac OS X, iPod & iTunes)it's described by the "hardcore" tech writers as merely average and/or needs further developement. If Vista sets your laptop on fire or emails all your credit info to thieves in China the hardcore tech writers feel obligated to dismiss this as a minor quirk, hardly worth mentioning. If an Apple product fails in any aspect, even once, then the tech writers give a long exsaperated sigh, says "I told ya so" and then pontificates about how Apple product in question isn't ready for prime time.

"The battery in my iPod doesn't hold the same charge after 5 years as it did when I originally bought it. Clearly the iPod is a deeply flawed product and one has to wonder what Steve Jobs was thinking when he tricked millions of people into buying such a terrible device built with garbage parts!"

This is usually followed by an article explaining how the Zune's file sharing feature (viewed as pointless by almost all consumers) is the "greatest technological breakthrough in the last 150 years!"

If Apple-users overreact to negative reviews of an Apple product, that's understandable. The tech-writer double standard can wear people down after awhile.

If a Treo or Blackberry or HTC or 8525 or etc., crashes it's because they are poorly designed and crippled devices but if an iPhone crashes its "karmic retribution" (lol) for any anti-iPhone comments and At&T's fault? Uh huh.

Kidding aside, it's certainly not the end of Apple but maybe and hopefully it's the beginning of the end of the crazed hype.

"Farhad seems confused as to why reporting a crash on a Apple product would engender a more robust defense from supporters than reporting a crash/freeze on a Windows machine."

Well the answer is because a lot of hardcore Apple people seem to be a bit nutty and obsessive when it comes to brand loyalty.

Anyway, tech writers gloss over flaws in Microsoft!!? products while magnifying flaws in Apple products? I dunno about that, it seems backwards because doesn't MS regularly get hammered by the press if their products fall short in one way or another?

That's the point of the article. I still don't get the "why"? Why not just have a cell phone? Why not just have an iPod or mp3 player (if you need the latter; I don't)? Why not wait to use the computer at home (you need maps? you left home without knowing where you were going?)?

The only person I can see using an all-in-one device is a long-distance commuter by public transportation. And don't many people do this on the basis of cost? In which case won't the high price of the iPhone be a deterrent?