I am not a big fan of cell-phones nor am I a big Mac guy, but my wife loves Apple and went nuts over the iPhone. Of course I argued the logical, it's expensive, it's proprietary,  it locks you into a single service provider, and iTunes (Apple) has you by the nuts and for what? A phone! She actually listened, but as time went on I noticed the iPhone hackers were making this phone actually more worth while, even breaking free from AT&T for those brave enough to give it a go.

I have been watching FIC (NEO1973) OpenMoko phone for awhile. This is the phone, and OS,  I really have been waiting for, but it is slow going and I fear it, like any Linux flavor, will be a constant waiting game. Downloading Linux for free and finding out this application isn't totally working or that driver is almost functional wait until the next release isn't a big deal, but put that scenario onto a $300.00 + piece of hardware that will be outdated in a year and even I start to question the sanity of it. Perhaps we will see OpenMoko running on the iPhone at some point. 

Fact is I love Linux and open source and I hate cell phones! But, I am willing to compromise for the right device. I have been waiting for a phone that does more than play old MIDIs when the phone rings and allows me to play repackage 1980s arcade roms! I am not that excited over this shit considering it was just as worthless when it was all over the internet in the early nineties. I can't imagine why people would pay to have any of it, regardless of the device spewing it out. Plus, I spent many quarters at the arcade in the eighties and warmly welcomed 3DO! I see no reason to go backwards at this point.

Then in my research I find that the best phones do not exist in the United States! Seems the East has the best of the best, like the e28 Hawk . I end up looking at Nokia, which has a lot of features and who has Linux based phones, but still is a run of the mill small screened cell phone with very little storage. Some will argue that inserting tiny memory cards into the phone is the way to go, but who wants to carry around a bunch of easily lost/damaged chips? I want internal storage and lots of it! I wouldn't be satisfied with a two gig US device running my desktop why should I be happy with a 2gig chip in mypocket? now 8gig chips would be another matter, but they are very expensive and not yet supported by expensive cell-phones!

I decided that maybe I should not be so damned cautious and live a little! I need a mobile phone, not for calling friends so much, but for those times when your car breaks down. It used to be you could find a pay phone on the every other corner, but you are lucky if you find one anywhere but the airport these days! As much as I hate cell-phones I am realizing I can't hold off any longer. If I must buy a phone and lock myself into a carrier contract I might as well get something that will do many things and allow me the storage to do it without fear of running out of space. I already know my wife will buy
another iPod  and another cellphone in October when her service contract is up so I figure why not just solve all issues at once. Last thing I need is another $300 iPod laying in a drawer!

We both got an iPhone and from the minute I booted the phone to finished the activation I knew this phone wasn't going to let me down. Without reading any manuals I knew where everything was and how to use it, from the Address book to the camera. The phone is also clear and the internet snappy, I was on my way to heaven! But, I soon got bored of flipping the web browser from portrait to landscape and decided to release the real power and usefulness of the iPhone! Within a few minutes, not including the download and short amount of "how to" reading, I had installed the installer.app and had full access to the iPhone file system. It was so simple.

Note: To get third party software on the iPhone you must jaibreak the phone. This is not Apple approved. There is also unlocking, which allows the phone to use other carriers, like Verizon for instance. Here is a great write up on the difference and even a bit of warning.

The first thing I installed was the BSD Subsystem, the terminal, and a file explorer. I now have a very familiar world to play in! Considering my main OS on my desktop is Linux based the installer.app was just a godsend! Good ol' sources, system wide updates, what could be better? Even the sense of community felt in the OSS would on my desktop is making itself apparent on the iPhone. On to SSH, Python, all those things that make virtual life worth living!

As I sit playing with this new toy and reading about it on the internet I was surprised to find people that hate it without really even using it. I agree all the talk is annoying, but for those who said it's a piece of shit because it doesn't have terminal or SSH, you were wrong - it does. The rest who say it's just a over priced phone, again wrong, just check the prices on other smart phones including Nokia e70.

I am very pleased that not only do I have a phone at this point with my own MP3 ring tones created and uploaded by my hand, but also that I have a camera, ebook reader,  hand-held game console, Unix workstation with full internet, RSS reader, weather forecaster, note taker, instant message,  alarm clock, calender, address book, eight gig storage device, email client, map, calculator,  8gig iPod movie/music player. All that on a sharp crystal clear big screen that is the prettiest cell-phone screen I have seen to date. Bravo Apple!

Our contract, like most, is two years and the shelf life of the iPhone is a year so I figure the OpenMoko phones will be majorly kick ass by the time I am in the market for another phone.Truth is, I am not a fan boy of Apple and would prefer an truly open Linux phone over the iPhone, but to be honest I am totally happy with my purchase! Hate the iPhone all you want, but if you ran out and bought a iPod and a two year contract with a Nokia you got less imo and you can't blame Apple for that.

Now for the couple of things I hate about it.

1. Cannot replace the battery! What is it with Apple and batteries. Come on Steve, your users aren't that stupid are they?

2. I hate having to run Windows in order to activate the phone. I had to install Windows in order to do this. Not every one runs Windows or OS X damn it!

3. I hate the case. Something this pretty you really don't want to break, scratch, or dent. Apple should have provided a carrying case with detachable clip and a closing lid to protect the screen while
attached to a belt or in a purse. When you first get your $300 dollar phone you have no safe way to carry it until you buy a case. What's the first thing most people want to do when they get it? Take it
around town and show it off!

4. It would be nice, even though it has 8 gigs internal storage, to have a mini memory card slot.

5. Missing features seen in other phones. FM radio and GPS !

6. I should be able to set my start page for Safari. I hate that it takes me to the last page visited. Not to be greedy, but a stripped down Flash would be cool!

7. The keyboard needs to allow you to backspace through words not just sentences and a spell checker would be nice. Copy and paste would be helpful in some cases too.

8. Cannot run multiple applications, I realize there isn't much memory to support that, but two applications at once would be perfect! If you answer a text message while typing and answer it you lose what you were doing. Why not, in those types of situations, could it not drop the application you're working in so you can resume when your done sending your message?

9. A empty trash option in mail so I don't have to delete each message. 

Well, enough about it, take it or leave it one fact remains, the iPhone will make the future brighter when it comes to smart phones, including the OpenMoko. That is something you should be happy about even if you have no desire to ever own an iPhone. For those interested in iPhone, but are holding back, it's worth every penny in my opinion and the second gen should prove to be a better purchase than the
first.