Mo' iPhone, Mo' Problems (And Good Stuff Too)

No, I didn't stand in line for an iPhone. I wasn't sure it could stand up to my occasional fumble-n-drop method of phone usage and I didn't want to buy a cell phone with a battery I couldn't replace.

Of course, just because I don't want an iPhone doesn't mean it hasn't become extremely hot stuff online. The iPhone has spawned a lot of reaction across the 'net -- both good and bad...

Bad? Scambusters has put up a page just for iPhone scams that range from bad juju on eBay to fake iPhone selling sites. Scambusters also posted a list of expected scams before the iPhone was release ... many of which appear to have come true!

A little further down on the scale, some folks are reporting that their headphones don't work with the iPhone. Adapters are available. Some intrepid folks are trimming down the plastic around their headphone plugs and getting them to fit.

And then there's the battery issue. You can't replace the iPhone battery yourself. However, you can send it to Apple and they'll replace it for you, for the low low price of $85.95. Oh, and that'll clear all the data off your iPhone and take three business days, normally. To have a phone this cool and be expected to do without it for three days.....?

But there's good stuff too. There's already a site for games to play on your iPhone, at http://macmost.com/iphonegames/ . (Note that in addition to the standard Sudoku, etc. there's a game here called iPhone Assassin, where you seek out other players with an iPhone and virtually "assassinate" them. You start by going up to someone with an iPhone and saying "This is an iPhone Assassination!", which seems to me, in this day and age, a shortcut to getting hit over the head with a heavy object. I would play that one with caution.)

Don't feel like playing games after spending all that money? Gina Hughes has a roundup of iPhone applications available, from finding cheap gas to watching YouTube. Of course this is only the beginning....

There are literally over a million Web pages containing iPhone information, but no printed book is yet available. According to Amazon that'll change in August when a slew of books are due to come out. Meanwhile tech publisher O'Reilly must have set some new publishing speed records, because David Pogue's book, <i>iPhone: The Missing Manual</i> is now available in PDF format. (The printed book will be out in mid-August.) For $24.99 you can get the PDF now and the printed book when it becomes available. Check out the book's page, with a table of contents and index, available at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596513740/ .

If you want to keep up with the latest iPhone offerings, good and bad, check out http://www.theiphoneblog.com/ (Louis Vuitton iPhone cases?)