Will he or won't he iPhone 3G?

The Macalope is certain that you're sitting at home asking yourself, "I wonder if the Macalope's going to buy an iPhone 3G?"

Don't be embarrassed. It's OK. It's not unusual to wonder what a mythical creature who's part man, part antelope and part Mac would want in a phone.

Well, OK, maybe it is. But the horny one much prefers this kind of question to when you've called him late at night and asked what he's wearing.

Which is pretty stupid, really. What's he wearing? Come on. Fur. He's wearing fur. And nothing else. That much you can learn by picking up any good D&D bestiary.

But to answer the other question, no. He's not going to trot out and buy one on July 11th.

Sure, sure, the Macalope's said that about many an Apple product and then eventually succumbed to its siren's song (which is why the sirens are totally off his Christmas card list), but if you already have an iPhone, the first year of an iPhone 3G is going to set you back an additional $319 (the Macalope prefers to look at just the first year rather than the full two years of the contract since it's likely that another iPhone will be released a year from this one). Now, depending on your usage, that's pretty reasonable for faster data, GPS, better battery life and, let's face it, bragging rights to your superior powers of conspicuous consumption.

But the Macalope's usually not far from his trusty MacBook or a WiFi connection, so the speed gain isn't worth the additional cost to him. Reasonable adults can make their own decisions.

Description of Monday's announcements have ranged from a "Microsoft-esque" yawn-fest (tip o' the antlers to Danny Gorog via email) to Steve Jobs is your boyfriend now. Thurrott's piece is so tedious, inaccurate and bitter it's frankly too embarrassing to go through. The second piece goes a bit far even for the brown and furry one's tastes. While the Macalope thinks the iPhone 3G is a great evolutionary step for the product line and should -- with the added countries -- ensure Apple blows past the 10 million units mark and give it a nice share of that delicious market pie, even he doesn't think the iPhone 3G is enough to unseat Blackberry.

Again, it's good, but is it $319 better than an original iPhone with the 2.0 software? Your mileage may vary.

[donius]

I've heard that, in addition to raising the price $10, AT&T is also removing the part of the plan that gives us users of the now-antiquated iPhone our first 200 text messages for free. A similar starter pack will supposedly cost $5 more. No word yet on whether AT&T also plans to charge for the first checked bag.

If the D&D bestiary permits the antlered one to send or receive the occasional text message, that's 60 more reasons to stick with the old model.

[etcook]

Bravo!

Finally a pragmatic and honest piece. Perhaps you are, in fact, evolving from a donkey to a macalope after all.

[apple4ever]

Yeah, I waited in line to pay $600 for the 1st gen iPhone, and coupling that with a lack of a 32GB 3G iPhone, I'm going to wait another year.

[johnwbaxter--2008]

No 3G where I spend about 98% of my time. Easy to pass on this iPhone version.

(However, the blue area at the Gig Harbor end of the Tacoma Narrows bridge is larger than it was in January, so 3G may show up sometime. Still no new phone: EDGE arrived here less than 6 months before original iPhone, so isn't yet heavily used, so is faster--less slow--than it is in other locations. It's not great, but good enough.)

[jburka]

I'll admit that I'd be much happier if there was a 32gb model available, but I've been needing a second cocoa touch device for dev purposes -- I'd rather not do dev on a phone I rely on every single day! Given the choice between a 8gb iPhone 3G for $299 (+10-15/month) and an 8gb iPod Touch for $299, I'd much rather have the phone.

On the flip side, my partner spent his $500 (after the $100 early adopter's refund) and refuses to get less than two years of use out of his iPhone! And I can't say I blame him...

[Bergamot Orange]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned:

Is it possible to buy a new 3G iPhone, but sign up for the old $20 EDGE contract from AT&T, if I live in an area that has no 3G service?

[msadesign]

Umm, Hairy One? in English we wouldn't say "your sitting at home" [rather, you're sitting?]. Is it different in Macalope University?

Just wonderin'.

[Macalope]

Oops! Fixed. Mercy buckets.

[ripragged]

My 16-Gig iPhone will do quite nicely for now. I envision His Steveness saying, after WWDC,"There. Now will you PLEASE get off my back about 3G and third party apps?"

[thomjensen--2008]

I think your hairiness got it just right. Is it worth it to take on another two year contract for little additional benefit. What IF there is a new one next year that is oh, so sweet. Or, even one with lots of additional memory We all know what the cell phone people say about upgrading early. You can't. I think that I am going to sit this one out... enjoy my cheaper plan, enjoy my "free" text messages, enjoy one more year of my contract plus the rest of my iPhone Apple Care warranty. This seems like an upgrade for new customers and for foreigners. Especially if 2.0 software makes it do all sorts of neat things.