Apple Iphone

Here in Australia, the Apple Iphone will be released on July 11, and Optus is the first Phone Company to release the prices.

Customers buying the phone to use on Optus's pre-paid network will pay $729 for an 8GB iPhone or $849 for a handset with 16GB of storage. Otherwise customers can pay no upfront cost if they are prepared to agree to spend $79 per month over two years.

Im looking into buying the Apple Iphone, but have heard good and bad news about it. Ive done my research and sounds like the phone for me, but am just wondering if anybody on the Above Network has used it? I would like to hear your positive and negitive aspects of the Iphone.

Any help is greatly appreciated

I would especially love to hear from American ATS'ers regarding this.
With the weak dollar the incentive to go on vacation and pick up an iPhone is really strong

BUT... I read something about they will be forcing you guys to activate the phone in the shop or how was it?
Does this mean that you get tied to a subscription and there is no way to avoid this? Also, this would in turn mean that you have to be an American citizen in order to buy the phone at all. Is that also correct?

Here in Denmark we are also being forced to get the phone with a subscription. One which is only supplied by one phone company, Telia.

The phone itself will be:
8GB - $290 / 187 Euros
16GB - $417 / 267 Euros

add to that the monthly subscription:
Each month - $125 / 80 Euros
You MUST be signed to this subscription for 6 months! No exceptions... if you're a company you are forced to stick with it for 12 months.
I know it's worse for the brits, but this locking people down shouldn't be allowed at all...

in this subscription we get:
Free calls to Telia mobile and landline numbers
5 hours of calls to other mobile numbers
300 mb of data

So first of all, screw the statement of the phone not costing more than $200 all over the world. We're talking $90 more here!
And then we have the "virtually no competition amongst the phone companies" in Denmark which means we are charged waaay too high prices for their so-called services.

So you can understand why I'm fishing for some info regarding the American market


Now the reason I was looking to maybe getting the iPhone was the wifi and gps system of it, besides it looking nice and slick. Also I hardly go anywhere without my iPod and phone, so molding these into one piece would be nice for me.
I had the pleasure of seeing the 1st gen phone up close and I like the quality of the screen, it's decent for movie watching etc. so that's one more plus from me.

One thing I haven't investigated though, which for me could decide the whole deal, is the stamina of the battery in this baby.
I must admit, I'm not at all impressed with the battery in my 1st gen Nano. and having had some different phones with color display, needless screensavers etc. I'm not too impressed with those either.

How long can you go without charging the 1st gen iPhone? I know it depends on how much you're talking and using it for what ever, but if it needs to sleep in the charger over night every 2 nights or so, then I couldn't care less.

One of my mates has got the Iphone and it is a really decent piece of equipment, and is not quite like anything I have seen before. If you have the hacking know how (such as my friend does) you can unlock the phone and not be tied down to an expensive contract (I believe all it takes is the right software which can be downloaded for free.)

Well Im going to get one, I just hope the vodafone deals are good. There were some leaked details on SMH this morning but they didnt look very good compared to Optus.... so I donno, but Im pretty sure Im going to get one..... not on pre payed though.