Summertime blues

Summertime blues
The last thing I wanted to write this week was yet another iPhone column, but the damn thing is all people are talking about. And I don't mean people in the mobile industry, either: The iPhone was a major topic of conversation at the Fourth of July party I attended in Chicago. I haven't seen this particular group of folks so enthralled by new technology since "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" hit stores and a small group of us spent an entire weekend beating up virtual cops and smacking around virtual hookers.  

Rumor had it a friend picked up an iPhone last week, but she never showed, much to the chagrin of the vast majority of party goers who have yet to see the device up close. Among the minority of revelers with firsthand iPhone experience, the response was uniformly positive. "A guy at work bought one, and it's very cool," one enthused. "The touchscreen is amazing."  But the painfully slow AT&T network speeds and last weekend's device activation issues also were common knowledge: "Why did Apple have to go with [expletive deleted] AT&T?" another said. "That's a deal breaker."

A turning point of this very long, very hot Independence Day was the moment when the video iPod supplying our music suddenly crashed. Attempts to reset the device failed. "No way am I buying a first-generation iPhone when Apple still can't produce an iPod that's reliable," said one particularly surly attendee. Actually, that guy was me. I just didn't realize I was wrapping up another iPhone column when I said it. - Jason