I'd recommend a gun, buring at the stake, drowning or rat poison in
it's sandwiches ... but simply ignoring the moron is easier and legal.

Good idea...

Well, not being able to see Flash ads or such isn't that bad, really.
And if Flash would work only bad (since you haven't got enough CPU-power
or browsing would eat to much battery then or the screen resolution is
not enough on the small screen) it would be worse than not having Flash
at all.

Yes, this sucks, no question. But this surely isn't something that
defines if you're happy with the thing or not. You don't use it for all
your browsing or mailing or writing. It covers a certain base amount of
all that and *this* it does in a straight, simple and convenient way.

Hey, that thing is a *phone* (or an iPod in the case of the Touch). It's
not the one and only computer that has to do everything. Of course it
would be nice to have smooth Flash and full Javascript support, but
within the memory and CPU-power and energy constraints of such a small
device I don't see that coming too soon.

As you say, even the N800 has no Java and this tablet is a quite
unwieldy thing to have in your pocket or to use one-handed while
standing in the subway. That a quite small phone or iPod which can be
held and used with one hand can't do everything a larger tablet or
notebook can do shouldn't be surprising, I think. Of course you could
make it to do more than it does and some of that in a slow, complicated,
incomplete or hard-to-use way, but obviously there are enough people who
like to have a gadget that does the things it does in a nice and
well-rounded way and is easy to use. Apple seems to service that market
quite well. If you don't like it, buy another device.

       Jochem

My daugher-in-law insists on sending me multimedia pictures to an iphone I
have. Of course you get a message to go to viewmypicures.com (ATT site)and
have to type in a horrible alphanumeric message id and password which is
embedded in  the message. So I have to go get a pen and paper and write them
down then re-enter them to see the picture or use another computer and get
the id off the iphone. If it was anything but pictures of my grandaughter I
would delete the darn thing and not bother.

there is a difference between a common file and a "standard" file. you
are wanting to play non-standard files which with Apple is not the
correct direction for the best customer satisfaction.

learn the difference. apple is all about OPEN standards, not closed
ones, so you might want to learn a bit more about the industry before
you make uneducated claims.

no. the way the iphone is organized, there is never much need to copy
and paste, info is better when it just moves from app to app like iLife.

you need to learn how the iPhone operates, then you won't make such
uninformed comments.

it's great since everything works correctly, no more guessing, the
iphone is a dream machine, everyone understands that, but for a few old
timers that like to live in the past, it's not going to meet your low
standards.

    How about forever?

    No, for a few reasons I think are pretty good:

1. There really isn't anything that I NEED to do with my iPhone that I
can't. Can't see flash? Screw it. I don't really care. There's an
immeasurable amount of web out there I can see, and the iPhone browser
does a really fine job with it.

Also, I work in front of both Apple and PC computers 26.5 hours a day.
During the brief periods I'm not working out of my home office, my
need for the 'Net is limited to several important functions (e-mail,
quick fact-finding). These things, I have found, the iPhone does
extremely well.

2. What the iPhone DOES do for me, that other devices cannot or do
poorly, compensates for any potential features it lacks. Specifically,
it works in Japanese or English, or both, across all applications. It
does this flawlessly, and did so right out of the box. The Japanese
functionality was overseen by native Japanese users, so it's logical
and natural (to use Japanese in WinMo, for example, you have to use
third-party shareware that was written by Chinese people. We're lucky
they took the initiative, and I applaud them, but it isn't really a
good application for native users of Japanese, and delivers
inconsistent results under different applications and on different
networks and devices).

It also plays music pretty nicely and does lots of other handy things.
These things are all gravy, once the essentials are well taken care
of.

3. I write about design, and the iPhone is thoughtfully designed.
There are many devices out there that are put together like a Swiss
Army Knife created by people who don't know one another, via postcard.
They do lots of things, probably, but they're unwieldy messes that
have to be rebooted a dozen times a day. Trust me when I say I'm old
school, I've been there.

4. They're not really that expensive considering the convenience and
the above.

5. I have a life beyond my devices.

    DGI