Thank you for that post. When I have retrieved my balls from my chest cavity, I will comment further.

Thanks for all that. Eventually I seem to have got there by restoring the 3G as a NEW iPhone. It seems that it's the backup and restore process that is causing problems--mine, and other people's, too. Not sure it's entirely working, because now my music is going back on, and as I've used the useful facility to transcode to 128 kbps, that is taking a l o o o ng time--like, overnight and still going. Hope it's worth it in the end.

When it started to go wrong on my 3G, I searched for tips about the Error -34 I was getting. This doesn't seem to be the common one, but there are plenty of people having problems.

Buying Apple stuff is a compromise, like all such decisions. But what you expect is a very smooth user experience, so you don't have to worry about the technicalities. This ain't happening this time, for me or a lot of people. So, I'm sure at some time it will get all nice, but WAIT.

Yes, I know I should have known better, but I thought it had been out for about 24 hours, and the stories ought to have been appearing. Where were all the Apple haters, when they could have been useful?

Against the warnings of years of disappointment, I started to upgrade my 3G earlier this evening (I'm in New Zealand). It is taking a very long time (and it doesn't seem to be waiting for downloads from Apple: it's in the backup and restore part). It crapped out after a couple of hours--no, call that three--with error messages, and I seem to have iOS 4, but none of my music and my non-Apple apps don't run. After powering off and restarting iTunes on my Mac (so this is not a Windows problem), it's now offering to do a restore, and I shall see what happens. But I seem not to be the only one.

DO NOT "UPGRADE" NOW, people. I have not had an experience like this since the days of Windows 9x. I'm sure it will get sorted in due course, but it ain't smooth now.

I really like the iPhone--it's replaced the Palm Tungsten and various smartphones and featurephones I've tried. But it is annoying that occasionally an attempt to scroll a page selects text instead. Yes, I know how to deselect, and yes, the wonderful digital (yok!YOK!) interface is necessarily a compromise, so sometimes also when scrolling a link-rich page you trigger one of the links, but it is, nonetheless, annoying. Sure, I'm 65, but I don't suffer from any other disabilities. But I guess you also get exasperated with n00bs who don't see how easy Linux is if they'll only learn to use the command line and edit a few config files.

Further, a home product investigation lab could be good, all ways. Here in funny little NZ, two girls needed a project for their school's science fair. So they thought they'd measure the vitamin C in Ribena (blackcurrant drink, advertised as source of vitamin C). So they do it, and they're all like "OMG there's no vitamin C!" And the Ribena company is like, "Errrmm..." Much publicity, good item on their CVs, girls can do science, big corporation gets shafted by consumers for a change. See also Dan's Data.

Hatred of wires may not be possessed by Joe Average, but it is by Jane Average. In the living room, this counts. See also WAF.

Yes, and hand-writing recognition. I'm afraid we have to blame Gary Trudeau for the absence of that feature from the iPhone. Also, something like a proper Today page would be a real improvement. Actual multi-tasking I can do without, but Graffiti works and I want to be able to see at first glance what I've got to do today.

Don't know what it's like in the US, but here in funny little New Zealand iPods are definitely price competitive; in fact, it's hard to find a PMP with a brand-name you've heard of that sells for less than the equivalent Apple product. The iPhone (which is here sold unlocked, without a SIM card, on a straight-out retail basis) is price-competitive with grey market smartphones. Computers, not so much, but yes, Apple can meet the market.

But, but... Surely vaporware is ideal for Cloud Computing?

If morals are inherently relative, does this mean that in some situations pedophilia is OK? Like, you know, if it's a good guy doing it?

Err, well, actually NO. Para 3 says that calory-restricted diets are shown to prolong life in a variety of species. TFA is actually about amino-acids.

Try reading with attention, eh?

If you were to RTFA (why yes, I am new around here) you might come to the conclusion that restricting specific amino acids will prolong your life as a fruitfly.

Well, I guess it wouldn't be too bad if you lived in an Apple.

You won't get everything you want, but you'll get a fair proportion of it if you buy a phone from somewhere in the Rest of the World.

I had an HTC Windows Mobile phone here in NZ, and it did a lot of what you want, quite well. I sold it off to get an iPhone, but that's because 1) I could buy it as a bare phone (and it is actually cheaper than some of the alternatives here); 2) I can use it on prepay 3) it has the standard lexicon of Ancient Greek available as an app, which is a killer a. for me.

I think most of the problems people have with the iPhone in the USA are really carrier problems, but you seem to have some of the shittiest carriers in the world.

Great Mercury Island is actually off the East Coast of the North Island, about the same latitude as Auckland. I expect they've designed it so it will work in the rain.