Regular readers of these ramblings will remember all the to and fro-ing over the last few months, will I get an iPhone, no I won’t, yes I will, Apple sucks, I want to give them a kidney.

Most of the reason for not getting one so far has been the effort required, getting in line early in the morning - not much worth doing that for. But today I read on one of the Apple sites that AT&T was now offering the iPhone for sale for business orders. I checked out the website and it invited me to enter my business email address to see if I was entitled to any discounts. I did - I was!

Turns out my employer has an employee discount scheme with AT&T and that was enough to get me in! From there I could add the iPhone to my shopping basket and, better still, the plans were discounted by about 15% so I ended up with the second cheapest plan for the same rate as the cheapest one.

The order went through and I was told 7-10 days. So imagine my surprise when tonight I got an email saying it had shipped already! Will arrive Monday or Tuesday, I guess.

Since I am a little late getting to the party I shall try to resist all the iPhone posts that have come before me.

The recent $500 models of the iPhone and iPod Touch have left me feeling a little colder towards the iPhone. My current contract expires in a week so the timing is perfect for a new phone. But, as I’ve said before, it’s crazy to buy an iPhone right now with the 3G models most assuredly coming out in a few months: Apple’s buyer remorse is guaranteed with that plan.

The new models made me realise that any new 3G iPhone is going to be in the same ballpark as these models, almost $500. As mega-fantastic as the iPhone is, my parents didn’t raise me to spend that kind of dough on a phone that requires a two-year contract. It’s insane, insane I tell you. So… I think I am going to get a Blackberry or other internet-friendly phone for free (thanks Wirefly!) and then perhaps in the summer spend some of the annual bonus on the Touch.

Yeah, it’s a little sucky but there are plenty of things in life I’d really really like but just can’t justify buying. Got to make the tough choices, I suppose.

61%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

Were it not for the fact that my current Verizon contract doesn’t end until Feb ‘08, it’s a fair bet to say that I would have an iPhone now. So until recently I’ve been pretty sure that come mid-Feb I’d be in the Apple store like a salivating dog but now I’m not so sure. The biggest problem is timing: the iPhone 2.0 is unlikely, I would guess, until the spring/summer of next year. So I’d be in the familiar Apple trap of buying something I’d come to regret in a few months - no GPS and no 3G makes Paul an unhappy consumer.

Now there’s no guarantee that I’d be able to even afford the new iPhone, of course, and to be fair Brawley isn’t exactly awash in 3G coverage, which then flip flops me back to the idea that perhaps iPhone 1.0 is adequate after all? Or maybe the idea is to get an iTouch and a new phone with the Google Maps with My Location feature on it, and call it good?

I hate Apple Buyer’s Remorse.

My building is part of a free community wi-fi but for some reason my macbook has never been able to see it reliably enough to connect to it. My work VAIO has no trouble, even my Dell Axim can do it, poor macbook cannot. Fortunately, some kind soul nearby has an unsecured wireless network that the macbook can see and I have been using it ever since I canceled my cable modem service.

But…. post-Leopard install I have noticed that the wifi network now always appears with a very weak signal strength since the upgrade, and is almost useless. It could be coincidence but if this continues I may have to stop using the unsecured wifi in my building and pay for cable again (shudder). Or I suppose ditch the macbook ?