The Reality Distortion Filter still works and Mr. Pogue is still subject to it. No mention of how it compares to other smartphones and PDAs he's certainly had experience with. No list of what's unique other than the Pixar-dust and clever UI touches. No balanced commentary on the winners and losers in the PDA and mobile phone convergence (remember the Newton?). The NY Times reader deserves more of Mr. Pogue's rich experience with every gadget on the planet and less reflection of Steve Jobs's enthusiasm for all things Apple. It's amazing that with Microsoft leading the software on smart-phones market (see PDAstreet article), nobody seems to look at their offerings.

David Pogue has access that few other technology writers do. This is on display in this review for which he got to play with an iPhone. My primary gripe with this review is that he doesn't adequately position the iPhone in the cell/smartphone ecosystem (though to be fair, he does give some feature comparisons with the Treo and Blackberry).

Mr. Pogue is ordinarily a perceptive tech-culture critic. But in this case he swallowed the Apple-and-baloney sandwich without even chewing it! Apple hasn't been in the habit of releasing products they can't control, but mobile-phone products are so bureaucracy-laden that a device like this announced before it is for sale might well get bogged down in regulatory approvals for a really long time. And. devices like this are so tied in to increasing Revenue Per User for the mobile network providers that they are bound to be closed systems.

The story is the best description I have read about this product. It conveys more of the excitement than any other printed article. For the other 80% go to the Apple, Inc. Home Page and view the Steve Jobs Keynote Address at the Apple Developers Convention. This is truly leap frog technology as was the Mac GUI, the iPOD and now this.