Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp AT pobox.com>]

Thomas Beckett wrote:
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> Greg Brown wrote:
> > Getting the device to operate on a carrier that works a damn in this area.
>
> Yeah, with all its shortcomings (and the insanely great stuff, too), the
> biggest technical flaw in the iPhone is AT&T.

Here in Australia (even further than Charlotte!), I run into people with 
iPhones pretty frequently.  They are not sold here - people buy them 
from eBay or friends in the US, unlock them, and replace the SIM cards 
with a local carrier.   These folks are not necessarily highly technical 
computer geeks either - typically the eBay sellers do the unlocking, or 
local independent phone vendors (since the "unlocking" just breaks a 
US-based contract, and there's no DMCA here, it's not anything the 
authorities care about).

The biggest downside here has been lack of 3G/HSDPA support in the 
iPhone, but that is expected to change with the next major "release" 
(which possibly will correspond with the launch in Australia).  Apple 
may find that it is hard to launch the iPhone locked to a particularly 
carrier, too - the Australian consumer commission or whatever it's 
called looks pretty dimly on this sort of anticompetitive behavior.

Are people in the US that scared of AT&T and/or the DMCA that they 
aren't unlocking the phones to any kind of widespread level?

As for applications, I'd like to see a more native application that 
interfaces with my company email, similar to the way my Blackberry does, 
or the Windows Mobile devices can do.  (Company uses MS Exchange.)  Yes, 
you can check Outlook Web Access through the browser, but it's a bit 
clunky, and from what I've seen, the IMAP access is slow especially 
without HSDPA.  But I don't have a lot of experience using one.

--Jeremy