Jesus Diaz writes a rant over at Gizmodo re: iPhone 3G owners (currently in contract) who are pissed about not being able to get the new iPhone 3GS at the fully subsidized price. To summarize, he's calling us whiners and that we should suck it up. Here's why he's wrong.
 
To his point - Yes, we are in a contract we freely agreed to. Yes, the cost of the iPhone 3G was subsidized by AT&T so that we could get it at the lower price. Yes, businesses like AT&T need to make money, too. But "whining" is the market's way of telling companies like AT&T and Apple that we demand better. It's how innovation is born and how we are able to enjoy things like iPhones. AT&T should listen to its highly profitable and highly engaged customers who stick with its service despite it being subpar. Apple should listen to its loyal customers who line up to buy its products by putting pressure on AT&T or better yet, by NOT renewing its contract with AT&T and allowing all major GSM based service providers (T-Mobile and Verizon) to have access to the iPhone and thus force competition on price and service quality. Don't hate on the whiners because without us, you'd probably have to pay full price for the iPhone 3GS AND have a 2 year contract like when the original iPhone came out. Or worse still, we'd probably all be using Windows Mobile phones because no one "whined" enough and demanded a better solution.

My last post about Apple today ... saved the best for last. The coup de grace of today's Apple announcements is the new iPhone 3GS. Faster processor, more memory (RAM and Flash), better camera, video recording, voice control, etc. There are a ton of great online reviews so I won't launch into one of my own. Suffice it to say, it's a welcome upgrade to a great device that had some shortcomings. $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB.
 
Of more important note is the fact that current iPhone 3G owners will be screwed. Unlike the upgrade from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G (could upgrade at the same price as new customers), current iPhone 3G owners who are only 1 year into their 2 year contract will NOT be able to buy the new iPhone 3GS at the subsidized prices I listed above. AT&T has graciously allowed these customer to pay an extra $200 (plus $18 upgrade fee) for their iPhone 3GS and then will renew their contracts for another 2 years. I've never seen a wireless company that cared so little about its customers. Don't they realize that people are willing to take their subpar wireless service in order to get the latest doodad? And on top of that, iPhone users outside of the US (non-AT&T carriers) will be getting MMS and tethering support immediately versus waiting another few months while AT&T gets its act together. The Apple-AT&T exclusivity contract is set to end in 2010 and there are talks of extending it till 2011. My hope is that this extension does not happen and we can finally regain the ability to choose our wireless carriers based on service. I guarantee a fair number of iPhone users will jump ship, myself included.

So I just downloaded the Slingplayer Mobile app for the iPhone. It's pretty darn amazing. I had bought the original Slingplayer Mobile for Windows Mobile and I thought that was good. This iPhone version blows it away. Below is my quick video demo (apologies for quality - I only have the MacBook iSight camera available). There are a ton more things in the app, just didn't have the time to go through them all. I'm running this from my original Classic Slingbox (which isn't officially supported). Supposedly for the full effect, you need to buy one of their newer Slingboxes (how convenient, no?). The only drawback I can see so far is that the app was hobbled by Apple/AT&T to only run on WiFi. At least the original Slingplayer Mobile for WinMo worked no matter what connection you had. If you already own a Slingbox and either an iPhone or iPod Touch, this is probably the best app you could ever buy. Well worth the $30 price. Let's hope that AT&T gets their act together and allows the 3G connection so this app can be used to its fullest.