Mum is no longer the word

Well, finally the misery is over. Steve Jobs attended the Apple Regent street store and let the whole of the UK know most of what it already knew.

O2 are to be the carrier and with "unlimited" data plans at £35, £45 and £55 the handset price of £269 seems almost pallatable.

No 3G but Edge is the weapon of choice for data accces, although on 30% coverage on the launch date of 9th november seems a little short and certainly will give pause for users who would have to give up 3G coverage for GPRS which, frankly, sucks.

On the back of my last post, I managed to convince myself that the iPhone isn't for me and have ordered an iPod touch which I should receive in less than a fortnight. However, now I know that we are definitely getting unlimited data I will be following, sheep like, and getting the iPhone on launch day.

18 Month contracts are a little more difficult to swallow when the handset isn't subsidised as the network cannot really justify the "standard" price points on their tariffs but, hey ho, that is rip off Britain for you.

Trying to read between the lines of anything said by Steve Jobs is near on impossible, a master of smoke and mirrors. When questioned on the lack of 3G he cited power consumption as the perfectly reasonable explanation for it's lack of inclusion, however, when asked about the Starbucks arrangement he was as cagey as you like, "You would need to ask Starbucks" was his reply.

All in all, a good announcement. At least now we can get our dates ready to go to the Apple store and queue with all of the other geeks on 9th November.

Now, if I could only decide on a case ?????