Glenn,

Your post article makes you look like an idiot. I know better. What were you thinking? You have some explaining to do. You are taking some serious heat on the Post site. You need to see what's being written about you. The Drudge Report feuled the fire by linking to the Post article. Your reputation is taking a serious hit. Ouch! Did you really compare the iPhone's screen to a laptop screen? Ouch!

[Editor's note: Thanks for the, uh, vote of confidence? I did my explaining in the article. I pointed out that some features are lacking; you can see this clearly in the Apple video. The screen is large, and works great for many purposes. But as an Internet browser, it's just not quite right. The pinch and expand gestures are being highly promoted, but when it comes to reading a Web page or a Word document--it's too small to show enough formatted text.

They're trying to make the iPhone out to be a partial laptop replacement by having rich browsing and email attachment viewing features. And those are disappointing. There are other solutions that have been employed by Opera and other companies to allow better browsing without slavishly reproducing a Web page or Word document or what have you (allowing the option for that, but also allowing a document to be, you know, readable).

In the article, there's context about what I'm talking about -- a specific aspect of the experience that Apple is promoting, and is clearly lacking both in my personal experience and easily seen in the video they made. Watch the part in which the narrator talks about viewing a Word document. Now tell me how you read that document? Flicking your fingers back and forth, back and forth.

And Drudge? I don't have magical control over what Matt Drudge links to.-gf]

THIS is what should've ran in The Post. This makes at least some sense. (Hint: The pricing has been available since this morning.)

So why did you sell them the dishonest, sensational write-up and save the more reasonable one for all 12 of your blog readers?

[Editor's note: The pricing I mention in the article as potential is about what they're charging. An average user will spend $80 to $100 per month; I mentioned $90 per month in my article. Sure, this is migrating from existing plans for most people, but it's still a two-year commitment and about $2,000 you're spending in service, even if you'd spend that money with another carrier.

This doesn't include Wi-Fi, which is one of the big sticking points for me, given AT&T's Wi-Fi network. So we now know what EDGE and voice costs, and it means that likely iPhone people are going to be more disappointed because they'll either spend a lot of time using EDGE data or have to buy a separate subscription for Wi-Fi access with a hotspot chain or find free Wi-Fi.

"why did you sell them the dishonest, sensational write-up": That's an awful lot of assumptions. I wrote an article that combined my experience six months ago with an early iPhone and my analysis of what's lacking in the unit as it will be released. The Post tagged it in a way that I think overstates the case, but that's their style. -gf]

Dude, you need to correct it somehow. That NY Post article is gonna make you a laughing stock. People are going to ream you a new one when they find out that your review was based on a 20 min. massage session with the prototype in January. Especially when the link makes its way around all the tech blogs.

[Editor's note: The article doesn't say I somehow miraculously got an iPhone before its release; that would be sort of ridiculous, and I thought it was assumed that that's impossible.

I wish they had included my line about when I'd tried the iPhone, to make that clearer. It's really a piece of analysis based on limited, long-ago hands-on experience.

The "First Review" tagline is a bit sensational, I agree, but the Post is a tabloid, and they like to jump up and down about things. It's their style.-gf]