Thinking of getting an iPhone...

I would wait until macworld was over before cancelling your current contract. If a new model is announced during macworld, go ahead and cancel it and get the iphone. If not I would stay on your current contract so you won't have to pay early cancellations fees (unless you can afford it). As for your other questions:

No, you cannot record video on your iphone unless you jailbreak the phone and install Cycorder.

You can connect certain bluetooth headsets made specifically for the iphone, also it works with my parents' infiniti fx 35 handsfree, but I am not sure about other cars.

Some other downsides to the iphone are there is no MMS (you cannot send pictures as text messages), and there is no video recorder ( unless you jailbreak like said above)

I hope that helps,

 

1. Wait after MacWorld to get one.
2. Not natively, but it can take video if you jailbreak it and install Cycoder via Cydia.
3. Yes, headsets.
4. None I can think off, well except maybe the pricing of data plans

 

The Apple presentation (keynote) at Macworld is tomorrow morning at 9am PST.

 

No, and no, unfortunately.

 

There are free apps in the App Store that give you MMS capability.

 

1) Don't use MMS. Use e-mail. There's no reason to hand your carrier money for something that you can do for free.

2) Jailbreaking the iPhone is 100% safe. You can't permanently brick the device doing it.

3) Don't pay an ETF. It'll most likely be cheaper to buy an unlocked iPhone 3G from eBay and use it on your current contract (plus the £10 Web 'n WiFi bolt-on...)

 

Yeah, if they were going to release one, it would have happened yesterday, so go nuts!

 

I'm in the same boat, well my plan is eligible for upgrade in March and as much as I hate AT&T it looks like I'm stuck(I'd much rather spend the extra money for an unlocked and go to Tmobile who I had b4 I got on a fam plan w/ my fiance )

Anyways:
1. No announcement at Macworld = for sure no new iPhone for '09? Or is it possible one can come out by Summer?

My contract is up in July, but I'm eligible for early upgrade in March.

Signing a 2yr deal is a long time IMO, but the goal is to be much more financially stable in 2yrs to buy an unlocked for $500-600 if need be(2yrs from today I was still in college and didn't have student loan/mortgage debt to pay )

2. Is Cycorder one of those amazing 3rd party apps I've heard so much about?

Even without owning an iPhone it sounds like there is still plenty of room for improvement and I'm wondering what search terms would yield the best results or any thread rec's as to how to go about coding and even getting an e-lance programmer to create a new app or should I post my own?

3. Does the Motorola S9 work with the iphone?

One of the biggest advantages I'm looking forward to is having the bluetooth so I don't have to carry both my Nano 3g AND phone seperately OR spend $50-60 to get a BT adapter for the Nano, which I'll probably sell when I get the iPhone anyways.

BTW my SGH-d900i has the worst playlist feature ever w/ a limit of 30 songs/list and only 4 total lists... a hack that would make this phone more appealing, but I don't think it's very common here in the states(got it for free from my father-in-law who got it in Europe) so there wouldn't be as much of a market as there is for iphone apps.

4. Does an IM on Yahoo/AIM count as an SMS if you have unltd internet and limited SMS(~500/mo) or can I just skip out on unltd txt and use AIM specifically?(I'm not a big txtr anyways, but maybe having a phone w/ a QWERTY will turn me into one )

How about battery life/service coverage?

The pricing is a rip-off, especially since they jacked up the price of 'net/unltd texting plans and I've also noticed from some friends that have 'em that the 3G isn't fully implemented here(Chicago), there are spots where the 3G doesn't work.

Does anyone have a battery booster? I've seen a few advertised in PC mags and Entrepreneur and since I will be using this as a "lifeline"(phone, mp3, net browser, business mgmt tool, etc) I will need to make sure the battery has a good life.

 

For anyone who is thinking about re-upping their contract or signing a brand new contract, stop right now. Seriously. Wait until the Palm Pre actually hits stores and go test it out. This is not an anti-iPhone or a pro-palm post, but I'm just being realistic. There is a phone coming out soon that "on paper" beats the iPhone hands-down. I'm not saying its going to be an iPhone killer, but I'm just saying if you want to make a good, educated purchase, you should at least give it a chance.

 

It says the the Pre is only available on Sprint which would mean only Sprint and Verizon could use it and none of the Int'l carriers that use SIM cards like Tmobile or AT&T.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/index.html#tab2

 

True, for now. I may be wrong, but I don't think Palm makes strictly CDMA-only phones. So, there should be a very comparable GSM version in a little bit (it just won't be called the "Pre" for exclusivity reasons).