I hope you're not hanging your hat on "a year or two..." Verizon has been rolling out the FIOS service since 2005, and most of the country still isn't close to having that available.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Verizon - I know these rollouts of new technology ar very difficult. Which is why I don't believe any reports about LTE "in a year or two." Maybe in a small number of very lucky test areas, but on a national basis? Nah... More like 5 years I would guess.

If that's your tipping point, more power to you....but I usually prefer to pay attention to the people who I'm talking to.

I know, you or someone else, might need information from the web or an e-mail that's pertinent to the conversation, but there are many more reasons I would not use an iPhone on AT&T. For starters, if you can't get an effing signal in the first place, you don't have to worry about talking and browsing simultaneously.

Different arms of the same mythical five-headed beast.

Verizon (the end result of the Bell Atlantic+NYNEX+GTE+Worldcom [belated] megamerger - they're the landline/FiOS side) is HORRID at deploying new technology - this is the side of the company that constantly sends out mailings advertising 'high speed internet' at "2X dialup speeds!" like it's the second coming.

Verizon Wireless (VZW for short) is actually a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone (one of the world's largest wireless carriers). Because VZW is Voda's only outlet in North America, they have a lot of pull in the partnership, and that pull has resulted in faster rollouts of new tech. To bring this back around to the iPhone, it's Voda's influence (in some capacity) that resulted in VZW choosing LTE over WiMax as their 4G technology - VZW running LTE finally provides same-technology roaming for Vodafone customers visiting the USA.

I've only ever had a problem getting a signal on my iPhone once or twice, and that was in San Francisco (a known trouble spot for AT&T's coverage). My coverage in NJ is equal to or better than what I had when I was running a Treo 700p on VZW. Yes, it's true that at some times the signal downgrades to EDGE (GSM's 2.5G [word meaning fatherless son] child), but my experience on AT&T hasn't been any worse than my 10+ years on VZW. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Seems it already made the news on CNN.COM and WSJ.COM

Here's the video from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tec...one.cnn?hpt=T2

You are most likely right.

I am having so much fun with the Droid, that I wouldn't downgrade to the iPhone right now, at least in it's current form

I love the Android platform, it's so neat, and the stupid 2.1 release for the droid just came out. Big deal, I've using all that functionality for weeks now.

Too little, too late, Apple. It would have been nice, once upon a time, but now it's an Android life for me!

I'm not really sure how you can "blame" Apple - especially considering Apple went to VZW with the iPhone first, and VZW flatly refused to play ball...

You're right except that I'm not blaming Apple but addressing them as the party losing revenue in my case, both for the iPhone and future product sales. The more familiar I become with Apple's restrictive policies, the less I like them and the more I appreciate Android.

The positive side of Verizon's initial decision is that the success of the iPhone elsewhere forced VZW to break its nasty habit of crippling phones to maintain the old AOL-style "walled garden" approach.

From

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/...2012.mashable/

AT&T has iPhone exclusivity until 2012
By Barb Dybwad, Mashable
May 11, 2010 -- Updated 1456 GMT (2256 HKT)

MASHABLE
Apple confirmed that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity was for five years.

(Mashable) -- It was speculative before given the lack of independent confirmation, but now apparently Apple has gone on record to confirm that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007 was a five-year deal.

That means at least some legal hoops would need jumping through if we're ever going to see that oft-rumored Verizon iPhone before 2012.

Well, given how badly Apple wanted AT&T to bend over and take it, I can't blame VZW. In hindsight, forcing Verizon to find something better really only hurt Apple - without Verizon, Android wouldn't be where it is today.

where did they do that?

the court brief only refers to the usa today article. it does not say it was true, plus even if it was true, things can be renegotiated.

After owning my Droid since the day it came out, and the fact that Android powered phones keep coming up, I hope that the iphone never makes it to Verizon.

Although, I must admit, if that was a true iphone that the dude left at the bar, and the Gizmodo report is accurate, 80GB is very impressive on a phone.

I am still with the 16GB phone card that the phone came up with, don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars for a 32GB at this point.

I am having so much fun with this phone, I am running Cyanogen Dark Desire 5.6.0.2, and I am not even overclocking it, and it is fast.

My only gripe with this phone is the playback of MP4s, I ripped a few DVDs for my daughter, and help of the time I cannot play them back, I have to reboot the phone and that makes it work. Not sure why I have issues with video, even the ones that are recorded with the built in camera.

Oh well, other than that, the phone is awesome, and I can make phone calls ;)

I used Handbrake to convert my video (using an iPod profile), and the Nemo player (ripped from an Acer Android phone). The combination of the two works perfectly for videos.

I also use Tubeodownloader to download music videos off Youtube.