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In an effort to expand our conversations beyond mostly televisions, I thought the iPhone would be an interesting topic now that the hype has settled.

I have been a big Nokia fan since the 6110. Every phone since has been a Nokia. I find them easy to use and functional. For instance, I connect my laptop (using bluetooth) to my N95 and access the internet through the 3G on my phone plan.

I have felt that Nokia have always had superior phones to the competition. Now that Apple have launched the 3G iPhone, Nokia's dominance is in question. I think the iPhone is a good mp3 and media player with built in phone, but, I don't think it's a great phone.

A few of my mates have jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. They all love their new toy. I've challenged a few to a "phone-off"..it's where someone with an iPhone lines up against someone without an iPhone and then you nominate a random person in the room whose number would be stored in both phones. The challenge is to see whose call gets through to the person. The iPhone loses this challenge by over 5 seconds usually.

There is no doubting the touch screen is very innovative. It's a great way to turn the screen into a very flexible interface allowing all types of dynamic applications. If you use your phone extensively throughout the day, I think the iPhone would be too tedious. I love my N95 8GB -- it's got all the features the iPhone has and more.

I've been thinking about a mobile phone for the Kogan range for a while. Apple and Nokia are doing some good work at the moment but ultimately I would like to see an open source operating environment for mobile phone. This would allow phones to be faster, easier to use, more secure, with more functionality. Google is working on a similar Operating System at the moment called Android. I am keeping a close eye on it and will look at introducing some compatible mobile phones as soon as they are available.

What are your thoughts on the iPhone? Got one? Goind to get one? I must say I've been talking them down but I am still very tempted!