Why I don't recommend the iPhone 3G

^{backup battery}

I've had the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and although I think it's revolutionary, fantastic, useful, blah-blah-blah, poor battery life is its fatal flaw. For most people, a phone is a phone first and foremost, and other uses are secondary. I know I'm tethered to the internet in general, and email in particular, but a phone has to function as a phone, or it fails. To function as a phone, it has to hold a charge for at least 24 hours under light usage, and the iPhone does not.

This is fixable through software. By being extremely careful about how I turn on 3G and WiFi functionality I can make it work reliably through the day without charging more than once. But I shouldn't have to exercise extreme caution and constantly massage settings to make sure the battery doesn't discharge in bare hours: it is a computer and it should take care of it for me. This is not the traveling salesman problem, it's easy: if the screen is off I'm not using it and I don't need the 3G network, so stop trying to nuke my balls.

I don't know when Apple is going to clean up this mess, but I hope it will be within a few months. Without this fix the iPhone cannot be successful, and I totally want the iPhone to succeed. I've helpfully supplied Apple with a bug report on this just in case they haven't read a newspaper, blog, or spoken to a single sentient being who's used the device. Those of us who have it are doing everything short of implanting a car battery to keep these things running: extra charging cables everywhere, car chargers, and even expensive portable battery packs. Without a fix, this is a failed phone.