I've had my eye on the well rated BlueAnt Supertooth3, but haven't gotten around to ordering one yet. Instead, on impulse, I picked up the super cheap Roadmaster VR3 at Costco this weekend. Somehow I got it in my head that it was a Motorola product, which made me feel better for some reason. As it turns out, cheap applies to more than just price with this product.

Pairing was simple enough, and making and receiving calls was a no brainer, but here are the deal-breaking issues for me:

• There's a bright blue light that flashes repeatedly. I suppose it's indicating that your phone has an active connection (in addition to the indicator on the LCD display), but with this thing mounted on your visor, it's horribly distracting. Particularly at night time. I thought for sure there would be a way to disable this light, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
• Even with the thing probably 8 inches from my face, I couldn't be heard by the caller.
• The flip down, backlit LCD display is almost useless. Caller ID numbers that pop up are somewhat hard to decipher because they're so closely kerned together, and there's no logical spacing for the area code and prefix.
• General build quality is weak. From the creaky construction to the sickly sounding audio feedback when pushing buttons; it's embarassing to have hanging in your car.

So there ya go. I'll be returning this POS to Costco ASAP. Honestly the built-in speakerphone on my iPhone has been better than all other speakerphone devices I've tried in the car. So ultimately, I'll probably stick with the iPhone and occasionally using the earbud headset for longer calls. I really can't be bothered with one more device to charge anyway.

Now fanboys and haters alike ran with this golden nugget and started frothing at the mouth with the thought of running Photoshop CS3 on their sexy little iPhone. To say nothing of Quark, World of Warcraft, Final Cut Pro, etc. Apparently they have little knowledge of operating systems. To say it as simply as possible, OSes, for the most part, are very modular. OS X, being a hybrid of *nix and Apple Goodness is no different. So with the launch of the iPhone, it seems Apple has been hard at work, turning our trusty desktop OS X, into a finely tuned and optimized embedded system. Now if you've been around Apple for any decent amount of time, you'd know that it's been rumored for ages that OS X would be taken in this direction. In fact, I think it was right after the first iPod came out (although that rumor appears to be lost in the motes of the internet at this particular moment).

So here we have a finely tuned piece of hardware, with a tailor-made OS X soul giving it life. You can't just run any desktop app on there that you want, so get over it. The next point the fanboys and haters are whining about, is that the initial word is that the iPhone is going to be locked down. Meaning you won't be able to install your own apps, widgets etc. The computer bolt-on hotrodding crowd is flipping out to say the least. If they can't dig their hands into the guts of the device (which I'm sure the true cutting edge geeks will do anyway), their big hair - well - just goes flat.

There's a method to Apple's madness though, I assure you. It's called controlling the environment, and it's the exact reason they put an end to the whole ill-fated Mac clone market. Apple is all about trying to present the user, with the most consistent, stable and enjoyable experience ever. Oh...and also to get that piece of yumminess to market as soon as possible. Gotta keep those shareholders happy too. They can do this so precisely because they control both the hardware and the OS. Now the iPhone is no different. Particularly for a first gen, ground breaking product, 5 months before it ships. Of course they're going to be tight right now. Big surprise!

Thankfully for everyone, evolution permeates everything we do (we're only human), so I fully expect this to change. It will start with cool new widgets from Apple, then a widget developer kit, then the sky is the limit. Then there's that iPod connector that 3rd party vendors have been exploiting so successful. To say nothing of what the real hacker geeks manage to do out there completely unaided rogue-style. Hats off to them.

So in the meantime, all you low ranking geek pundits with blogs and lots of spare time should just settle down, have a drink or two, admit that you love that cute little iPhone over there, even with its faults. You know you want one. Don't cha?

P.S. I also wouldn't be too surprised if some of those specs get tweaked before it ships as well. 16GB? UMTS (Cingular is woefully behind on their end)? iChat features? There's a lot of room to grow, that's for sure.

UPDATE: Job's weighs in on the topic!