PaidContent.org is reporting that for your new iphone to work properly you will need an itunes account.  If you want to sync your video and audio content, you gotta have an itunes account. Period.  No credit card on file – sucks to be you.

For most companies, this would seem over reaching but coming from Apple this makes tons of sense to me.  Do you think any ATT driven interface would be able to seamlessly handle this task?  No – frigging – way.

For me, I sincerely doubt I will ever own an iphone.  And not due to its price (although that IS daunting).  It is due to my own personal experience with ATT’s lemon sucking lack of service.  When I first heard that ATT was taking over Cingular my first reaction was, “Great.  Yet another option gone for a new potential cell carrier”.

Think I am exaggerating?  I had one of their first 3G phones back in 2002 and when I migrated to Verizon I cancelled the account by phone – or so I thought.  Several months later of my wife paying the bill for my non-existent phone, I challenged them on it only to be told that I had to physically go down to the store where I opened the account to close it.  What if I had moved?!  And why did the rep on the phone confirm that it was closed and I had a confirmation code for that conversation?  Tough nuts, said they.
Couple that with ATT not allowing me to merge payment of two bills.  Yes, two bills.  One for the 3G phone and one for my wife’s hardy little Nokia that was on a 2G network.  Why two bills? Because ATT had two separate systems for them and when I paid with one check (merging the two owed amounts) they applied that to just the one phone account which now had a ton of credits and my other phone starting kicking in late fees since it was ‘unpaid’.

How stupid is that?!  Customer service?  Helllllooooooooo?

So, dear reader, you’ll love the new iphone but you will hate the evil minions behind your tricked out new little screen.  Trust me on this one.