Costly data

The iPhone 3GS is coming to the Emirates. This is pretty speedy considering the i-Phone 3G first appeared this spring and the original iPhone never came here. I am seriously considering it because I need a new phone and, well, the 3GS is S-W-E-E-T.

One of my students is Japanese and he has one. (Note here: Americans cannot easily take their phones anywhere else in the world and use them. The rest of the world is not as backwards as the US on locking you to a cell phone provider.) Among the cool features is the built in GPS. Type in a name of a landmark or business and it displays a detailed map that's easy to zoom in and out.

To experiment I tried "Novotel Abu Dhabi." Had I had this phone last week I wouldn't have spent two fruitless hours searching for the place. (Can you tell I'm doing my best to justify the purchase?)
One of the plans I'm looking at offers 1 Gig of data per month free. Nice, I thought, but what if you go over that? The price for the next Gig is $2717.

If this were the 70's I’d cut to this:

But if this were the 70’s the iPhone would like a Dick Tracy fantasy.