Yesterday I wrote about the disappointing fact that the iPhone has been linked to (and limited by) Cingular's pokey EDGE data service. Today I discovered a couple of EDGE versus EV-DO charts - one showing the sad laggardliness of EDGE in download performance, and the other showing even more-depressing upload performance.

Now, I have no way of verifying these test results, so I can't vouch for them, but I have heard enough anecdotal evidence to say that their general conclusion - that EDGE can't match EV-DO - is spot on.

In other iPhone news, take a moment or three to check out the YouTube videos of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and professional curmudgeon John Dvorak as they give their snippy opinions of the iPhone (especially its keyboard), then read what long-time Mac fanatic Andy Ihnatko has to say about its keyboard: "the iPhone's virtual keyboard is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads found on the Treo and any other smart phones of its size." The difference between Andy's opinion and Steve 'n' John's? Andy has actually used the freakin' iPhone!

All this media brouhaha inspired the good folks over at Roughly Drafted to roughly draft a somewhat rambling but frequently amusing comparison of the press received by the Zune and the iPhone - check it out.

The iPhone, however, won't be the first touch-screen phone to hit the market. That'll be LG Electronic's "Prada" phone, which is scheduled to ship in February. The phones have similar touch-screen controls, but - of course - the iPhone is based on the elegant and powerful Mac OX S, and the LG phone - of course - isn't. And this wouldn't be the litigious 21st century if some folks weren't already talking lawsuits.

In other news: There are rumors that Apple may open up its FairPlay DRM; Apple developers have just received a new Leopard seed; Apple has dropped its fee for unlocking 802.11n in recent Macs from $5 to $2 (and has explained why they feel they have to charge anything at all); Motorola has put Linux on a mobile phone (and is laying off 3,500 unlucky Motorolians); it's Lisa's 24rd birthday (that's all?); there are reports that net neutrality is "Far from a Done Deal;" Apple is selling scads of new Apple TVs; and HD DVD was just handed a tremendous advantage in its battle with Blu-Ray to become the high-definition video standard: Sony announced that it won't allow its disc-replicating service to handle porn - but maybe they'll reconsider when they learn how quickly the teledildonics industry is taking off (oh, and if you're offended by "adult" content, you might not want to click on that final link).