Another excellent example of hyperbole by some alleged tech writers who claim the iPhone was the first to do just about everything, when in fact it was not. Handango, Palmgear, Pocketgear etal had independent app stores long before the iPhone came along, and the fact the stores were not controlled by the device makers, or carriers was, and is a good thing. Also, many tech writers who should know better claim mobile Safari was the first desktop grade browser. Did they not hear of, or use NetFront, or Opera Mobile? A year before the iPhone was released, I was browsing the full desktop site for my checking account bank, and displaying copies of cancelled checks using NetFront 3.3 on a 2003 era 640 x 480 Toshiba e830 PDA The e830 had WiFi, and could easily be tethered to your phone of choice via Bluetooth. NetFront supported all required formatting, and security protocols. There was also a Flash 7 compatible client for WM. In 2004, NetFront 3.1 was included with Sony's excellent TH55 320 x 480 Palm OS PDA. The TH55 had WiFi, and also could easily be tethered to your phone of choice via Bluetooth. NetFront 3.1 did an excellent job displaying 2004 era full webpages, and still does a better job displaying generic mobile sites, and other single column pages that Safari sometimes requires horizontal scrolling to read at a comfortable text size. Heck, in 2000 using the HandSpring VisorPhone, the then new Blazer browser did a nice job on 2000 era desktop pages.

Come on tech writing community, drink a little less Kool-Aid, and be a bit more factual, and objective in your reporting.