In the category of “things that surprise me more than they probably surprise anyone else,” I’m actually considering an iPhone. Yes, those new videos look pretty damned cool. But it was another calculation that really got me thinking along these lines.

To wit, I’m in the market for an iPod nano (ballpark $200-$250), and I’ve been dying to replace my crappy dumbphone for a really long time. That’s $500 right there.

So the only thing standing between me and an iPhone is Apple’s incomprehensible (to me, anyway) decision to lock it to AT&T.

It seems like a fairly simple matter for other companies to pry it open, although I’m not holding my breath. Therefore, there are two bits of news I’m looking for starting at around 6:03 PM tomorrow:

1) does the iPhone support dial-up networking? That is, can you use the EDGE connection over Bluetooth to provide Internet connections to your laptop? That’s why I bought my dumbphone two years ago, and it’s a dealbreaker for any phone that doesn’t have it.

2) how quickly will someone publish a SIM hack to get their T-Mobile card working in an iPhone?

I’ve also been watching the new T-Mobile wifi calling rollout; would sign up for that immediately if their phones on offer weren’t so blah. But my reluctant conclusion is that I’m probably best off waiting for T-Mobile 3G to roll out before making any changes. Nuts.