It's a little odd to rant about buying better phones in a thread devoted to a guy who already bought one and is trying to fix it... I'm fine about people ranting about everyone drinking the Apple kool-aid, but of all the iPhone threads on the forum, this wouldn't have been my obvious choice. Dark, rather than complain about a purchase the guy already made - it's not like he can return it - why not post up a thread about all the phones you think are superior to the iPhone and why you like them more?
You know, it's strange but I'd never even seen an Apple advertisement for the iPhone at all, until I'd owned one for about 5 months. The DVR that I built rips the commercials out, I usually listen to NPR (not many commercials, none for Apple) and the magazines that I get like Consumer Reports and The Economist either don't carry ads, or wouldn't have a lot about the iPhone. I bought mine because I could hack it - mostly I bought it primarily for the challenge of it and originally intended to hack it, mark it up and sell it for more than I paid for it on Ebay. I ended up keeping it because I like it more than anything else that I've seen (although the G1 comes close).