So far the US Dollar has been the undisputed king of the currencies. A $100 bill worked like a passport in many countries of the world and dollars were used as the mandatory currency for international transactions in some markets. At the same time, when foreigners had to go the the States they always had to exchange their money because – Canadian and Mexican borders excepted – nobody would accept foreign money in American shops.

By the way, every time I’ve been to New York I have been disappointed by how few and how crappy ATMs and exchange counters there were between Customs and the Taxi station of Delta’s terminal at JFK. Didn’t they think of the just-landed foreigners having to pay $45+toll cash for a cab to Manhattan?

Anyhow, things are quickly changing now. Dollars fell 15% in the last year compared to the the rest of the world and tourists (Europeans in particular) are visiting the States and shopping like crazy. For this reason more and more shops in Manhattan are displaying “We accept Euro” tags. Stuff there is now so cheap that last time I felt like I had to buy something, because it was a shame to come back home with spare room in my luggage. Eventually, I bought a 250G portable USB hard drive. Friends in Italy also asked me to carry something for them.

Because of their crappy pricing policy (or should I call it a rip-off?) Apple products are even cheaper. Apple apparently doesn’t know how to apply exchange rates. I mean, a Macbook Air is 1799$ in the USA and €1699 ($2497) in Europe. No wonder there are people who fly to the States just to carry back a couple of macs and sell them to friends. Their flight is paid by Apple. It’s called arbitrage.

Americans are now very worried of their money. Friends in New York kept on talking on how lucky I was, how much the dollar was falling, how I should invest my money by buying some real estate in New York because flats in Manhattan are a bargain nowadays and so forth. I was shocked. Euro money is now trendy! Next time I’m going to try to pay drinks in Euros in one of those coll rooftop bars, just to see how they’d take it.

Apple started to sell iPhone in Europe. In Germany the price is €399 for the handset, that is $586! Either they don’t get currency exchange or they think ripping off Europeans is OK. Moreover, on top of that you need a mandatory 24-month subscription plan at €49 a month (100 min/month voice calls). In total it’s €1575 ($2316!).

By comparison, at the same price I can buy a Blackberry Curve 8310 (more feature rich with GPS receiver, SD memory, MMS) and a subscription plan with flat data and 400 min/month voice included. And there’s no 24-month term: I can stop this contract after one month if I don’t like it, and pay just for that.

No wonder few people cared when Apple stores opened in Germany last night…

So here I am again, bashing Apple. In the last few days everybody and his brother was talking about how cool the iPhone is and how they can’t wait to buy one because it’s sooo hi-tech and yadda yadda yadda. Actually, you just have to look at the specs to be deluded:

• Cingular only
• no UMTS
• battery life just 5 hours talk
• 135 grams
• no camera zoom

Ok, there are nice sensors, a multi-touch screen and a neat user interface, but at the end of the day who cares? Since I have a phone in my pocket 16hours a day the most important features are small size, light weight, battery life, audio quality. I’m sorry I can’t trade my own comfort for any UI, however cool it is.

This device is going to be sub-optimal both as a phone and as a computer (no QWERTY, 3.5″ screen). It’s like a tablet: that useless mid-size that makes everybody unhappy.

• they can run natively on Intel hardware (wow, I stopped using Intel in favor of AMD at least 5 years ago)
• they have the Time Machine, or they can apply versioning to files and directories (wow, I’ve been using Subversion for so long…)
• they have multiple virtual desktops (wow, we have had this feature since KDE 1.0)
• they can index files according to metadata

OK, maybe Spotlight is cool, but why so much fuss for such a simple new feature? When you talk with Mac enthusiasts they seem to imply 10.5 is a revolution and nothing will be ever the same under the sun. I don’t think so.