[Star Traveler]

You asked -- "... is there some incredible game-changing feature the press release just forgot to mention, or is this one of those things that's just "cool" because it'll have an Apple logo, even though the same thing is already available elsewhere for less money?"

Well, watch the full demo for yourself -- and then make up your mind...

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/

Regards,
Star Traveler

[Turbopilot]

I looked at all the little animations on the Apple web site and watched the first part of that (very long) Jobs speech. As far as I can tell I was right - it's a slight evolution of existing products with some incremental improvements (and some compromises/disadvantages), a slick looking package, and incredible marketing.

I can't fault Apple for it - they'll sell a billion of 'em at a huge markup, and more power to them. But they didn't "reinvent the phone"; at best they reinvented the marketing of the PDA phone.