Wired magazine has an article written about a man’s experiment with a location aware lifestyle.  He used an iPhone and various applications to see what would happen when location aware tools were used.  He used them to find things, to feed his location into social networking sites, and to see what info he could find about others.

Some of it was interesting and useful, but there was also a stalkerish aspect to it.  The potential consequences, for example, of others being able to follow your every move and know where you are (and just as important, where you aren’t).  And how much information he was able to find quickly about a random woman he noticed taking photos with her iPhone.

That aspect of it caught the attention of the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, who referred to the article in her blog.

Wired reports that the UK has banned an iPhone ad on the basis that it exaggerates the speed at which the phone operates.  They also banned an iPhone ad a few months ago on the basis that the claim that all parts of the internet are on the phone was false because it doesn’t support Java or flash.

The Wired post has several links to other articles about complaints and lawsuits against Apple over the iPhone.

Of course that is in spite of its massive sales.  What I find amusing/interesting is that flaws in Apple products seem to be overlooked by most people, yet flaws in Microsoft products seem to be exaggerated. 

Digg has a post that refers to a Valleywag post that pokes fun at the fact that Apples stores use Windows Mobile devices to ring up orders on the store floor.

Its amusing to glance at the comments to the posts to see the Apple vs Microsoft camps do battle over that fact.

The iPhone is available in Canada this week.  Michael Geist’s article on the unique Canadian issues is worth a read, especially in light of the rumours that Apple has shorted Canadian supply due to Canadian pricing issues, and the tens of thousands of people who signed up in protest of the rates.

It will be interesting to see to what extent these issues will dampen demand for the iPhone, and reduce their ongoing use for cost reasons.

Read Michael’s article