The new iPhone 3G launches next week. July 11 to be exact. You’ve seen the ads. You’ve read the hype. Now let’s be honest. You’ve already made the decision to buy an iPhone 3G. You fell in love the first time you saw it. Now, you just need to justify the decision and enroll your brain in the process.

Here are my top ten reasons to buy (or upgrade to) the iPhone 3G. These might also come in handy in trying to convince your spouse!

I’m thinking very seriously about giving up my iPhone and going back to my Blackberry. I know, I know. I was initially so enthusiastic. (But I also discussed the pros and cons here.)

My first Apple product was an iPod that I purchased about five years ago. Based on that, I bought an Apple PowerBook for one of my daughters. Then I bought one for myself. Later I upgraded to a MacBook Pro. Now every one in my family is a Mac user. I even own a little Apple stock.

The Amazon Kindle has sparked (pun intended) a great deal of debate. It seems that people either love it or hate it. Me? I’m probably somewhere in the middle. Despite its obvious shortcomings, I think it’s a giant step forward, and I want to see it succeed.

But I think the device has a ways to go before it creates the kind of seismic shift that the iPod created in the music world. In order for an eBook to succeed, it must incorporate four essential components. I have listed these in priority order.

It seems that my post on Why Traditional Books Will Eventually Die has sparked a good deal of debate. So far, it has generated more than 40 comments and a number of email messages.

Christian Retailing even has an article coming in its January issue. It is entitled, “Nelson head predicts ‘death of traditional book’.†You can read it online here.

Since I wrote my initial post last night, Amazon’s Kindle page has gone live. If you don’t do anything else, go to the page and watch the basic intro video. (If you scroll down, you’ll see a larger version of the intro video.) It looks even more interesting than I thought. It has certainly come a long way since I first saw the device 18 months ago.

As of today, Thomas Nelson has 668 titles available for Kindle download. Bob Edington, our VP of Internet Sales, tells me that many, many more are on their way. (Evidently, Amazon is trying to catch up with the backlog.) Just to put this into perspective, Zondervan, the second largest publisher in our space, has 53 titles. Tyndale, the third largest publisher in our space, has 57.

According to a new Newsweek report, entitled The Future of Reading, Amazon will introduce a device this week that could usher in the long-awaited ebook revolution. It is called the Amazon Kindle, named to evoke the crackling ignition of knowledge.

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (pictured above),

I bought my iPhone a month ago. I have used it extensively since then. I have traveled the country with it and, I think, given it a fair test. I thought I’d report back on my experience with it.

I’ll start with the positive:

I know, I know. I said I wasn’t going to buy an iPhone. But, in a moment of weakness, I did it. (Those of you who bet I wouldn’t last can now collect your winnings.) Three things put me over the edge.

First, last week Apple made several announcements. The company introduced new iMacs, as well as updates to iLife and iWork. I even watched Steve Job’s entire speech and demo session. As usual, he blew me away. It’s not just the fact that he is a great presenter (which he is), but that his products are so unbelievably cool. I love everything about them.

Currently, Amazon.com has a big competitive advantage compared to brick-and-mortar bookstores. In a word, that advantage is selection. Retail bookstores carry 5,000 to 150,000 book titles, depending on the size of the store, retail strategy, and available working capital. As “the Earth’s largest bookstore,†Amazon.com carries millions.

This makes it difficult for even the biggest bookstores to compete on selection. People get tired of making a trip to the store only to discover the title is out-of-stock. But that may soon change.

People who know me, know that I am an Apple groupie. I use a MacBook Pro. I have an Apple network at home. I have several iPods. I use Apple Hi-Fi stereo speakers. I even have an Apple decal on my car. Basically, if Apple makes it, I want it. Except for the iPhone.

Yes, I agree that the interface is elegant—even seductive. I was blown away by Steve’s demo. It made me drool.

The old adage, “so many books, so little time,†is more true now than ever. With almost 200,000 new titles published every year, we have a cornucopia of literary options. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time keeping up.

Yet I know that “leaders are readers†and “readers are leaders.†If you are going to lead in today’s environment, you have to be a thought leader, and that only comes from reading. If you don’t keep up, you’ll fall behind. Before long, someone else will be doing the leading.

If you do a lot of speaking, you’re eventually going to experience a technological malfunction. Your computer will crash. The projector won’t work. Your clicker will stop responding. The sound system will short out. Something will go haywire. Count on it.

Yesterday, I felt like I watched a train wreck in slow motion. I was attending a trade association conference. One of the speakers had a technological meltdown. First, his lavaliere microphone wouldn’t work. So, the conference organizer gave him a hand-held mic. He briefly apologized and then launched into his introduction.

It was great. Except that the production guy, walked to the stage while the speaker was speaking and stood in front of him like a dog waiting for a biscuit. He wanted to change out the batteries in the lavaliere. Of course, this was incredibly distracting to the speaker and the audience. So, we waited for the batteries to be changed out. This didn’t fix the problem, so we went back to the handheld.

Warning: This is a semi-technical posting for Mac-heads with network connection problems. If you aren’t experiencing this particular problem, you probably won’t find this post too interesting. On the other hand, if you have this problem, you may well regard this information as a God-send.

I thought I was losing my mind. About a week ago, my wireless network connection started flaking out. I would be connected for about two minutes. Then the connection would suddenly drop out. All the while the signal strength would appear to fluctuate wildly.

The most disconcerting thing was that all the other computers in my house were working fine. So, that pretty much ruled out a problem with the modem or the router (an Airport Base Station). Nevertheless, I tried changing a few settings on the router and managed to completely trash the system. Argh!