Dodging the $3000 iPhone Data Bill

Talk about a rude awakening, here's a story about a fellow who got socked with $3000 in roaming charges while using his iPhone abroad. Sadly, this kind of thing could have been avoided.

Months before the iPhone came out, I met with Steve Jobs (I think it was the real one, anyway) and tried to persuade him to put Java in the thing.

"Who uses that Java stuff, anyway?" he asked.

"Well, Google, eBay, DoCoMo for starters. Perhaps you've heard of them?"

He frowned, so I went on to tell him that Java is on like three billion devices at last count.

Then he said something like "sue me" but it seemed really out of context. Whatever he meant, I got the drift that we weren't cutting a deal.

But back to this roaming bill thing, I don't know for sure if Java could have helped, but now that they've cracked the iPhone with jailbreak, AT&T bills like this could make Siooma the next killer app.