OK, now that the Consumer Electronics Show is over, I think it's time Digital Slobs learn about a cool product that I've been testing for about a week now.

It's called the iPhone.

Oh, you've heard of it? Well, I suppose it has been making the rounds among a small clique of early adopters (12 million and counting, give or take).

But one of the long-held misconceptions about Slobs is that we're always first in line for new gadgets—nothing could be farther from the truth.

Standing in line is work. Waiting on hold for 45 minutes with customer service is work. Staying up all night holding a dead $300 black brick while Googling “;Error Code 9838”; in mid-July is definitely work.

We've seen the minefield of new-product glitches obliterate the souls of our more adventurous brethren a zillion times too many, and it's made us cautious, to say the least.

Therefore, in the same cavalier spirit that Pope John Paul II exhibited in 1999 when he said it was finally time to accept Copernicus' sun-centric theory of the solar system, I'm boldly telling my devoted flock of Slobs it's time to embrace the iPhone.

Why? It's reached a trio of Slob Sweet Spots:

1) Kink-free: When the iPhone 3G was first released last summer, customers had to show up, in person, in a store, to get one. Afterward, some people couldn't get their iPhones to turn on. Others, due to customer invoice technicalities, could only get the iPhone at AT&T stores and not Apple stores. Early on, customers complained they couldn't use cash, or even Apple gift cards, to pay for them. Due to the device's overwhelming popularity, connectivity issues turned its network into a wireless version of a 20-car pileup at 5 p.m. on an L.A. freeway. But the UPS man brought mine to me days ago, and it's been a week of pleasant Sunday drives.

2) Hacker peace deal (wink, wink): Though scholars with WordPress blogs can disagree, Apple got some level of early revenge against those who freed their first-generation iPhones from both AT&T's monthly fee grip and the Cupertino-based company's walled garden of applications. It sent out a software update that “;bricked”; unlocked (tinkered-with) phones, turning them into high-tech doorstops.

This once black-and-white Cold War has since settled down into grayer border skirmishes since Apple created the App Store in iTunes. It allows third-party developers to build, and profit from, their products. Apple maintains “;quality control”; (emphasis on “;control”;) while creative thinkers and users get a large sandbox in which to build castles of functionality.

3) Below a Benjamin: For a brief, post-holiday period the iPhone (refurbished) was seen in the wild on sale by AT&T for a mere $99 with a two-year service contract. Not $600, $400 or $200—$99—it's now $149, but you can bet it'll go down again. Even in these hard economic times, a hundred bucks is less than a Slob's typical annual budget for movie popcorn. Just buy medium bags and chew slower, and you'll be back even before the end of the year.