If so, you're better off. Skip to the next bit.

Still here? God help you.

Anyway, lots of people are kind of upset about just figuring out they have to pay to upgrade because they didn't spend eight days reading their cell phone contract like they should have. And . That's pretty much the gist of it.

Here's the problem with this debate (other than the whining and the name-calling). Both sides are getting it wrong. And the reason they're getting it wrong is they're both calling it the wrong thing. In a standard telecommunications industry shell game, AT&T fronts part of the hardware cost to Apple to make the phone look cheaper to get in the door.

That isn't a "subsidy" . It's a . AT&T is you the money to buy an iPhone and you're signing a to pay it off over the next 18 months. If you decide you want out of your , you have to pay a buyout.