It was only a matter of time before the WSJ (Katherine Boehret, in this case) got their hands around Sprint's still-not-official Touch Diamond, and we can't say that the conclusion she drew is at all shocking. As Mossberg and his partners so often do, Katherine mentions Apple's darling just as much as the topic of the review itself, and while she seemed impressed with the hardware, it was the software that suffered the brunt of her attacks. She proclaimed that "despite its handsome TouchFLO 3D software and animated icons, the device failed to disguise the frustrating interface of Windows Mobile often enough for [her] taste." Beyond that, she also found room to gripe about the "cramped" keyboard, which she felt was "next to impossible" to use with just her fingertips. On the plus side, she did give the browser a decent amount of praise, but if you were looking for support from this critic before picking up the forthcoming handset, you'll be sorely disappointed.

[Via phonescoop]

It's a given that Mr. Mossberg has a thing for Apple's gear. In his opinion, it's simply a better choice for his mainstream readership. It's also obvious that Sprint and Samsung are intent on besting the capabilities of the first generation iPhone with their new Instinct. Still, we can't help but to giggle like Japanese school girls when his review of Samsung's Instinct turns into a preview of the iPhone 3G. By our quick count, he mentions "iPhone" 31 times to just 19 mentions of "Instinct." His bottom line as you'd expect is that the "ok" Instinct simply can't compete with the iPhone. Then again, the iPhone 3G can't be used on Sprint's network... or anywhere else until July 11th.

We know, we've all been clamoring for Flash support on the iPhone since before the thing even launched, and while we've seen subtle hints here and there suggesting that it would indeed come to fruition, now we've got someone to blame if our hopes are deflated. In a recent Q&A session, Walt Mossberg himself addressed the issue, and didn't make any bones about sharing Apple's future plans. Speaking directly about Adobe's Flash technology, Walt stated that "Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update," which he surmises "will occur within the next couple of months." Sadly, there was no elaboration beyond the aforementioned bit, but he certainly sounds confident about the iPhone eventually playing nice with Flash, no?

[Via MacRumors]

In parallel to his iPhone review, Uncle Walt also published an email conversation he had with Steve Jobs. While most of Jobsie's "we don't talk about future products" responses could have been foretold, one response is worth noting. When asked about the lack of instant messaging, video recording, and real-time GPS navigation, Steve responded with the following: "I will say that the iPhone is the most sophisticated software platform ever created for a mobile device, and that we think software features are where the action will be in the coming years. Stay tuned." Right, software. Remember Apple's promise of free software updates that will "surprise and delight" both Apple TV and iPhone customers? Well, they've already delivered a v1.1 YouTube update for Apple TV and certainly the most notable of missing features -- MMS, iChat, A2DP, text copy and paste, video recording, MP3 (or AAC in the case of Apple) ringtones -- are all software related. Sure, you can't download a 3G or GPS radio, but there's certainly hope of filling the gaps on the software side.

Update: Page 31 of the AT&T iPhone Launch Training Participant Guide says that "MMS and IM messages are included in the iPhone Data Plan." So go ahead Apple, flip the switch, what are you waiting for?