My Week With the iPhone

I've had the iPhone 3G for just under a week now and thought I would put in my two cents in case 1) anyone is looking for an iPhone review or 2) anyone is actually reading my blahhg.

First of all, Kudos to the Apple Store. I got a tip from a fellow Twitter user @onehalfamazing to check out the Apple Store. Not only did they have iPhones in stock just two business days after the 3G launch, but they were calm, cool and helpful. Brad, the manager at the Memphis store was just a pleasure to work with. I think if I drank any more of the Apple cool-aide I'd probably be back buying a Macbook or something else that supported a feline named OS.

By the way, I canceled my AT&T order right away. I suspect if I hadn't, it would still be back-ordered and I would be reading reviews instead of writing one.

I'll try to make this short and simple. Like any good review there should be unbiased pro's and con's. I'll attempt to do the same.

First the Pro's:

1. Exchange Active Sync - Wow!! Active Sync setup was simple and required very little technical knowledge of corporate email configurations. Really, all I needed to know was my email address, my Domain\User and password. If you pay attention to your Windows login screen when you boot up, this information is right in front of you.
2. A Learning Keyboard. Yes you heard me, this keyboard is smart. After day 1, I really thought there was no way I would be able to work on this. Typing emails and SMS messages were painful. In fact, I coined the phrase, "non FFF" or Fat Finger Friendly. By day 4 I was typing as proficiently as I did on my Treo or old Blackberry. First on the user end, you begin to get the hang of it and on the device end, it begins to make suggestions. It really does learn from you.
3. HTML Browser - Nuff Said. Really though, having a full HTML browser on a mobile device is a dream come true.
4. App Store - There is something for everone here. Some of my favorite applications I have installed are Twinkle, Pandora, Urbanspoon, Shazam, and Tap Tap. I've installed Mocha VNC but have been too busy to setup a firewall rule to allow a VNC connection at the office. The Facebook application is a must have, but pretty weak.
5. iPod - Hard to believe it, but I have never owned an iPod before. In the past week I have since reunited with many of my old CD's. Some of them I haven't listened to since I was in college sitting under a black light. With iTunes, I've become a CD ripping fool. Hello my old friends!
6. HTML email - There's something to be said for getting an email the way it was intended to be seen. I know all the IT guys have a hard-on for TXT only email. To them, I say enjoy your boring Times New Roman world. I want to see images, links and layout. The iPhone does it all very nicely.
7. Threaded SMS - I can't tell you how cool it is to have a threaded SMS conversation. Some days I get a lot of SMS messages. It isn't always clear what your were talking about and with whom. This is another awesome feature. Thanks Apple.
8. Color/Graphics - All I can say is I wish my laptop graphics looked this good. The display on the iPhone is simply amazing.
9. Camera - For a 2 mega pixel camera, this does a fine job. Coming from a Treo 700w phone, there is no comparison. The Treo took pictures similar to that of a crappy web cam. The iPhone does a nice job for a no-frills camera. Combined with some of the App Store products, there is a lot of web 2.0 posting and photo blogging opportunities.
10. Phone - Hey did you know this thing had a phone built into it too? It has a nice integration with my Exchange contacts as well as the Global Address Book. For example, I needed to call someone today at the office. Only her name and email was in my contacts. I remembered I could search the Global Address Book and that I had entered all staff phone numbers into their Active Directory accounts. There she was as well as her number. No complaints on the phone.

Now the Con's:

1. Cut/Copy/Paste - Apple, why would you leave something so important out again? Apparently it was missing in the 1.0 phone as well. Seems like a no brainer to me as this is an essential part of computing. I am hopeful Apple will include it in a near future software update.
2. Battery life - The battery on the 3G iPhone sucks. Plain and simple. If you can stay on WIFI most the day, you might make it without having to recharge mid-day. If you're out and about and on 3G all day, good luck.
3. Calendar Invitations - Um... did someone forget to include the ability to integrate contacts with calendar? In other words, you can schedule a meeting, but you can't invite anyone. Seems like an oversight that Apple will hopefully fix when they add copy/paste.
4. Attachment Editing - For me this is no big deal. But if you claim to have the "end all mobile device", you would think that users should be able to do more than just read their attachments.

Overall, I think this is a great phone. The great features far out weigh the few missing items and the lousy battery. I will learn to manage my network where I can and bring a charger along when I can't. In my opinion, the iPhone 3G is a winner and far ahead of anything I have seen currently on or about to come on the market.

There's No Turning Back Now

This morning I paid a visit to the AT&T store and made my purchase. (Cheers) I was told my Black 16 GB 3G iPhone would be in within 7-10 business days. (Sighs) I know this has to be some sort of character builing exercise. I can make it. I think.

I did just get the following email from iCare@Cingular.com. While I'm psyched my order is at least in the system, I'm somewhat worried that AT&T is unsure about who they are. I thought Cingular was gone. Wouldn't changing a system generated email address be as easy as adding Copy/Paste to the 2.0 operating system? I am going to stop here for now as I am already not liking where this is going.

180 Degrees for 3G

Well...Sorry I had to pull the plug, but I think my little blog here was heading in the wrong direction. Effective immediately, the theme of this blog is Technology. To get things started, I want to talk about just one thing, THE IPHONE 3G.

Tell me about your experience so far. Did you wait in line? How helpful and patient were the staff in the Apple or ATT stores? What was you experience activating it? Is iTunes back up? How's the phone? What's your favorite feature? Are you you using Microsoft Exchange for email? Have you visited the App Store yet? How about the battery life? Any bugs? What features should have been fixed or added from the generation 1 phone that weren't?

As you can tell I'm very curious about your experience and feelings about the new iPhone. I plan to get one. I'm just waiting for the insanity of the stores to calm down a bit and for people like you to write some good honest first-hand reviews before I jump in.